HC semi Sarries vs Clermont

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Well played Sarries, I didn't see that score line coming!

Was that clermonts first team or their euro away day team?

mystiroakey wrote:Wow. I had to relook at that score of 3 times.l before it sank in.

Why was goode kicking?

Did farrel play?

In the middle of nowhere so I can't work it out.

Farrell played, but went into the game with a foot problem. So Goode was the chosen kicker instead, except for a Bosch 50m effort.

mystiroakey wrote:Wow. I had to relook at that score of 3 times.l before it sank in.

Why was goode kicking?

Did farrel play?

In the middle of nowhere so I can't work it out.

Yeah Farrell played but Goode (and Bosch) kicked. Perhaps Farrell relieved of kicking duties as he was poor v Ulster?

Cheers tiger. I was worried that farrel didn't play in that game. Because that would have given Sl big problems.

But he played so the point is mute.

Ashton has to start v NZ

mystiroakey wrote:Cheers tiger. I was worried that farrel didn't play in that game. Because that would have given So big problems.

But he played so the point is mute.

Ashton has to start v NZ

Nailed on tourist, but probably not available for ~T1

mystiroakey wrote:Wow. I had to relook at that score of 3 times.l before it sank in.

Why was goode kicking?

Did farrel play?

In the middle of nowhere so I can't work it out.

Key official stats, Oakey:

- Clermont forced into 14 turnovers
- Sarries made 193 tackles in comparison to 56 for Clermont
- Tackles made - Burger (27), Brits (19), M Vunipola (17), Borthwick (17), Brown (15), B Vunipola (15)
- Set piece essentially went with possession

Cheers lads..

Unbelievable tackle stats

Sarries did what they do when they are playing well - tackled like demons and when the chance arose took them clinically.

Clermont had 68% possession, 64% territory - but were running into brick walls. 316m made ball in hand from 168 carries tells a tale. Meanwhile Sarries managed 439 from just 69 carries tells another.

Was there. That was all about the tackling. Not just the number but the ferocity. Took all the sting out of clermonts attack.

Bit disappointed they only used the lower tier. Is there really that little demand for tickets or are they just seriously under-marketed?

Anyway, sarries looked very very dangerous.

quinsforever wrote:Bit disappointed they only used the lower tier. Is there really that little demand for tickets or are they just seriously under-marketed?

Ed Griffiths was on radio saying that with just 3 weeks to sell tickets and ERC responsible for ticket pricing it was always going to be barely 20k supporters.

Lets face it an attendance of double your standard fanbase at the inflated prices ERC set is actually pretty good. Shame there was not a more suitable stadium for ERC to elect to use.

Fupping ERC. How hard would it be to either market it at sensible prices, market it properly, or set up some sort of "contingent ticket reservations" once the QF draws are known? For the love of god it can't be that hard.

Tbh, Sarries are the exception not the rule. They are the only side in the last eight who wouldn't have sold more tickets. The ERC provide the competition, not the fan base. Clubs have to bring their own fans and Saracens just don't have very many.

Same pricing structure when Ulster got to the semi-final in 2012 and we sold 45k tickets without the advantage of having it in our home town. Last year Clermont sold out their semi as they also did in 2012 with crowds around the 32k mark. In 2011 before that Biarritz sold out a 32k seater stadium and Leinster sold 50k tickets. All in the same circumstances, same pricing structure- everything.

Twickenham will never, ever sell out for these games though. Too big.

What was the official attendence? looked around 25k.

I'm pretty sure Ulster would have sold out the aviva.

The big difference is France have lots more appropriately sized Municipal stadiums that are about 35k. French clubs have no issues whatsoever selling these out at three weeks notice.

Twickenham is too big, but 25k can't be blamed on the ERC.

As I tried to say, it is a mix of fanbase and ticket pricing. Set them low and Twickenham would have been full.

Knowing the Sarries fanbase (which is growing) and last seasons matches where the Toulon game saw 25k and Ulster, even with their rabid fanbase and expats, was under 40k - well you would have thought something could have been done.

Really a smaller stadium should hav ebeen chosen - but where?

Notch you are so wrong it's embarrassing. I am not a sarries fan. Nor are the 9 people I went with. Nor were most of the people who filled Wembley and twickenham when sarries were responsible for marketing the matches.

Your comment is offensively dumb and is the usual anti-sarries blind defense of ERC I have come to expect.

Show some magnanimity son.

Sarries hold the record for the highest attendance in club rugby, the erc should lower the prices and aim for larger crowds to improve the atmosphere

ERC clearly do not give a cr4p as they are being wound up.

