Paul Turner's Newport Gwent Dragons were drawn in Pool One with Perpignan, London Irish and Benetton Treviso for company. In a disappointing start to the campaign the Dragons lost their opening match to Perpignan at the Stade Aime Giral. Gareth Wyatt’s early try gave the Dragons a sniff of a shock victory, but the French outfit eventually ran out 23-19 winners. A late try by Ceri Sweeney secured a bonus point for the Dragons away from home but the boot of Cedric Rosalen proved the difference between the teams as the 2003 cup finalists held on for victory on the opening night, their impressive home record in the competition holding firm.

The Dragons were out-thought and out-muscled on home soil in the second weekend of competition as they conceded six tries to London Irish at Rodney Parade in mid-November. Two tries for Argentinean wing Tomas De Vedia and centre Delon Armitage, with Mike Catt and Nick Kennedy also getting on the score sheet, cemented an impressive victory for the visitors who rose to the top of Pool One having secured two bonus point wins on the bounce. The hosts had two consolation scores from short range by lock Michael Owen and hooker Steve Jones, but were still on just one point from two matches played.

December saw an initial win for the Dragons as they secured a closely fought victory at the Stadio di Monigo over Benetton Treviso. Kevin Morgan scooped up possession midway in Treviso’s half and beat two men before captain Colin Charvis scored on 18 minutes and Ceri Sweeney added the conversion. Two minutes later the Welsh region were in for a second, this time through prop Rhys Thomas. Rhodri Gomer-Davies further extended the Dragons’ lead just after the half hour mark and it was not until first-half injury time that the Treviso crowd had something to cheer about when prop Nicolas De Gregori crossed the whitewash to hand Treviso a lifeline.

Richard Mustoe’s try moments after the resumption looked to have put the match out of Treviso’s reach, with Sweeney’s conversion putting the Welsh region 32-13 ahead. But the home side launched a fightback, aided by the sin-binning of Welsh prop Thomas, with Treviso wing Lucas Borges benefitting. Alberto Sgarbi also scored with ease and captain Marius Goosen fired the home side into a 33-32 lead with his boot 15 minutes from time. However, a late drop goal by fly half Sweeney saved the day for the Dragons, and was enough to secure all five points for the Welsh Region.

The reverse fixture a week later also saw a narrow victory due a last minute goal, but it was an Italian victory that left the Welsh hosts down and out of the 2007-2008 campaign. The Dragons suffered Heineken Cup heartbreak as Goosen's last-gasp penalty ended their European adventure; the Treviso captain killed off the Dragons' faint hopes of qualification by slotting home a 40-metre goal with the last kick of the game after Joe Bearman conceded a penalty in stoppage time. A try by captain Colin Charvis kept the Dragons in the hunt at half time and the Rodney Parade crowd saw their team make a blistering attack on the restart as flanker Bearman raced over the line for a try, which Sweeney converted to take the hosts up 14-8. Yet Goosen's long-range penalty and a converted try from No.8 Dion Kingi handed the Italians a 4-point lead. Rhys Thomas powered over for a score that swung the game back in the Dragons’ favour before Sweeney looked to have secured the win with a drop goal three minutes from time. However, Goosen struck at the death to snatch the game away from the home team and consign the Welsh region to an early exit.

The two remaining fixtures left the Dragons playing for pride, but they were downed 41-24 by London Irish at the Madejski Stadium in round five. The Guinness Premiership side got their four-try bonus point in the first half whilst Richard Thorpe grabbed a hat-trick during the clash to put London Irish on the verge of qualification for the last eight of the Heineken Cup, a try-bonus point the only consolation for Turner's Dragons. The region rounded off their Heineken campaign with a final home match against Perpignan in rain-soaked conditions. Former Dragons’ favourite Percy Montgomery got the visitors off the mark with a penalty kick, and soon added the conversion for Jean-Philippe Grandclaude's try. Soon after the break Montgomery struck again with another penalty but the Dragons managed to keep Perpignan away from their line until late into the game, when David Marty scored from an interception and then Adrian Plante struck deep into injury time. Montgomery was again on form with boot, the French side having denied the Welsh a single point-score in the Rodney Parade clash. 

