Toulon / Clermont

[StrangeButBlue]

Round 1. April 13th - Winner likely to avoid Toulouse in the French Semi Final
Round 2. May 18th - European Cup Final - both probobly going to make it and have rare week off beforehand
Round 3. Jun 1st - Finale

Personally wish Clermont all the best but the squad depth of Toulon could make all the difference

[VGE]

The ASM team for Round 1:

Chaume - Cabello - Ric
Jacquet - Pierre
Chouly - Vermeulen - Lapandry
Rado - Skréla
Malzieu - King - Stanley - Nakaitaci
Buttin


So, Round1 without


Domingo-Kayser -Zirakashvili (Paulo-Kotze)
Hines-Cudmore
Vosloo-Bonnaire-Bardy
Parra-James (Senio)
Nalaga-Rougerie-Fofana-Sivivatu
Byrne (Floch)

What else about squad depth?


Au revoir.

[blockhead]

TBH wasn't that impressed with Toulon against Leicester. The tigers had them on the ropes for the first 50mins. Lots of older players with a questionable team spirit. Saracens will bore them into submission. Clermont should beat Munster but its a funny oul game. A Munster/Sarries final would help those with unwanted final tickets to flog them.

[ceemec]

As expected, Clermont resting a lot of players for this one. The game essentially means little to them despite it being 1st vs 2nd as the final will be in a neutral venue. However, it does suggest they're very focused on the HEC also. All those guys are having a nice long rest for themselves now and I assume we'll see a mixed and matched side line out against Toulouse next week in Clermont.

Vern Cotter, I'm sure, is hoping that Montpellier do a job on Toulouse this weekend so he can rest anyone that needs it next week too.

[VGE]

1.Chaume,  2.Paulo, 3.Ric, 4.Pierre, 5.Jacquet, 6.Chouly, 7. Lapandry, 8.Vermeulen©, 9.Radosavljevic, 10.Skrela (ou Delany), 11.Malzieu, 12.King, 13.Stanley 14.Nakaitaci, 15.Buttin. 
 
Remplaçants : 16.Cabello, 17.Debaty, 18.Hezard, 19.Bardy, 20. Senio, 21.Delany (ou Fofana), 22.Floch, 23. Kotze. 

That's what I said, except Paulo for Cabello.


Au revoir.

[Rémy63]

Good draw 26-26 for ASM with an unfortunate interception try at the beginning of the 2nd half. We could have done better without that try.

[ceemec]

Solid result given that Clermont essentially has their "second " team out and Toulon had close to their first choice. The result now puts Clermont 8 points clear of Toulouse with two games left including their clash at SMM next week. Clermont now pretty much guaranteed top spot barring a series of freak results.

[ceemec]

Solid result given that Clermont essentially has their "second " team out and Toulon had close to their first choice. The result now puts Clermont 8 points clear of Toulouse with two games left including their clash at SMM next week. Clermont now pretty much guaranteed top spot barring a series of freak results.

[bedlam9999]

TBH wasn't that impressed with Toulon against Leicester. The tigers had them on the ropes for the first 50mins. Lots of older players with a questionable team spirit. Saracens will bore them into submission. Clermont should beat Munster but its a funny oul game. A Munster/Sarries final would help those with unwanted final tickets to flog them.

they will only be unwanted if shelbyville get there

[johng]

TBH wasn't that impressed with Toulon against Leicester. The tigers had them on the ropes for the first 50mins. Lots of older players with a questionable team spirit. Saracens will bore them into submission. Clermont should beat Munster but its a funny oul game. A Munster/Sarries final would help those with unwanted final tickets to flog them.

they will only be unwanted if shelbyville Saracens get there

I'd like Munster Toulon. But I'll go no matter who's there.

[VGE]

Grenoble 25-24 Toulon
ASM 39-17 Toulouse

1/ASM 86 points
2/Toulon 85 points

3/Toulouse 74 points

ASM and Toulon =====> SF

Toulouse, Castres, Racing, Montpellier =====> QF, Oppositions depending on the results of the last matches.


Au revoir.

[StrangeButBlue]

The ERC final is between the top two teams from the top 14
Is this the future of European Rugby?

[blockhead]

The ERC final is between the top two teams from the top 14
Is this the future of European Rugby?

