Paris: Two-time winners Munster joined fellow Irish side Leinster in the European Champions Cup quarter-finals on Saturday with a fractious 14-12 win over Glasgow.
Munster, the champions in 2006 and 2008, ensured top spot in Pool 1 with 20 points, six ahead of Glasgow with just one round of matches left next weekend.
Rassie Erasmus, the Irish club’s director of rugby, said he sees no reason why Munster cannot win a third European title.
“If the players play as hard as they can and that takes us as far as possible, I think we would be stupid to put targets out there,” he said.
Glasgow were left to regret a golden opportunity to book a first ever place in the quarter-finals when they led 12-9 with just 10 minutes left.
Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg, with two monster 50m kicks, were Glasgow’s penalty scorers while Tyler Bleyendaal responded with three for Munster.
The Irish, however, launched a mighty 19-phase assault on the Glasgow line which ended with Lee Jones being illegally upended by Hogg’s flailing arm across the head.
Hogg was sin-binned and Munster pounced as Simon Zebo and Keith Earls set-up replacement centre Francis Saili to score the game’s only try. That made the score 14-12 with Bleyendaal missing the conversion.
Russell spurned a chance to kick what could have been a winning drop goal, leaving his team to face a final weekend trip to Leicester while Munster will look to wrap up a home quarter-final when they host Racing 92.
Two-time winners Leicester were dumped out of the competition after suffering a morale-sapping 34-3 loss to Racing, last year’s runners-up who were already eliminated.
Xaiver Chauveau, Marc Andreu (2), Gerbrandt Grobler scored tries with Racing also awarded a penalty try.
