ACC, Pool 4 - Round 5: Prato vs Chiefs, USAP vs Dragons

EXETER CHIEFS TEAM TO FACE CAVALIERI PRATO

15 Phil Dollman
14 Bryan Rennie
13 Josh Tatupu
12 Myles Dorrian
11 Mark Foster
10 Gareth Steenson (capt)
9 Kevin Barrett
1 Hoani Tui
2 Simon Alcott
3 John Andress
4 Chris Bentley
5 Aly Muldowney
6 Dave Ewers
7 Ben White
8 James Phillips

16 Chris Whitehead
17 Luke Cowan-Dickie
18 Chris Budgen
19 Richard Baxter
20 Tom Johnson
21 Pat Phibbs
22 Ignacio Mieres
23 Jack Nowell

Good strong team, with a number of first-team regulars getting a break or placed on the bench - Arscott, Jess, Camacho, Shoey, Thomas, Sturge, Mitchell, Clarke, Hayes, Scays all absent, Richie B, TJ & Nacho Mieres among the subs. Great to see Ben White and Chris Whitehead back from injury

Dreigiau fans getting lazy/apathetic, so I'll port their team for them

Newport Gwent Dragons Squad:

Martyn Thomas, Will Harries, Adam Hughes, Lewis Robling, Aled Brew, Matthew Jones, Wayne Evans, Nathan Williams, Steve Jones, Nathan Buck, Adam Jones, Rob Sidoli, Danny Lydiate (c), Lewis Evans, Toby Faletau

Replacements:

Rhys Buckley, Phil Price, Dan Way, Hugh Gustafson, Tom Brown, Jonathan Evans, Andy Tuilagi, Tom Riley

Good luck Exeter I hope you win this pool. You are in control so should.

Interesting that Tuilagi is on the bench for Robling, big game for him looks a good set of backs but it's going to be really tough

Can't find the actual XXIII, priest, but doesn't look like USAP are taking this one lightly:

"Le staff catalan a communiqué un groupe de 25 joueurs pour la réception Samedi 14 janvier à 20h55 des Newport Dragons.

Le groupe :
PULU Kisi, SCHUSTER Jérôme, MAS Nicolas, BOURRUST Benoît, GELI Charles, GUIRADO Guilhem, OLIBEAU Olivier, TCHALE WATCHOU Robins, TAOFIFENUA Romain, BRITZ Gerrie, LE CORVEC Grégory, CHOULY Damien, TONITA Ovidiu, PEREZ Jean-Pierre, CAZENAVE Florian, MÉLÉ David, HUME Gavin, LAHARRAGUE Nicolas, SID Farid, COETZEE Rudy, PLANTÉ Adrien, MERMOZ Maxime, MARTY David, PORICAL Jérôme, MICHEL Joffrey."

ercrugby.com preview:

"Exeter Chiefs will be expected to add to I Cavalieri Prato's woes when they bid to keep their hopes of a last eight place alive when the two sides clash on Italian soil on Saturday.The English Premiership outfit, who are level on points after three wins in the Pool with French side Perpignan, will be determined to get a bonus point victory at the Stadio Lungobisenzio.
The Chiefs know they have to put themselves in pole position before they host Perpignan in what looks like a thrilling finale to the Pool to decide who qualifies for the knockout stages.

The Italian part-timers, who are in only their second season of European rugby, have lost all four games in their Pool and are still looking for their first victory in this season's tournament.

Perpignan v Newport Gwent Dragons
(Saturday January 14, KO:20.55)

Perpignan will be looking for revenge and a Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-finals place when they host the Newport Gwent Dragons at the Stade Aime Giral on Saturday evening.

The Catalans are joint Pool 4 leaders with the Exeter Chiefs and are four points ahead of the Welsh side and will be looking for a victory to ensure their place in the knockout stages.

The Dragons will be looking to achieve their own 'double' over the Top 14 side in the French side's backyard after their win at Rodney Parade and will want to get their own campaign back on track after their last defeat to the Chiefs.

The Men of Gwent have a slim chance of qualification and know they need to return from France with a victory to stand any chance of a quarter-finals place."

As only the top team goes through I think qualifiaction is beyong us now (Chiefs in pole position) but if we could get a win against Perp then that in itself would be huge for confidence on the back of the Os win.

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Dreigiau fans getting lazy/apathetic, so I'll port their team for them

Newport Gwent Dragons Squad:

Martyn Thomas, Will Harries, Adam Hughes, Lewis Robling, Aled Brew, Matthew Jones, Wayne Evans, Nathan Williams, Steve Jones, Nathan Buck, Adam Jones, Rob Sidoli, Danny Lydiate (c), Lewis Evans, Toby Faletau

Replacements:

Rhys Buckley, Phil Price, Dan Way, Hugh Gustafson, Tom Brown, Jonathan Evans, Andy Tuilagi, Tom Riley

Not too bad a side that. I guess we aren't really targetting anything or Tovey would be playing. Interesting that Goose is covering backrow on the bench (as well as Tom Brown). Dragons by 65

Tovey is carrying an injury , Edwards had publicly stated he's not going to risk making it worse

Tovey's been carrying an injury for weeks (as has Brew I gather). As I say, if we were targetting it, he would be playing. If he didn't want to make it worse, then he probably shouldn't have played him against Ospreys.

