Toulouse vs Quins and Saints vs Castres

First topic message reminder :

Stade Toulousain: 15 Maxime Medard, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Yann David, 12 Yannick Jauzion, 11 Timoci Matanavou, 10 Luke McAlister, 9 Jean-Marc Doussain, 8 Shaun Sowerby, 7 Thierry Dusautoir, 6 Jean Bouilhou, 5 Romain Millo-Chluski, 4 Yoann Maestri, 3 Census Johnston, 2 William Servat, 1 Yohan Montes.
Replacements: 16 Gary Botha, 17 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18 Daan Human, 19 Grégory Lamboley, 20 Yannick Nyanga, 21 Louis Picamoles, 22 Luke Burgees, 23 Florian Fritz.

Harlequins:15 Mike Brown, 14 Seb Stegmann, 13 Matt Hopper, 12 Tom Casson, 11 Ugo Monye, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Danny Care, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Will Skinner, 6 Chris Robshaw (c), 5 George Robson, 4 Tomas Vallejos, 3 James Johnston, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Mark Lambert.
Replacements: 16 Chris Brooker, 17 Nic Mayhew, 18 Kyle Sinckler, 19 Charlie Matthews, 20 Luke Wallace, 21 Richard Bolt, 22 Ben Urdapilleta, 23 Tom Williams

Referee: Alain Rolland

and

Northampton Saints: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Vas Artemyev, 13 Jon Clarke, 12 James Downey, 11 Jamie Elliott, 10 Steve Myler, 9 Martin Roberts, 8 Samu Manoa, 7 Ben Nutley, 6 Tom Wood, 5 Mark Sorenson, 4 Courtney Lawes, 3 Paul Doran-Jones, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Alex Waller.
Replacements: 16 Mikey Haywood, 17 Soane Tonga'uiha, 18 Tom Mercey, 19 James Craig, 20 James Ingle, 21 Lee Dickson, 22 Greig Tonks, 23 Scott Armstrong.

Castres Olympique: 15 Florian Denos, 14 Matthieu Nicolas, 13 Paul Bonnefond, 12 Pierre-Manuel Garcia, 11 Pierre-Gilles Lakafia, 10 Pierre Bernard, 9 Thierry Lacrampe, 8 Jannie Bornman, 7 Steve Malonga, 6 Pierre Roussel, 5 Scott Murray, 4 Matthias Rolland, 3 Rossouw Kruger, 2 Mathieu Bonello, 1 Anton Peikrishvili.
Replacements: 16 Marc-Antoine Rallier, 17 Michaël Coetzee, 18 Luc Ducalcon, 19 Rodrigo Capo Ortega, 20 Ibrahim Diarra, 21 Rory Kockott, 22 Seremaia Bai, 23 Vincent Inigo.

Referee George Clanncy

Looks like a yellow card for quins now as they do it straight away again... Penalty in front of the posts...

Wow, quins get away with it, no card...??? Rolland is in a lenient mood today.

19 15 to toulouse as they bring on players like Picamoles from the bench.

Question, if you tackle a player and release him on the floor, can you then get hold of him again in he maul.


Brilliant by quins, one more for the bonus point

Mike brown gets in for a try, despite a knock on and a forward pass...

19- 22 to quins...

That is a stuck on yellow card.

Question, if you tackle a player and release him on the floor, can you then get hold of him again in he maul.


Brilliant by quins, one more for the bonus point

Ref seen the gap

Danny Care missus his opposite number Dussan at a ruck on their own line and Toulouses scrum half gets in in the corner though fails to convert it

24 -25 to quins

ten mins left

The Kiwi edges Quins ahead by four

penalty to quins

The English supporters who disparage Brown look more and more ridiculous every week

"The man is magic!". Great kick there, come on Quins!

niwatts wrote:The English supporters who disparage Brown look more and more ridiculous every week

Wow, he looks like the best fullback england have had in years. Not flakey like foden and Armitage

sorry for ignoring the other game but out of no where saints scored five tries ha ha ha... miracles do happen

43 - 0

Quins Skinner does the same as their Dr and catches a ball in touch, gets red carded while not playing and sent to the stands...????

Get in! Famous win there!

Wow Quins get a very lucky victory in toulouse...

maestegmafia wrote:Wow Quins get a very lucky victory in toulouse...