You'll find a lot of lazy journos saying that very thing over the next few weeks. Some of them will probably re-use the article's they wrote back in 2010, just changing the name of the competing teams. They were wrong then.

[ceemec]

If Clermont's age profile was different, they'd be primed to dominate for a few years due to the size of their squad. As it stands however, too many crucial players are too old. They might get another season out of this team just as Leinster managed but too many are just too long in the tooth. Rougerie is 33 this year, Brock James 32, Byrne 33, Hines 37, Cudmore 35, Bonnaire 35.

That's a lot of central players on the cusp of winding down or retiring. They'll buy in replacements but it takes a couple of years to develop a side capable of beating all comers in the HEC. I'm not even sure they're going to win this one. Their fragility was clear for all to see yesterday.

[Darce]

Jesus that was rank yesterday

Utter shite

[hugonaut]

Jesus that was rank yesterday

Utter shite

Painful stuff. Bernard Laporte is a shockingly bad coach, because he has got some seriously talented players to work with and they play an absolute abortion of a brand of rugby.

Matt Giteau, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Chris Masoe, Bakkies Botha, Gethin Jenkins, Simon Shaw, Carl Hayman, Joe van Niekirk, Ted Sheridan, Jonny Wilkinson, Freddie Michalak ... it's a who's who of 00s rugby. A lot of those lads are probably past their best, but their best was world class, so they're still really f*cking good. If they had a semblance of a gameplan they would be both unstoppable and an enjoyable team to watch. They don't, they're not and they're not.

On the other hand, Mark McCall [who has been pretty successful with Saracens] is f*cking delusional if he actually believes what he's saying: http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,2588 ... 92,00.html

[Donny B.]

Jesus that was rank yesterday

Utter shite

Yep, just a shame there wasn't a way both teams could lose.

Hopefully Clermont turn on the style and blitz them in the final but that may be wishful thinking. Finals between two French teams are traditionally poor fare and we could be in for another kicking contest unfortunately.

[Maradona10]

Jesus that was rank yesterday

Utter shite

Painful stuff. Bernard Laporte is a shockingly bad coach, because he has got some seriously talented players to work with and they play an absolute abortion of a brand of rugby.

Matt Giteau, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Chris Masoe, Bakkies Botha, Gethin Jenkins, Simon Shaw, Carl Hayman, Joe van Niekirk, Ted Sheridan, Jonny Wilkinson, Freddie Michalak ... it's a who's who of 00s rugby. A lot of those lads are probably past their best, but their best was world class, so they're still really f*cking good. If they had a semblance of a gameplan they would be both unstoppable and an enjoyable team to watch. They don't, they're not and they're not.

On the other hand, Mark McCall [who has been pretty successful with Saracens] is f*cking delusional if he actually believes what he's saying: http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,2588 ... 92,00.html

I think he's upset that Rolland actually refereed the according to the laws of the game, not according to which teams were on the pitch.

Also, it's a bit rich that Saracens are saying Toulon were just looking for penalties. The words pot and kettle come to mind!

[johng]

Bound to happen when 2 teams try to "unlose" a game of rugby.

The 2 taglines for the teams should give it away.

"If you can't beat them buy them" and "the blight on rugby that is...."

[Donny B.]

Jesus that was rank yesterday

Utter shite

Painful stuff. Bernard Laporte is a shockingly bad coach, because he has got some seriously talented players to work with and they play an absolute abortion of a brand of rugby.

Matt Giteau, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Chris Masoe, Bakkies Botha, Gethin Jenkins, Simon Shaw, Carl Hayman, Joe van Niekirk, Ted Sheridan, Jonny Wilkinson, Freddie Michalak ... it's a who's who of 00s rugby. A lot of those lads are probably past their best, but their best was world class, so they're still really f*cking good. If they had a semblance of a gameplan they would be both unstoppable and an enjoyable team to watch. They don't, they're not and they're not.

On the other hand, Mark McCall [who has been pretty successful with Saracens] is f*cking delusional if he actually believes what he's saying: http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,2588 ... 92,00.html

I think he's upset that Rolland actually refereed the according to the laws of the game, not according to which teams were on the pitch.

Also, it's a bit rich that Saracens are saying Toulon were just looking for penalties. The words pot and kettle come to mind!

Also hilarious that he's slating them for kicking the ball so much. Does he ever actually watch his own team play or is he too busy getting cups of tea for Venter?