Knockout Plate

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Plate Final
Racing Metro 92 vs Stormers 
Location - Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir
Sunny, 15 degrees, 7mph East South Easterly Winds

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Racing Metro

01. Ryan Grant	09. Maxime Machenaud
02. Dimitri Szarzeswki	10. Jonathon Sexton (k)
03. Juan Figallo
04. Juandre Kruger	11. Marc Andreu
05. Joe Tekori	12. Jamie Roberts
06. Steven Luatua	13. Marcelo Bosch
07. Francois Louw (c)	14. Alex Cuthbert
08. Toby Faletau	15. Ben Smith

16. Soane Tonghu'ia  17. Andries Strauss 18. Adam Jones 19. Steve Mafi 20. Dan Lydiate 21. Ben Youngs 22. Jean Marc Doussain 23. Juan Imhoff


TACTICS
Confidence high, having beaten the Stormers last time around. As always, we are built on a solid set piece, with the lineout being a real strength all season and the scrum in solid shape. We'll look to use a very quick and mobile back row to get to that breakdown first, giving Stormers slow ball to play off,and allowing us to use our strike runners against a disjointed defence. Luatua clearing out, Louw forcing the turnover and Faletua playing it as he sees it. We've picked a big scrummaging front row, with two very good technical operators. Power players picked for carrying - Tekori, Faletau, Luatau, Roberts


- We'll play heads up rugby, based on solid possession from scrum and lineout. We can target their front row at the scrum, especially the LH/HK link
- Use carriers of Szarz, Tekori, Roberts, Luatua, Faletau to tie up back row. Machenaud to snipe around the fringes, with strike runners off him on the pop - Roberts, Bosch, Smith
- Form on the bench. All players capable of making a huge impact and changing the game. Experience of Jones and Szarz up front will be huge, Mafi and Tiny will offer incredible ball carrying.
- Use Sexton flat on the gainline, drawing defenders, with Bosch and Roberts offering short pops and Faletau, Retallick 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.
- We've got a world class spine in this time at 2,5,8,9,10,12,15 and these blokes will lead the team, their experience and decision making will be crucial. The 8 9 10 12 is a very familiar unit from the Lions tour.
- 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 Sexton on the wrap around loop and also interchange Bosch and Roberts to keep them guessing.
- Look to kick in behind the wingers, with Wade and Savea with weak kicking games and Britz's throws can be got at in the lineout
- Louw to play as out and out 7, looking to slow ball and force turnovers. In Faletau and Louw, we have two blokes that are brilliant at turning over ball. Both can't be stopped!

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Stormers

01. Steven Kitschoff	09. Will Genia
02. Schalk Brits	10. Owen Farrell (k)
03. Nicolas Mas
04. Eben Etzebeth	11. Julian Savea
05. James Horwill	12. Jean De Villiers (c)
06. Tom Wood	13. Mathieu Basteraud
07. Sean O'Brien	14. Christian Wade
08. Duane Vermeulen	15. Stuart Hogg

16. Scarra Ntubeni 17. Alex Corbisiero 18. Brok Harris 19. Nathan Hines 20. Rynhardt Elstadt 21. Dewaldt Duvenage 22. Elton Jantjies 23. Juan De Jongh

In the conditions we will look to keep ball in hand for us and peg Racing back. With possession Faz and Genia will look to keep the forwards rolling around the corners and working the opposition defence, which will tire them out. Work the situation to either allow Genia to box or faz to grubber through the defensive line. In attack look to use our centres to punch holes with our forwards in first and second phases to suck in opposition defensive numbers, to create space for our elusive back three and Genia. 
Look for a simple league based move with a man running a short line and one sweeping in behind to feed the rest of the backline. 

Set-piece - strong and efficient, put pressure on in certain situations on opposition ball. Eg clearing kicks from scrums and line outs in their 22
Breakdown - Collectively look to clear ball and smash opposing players out of the way. Opposing slow down legally by flooding the breakdown. 
Keep ball in hand - We can't afford to give away silly possession and they can't score without the ball!
Playing the %'s - Faz will keep the board ticking over, and implement a simple territorial game.
Run Angles - Test Roberts, Bosch and Cuthbert in defence, by running testing angles and forcing them to turn in defence.

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Plate 3rd/4th Play-off
Toulon vs Leicester Tigers
Location - Stade Felix Mayol
Sunny, 17 degrees, 11mph Easterly Winds

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Toulon

01. Mako Vunipola	09. Aaron Smith
02. Richard Hibbard	10. Johnny Wilkinson(k)
03. Dan Cole
04. Bakkies Botha	11. Bryan Habana
05. Alun Wyn-Jones	12. Wesley Fofana
06. Julien Bonnaire (c)	13. Adam Ashley-Cooper
07. Justin Tipuric	14. Craig Gilroy
08. Jaime Heaslip	15.Delon Armitage

16. Kyle Cooper 17.Gethin Jenkins18. Carl Hayman 19. Joceline Suta 20. Steffon Armitage 21. Sebastian Tillous-Borde 22. Drew Mitchell 23. Matt Giteau
Tactics
We will play an territorial game today and have selected a big pack to win us ball and a fast backrow to get around the park. 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 Smith 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, Giteau and AAC and will look to slow down/turnover a lot of ball.
*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  here and use our abrasive pack to do this with heavy carrying and tactical breakdown slowing.

N.B: We have one of the top try scorers starting in  Gethin Jenkins!!

