Uncharted territory for Exiles

London Irish's first Heineken Cup semi-final will follow quickly on their first quarter-final appearance after the Exiles dominated Perpignan in a 20-9 victory at the Madejski Stadium.

Their reward is a clash with either Toulouse or Cardiff Blues at Twickenham and on this performance they will fancy their chances of a first final as well.

It was a victory built on almost complete dominance at the lineout and the boot of Peter Hewat, who kicked five out of six attempts at goal for 15 points.

The Frenchmen enjoyed a period of dominance in the contact areas in the second quarter but failed to convert that into a winning position.

That apart, Irish were in control as their kicks constantly pinned Perpignan back. With a desperately misfiring lineout, that spelled danger time and time again.

The visitors did take the lead after three minutes when Topsy Ojo was penalised for a late tackle and World Cup winner Percy Montgomery split the uprights.

The pick of the Irish players in the opening exchanges was Sailosi Tagicakiba, who twice broke deep into the Perpignan defence only to be stopped before a chance could be created. He also came up with a crucial interception as Perpignan looked set to score with an overlap.

Meanwhile Hewat had put the Exiles ahead with two penalties, the first for Henry Tuilagi going over the top and the next for Chris Cusiter failing to release under pressure when he should have cleared.

Try

On the half-hour mark Irish created the only try of the game when Perpignan lost a lineout in their own half and Mike Catt floated a chip kick into the corner for Declan Danaher to outleap the defence and touch down.

That was the veteran fly-half's final contribution as he hobbled off with a leg injury to be replaced by Shane Geraghty.

Perpignan should have equalised when Laharrague chipped over the top and Adrien Plante looked set to score, only for Paul Hodgson to come up with a superb try-saving tackle.

With the Irish defence offside, Montgomery settled for his third penalty and the lead at half-time was 11-9.

The second half belonged to Irish and the boot of Hewat, as he kicked three penalties that were just reward for the frustration the Irish produced in Perpignan.

The Frenchmen barely threatened and their anger boiled over in injury time, Viliami Vaki's sending off adding ignominy to defeat. For Irish, unprecedented glory beckons.