The Llanelli Scarlets faced perhaps the toughest task out of the four Welsh regions in Pool Five up against London Wasps, Munster and ASM Clermont Auvergne. The latter were the first opposition for Phil Davies's side but the French giants ran in seven tries at their Parc des Sports Marcel-Michelin fortress to deny Llanelli Scarlets a win on the opening weekend. Clermont skipper Aurelien Rougerie scored the first try when he snatched Stephen Jones’s long pass out of the air. The Scarlets hit back when centre Regan King's break gave Dafydd James the space to score a record 29th Heineken Cup try, but James couldn't turn fast enough as opposite number Julien Malzieu shouldered past him and won the race for the ball to score Clermont's second try. From the restart, Malzieu broke clear and Rougerie powered over for his second try. Clermont went into the break with a 20-7 lead, and it took only three minutes of the second half for Julien Bonnaire to secure a try bonus point. With the game quickly slipping away, Wales scrum half Dwayne Peel took matters into his own hands, darting from a scrum and sprinting 25 yards for a try that silenced the home fans. King finished off a Morgan Stoddart-inspired break to reduce the deficit to six, but Clermont hit straight back as Rougerie completed his hat-trick. James scored through some tired defence to end the Scarlets' comeback, and replacement prop Thomas Domingo powered over for try number 7 for Clermont.

The Scarlets suffered another huge blow in round two of the tournament, losing 17-33 to London Wasps. Fraser Waters scored an early brace of tries, stealing the show with midfield partner Riki Flutey. Emotions were running high at Stradey Park following the funeral of Wales great Ray Gravell and they seemed to get the better of the Scarlets, who appeared to freeze in the face of Wasps' sheer intensity. Llanelli were desperate for inspiration and it again came in the shape of Dwayne Peel: his quick thinking and fast feet sent captain Simon Easterby over. Danny Cipriani sealed the bonus point for Wasps after an hour and should have added a second before Flutey and Mark Jones completed the scoring late on. The Scarlets' miserable campaign continued as Munster avenged their defeat at the hands of the men in red during the previous season. Ronan O’Gara scored two penalties for Munster, before centre Lifeimi Mafi was yellow carded for deliberately killing the ball and the Scarlets took advantage through 20-year-old fly half Rhys Priestland's penalty. Regan King scored the first try of the match for the Scarlets but two penalties from O'Gara put Munster back in the lead before David Wallace crashed over. O'Gara converted and then kicked his fifth penalty to put Munster into a 22-10 half-time lead. Priestland reduced the deficit to six points with two penalties before Marcus Horan's try after a series of powerful forward drives on 74 minutes sealed the win.

The return fixture a week later saw the Irish do the double over the Welsh, yet Munster were made to work hard for the 22-13 victory at Thomond Park. Jerry Flannery took advantage of the windy conditions to notch an early try but an effort in kind from Stephen Jones evened things up, a conversion giving them a 7-5 lead over the Irish. O’Gara's boot put the Irish into a 14-7 lead but the Scarlets came back into the contest in the second half. Munster’s Marcus Horan was yellow carded for throwing a punch, but then a great hand-off and break from Flannery and quick hands down the line gave Brian Carney the space to dot down for his side’s second try. Alix Popham was deemed to have made an illegal tackle and joined Horan in the sin-bin as Munster held on for a hard-fought win on home soil.

London Wasps also made it two from two against their Welsh adversaries, the Scarlets struggling without eleven first team regulars in early January. Five minutes was all it took for Wasps to open their account as Fraser Waters scored from a quick Eoin Reddan penalty. Phil Vickery was the next to cross the Scarlets’ line from a strong drive, but the visitors fought back when Deacon Manu drove over after half an hour. Wasps hit back with a third try and Man of the Match James Haskell claimed the bonus point fourth try on the stroke of half time. Danny Cipriani kicked three conversions, which meant Wasps had scored enough points at the interval to go to Munster in the next match confidently. The second half was totally controlled by the home team, and nearly all play was in the Scarlets’ 22. Wasps notched another two scores to take the ultimate result to 40-7, which made sure the reigning champions went into the final round at the top of the Pool table.