It must really stick in your craw mate!

Well done Quins!

Well done Quins but Ugo Monye needs to drop the footballer attitude telling the home crowd to sshh!

Shhhh View!

maestegmafia wrote:Quins Skinner does the same as their Dr and catches a ball in touch, gets red carded while not playing and sent to the stands...????

I don't get that though, the ball was kicked right at him, what was he supposed to do? Jump out of the way? Do you send a supporter off if it lands in the crowd?

Well played Harlequins.

Are you a Quins fan safeasmilk? hate to think your coat tailing them just like you accuse any Welsh poster for saying well done to a non Welsh team.

Great result, pool wide open and a French side goes down on their own turf! Hahahahaha

viewtothegym wrote:Are you a Quins fan safeasmilk? hate to think your coat tailing them just like you accuse any Welsh poster for saying well done to a non Welsh team.

Jog on mate, like you don't support the other Welsh regions against non welsh opposition.

No you jog on

viewtothegym wrote:Are you a Quins fan safeasmilk? hate to think your coat tailing them just like you accuse any Welsh poster for saying well done to a non Welsh team.

I'm a supporter of good rugby mate and that was an excellent game!

I've already been for my run today thank you very much.

Cumbrian wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:Quins Skinner does the same as their Dr and catches a ball in touch, gets red carded while not playing and sent to the stands...????

I don't get that though, the ball was kicked right at him, what was he supposed to do? Jump out of the way? Do you send a supporter off if it lands in the crowd?

Yes he is not meant to touch it. if it goes into the stands then no a supporter is likely to catch it... But in the case twice today Evans kicked at touch and one of the Quins team touched the ball, thus preventing a quick toulouse throw in.

Rolland was fuming

maestegmafia wrote:

Cumbrian wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:Quins Skinner does the same as their Dr and catches a ball in touch, gets red carded while not playing and sent to the stands...????

I don't get that though, the ball was kicked right at him, what was he supposed to do? Jump out of the way? Do you send a supporter off if it lands in the crowd?

Yes he is not meant to touch it.

Ah right, well I often see the ball being caught/ stopped on the sidelines. Rarely see the ref take action about it.

maestegmafia wrote:
Rolland was fuming

Poor chap should have a cuppa and calm down.

Guess what nationality the posters were for every knock at Quins?

I have to agree that Brown looks the best English 15 at the moment and that from a Saints man.

Agree about skinner, if he hadn't caught it, it would have hit him anyway, so just Roland being his usual self. I have always wondered why, with his French ancestry he gets English vs French games. If in an Ireland - England game was played with a Welsh registered ref with an English father, all hell would break loose. Especially if that ref was on record as saying he dislikes the Irish.

I would say that the Mike Brown for the EPS campaign should be in full swing!

Super effort from Quins. The group is probably still Toulouse's for the taking (Quins will probably need BPs in both their remaining games to overhaul Toulouse's BP from today), but it shows that this is a side that can stand toe to toe with the best.

Worth noting that last week Quins played with a centre pairing who had never played together before at First XV level and were only thrown together when Casson injured his ankle the day before. Casson was back this week and from what I could see it made a big difference defensively.

SafeAsMilk wrote:
I'm a supporter of good rugby mate and that was an excellent game!

What a game and it was better than excellent.
Thought Quins were magnificent.

I was under the impression that Brown has been one of England's best fullbacks for a few seasons now but he wouldn't get selected neither will Topsy Ojo?
Due to past allegations.

Also remember Casson is not first choice, but was thrown in last week.

Just had a look at the stats for the Toulouse / quins game - how on earth did /Quins win that? Lies damn lies and statistics I guess

Poorfour wrote:Worth noting that last week Quins played with a centre pairing who had never played together before at First XV level and were only thrown together when Casson injured his ankle the day before. Casson was back this week and from what I could see it made a big difference defensively.

Still a second string centre pairing today though, if they weren't injured JTH & Lowe would have been first choice.

Fastasmagoric result for Quins. Even if they were outgained almost 2 to 1. Defense wins championships. I didn't think they had this result in 'em. Can't wait to watch the replay later.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:Also remember Casson is not first choice, but was thrown in last week.

