Saturday’s games:

The European Rugby Champions and Challenge Cup quarterfinals matches which were played yesterday (Saturday) were all fiercly contested affairs.

In the 1st Champions Cup quarterfinal Ashley Johnson’s London Wasps beat Don Armand’s Exeter Chiefs by the narrowest of margins. Wasps Jimmy Goperth converted Frank Halai’s try which was scored after regular time was up on the clock to send Exeter crashing out of the competition.

Victor Matfield’s Northampton were beaten in the2nd Champions Cup quarterfinal by a Saracens team that featured various players with Southern African connections. Brad Barritt, Schalk Brits, Petrus du Plessis, Neil de Kock, Michael Rhodes and Alastair Hargreaves all featured for Saracens who won the match by 9 points.

Meanwhile in the Challenge Cup, Sarel Pretorius’ Newport Gwent Dragons pulled off a surprise win in their quarterfinal match against Gloucester in spite of Pretorius spending 10 minutes on the naughty step. Fellow South African Carl Meyer (fullback) kicked 1 penalty for the Dragons to help them to a 2 point win at Gloucester’s home ground.

Elsewhere in the Challenge Cup there was an 8 point margin in Harlequins win over London Irish while Gio Aplon, Charl McCleod and Rossouw de Klerk’s Grenoble squeaked home by 1 point against Connacht. Danie Poolman started for Connacht and Quin Roux was on the bench for them.

Saturday’s Quarterfinal Results:

Champions Cup:

• London Wasps 25 / 24 Exeter Chiefs
• Saracens 29 / 20 Northampton Saints

Challenge Cup:

• Gloucester 21 / 23 Newport Gwent Dragons
• Harlequins 38 / 30 London Irish
• Grenoble 33 / 32 Connacht

Sunday’s Champions Cup games:

Morné Steyn started the match and contributed 8 point from the boot for Stade Francais but it was not enough to prevent a comprehensive defeat away to Leicester Tigers with the Tigers outscoring Stade by 6 tries to 1. Fellow former Bull Jono Ross also started and was replaced by Springbok Willem Alberts in the 2nd half, with Craig Burden making it onto the field from the substitutes bench quite late in the game.

The last match of the quarterfinals round was a battle between the French heavyweights Racing 92 and reigning champions Toulon. Francois van der Merwe’s Racing pulled off a narrow 3 points win over Toulon who had Juan Smith and Duanne Vermeulen in their starting line-up. Vermeulen played the whole match while Smith was replaced in the 2nd half.

Sunday’s Quarterfinal Results:

Champions Cup:

• Leicester Tigers 41 / 13 Stade Francais
• Racing Metro 19 / 16 Toulon