The Scarlets finished their 2007-2008 campaign as they had opened it, with a resounding defeat at the hands of Clermont Auvergne. The French side went in at half time with a 12-0 lead, the Scarlets having barely threatened. Brock James kicked a penalty two minutes into the second half and moments later crossed the Scarlets try line himself; he added the conversion for a 22-0 lead. Youngster Anthony Floch gained a score after Scarlets’ hooker Matthew Rees was sent off for an infringement at the breakdown, Man of the Match Elvis Vermeulen bagged another eight minutes from time and Floch rounded off the 41-0 rout in injury-time to signal the end of a woeful campaign for the home side.

The Ospreys, drawn in Pool Two with Gloucester, Ulster and Bourgoin, opened their 2007-2008 account in fine fashion with a victory over the latter opponent. The only try of the match was scored by centre Gavin Henson and was converted by James Hook, who added five penalties to outscore Benjamin Boyet’s five for Bourgoin, leaving the Ospreys winners by 22-15. 

The Welsh side were unable to continue their winning form as they as they lost out 26-18 at Kingsholm to Gloucester. The Ospreys started brightly with a converted Sonny Parker try eight minutes in but Gloucester reduced the lead when Ryan Lamb scored the first of his three penalties. James Hook missed a penalty and a drop goal and the TMO denied Jonny Vaughton a try in the corner. However, the Ospreys got the score they deserved when Parker scored his second of the evening. Vaughton was sin-binned in the last moments of the first half and Gloucester capitalized as Anthony Allen scored a converted try in the corner. Hook added a penalty for the Ospreys in the second half, but Gloucester’s James Simpson Daniel added another try on 56 minutes and fly half Chris Paterson rubbed salt into Osprey wounds to score a penalty that denied the Welsh side a losing bonus point.

The third round saw the Ospreys get back to winning ways with a seven-try demolition of Ulster at the Liberty Stadium. First half tries from Sonny Parker and Justin Marshall put Lyn Jones’s men in the driving seat, and then tries from Alun Wyn Jones, Filo Tiatia, Lee Byrne and a brace for Nikki Walker ended the match as a contest. Five conversions and a penalty from James Hook sealed an emphatic 48-17 victory and the Ospreys secured a second win over Ulster in as many matches with a narrow 18-6 victory at Ravenhill just a week later. The Irish were competitive at the set piece and the breakdown, forcing the Ospreys to make several handling errors in the early exchanges. However, they did score the first points of the match through two James Hook penalties in the first 15 minutes. Ulster fly half Niall O'Conner got one back moments later and Simon Danielli scored a try moments before the break. Yet the Ospreys took control of the match in the second half when Justin Marshall scored from a training ground line-out move. Hook converted and added a penalty to finish the scoring for the match and secure win number three in the campaign.

The Ospreys avenged their defeat at the hands of Gloucester earlier in the competition when they beat the Guinness Premiership outfit 32-15 on home soil in January. The Welsh Region never fell behind during the clash, as James Hook scored five penalties and added the conversion to Shane Williams’s try in the first half. Gloucester’s Peter Buxton was sent to the sin-bin for taking a player out at a ruck just before the break. The Ospreys scored another penalty just after the interval through Hook, but Gloucester scored a simple converted try from a line-out by Rory Lawson to reduce the gap to twelve points. Hook scored another penalty and then replacement hooker Richard Hibbard was driven over from close-range to score. Hook added the extra two points to effectively seal the game, and though Ryan Lamb scored a consolation try in extra-time, the Ospreys emerged victorious over the Pool 2 leaders, bolstered by the knowledge that a win in Bourgoin the following weekend would snatch one of the two best runners-up spots in the last eight – assuming Gloucester were to defeat Ulster to win the Pool.

