Montpellier v Leinster Friday 17th 8pm

[Keith]

Every time that someone connected to Premiership rugby complains that they can’t compete with the Irish one just knows that clearly Paddy isn’t tugging the forelock quite enough. Our ‘competitiveness’ is clearly an affront to them.

But we are constantly told by various forum users that the French and English don't care about the competition? Clearly that's not true though.

[Oldschoolsocks]

Every time that someone connected to Premiership rugby complains that they can’t compete with the Irish one just knows that clearly Paddy isn’t tugging the forelock quite enough. Our ‘competitiveness’ is clearly an affront to them.

But we are constantly told by various forum users that the French and English don't care about the competition? Clearly that's not true though.

yeah, I've often thought we've been uncomfortable accepting that we were regularly beating English and French sides simply because we were better prepared and/or had better players and/or better coaching etc.

[Keith]

Every time that someone connected to Premiership rugby complains that they can’t compete with the Irish one just knows that clearly Paddy isn’t tugging the forelock quite enough. Our ‘competitiveness’ is clearly an affront to them.

But we are constantly told by various forum users that the French and English don't care about the competition? Clearly that's not true though.

yeah, I've often thought we've been uncomfortable accepting that we were regularly beating English and French sides simply because we were better prepared and/or had better players and/or better coaching etc.

There's a small group of elite teams in Europe that can realistically win the HC, we just happen to be in that small group.

[Flash Gordon]

But we are constantly told by various forum users that the French and English don't care about the competition? Clearly that's not true though.

yeah, I've often thought we've been uncomfortable accepting that we were regularly beating English and French sides simply because we were better prepared and/or had better players and/or better coaching etc.

There's a small group of elite teams in Europe that can realistically win the HC, we just happen to be in that small group.

We happen to be in that group because of our system, coaching, academy and players. And it's not just the fact that we are an Irish team by the way, Ulster have been part of the same system for the duration and haven't won it since 1999. So you have to give credit to the club and the way it's coached and run.

Anybody can copy that system but it's not an instant solution, it takes years of investment and they consciously chose not too.

You are right though, there are maybe one or 2 teams from England, 3 or 4 teams in France and Leinster (and historically Munster) who have a chance. Half the French teams don't really want to be there and though previously English teams always turned up, I'm not sure that's the case anymore for many of their clubs.

[D4surfer]

The bookies have odds of Leinster 1/40 and Montpellier 25/1. The handicap is 26 points.

I expect the winning margin will be 28 points.

[leinsterblueyellow]

Just a small point but Montpellier Rugby have just emailed me to say that the refund will appear in my bank account in 30 days for the ticket I bought for the original game in Montpellier.

I was thinking that they were holding up the refund on the basis that there was a chance that the game could be rescheduled. That would have been pure speculation on my part.