Munster earned a home draw for themselves in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup with a workmanlike 21-11 victory over Castres in Cork. Munster earned a home draw for themselves in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup with a workmanlike 21-11 victory over Castres in Cork. The result meant that the Irishmen topped Pool Four with 10 points - a feat matched by Leicester and Stade Français in their respective groups - and left Bath needing to hit Newport with an avalanche of 11 tries in their postponed match at the Rec today to have even an outside chance of reaching the last eight.Anthony Foley and Dominic Crotty touched down for Munster at Musgrave Park while the boot of a third Ireland international, Ronan O'Gara, supplied the rest of the home side's points. The Scotland fly-half Gregor Townsend was on target with two penalties for the French visitors, whose only other score was a try by the centre Guillaume Delmotte.Pau, whose final Pool Six fixture against Pontypridd at Cardiff was also put back to this afternoon, have more realistic hopes of securing a quarter-final spot, provided they can win, and cross their Welsh opponents' line at least five times. If that happens, they will overhaul Llanelli, who finished second in Pool Five after seeing off Colomiers on Friday.Harlequins booked their passage through to the quarter-finals of the European Shield with a comfortable 45-22 home victory over struggling Ebbw Vale in Pool Five. Pat Sanderson, Nick Greenstock and Nick Burrows each helped themselves to a brace of tries while Ben Gollings kicked 13 points.Quins' opponents in next month's Tetley's Bitter Cup final, Newcastle, look certain to confirm their place in the last eight when they visit the Welsh/Scottish League's bottom club, Cross Keys, in Pool One today. Benetton Treviso's spirited 33-20 home success over Begles yesterday means that the Falcons need to win at Pandy Park, but the remaining six quarter-finalists are all likely to be French.Rotherham's hopes of progressing ended in massive disappointment at Clifton Lane when they went down 30-22 and surrendered the lead in Pool Three to Perpignan.

The visitors' outstanding player was their right wing Farid Sid, who ran in a hat-trick of tries.Sale's revival in Pool Four continued with an impressive 56-31, seven-try mauling of Caerphilly, but it was too late to give the Premiership side any chance of leapfrogging Agen. None the less, Charles Hodgson contributed 24 points to their cause. Bristol's interest in Pool Seven died when they were surprisingly held 41-41 at home by La Rochelle, while Mont-de-Marsan won 40-26 at Parma. Bristol seemingly had the game at their mercy after Steve Vile had landed seven penalties, but La Rochelle bounced back with a flurry of late tries.London Irish should see off visitors Piacenza in Pool Six today, but they are still likely to finish a point shy of Brive, who are at home to lowly Aurillac.In National League One, Leeds stayed within four points of the leaders, Worcester, by defeating their neighbours Otley 43-22. They are 24 points clear of Coventry, who moved up to third with a 54-7 triumph over West Midland rivals Moseley.. Christmas, we were all told was a boom period for the mobile phone industry, as millions of new subscribers unwittingly yielded once and for all their privacy to families, friends and colleagues. The final pool round of the Heineken Cup has surely maintained that sales impetus for mobile communications, evidenced at the capacity-filled Ravenhill on Friday evening as Ulster blocked any hopes Saracens harboured of progressing to the knock-out stages of the tournament.

Christmas, we were all told was a boom period for the mobile phone industry, as millions of new subscribers unwittingly yielded once and for all their privacy to families, friends and colleagues. The final pool round of the Heineken Cup has surely maintained that sales impetus for mobile communications, evidenced at the capacity-filled Ravenhill on Friday evening as Ulster blocked any hopes Saracens harboured of progressing to the knock-out stages of the tournament. The Saracens end of the stand and terraces more resembled an old fashioned telephone exchange or perhaps a modern day call centre as updates were arriving by the minute of Llanelli's progress against Colomiers.Half an hour remained, and fly-half Duncan McRae jinked through the Ulster defence for the second Saracens try to add to Tom Shanklin's superb opening effort after 30 minutes. The game was effectively in the bag for the Londoners at this stage, but they knew they needed two further tries, as did everyone else in the 13,000 crowd, to nose ahead of Llanelli on try count and hope to qualify as one of the best group runners-up.Admittedly European Rugby Cup Ltd, the tournament organisers, have to satisfy the demands of a number of supportive broadcasters, but at best it is undeniably unfair, and at the very worst dangerous to allow teams to kick off at different times when their progress is reliant on not only results but the numbers of tries and points scored.I say dangerous as the ludicrous dog-legged nature of the scheduling could present some rather juicy possibilities for our friends the bookies and for budding gamblers within the game looking for some spread betting or other form of wager. Rugby's administrators will claim that their game is not like that, old chap, and would not stoop so low as to follow football and... uhmm cricket.No matter how hard one tried to concentrate on the battle developing on the field at Ravenhill, the latest news and score bulletins from Llanelli took precedence, and resulted in a somewhat pantomime atmosphere as time ran out, with Saracens throwing caution to the wind together with the odd loose and speculative pass, and Ulster defending for all their worth. Saracens managed a late Richard Hill score, but the only further try was a gift presented to Ulster captain David Humphreys.Ulstermen said their farewells to coaching supremo Harry Williams, their guiding light towards European glory two seasons ago, and whose contribution and impact permeated further than just that solitary triumph.The emotions for Saracens were mixed.