Would have been thrown in last week, if he hadn't been injured. This was only his second start since sometime last season. And Hopper is on I think his third First XV start, having been playing Championship rugby last season.

Had Quins had both first choice centres (Jordan Turner-Hall and George Lowe) available, the results could have been very different. JTH is one of the defensive captains and his physicality would have been a huge help. Lowe is not as elusive a runner as Hopper, but his positioning in both defence and attack is exceptional.

I think I'll stand by my prediction that Quins won't make the HEC QFs this year, but will win the Amlin again. Especially as they'd probably have home field advantage for all three games.

Will Skinner get a ban ?

TJ wrote:Just had a look at the stats for the Toulouse / quins game - how on earth did /Quins win that? Lies damn lies and statistics I guess

Look at Quins' stats for a lot of their games this season. They are playing a different game to most teams; they absorb the pressure for long periods and then take the points when the chances present themselves. If there were stats for points/visit to the opponent's 22 and points conceded / opposition possession, I suspect Quins would be at or very near the top. Another telling stat is that their net points conceded during yellow card periods this season is close to zero. They simply do not give the opposition much chance to score.

Fantastic win for quins, we were pretty envious in the stands at the gardens when they announced the half time score from france.

I must admit I was beginning to wonder how long quins could keep it up, surely they would bottle it at some point in the seasons and be caught by tigers or sarries? Such a result proves their form is no fluke, they are serious contenders and become the standard bearers for english teams in europe.

Saints Castres was a ridiculous game of rugby; 3-0 after 45 mins it was head in hands time, so so many errors. We then proceeded to score 5 tries in 20 minutes. An almost comical match upon which little was resting for either team, but a thoroughly enjoyable second half nonetheless.

I thought Skinner had a good game (getting red carded aside), but young Wallace put in another promising display. The lad really looks to have something about him (and no, I'm not talking about his foppish barnet)

If in an Ireland - England game was played with a Welsh registered ref with an English father, all hell would break loose.

No it really wouldn't.

Great performance from quins. A famous win that will fill them with belief in themselves. They've now beaten Munster and Toulouse away from home in the last two seasons. So I reckon they're the real deal.

I still think Toulouse will top the group but quins are in a good position to be best runner up if they can win the last two games. Would love if Leinster drew them in the quarters. That would be an entertaining match.

Poorfour wrote:

TJ wrote:Just had a look at the stats for the Toulouse / quins game - how on earth did /Quins win that? Lies damn lies and statistics I guess

Look at Quins' stats for a lot of their games this season. They are playing a different game to most teams; they absorb the pressure for long periods and then take the points when the chances present themselves. If there were stats for points/visit to the opponent's 22 and points conceded / opposition possession, I suspect Quins would be at or very near the top. Another telling stat is that their net points conceded during yellow card periods this season is close to zero. They simply do not give the opposition much chance to score.

Just goes to show tactical use of penalties and counter attcking can pay off. Quins must be an absurdly fit team though.

To concede 70% terriotiry and win is pretty good going.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:

Poorfour wrote:

TJ wrote:Just had a look at the stats for the Toulouse / quins game - how on earth did /Quins win that? Lies damn lies and statistics I guess

Look at Quins' stats for a lot of their games this season. They are playing a different game to most teams; they absorb the pressure for long periods and then take the points when the chances present themselves. If there were stats for points/visit to the opponent's 22 and points conceded / opposition possession, I suspect Quins would be at or very near the top. Another telling stat is that their net points conceded during yellow card periods this season is close to zero. They simply do not give the opposition much chance to score.

Just goes to show tactical use of penalties and counter attcking can pay off. Quins must be an absurdly fit team though.

To concede 70% terriotiry and win is pretty good going.

And when you think they're having to run extra hard to make up for Easter's TOTAL lack of fitness or involvement they must be super-humanly fit. There's gym fitness, match fitness and then 'playing in the same team as fatty Easter fitness'

And when you think they're having to run extra hard to make up for Easter's TOTAL lack of fitness or involvement they must be super-humanly fit. There's gym fitness, match fitness and then 'playing in the same team as fatty Easter fitness'

It really didn't seem to make much difference when he was off the pitch

Except for some tasty carries and a game winning offload.

It's almost like the backrow all have different roles...