Gloucester confirmed their place in the last eight as they topped Pool 2, with the Ospreys also making the quarter-finals with 28-21 victory at the Stade Pierre Rajon. Fly half James Hook and Bourgoin centre Sebastien Laloo exchanged kicks in the opening stages before tries from Ospreys Lee Byrne and Shane Williams gave the Welsh region an 18-6 advantage at half-time. Bourgoin refused to take defeat lying down as Karena Wihongi scored early in the second half to redress the balance. Hook kicked another penalty, closely followed by one from opposite number Morgan Parra, and the Welsh side lost fullback Lee Byrne to a yellow card in injury time for a dangerous tackle. A nerve-wracking finale for the Ospreys ensued as Bourgoin neared the try line, yet Gavin Henson intercepted which resulted in a try for Jonathan Thomas. Hook converted in injury time and with just one play remaining Florian Denos scored a fine chip-and-chase try. Parra added the conversion, but it wasn’t enough to deny the Ospreys one of the best runners-up spots in the competition, the region making the final eight for the first time in their history.

Cardiff Blues would also join their Welsh counterparts in the final eight but faced an uphill journey to get there as they were pitted alongside Harlequins, French giants Stade Francais and cross-border rivals Bristol in Pool 3.

The Blues got off to the best start of the four Welsh regions, beating Bristol Rugby 34-18, scoring 4 tries and securing a bonus point in the process. Bristol had the upper hand in the opening stages as David Hill scored their first try of the match and Jason Strange extended the lead to 13-3 before Jamie Robinson scored on the stroke of half-time to put the hosts just three points behind at the break. Ben Blair then levelled the tie with his second penalty before the turning point of the afternoon came on the hour mark when Bristol prop Darren Crompton was sin-binned for a high tackle. The Blues took full advantage of their extra man and romped home comfortable winners 34-18 thanks to well-worked tries by Maama Molitika and a brace from Man of the Match Martyn Williams.

The Blues travelled to the Twickenham Stoop for round two but could only record a tense 13-13 draw with Harlequins. The Welsh region looked to build on their disappointing away form in the Heineken Cup, having only won two out of their last twenty fixtures away from the Arms Park. Blues scrum half Jason Spice's try on the hour mark cancelled out Nick Easter's earlier effort and put the Blues 13-10 in the lead. But Quins fly half Chris Malone pegged back the Welsh region to earn a share of the points and prevent Dai Young's men from bettering their on-the-road statistics.

There are no easy ties in the Heineken Cup yet the Cardiff Blues faced their toughest prospect of the campaign to date with an away trip to Stade Francais. The French side held out to clinch a nail-biting victory at the Stade Jean Bouin after surviving a late Welsh assault – Juan Martin Hernandez and David Skrela landed two penalties apiece to keep the hosts just out of reach. The Blues came close several times but just couldn’t go that one step further to beat a stubborn Stade defence. Ben Blair scored all of the Blues’ points with a penalty in either half but the losing bonus point gained in the 12-6 defeat kept hopes of reaching the last eight well and truly alive in this third round clash.
 

The return fixture a week later at the Cardiff Arms Park was another tense affair, especially so before kick-off as the home side were forced into several last-ditch changes to their line-up to face Stade for the second time: fly half Nicky Robinson was ruled out with a groin injury and Ben Blair failed a late fitness test, handing youngster Dai Flanagan a first Heineken Cup start at fly half. Flanagan certainly made the most of it: his superb pass sent Jamie Robinson in for the opening try on 11 minutes to the delight of the Cardiff crowd. Stade’s Julian Arias scored in reply, but Tom James’s individual score on the stroke of half-time meant the Blues went in to the interval with a 20-7 lead. Skrela kicked a penalty early in the second period, but Paul Tito charged down the fly half’s attempted clearance and scored the Blues’ third try of the game on 43 minutes. The Blues couldn’t find the fourth try for a  crucial bonus point and had to await the final whistle anxiously as Skrela kicked two more penalties and Antoine Burban crossed the line. However, Flanagan showed calm under pressure to slot an injury-time drop goal between the uprights to secure the win for the Blues and deny the French team a losing bonus point in the process.

