Knockouts Round 2

First topic message reminder :

Knockout Cup

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Crusaders

01. Vincent Debaty	09. Jonathan Pelissie
02. Dylan Hartley	10. Tom Taylor (k)
03. Owen Franks
04. Dominic Bird	11. Zac Guildford
05. Luke Romano	12. Scott Williams
06. Chris Robshaw	13. Ryan Crotty
07. Richie McCaw (c)	14. Tom Marshall
08. Kieran Read	15. Charles Piutau

16. Ben Funnell 17. Marcus Ayerza 18. Nepo Laulala 19. Sam Whitelock 20. Mamuka Gorgodze 21. Mitchell Drummond 22. Dan Carter 23. Israel Folau

Set piece - keep it simple, scrummage hard and use the power of the 2nd row to get a nudge on. Hartley to use the safe option in the lineout, and maul with our big front 5. 

Breakdown - back row are all excellent breakdown players, want them to work as a trio with the front 5 focusing on clearing out and carrying down the throat of the opposition. Both flankers to get over the ball at every chance, play to the ref using our experience as all 3 have international captaincy experience. Target the Sharks 7 for strong clearing out, and make sure to ruck past the ball. 

Attack - front 5 to carry up the gut, Robshaw to use his skills at first receiver to shift the point of attack and take pressure off the fly half. Get our centres running at Cooper, send Romano and Franks down his channel all day long to force their back row to keep tight. Piutau to line up at first receiver to act as a running threat, with Taylor on the other side to spread the ball wide. Guildford to stay out wide, with Marshall to pop up where he can.

Defence - all about the breakdown, make the hit and get the guy down to give our back 3 a big chance to turn the ball over. Williams to help Taylor in defence, with Pelissie covering his inside channel. Kick the ball deep, but try to keep it infield. Target the wings with high ball and chase hard. Piutau to offer himself as a kicking option, and Pelissie to box kick for territory.

Bench - great impact off the bench, Gorgodze to take on the carrying duties against the tiring defence and Folau to add to our attack, Carter to help close out the game

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 The Sharks
DoR: Ozzy3213

01. Tendai Mtawarira	09. Freddie Michalak
02. Stephen Moore	10. Patric Lambie
03. Lourens Adriaanse
04. Joe Launchbury	11. George North
05. Pieter-Steph du Toit	12. Jan Serfontein
06. Sam Warbuton	13. Paul Jordaan
07. Willem Alberts	14. Marland Yarde
08. Ryan Kankowski	15. James O'Connor

16. Sebastien Bruno 17. Cian Healy 18. Jannie du Plessis 19. Franco van der Merwe 20. Keegan Daniel 21. Charl McLeod 22. Francois Steyn 23. JP Pietersen

TACTICS

We will play a traditional South African gameplan in the forwards, being ultra physical and looking to dominate the collisions in attack and defence.  We are aiming to control possession by running the ball in great conditions, using the pack and big backs off first phase ball, with support runners on the ball carriers shoulder for the offloads in or just prior to contact.  We will be looking to play our game at a high tempo. Lambie will play flat with the outside backs coming from positions of depth to gain momentum.  In defence we will employ the blitz and look to hit the ball carrier before he hits the gainline to stop Crusaders getting any momentum.  Danny Care will act as a sweeper behind the defensive line.

• Breakdown.  In attack we will put numbers in rucking past the ball to free it up quickly to go again.  If on Michalak will snipe to keep us going forwards.  In defence we will be selective.  If it is on to clear out and turn ball over we will throw numbers in to do so, otherwise we will keep a strong defensive line.
  
• Spaces not faces.  Our runners will target the gaps in the defensive line rather than defenders and look to breach the gainline regularly.  
  
• Wingers. North and Yarde to track the play off their wings looking for the offloads to go through gaps in midfield.
  
• Bench. We have a bench containing 8 full internationals, who can all provide great impact in the final quarter of the game.
  

