Bonus-point try: Jamie Heaslip
Two-time defending champions Leinster defeated Exeter 29-20 on Saturday to stay alive in the Heineken Cup, but they face a nailbiting Sunday which could doom their hopes of a fourth title in five years.
The Irish side finished second in Pool 5 behind runaway leaders Clermont and can only make the quarter-finals by claiming the remaining best runners-up spot after Montpellier booked their last-eight place earlier in the day.
Leinster had trailed Exeter 17-12 at the interval after converted tries from Neil Clark and a penalty try helped edge the visitors' scores from Gordon D'Arcy and Rob Kearney.
Brian O'Driscoll then brought Leinster level before Jamie Heaslip's try earned a bonus point victory.
Leinster finished their group campaign with 20 points, but Irish rivals Munster can deny them a quarter-final spot if they score four tries and beat Racing Metro on Sunday in Pool 1 where Saracens are also expected to qualify by beating Edinburgh.
"We are where we are. We can't control anything else that happens. There certainly won't be any celebrating from us because we know that Munster have a real target," Schmidt said.
"That is one of the advantages of playing on the Sunday as they know clearly what they have to chase. They'll clearly work really hard and make sure that they get as close to that as possible against Racing.
"We knew how tough it was going to be to come here and get the five
points, which was the minimum we required.
"I thought we were really good for it, and the quality of our tries was first rate, but I have a lot of respect for Exeter as well."
Exeter counterpart Rob Baxter, whose side led 17-12 at half-time, added: "Last week we were beaten by Clermont in a game where we controlled possession and territory for quite long periods, but all of a sudden we seemed to concede a try. That happened to us a bit today but I think we managed to ride those moments a bit more."
Comments
black47 says...
Tough luck jamie. Not going to happen. Bad as munster have been this season they've managed to get through. Leinster couldn't recover from the amount of top line players they were missing
Posted 16:48 20th January 2013
Derrynane says...
Stephen Jones in the ST today suggested that Exeter were hard done by Poitre yesterday. I actually thought it was the other way as he let Exter away with murder at the breakdown and the Exeter scrum half do what he wanted at Leinster scrum time.
Posted 15:42 20th January 2013
Cabhan says...
They're gone. Bad as Munster have been recently they'll hammer a 2nd/3rd string Racing side. Shame because Leinster with the players available to them yesterday could beat anybody
Posted 10:43 20th January 2013
JamieTheProp says...
I for one hope Leinster go through rather than Munster. Positive, entertaining rugby played by an attack minded and entertaining team versus pressure, force a penalty and kick!
Posted 09:21 20th January 2013