Round Five saw Cardiff Blues go clear at the top of Pool 3 with a fairly comfortable win against English Premiership side Harlequins at the Arms Park. The first half was dominated by the home side, with Ben Blair kicking a penalty and converting Dafydd Hewitt’s try. Harlequins struck back early in the second half with a converted try from Hal Luscombe. Blair kicked another 3 points when De Wet Barry was sin-binned for a professional foul and no sooner had he returned to the fray than Tom Shanklin scored a try from the bottom of a maul. Blair’s conversion took the score to 23-7 with just 8 minutes of play remaining and though Mike Brown did score a consolation try from a quick tap penalty, the Blues knew that they would win their Pool if they beat Bristol in the final round.

Two tries within seconds of each other at the Memorial Stadium meant that the Cardiff Blues went into the interval of their crucial encounter with Bristol Rugby 14-0 up. It looked as though the home side had scored first but the touch judge deemed the final pass to Luke Arscott to have been forward and the try was disallowed. Shortly afterwards the visitors had two tries disallowed themselves, one for a forward pass to Jamie Robinson and then Martyn Williams was deemed to have had his foot on the touchline before touching the ball down. But the Blues were determined and five minutes before the break Maama Molitika snatched up a loose ball from a Bristol 5-metre scrum and forced his way over the line for the first score of the game. Fullback Blair converted on 40 minutes but that wasn’t it for the Blues in the first half. Fly half Nick Macleod fired a huge kick downfield to put the Blues back in position for a score, Jason Spice passed to Gareth Thomas on a break around the blindside and Alfie duly dived over in the mud-soaked corner after shrugging off a tackle from Sean Hohneck. After the break the intensity of the match dropped, and both teams’ failure to keep the ball in hand meant no score could be made until Macleod slotted a penalty on 53 minutes for Bristol’s infringement at the breakdown. From then on, the Cardiff outfit were on the look-out for another try that would win them a home quarter-final against Toulouse. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be and Dai Young's men had to prepare themselves for a tough challenge at Stade Toulouse in April.

Two Welsh regions had reached the last eight of the European competition, with the Blues taking on three-times European champions Toulouse and the Ospreys facing Saracens at Vicarage Road. The prospect of a 'home final' beckoned as the 2007–2008 finale was to be staged at the home of Welsh rugby, Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, with both regions fighting for a semi-final berth at the start of April 2008.

The Ospreys’ match was up first and as the Welsh side has secured a one-sided victory over their opponents a month previously in the EDF Energy Cup semi-final, Welsh hopes were high. However, it was clear from the outset that the Guinness Premiership side weren’t going to be as easy to beat as the last time the two sides met. An early James Hook penalty put the Ospreys into the lead but this was cancelled out and then bettered by two Glen Jackson penalties soon afterwards. Both sides posed dangerous-looking attacks on their opponents but no further scores were gained so that the half-time score rested at 6-3 to the Sarries. Soon after the break the Ospreys made several fundamental errors and Saracens took full advantage, replacement Francisco Leonelli scoring soon after the restart. The Ospreys struck back when replacement prop Paul James scored a well-taken try and Hook's conversion gave the visitors a glimmer of hope. However, this was cruelly extinguished when Jackson scored a drop-goal with just two minutes remaining and despite the region's last-gasp efforts the Ospreys were sent crashing out of Europe as the Saracens went through to face Munster in the semis.

Following the Ospreys’ defeat, Welsh hopes for European glory rested alone on the shoulders of the Cardiff Blues in the clash against Toulouse in their own back yard. The Welsh region got off to the worst possible start in the south of France when Tom Shanklin’s attempted kick was snatched up by Toulouse’s Maleli Kunavore, whose kick-through was collected by Maxime Medard to crash over the whitewash. The try was converted by Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, who soon added a penalty to give the home team a 10 point lead that Ben Blair couldn’t reduce as he missed his first penalty attempt on 8 minutes.