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Leicester Tigers

01. Benn Robinson	09. Greg Laidlaw (k)
02. George Chuter	10. Toby Flood
03. Martin Castrogiovanni
04. Paul O'Connell	11. Gonzalo Camacho
05. Louis Deacon	12. Francois Steyn
06. Tom Croft	13. Matt Smith
07. Pablo Matera	14. Cory Jane
08. Juan Manuel Leguizamon (c)	15. Juan Martin Hernandez

16. George Chuter 17.Boris Stankivich 18.Brian Muajti 19.Geoff Parling 20.Piri Weepu 21.Francois Trinh-Duc 22.Chris Ashton 23.Miles Benjamin

Looking for another physical encounter with strong forward play, and plenty of forward replacements looking to inflict damage onto the opponents. We want to get the ball to Matera and JML who will carry the ball and power over the gain-line. Laidlaw will box-kick cleverly when getting the ball, for the wingers and backs to run onto. Laidaw will be the main kicker with JMH as back up. 

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Keep this open until midday to get these sides in.

Stormers

01. Steven Kitschoff	09. Will Genia
02. Schalk Brits	10. Owen Farrell (k)
03. Nicolas Mas
04. Eben Etzebeth	11. Julian Savea
05. James Horwill	12. Jean De Villiers (c)
06. Tom Wood	13. Mathieu Basteraud
07. Sean O'Brien	14. Christian Wade
08. Duane Vermeulen	15. Stuart Hogg

16. Scarra Ntubeni 17. Alex Corbisiero 18. Brok Harris 19. Nathan Hines 20. Rynhardt Elstadt 21. Dewaldt Duvenage 22. Elton Jantjies 23. Juan De Jongh

In the conditions we will look to keep ball in hand for us and peg Racing back. With possession Faz and Genia will look to keep the forwards rolling around the corners and working the opposition defence, which will tire them out. Work the situation to either allow Genia to box or faz to grubber through the defensive line. In attack look to use our centres to punch holes with our forwards in first and second phases to suck in opposition defensive numbers, to create space for our elusive back three and Genia. 
Look for a simple league based move with a man running a short line and one sweeping in behind to feed the rest of the backline. 

Set-piece - strong and efficient, put pressure on in certain situations on opposition ball. Eg clearing kicks from scrums and line outs in their 22
Breakdown - Collectively look to clear ball and smash opposing players out of the way. Opposing slow down legally by flooding the breakdown. 
Keep ball in hand - We can't afford to give away silly possession and they can't score without the ball!
Playing the %'s - Faz will keep the board ticking over, and implement a simple territorial game.
Run Angles - Test Roberts, Bosch and Cuthbert in defence, by running testing angles and forcing them to turn in defence.

Tigers

01.Benn Robinson
02.George chuter
03.Martin Castrogivanni
04.Paul O'Connell
05.Louis Deacon
06.Tom Croft
07.Pablo Matera
08.Juan Manuel Leugizamon (c)
09.Greig Laidlaw
10.Toby Flood (k)
11.Gonzalo Camacho
12.Francois Steyn
13.Matt Smith
14.Corey Jane
15.Juan Martin Hernandez

replacements: 16.Ghilaridini 17.Stankovich 18.Mujati 19.Parling 20.Weepu 21.Trinh-Duc 22.Ashton 23.Benjamin

dont have time for tactics sorry, so they will be the same as last time

Shortish predos:

Metro 24 - 22 Stormers

Set piece- close in scrum, neither side gets on top. LO to Stormers.
Backrow stuff- fairly close at the breakdown and in carrying, not much in it
HBs- different styles but evens in form (Genia > Machenaud though he had his best game this weekend but Sexton just > Farrell)
Attack- evens, form improved for both sets of centres
Defence- evens, weaknesses on both sets of wings
Bench- close, maybe edge Metro
Overall, Metro have enough at home. Sorry, this is a rushed analysis, exam in 2 days

Toulon 27 - 21 Tigers

Setpiece- Scrum Toulon though Castro will test Mako. Lineout edged by Tigers
Backrow stuff- evens at breakdown, carrying to Toulon
HBs-defs Toulon on form
Attack- Toulon
Defence- edge Toulon
Subs- close
Overall- Toulon stronger and at home, win

Toulon 24 - 18 Tigers
Big win to the Toulon front row here, with all the basics covered and some great bench options. Two nicely paired locks, with not much between them. Toulon back row really struggling for carrying, especially in the tight and can definitely get caught out here. Big step up for the Toulon half backs and centres, with back three pretty close. Awesome bench from Toulon, at home, with dominance up front and they've got the win

Metro 24-21 Stormers

Metro 24 - 21 Stormers

Set piece - Both THs excellent, Kitshoff and Grant about equal as are the hookers - stalemate. Lineout to Stormers
Breakdown - Pretty equal on paper, but Louw the standout and SOB hard to rate given injury - edge metro
Carrying - Stormers, given back row strength here
Attack - HBs close, both 10s in excellent form but edge Sexton, Genia>Mach even though he had a good game. Backlines good, think Stormers wings will have some joy - no advantage
Bench - Metro

Close, but at home I give Metro the win

Toulon 23 - 17 Tigers

Set piece - Equal in scrum, line out to Tigers as usual
Breakdown - Heaslip in great form here, Tips and Bonnaire slightly lightweight though, but Croft no brute either. Evens
Carrying - Toulon given strength in front 5
Attack - HBs Toulon by a fair distance. Backline to Toulon (If you aren't going to play Dagg CF, I'll take him back!!!)
Bench - Equal

At home, and with advantage at HBs and in carrying, I give Toulon the win

RESULTS: Metro 26 - 21 Stormers
T: Roberts, Sexton, B Smith // Farrell, Bastareaud
C: Sexton // Farrell
P: Sexton x 2, Doussain // Farrell x 3

Toulon 26 - 19 Tigers
T: M Vunipola, Heaslip // Jane, Ashton
C: Wilkinson x 2 //
P: Wilkinson x 4 // Laidlaw x 2, Flood

Woo hoo! Silverware for the Parisians! What a week for Jonny Sexton!