About f-in time

No use in having that wonderful home record if you can't play away from home. Clermont have now lost 6 on the bounce away from home.

quinsforever wrote:Notch you are so wrong it's embarrassing. I am not a sarries fan. Nor are the 9 people I went with. Nor were most of the people who filled Wembley and twickenham when sarries were responsible for marketing the matches.

Your comment is offensively dumb and is the usual anti-sarries blind defense of ERC I have come to expect.

Show some magnanimity son.

Show some intelligence QF..its a fan base thing, any number of English clubs would get a bigger crowd. Just goes to show the majority are watching the round ball in the UK on a saturday afternoon.

stub wrote:

mystiroakey wrote:Wow. I had to relook at that score of 3 times.l before it sank in.

Why was goode kicking?

Did farrel play?

In the middle of nowhere so I can't work it out.

Yeah Farrell played but Goode (and Bosch) kicked. Perhaps Farrell relieved of kicking duties as he was poor v Ulster?

Injury issues for Farrell. There was a Sarries tweet on the BBC text thingy for the game. He was in good enough shape for everything else but hadnt done any recent kicking practice.

Should have had the Semi in Leicester - hell probably quicker to travel up M1 for Sarries fans than round to the other side of London.

I understand that Sarries preference of Neutral Venue was Stadium MK - but were over-ruled.

A bigger crowd doesnt mean more money!...Remember rugby is all about money now.

Sarries just have a very small fan base. Sure they couldn't even get close to a sell out at vicarage road for the Clermont QF two years ago.

Well done Sarries

Incredible performance. Defensively magnificent and clinical in attack.

As well as squeezing the life out of Clermont and smashing them back in the tackle they really showed they can play heads-up rugby.

The pack was immense with Ashton brilliant in the backs.

Saracens will take some stopping now. A Sarries/Toulon final would be very interesting with the Owen/Jonny sub-plot.

Very few sides make Clermont look so ordinary. Sarries also left a few tries on the pitch and it could have been 50+. A few people on here should be eating humble pie today

quinsforever wrote:Notch you are so wrong it's embarrassing. I am not a sarries fan. Nor are the 9 people I went with. Nor were most of the people who filled Wembley and twickenham when sarries were responsible for marketing the matches.

Your comment is offensively dumb and is the usual anti-sarries blind defense of ERC I have come to expect.

Show some magnanimity son.

Tbh, it's not a blind defence of the ERC because the rules are the same for every other club... and to be fair I've just looked at the semi-finals in 2011, 2012 and 2013, but all of them took place in stadiums that were 90% full under the exact same ticketing conditions. Three weeks to sell them, prices set centrally etc. Every other club is able to deliver sell-outs on that basis. So the ERC rules don't really need defending do they? Because they actually have a track record of working exceptionally well when it's clubs that have decent fan bases involved.

Stadium:MK would have been better but the rules on capacity are the way they are because it would have been way too small based on demand for previous semi-finals. A semi-final hosted by Saracens is the exception in terms of demand for tickets, interest etc. Not the rule.

Munster will probably have more away fans in Marseille tomorrow than Sarries had at a home semi...how weird is that.

It seems that when Saracens play brilliantly they have to be criticised for something  

Last time I looked you don't win games by having more fans.

Cyril wrote:It seems that when Saracens play brilliantly they have to be criticised for something  

Last time I looked you don't win games by having more fans.

I dont know...maybe Nigel is a fan...   

ME-109 wrote:

Cyril wrote:It seems that when Saracens play brilliantly they have to be criticised for something  

Last time I looked you don't win games by having more fans.

I dont know...maybe Nigel is a fan...   

Part of me wants Toulon to smash Munster tomorrow but another part wants to wait for Sarries to do that instead

Cyril wrote:It seems that when Saracens play brilliantly they have to be criticised for something  

Last time I looked you don't win games by having more fans.

I'm not criticising Saracens. They have a small fan base, that doesn't mean the way we sell tickets for these games is wrong because it works for everyone else. Semi-final tickets are normally massively in demand with the exact same rules, restrictions etc. They sell out pretty large stadiums all around Europe. For most teams they go like hot cakes. One club that cant get rid of tickets does not make the system wrong. It just means one club can't shift tickets.

I'm sorry, the idea that the ERC have anything to do with this attendance is just so completely risible I had to interject with some actual facts.

Success breeds success. That's the basis for the expansion of Irish provincial rugby fan bases.

I don't want to hear it from a bunch of
Jonny come latelys that can't remember the state of provincial rugby before they won anything.