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StadeToulousian
DOR: Driver
 

01. Guthro Steenkamp	09. Jano Vermaak
02. Tom Youngs	10. Remi Tales
03. John Afoa
04. Yoann Maestri	11. Hosea Gear
05. Patrico Albacete	12. Christian Leialiffano
06. Thiery Dusitour (c)	13. Florain Fritz
07. Michael Hooper	14. Tommy Bowe
08. Louise Pickamoles	15. Leigh Halfpenny (K)

16.Christopher Tauloufa 17.Vasil Kokovan 18.Cencus Johnstone 19.Romain Milo-Chulski 20.Yannick Nyanga 21.Ruan Pienaar 22.Luke McCallister 23.Maxime Medard

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ASMClermontAuvergne

Manager
= ChequeredJersey

01. Joe Marler	09. Ludovic Radosavljevic
02. Corey Flynn	10. Aaron Cruden
03. Frans Malherbe
04. Manu Samoa	11. Julien Malzieu
05. Julien Pierre	12. Ma'a Nonu
06. Julien Bardy	13. Regan King
07. Gerhardt Vosloo	14. Sitiveni Sivivatu
08. JMF Lobbe (c)	15. JM Buttin

16. Thomas Domingo 17. Tio'o Paulo 18. Ben Tameifuina  19.    Jamie Cudmore 20. Sam Cane 21.  Morgan Parra  22. Brock James 23. Matthieu Bastareaud

Tactics:

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Knockout Shield

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Racing Metro

Bathite

01. Ryan Grant	09. Maxime Machenaud
02. Dimitri Szarzewski (c)	10. Jean Marc Doussain (k)
03. Juan Figallo
04. Juandre Kruger	11. Juan Imhoff
05. Joe Tekori	12. Jamie Roberts
06. Bernard Le Roux	13. Marcelo Bosch
07. Wenclas Lauret	14. Alex Cuthbert
08. Toby Faletau	15. Ben Smith

16. Adam Jones 17. Andries Strauss 18. Soane Tonghu'ia 19. Brodie Retallick 20. Francois Louw 21. Ben Youngs 22. Jonathon Sexton 23. Benjamin Fall

TACTICS
With this confidence and in perfect running conditions, we'll look to play with a bit more possession in the middle third. After some big games, we've freshened up the pack giving full internationals Le Roux, Lauret, Tekori and Szarzewski a game

We'll play a simple game plan. Using left and right flankers to challenge at the breakdown and big men to clear out. With quick ball we'll play flat and on slow ball, mix it up with Roberts/Bosch to truck it up


- Mobile back row to slow ball and force turnovers. Le Roux and Lauret to play as left/right flankers
- Roberts to lead the blitz defence, aiming to tackle high with the choke and prevent offloads. We'll looking to isolate individuals and allow back row to compete for turnovers. Machenaud to sweep up
- Use Doussain flat on the gainline, drawing defenders, with Bosch and Roberts offering short pops and Faletau, Tekori offering the inside ball to keep them narrow. Smith and Bosch both encouraged to come into the line either before Roberts or on his shoulder, looking for the offload.
- Truck Roberts and Bosch down the 10 channel all day
- In the backs, we are incredibly solid defensively and have a nice mix of power (Roberts, Imhoff, Cuthbert), pace (Smith, Cuthbert, Youngs) and guile (Sexton, Smith and Bosch)
- Many teams have targeted Roberts defensively, so we will use Roberts to draw in defenders on the dummy run and bring Smith into the line. Use Doussain on the wrap around loop and also interchange Bosch and Roberts to keep them guessing.
- Use Szarzeswki, Figallo, Faletau, Tekori as our big ball carriers around the fringes to keep the defence narrrow. Machenaud to snipe and look for mismatches against forwards to keep them honest.

