• Heineken Cup - Round 6

Leinster hold on to draw at London Irish

Defending champions Leinster go through to the quarter-finals after a nail-biting finish at Twickenham © Getty Images

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London Irish fell agonisingly short of upsetting Leinster at Twickenham to book their place in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, with a last-gasp drop-goal from Jonathan Sexton securing an 11-11 draw for the reigning champions.

Isa Nacewa went over to give Leinster an 8-3 lead at the break, but Chris Malone's 66th-minute pulled the Exiles level, and his penalty three minutes from time looked to have sealed the victory, which would have seen them qualify as one of two runners up at the expense of Northampton.

But just seconds later, Ireland international Sexton's drop goal earned Leinster the draw to knock Irish out of the competition. Malone had two desperate drop-goal attempts in the dying seconds, the first falling just short, and after the Leinster defence failed to find touch his second was wide. The result means Northampton qualify for the last-eight as the final runner-up, while Irish finish behind the Scarlets, who beat Brive, in the race for a European Challenge Cup spot.

The Ospreys produced a performance of guts and determination to book their place in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup, defeating English champions Leicester 17-12 at the Liberty Stadium.

The result spells the end of Leicester's European dreams for this season, with Clermont Auvergne claiming top spot in Pool 3 by hammering Arix Viadana. Tommy Bowe scored the only try of the game for the home side, who collected the rest of their points from the boot of young fly-half Dan Biggar.

Tigers fly-half Toby Flood slotted three penalties, and centre Jeremy Staunton a drop-goal, but they were outfought by a brilliant Ospreys defence, marshalled by a magnificent Marty Holah. There may yet be more controversy following the game though, with the Ospreys apparently playing with 16 men for a short spell in the second-half following a blood injury to fullback Lee Byrne.

Shane Williams is clattered by the Leicester defence © Getty Images

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Clermont Auvergne ran home nine tries as they enjoyed a dominant 59-20 victory over Arix Viadana at the Stadio Luigi Zaffanella. Aurelien Rougerie and Napolini Nalaga both crossed twice for the visitors, while Morgan Parra, Elvis Vermeulen, Julien Malzieu and Julien Bonnaire all scored one try apiece as they guaranteed their place in the quarter-finals.

Ulster won on English soil for the first time in their history with a 28-10 win over Bath at the Recreation Ground. A brilliant individual try from Andrew Trimble and further well-worked efforts by Darren Cave and Paddy Wallace carried Ulster past Bath, who lost lock Danny Grewcock to a red card for stamping in the first-half.

Ulster will now have to wait to discover if they have secured a route into the European Challenge Cup as one of the three runners up after finishing behind Stade Francais in Pool 4.

The French side suffered a shock 7-9 defeat to Edinburgh at Murrayfield, but a bonus point was good enough to secure victory in Pool 4. They had led by a point at the interval thanks to Pascal Pape's 27th-minute try but Chris Paterson set up a nervy finale for the Parisians when he stroked over his third penalty of the game early in the second half.

The visitors came under intense pressure in the final quarter and were grateful for that the fact that James Thompson missed two very kickable penalties in the final ten minutes. As it was, though, the French would have scraped through anyway as Ulster, the only side who could have overtaken them at the summit of Pool 4, failed to accrue a maximum five-point haul from their win over Bath.

Meanwhile, tries from lock Damian Welch and wing Morgan Stoddart helped the Scarlets to a 20-17 victory over Brive, securing second spot in Heineken Cup Pool 6 and an excellent double over their French rivals. Stephen Jones slotted two penalties and two conversions for a 10-point haul.

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