Stade Francais maintained their hopes of reaching the European Rugby Champions Cup quarter-finals by beating Munster 27-7 on Saturday (9th January), despite playing with 14 men for the whole of the second half.

In the Champions Cup, Stade Francais host two-time former European champions Munster. The meeting rescheduled after last November's attacks in Paris

Stade made the breakthrough in the 33rd minute when centre Paul Williams spotted a gap in the Munster defence and burst through

Morne Steyn kicked the conversion and added a penalty four minutes later

Stade's Josaia Raisuqe clashed with Munster's CJ Stander on the sidelines, the Television Match Official spotting Raisuqe's contact with Stander's eyes. A red card for the winger - the home side reduced to 14 men.

Stade, though continued to boss the game at the start of the second half, another Steyn penalty made it 13-0.

Stade flanker Sekou Macalou took full advantage of Munster's poor tackling to score Stade's second try in the 67th minute. And there was another one just four minutes later from Hugo Bonneval.

Munster's Simon Zebo was partly at fault, but the Ireland winger's kick found replacement hooker Niall Scannell , who offloaded to Conor Murray for a consolation try.

It wasn't enough for Munster though, winning by a clear 20 points, the French champions remain behind leaders Leicester at the top of Pool Four.