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RC Toulon

01. Mako Vunipola	09. Sebastian Tilous Borde
02. Richard Hibbard	10. Johnny Wilkinson(k)
03. Dan Cole
04. Ali Williams	11. David Smith
05. Jocelina Suta	12.Wesley Fofana
06. Julien Bonnaire (c)	13. Maxime Mermoz
07. Justin Tipuric	14. Bryan Habana
08. Steffen Armitage	15. Drew Mitchell

16. Kyle Cooper 17. Gethin Jenkins 18. Carl hayman 19. Bakkies botha 20. Jamie heaslip 21. Aaron smith 22. Butch James 23. Adam Ashley-cooper
Tactics
We will play an tight game today and have selected a big pack to win us ball in tough conditions for a tight game. Wilko will stand deep and play territory for our lineout to challenge, the pack will carry a lot as will our centres for quick ball. Strong front row with immense power to come on and a 2nd row who are used to driving players back come scrum time. We have selected a centre partnership who will make good breaks and look for quick recycling of the ball to keep them on the back foot and under constant pressure. Forwards will look to carry a lot in first 20 punching the holes before moving to running off of 12-13.

*9-10 combo-we have tillous borde to Wilko who will then look to play a controlled kicking game especially from turnover ball and using tight runners off 2nd phase ball.
*Bench-Our bench is full of impact and will look to dominate the end of the game.
*Defence-we have strong defensive leaders in Wilko and mermoz and will look to slow down/turnover a lot of ball with tips and steffon.
*Set Piece-power is key today at scrum time and in the lineouts using Bonnaire's leading skills to get good ball.
*Breakdown-look to nullify the metro here and use our abrasive pack to do this with heavy carrying and tactical breakdown slowing.

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Leicester Tigers

01. Boris Stankovich	09. Greg Laidlaw
02. George Chuter	10. Francois Trinh-Duc
03. Ben Robinson
04. Paul O'Connell	11. Miles Benjamin
05. Geoff Parling	12. Matt Smith
06. Tom Croft	13. Anthony Allen
07. Pablo Matera	14. Cory Jane
08. Juan Manuel Leguizamon (c)	15. Juan Martin Hernandez (K)

Replacements: 16.Hawkins 17.Scuhster 18.Castro 19.Deacon 20.-21.Hook 22.Tuilagi 23.Ashton

We want to play through our forwards today and have picked a big forward unit, with power also on the bench. We want to really attack the lineout and steal oppo ball and look to counter with the ball. Leguizamon will drive his troops forward and look to carry ball over the gain line. Laidlaw will box kick in search of territory further up the field for the backs to get good ball. Jane will use his pace in search of the ball and hernandez will kick the points

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Stormers

01. Steven Kitshoff	09. Dewaldt Duvenage
02. Scarra Ntubeni	10. Peter Grant (k)
03. Nicolas Mas
04. Nathan Hines	11. Julian Savea
05. James Horwill	12. Jean De Villiers (c)
06. Rynhardt Elstadt	13. Jaco Taute
07. Siya Kolisi	14. Christian Wade
08. Damien Chouly	15. Gio Aplon

16. Tian Liebenburg 17. Alex Corbisiero 18. Patric Geldenhueys 19. Ed Slater 20. Siya Kolisi 21. Louis Schrouder 22. Elton Jantjies 23. Chelsin Kolbe

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Think that's Metro then

Seems it to me

RESULT;

RACING METRO 30 - 29 TOULON

Tries- Cuthbert // Ashley-Cooper
Conversions- -- // Butch James
Penalties- Sexton // ---

Full Scores - Bam, CJ, Flux, Prop

Scores - Bathite, CF

No Scores - Driver, Ozzy

Next Round brackets

Knockout Cup Final
Crusaders vs Toulouse

Knockout Cup 3rd/4th Play-off
Natal Sharks vs Clermont Auvergne

Plate Final
Racing Metro vs Stormers

Plate 3rd/4th Play-off
Toulon vs Leicester Tigers