The Blues got back into the contest following a spectacular backline move; Tom James showed great strength and managed to feed the ball back inside for Jason Spice to eventually score. Blair finally found the posts for the conversion to reduce the home side's lead to three points. Elissalde replied with a penalty but the home side almost gifted the Blues a try when Cedric Heymans made a mess of a quick line-out. Jamie Roberts reached the ball first and popped a pass up to Shanklin, who tripped over Roberts on his way to the try line. Heymans was subsequently yellow carded for killing the ball, which allowed Blair to add three points to his side’s tally. However, Toulouse came back all guns blazing and a strong drive by the French team’s pack gave Elissalde the platform to slot over a drop goal. Just before the break the visitors also lost a player to the sin-bin as scrum half Spice had his kick charged down and was then penalised for killing the ball at the resulting breakdown.

The second half started slowly but Toulouse soon came out of the blocks, Elissalde kicking a penalty and then setting up a try for Kunavore. But the visitors refused to give up and replacement Jamie Robinson immediately made an impact on the game when he set up Blair to score and convert. However, any slim hopes the Blues had were soon dashed when Toulouse lock Patricio Albacete gave Vincent Clerc the space he needed to score the home side’s third try. Elissalde added the conversion before being substituted and Jean Bouilhou, another replacement, soon after added his side’s fourth try before Heymans completed the game with a drop goal to complete a resounding quarter-final victory.

With both Welsh regions falling at the quarter-final fence, the sole Welsh representative left in the 2007-2008 race was to be the final venue, the Millennium Stadium. After their defeat of the Blues, Toulouse went on to end London Irish’s Heineken Cup dream in a nail-biting match at Twickenham; tries from Manu Aho Ta'e'iloa and William Servat made sure of the French side’s place in the final. Though victors over the Ospreys, Saracens failed to overcome the might of Munster who just edged out the English to cement their final berth against Toulouse. The Irish led 15-7 at half time after tries from Anthony Quinlan and Ronan O’Gara, who also added a conversion and a penalty, while Saracens’ first half points came from winger Kameli Ratuvou and a conversion from Glen Jackson, who added three penalties after the interval, to O’Gara’s single penalty. Saracens tried to get a platform for a Jackson drop goal, but the Irish held out for a second final in the Welsh capital in three years.

With the Millennium Stadium swathed in red the luck of the Irish shone through with Cardiff's iconic venue proving a successful venue for the men from Munster. The Irish clung on to a slender 16-13 victory over renowned kings of Europe Toulouse, securing European rugby's most prized possession for the second time in as many finals at the Millennium Stadium in front of a capacity crowd. In an opening quarter that saw the French pile on the pressure, Toulouse had the first opportunity to open the scoring but Jean-Baptiste Elissalde pulled his fourth minute penalty attempt wide, the fly half coolly slotted home two minutes later though to hand Toulouse the lead.

Munster began to gather momentum but were denied a try from No.8 Denis Leamy after intervention by video referee Derek Bevan, as he dropped the ball with the line at his mercy. However, after a series of close-range drives Leamy crashed over for the deserved try-score, Ronan O’Gara’s conversion and penalty goal put Munster 10-6 up at half time. Ten minutes into the second half, Toulouse captain Fabien Pelous was somewhat harshly sin-binned for illegal use of the boot and O’Gara kicked the resulting penalty to give the Irish side a seven-point cushion. Despite being a man down and behind by a converted try, Toulouse came back with a sensational try set up by Cedric Heymans, scored by Yves Donguy. The try was converted and the French side went on the attack but it was to no avail, and no sooner had Pelous returned to the field than he was again penalised; O’Gara drilled the kick through to give his side the lead. Toulouse couldn’t get back into the game in the remaining minutes, and Munster were crowned champions of Europe for the second time.

By WRU / Kumari Tilakawardane