UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES this week would be when we were to fully shelve whatever drama had unfolded in the Six Nations and don provincial garb again when the Heineken Champions Cup reached the knock-out stage.
In the absence of normality, take a walk down memory lane of European Cup quarter-finals past and see if we can avoid stumbling along the way.
On their way to the 1999 title, who did Ulster defeat (a team they also met in the pool stage) in the quarter-final?
Leicester Tigers
Stade Francais
Toulouse
Colomiers
Munster took the hard road to their second Heineken Cup final, going away in 2002 to beat which French side in the last eight?
Biarritz
Stade Francais
Toulouse
Colomiers
Name the heavily-medalled Irishman who scored two tries when Leinster crashed out at the quarter-final stage in 2007?
Eoin Reddan
Geordan Murphy
Leo Cullen
Jeremy Staunton
Leinster scored four tries in their famous 2006 win away to Toulouse. Which of these men did not score in the rout?
Brian O'Driscoll
Eric Miller
Cameron Jowitt
Denis Hickie
Later that day, where did Munster take the field to set up an inter-provincial semi-final showdown?
Thomond Park
Stade Aime Giral
Lansdowne Road
Croke Park
Can you name the player who cracked a fake blood capsule in his mouth during Leinster's 2009 win away to Harlequins?
Mike Brown
Nick Evans
Nick Easter
Tom Williams
Ulster returned to the last eight in 2011, but lost in frustrating fashion to Northampton. Late on, who did Dylan Hartley complain he had been bitten by?
Simon Danielli
Adam D'Arcy
Johann Muller
Pedrie Wannenburg
Name the veteran fullback in place as Ulster claimed a shock win away to Munster in 2012?
Jared Payne
Percy Montgomery
Stefan Terblanche
Adam D'Arcy
In 2015, Leinster squeaked beyond Bath thanks to six penalties from which goal-kicker?
Jonathan Sexton
Jimmy Gopperth
Isa Nacewa
Ian Madigan
Andrew Conway's brilliant counter tipped the balance against Toulon in 2018 for Munster. Whose try had given the French side the lead eight minutes earlier?
Josua Tuisova
Semi Radradra
Chris Ashton
Ma'a Nonu
You scored out of !
Cruising to the semi-finals
Picked up exactly where you left off in the pool and powered your way through this hurdle. The trophy is in sight now.
You scored out of !
Job done
You didn't quite click as well as you'd like after coming back to the province off Six Nations duty, but you dogged it out and you're in the final four.
You scored out of !
Shaded
You put up a brave effort, but the fates / questions conspired against you there.
You scored out of !
Sure didn't you do well to get this far?
Tell the truth, you were lucky to get eighth seed and make the knock-out stage and weren't really expecting to go away from home and win this one