Are you back yet, big yin?

Rev,

I agree, if we were still in with good shout of topping group then I guess he would have been playing.

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Are you back yet, big yin?

Not yet butt. End of Feb/beginning of March. Just in time for our annual whooping of Munster at Rodney Parade

Good stuff, when you're back

Good win for the Chiefs today away to Prato - 50-10

Good win As, well done to your boys. I think you're set up nicely to top the group now, especially as you got the double on us when Perpignan didn't (but expecting them to beat us in Perp tonight).

I was really disappointed that we couldn't give you more of a game, home or away, but hope you can go on now and challenge for the latter stages.

If Dragons were somehow to do the unthinkable and win in Perpignan, have we got any chance of topping the group (I'm feeling a bit lazy and I'm on my phone so not that easy to look up the table!)?

Griff, not sure how this will turn out on screen, Griff, but here ye go:

Team P W D L F A BP PTS
1 Exeter 5 4 0 1 171 50 3 19
2 Perpignan 4 3 0 1 112 68 2 14
3 Dragons 4 2 0 2 81 57 2 10
4 Prato 5 0 0 5 46 235 0 0

You gonna be around for the Wales vs Scotland game at the MS? Maybe catch you for a pint?

Thanks As. 2 bonus point wins for us plus you losing to Perp next week with no LBP and Perp not getting a WBP should do it! Very unlikely though!

Watching Perp v Drags on s4c currently and it's 9-0 to Perp after 13 minutes. Our scrum is rubbish as usual, costing us penalties and we're just getting blasted off the ball. Plus, our skills are letting us down and are causing is to turn the ball over or kick it away. All in 12 minutes! Going to be a long match.

Aye, I should be around for Wales V Scotland. Doubt I'll be going to the game but will be out for a few beers to watch it.

Not going well

9 - 0 to usap

9-3 perp playing with great intensity spoiling everything at breakdown

jes this is bubbling up nicely

tuilagi just did his first good thing in a dragons shirt

im only half watching the drags match but every time i glance at it i see a french player swinging a punch

15-3 perpignan obliterating the dragons in the contact area, saying that it hasnt been all one way dragons have made a coupe of line breaks, their lineout is going well and they are disrupting perpignan's, apart from one scrum their scrum has held out

yea dog its very tasty out there...

I missed the start why is tuilagi on?

GavinDragon wrote:15-3 perpignan obliterating the dragons in the contact area, saying that it hasnt been all one way dragons have made a coupe of line breaks, their lineout is going well and they are disrupting perpignan's, apart from one scrum their scrum has held out

I thought it was more out wide and midfield than in the tight that USAP are killing dragons

contact area is anywhere on the field mm dunno y tuilagi is on but hes made a couple of breaks

Tuilagi has also dropped the ball alot sand missed a few tackles. Looking like his big brother did last night in Belfast.

true but up until now ive never seen him make yards for us so ill take this as an improvement:)

Why is there only 3 regional symbols on the front of the pundits desk ? Absolutely shocking. Perp are filthy , getting away with murder

Ha ha ha...!

missed the half time chat, did they say why Tuilagi is on for Lewis Robling...?

munkian wrote:Why is there only 3 regional symbols on the front of the pundits desk ? Absolutely shocking. Perp are filthy , getting away with murder

Because the Dragons are playing.

munkian wrote:Why is there only 3 regional symbols on the front of the pundits desk ? Absolutely shocking. Perp are filthy , getting away with murder

MURDER...?

Is that what happened to Robling...?

Robling has flu according to his mum on Facebook.

TRY TIME!

great tackle by tuilagi (i think) takes man and ball, ball is spilled brew goes threw brought down 2m out uses momentum to get to his feet and touch down!

First of the game to brew.

15 - 10 USAP

Tackle was Adam Hughes

GavinDragon wrote:yea dog its very tasty out there...

nom, nom, nom.

anyone else think this is tuilagis best game in a dragons shirt?

good try from brewey.

the match is still very bad tempered. the ref isnt helping.

what a hit by brew

chip and tackle from brew. the lad is looking good for a wales place

The SRU should be after Welsh refs not players , these seem incompetent

drags still being out-played a little but they could take this

munkian wrote:The SRU should be after Welsh refs not players , these seem incompetent

i dunno dog, a squad place perhaps but i cant see past north and cuthbert on wings

GavinDragon wrote:i dunno dog, a squad place perhaps but i cant see past north and cuthbert on wings

cuffbutt is good, but today brew is the better of the two.