Yet when sarries attempt the same thing it's either greed or destroying the fabric of rugby? FFS the hypocrisy is crushing.

U don't fill an 82,000 sweater stadium with only your own fans when your own stadium only holds a fraction o that. Some creative thinking, marketing and distributing is required. I saw plenty of sarries banner ads on 606v2 for their Toulouse group stage match at Wembley. Why are ERC so fupping inept and clueless? Oh I know, because they are an anachronism from a bygone era. Bye bye.

Who chose twickenham as the SF venue? ERC

Who hoes the dates for QF and SF giving no time to fill the stadium? ERC

Who did ZERO to expand the crowd at a serious showcase event (last HC match in England FFS - even I could have sold a few tickets with that as the catchphrase) - E R fupping C

I saw the first 15m and then the 2nd half. Absolutely clinical by Sarries. 9 tries scored in the ko rounds and none conceded.

People may not like them but they are a patient team, soak up pressure, don't panic and make their possession tell.

I didn't see any refereeing errors/bias in the bits I watched.

Cyril wrote:

ME-109 wrote:

Cyril wrote:It seems that when Saracens play brilliantly they have to be criticised for something  

Last time I looked you don't win games by having more fans.

I dont know...maybe Nigel is a fan...   

Part of me wants Toulon to smash Munster tomorrow but another part wants to wait for Sarries to do that instead

What a sorry person you are...  

quinsforever wrote:Success breeds success. That's the basis for the expansion of Irish provincial rugby fan bases.

I don't want to hear it from a bunch of
Jonny come latelys that can't remember the state of provincial rugby before they won anything.

Yet when sarries attempt the same thing it's either greed or destroying the fabric of rugby? FFS the hypocrisy is crushing.

U don't fill an 82,000 sweater stadium with only your own fans when your own stadium only holds a fraction o that. Some creative thinking, marketing and distributing is required. I saw plenty of sarries banner ads on 606v2 for their Toulouse group stage match at Wembley. Why are ERC so fupping inept and clueless? Oh I know, because they are an anachronism from a bygone era. Bye bye.

Listen I appreciate you've had a few drinks, you've been at the game and now you're making a bit of a fool of yourself online. But stop and engage your brain for a second.

Because I didn't say any of those things about greed, or destroying the fabric of rugby or anything like that. You sowed into the ERC, I pointed out that their policies for selling semi-final tickets have actually been an incredible success and that no other teams struggles with them- at all- with sell-out crowds being the norm and demand being exceptionally high and now you probably need to just go and sit down for a minute. Thats not hypocrisy. Thats just the facts. Saracens have the responsibility for marketing the game, anyway, not the ERC. And it has nothing to do with Irish provincial teams. Zero. Zip. Nothing.

Why do they choose big venues and set high prices? Because of the high demand every other team can bring for a game of this magnitude. Any other team and you'd be looking at an extra 15k fans in the ground. The low demand is 0% their fault and down to Sarries just not having very many fans. There a lot of factors behind that. But thats what it comes down to.

If the ERC didn't have these policies they would be making a lot less money from the knockout stages and you'd be complaining about that as the ERCs fault. Not maximising income. So if you're determined to find fault, you will. The rest of the world just sees 'club with small fan base in small crowd' shocker. It's not news.

quinsforever wrote:Success breeds success. That's the basis for the expansion of Irish provincial rugby fan bases.

I don't want to hear it from a bunch of
Jonny come latelys that can't remember the state of provincial rugby before they won anything.

Yet when sarries attempt the same thing it's either greed or destroying the fabric of rugby? FFS the hypocrisy is crushing.

U don't fill an 82,000 sweater stadium with only your own fans when your own stadium only holds a fraction o that. Some creative thinking, marketing and distributing is required. I saw plenty of sarries banner ads on 606v2 for their Toulouse group stage match at Wembley. Why are ERC so fupping inept and clueless? Oh I know, because they are an anachronism from a bygone era. Bye bye.

Or maybe Sarries just dont have an awful amount of support...   

ME-109 wrote:

Cyril wrote:

ME-109 wrote:

Cyril wrote:It seems that when Saracens play brilliantly they have to be criticised for something  

Last time I looked you don't win games by having more fans.

I dont know...maybe Nigel is a fan...   

Part of me wants Toulon to smash Munster tomorrow but another part wants to wait for Sarries to do that instead

What a sorry person you are...  

Not really. Just a bit tired of the anti-Saracens sentiment on here. Still, I'm sure you'll be the first to blame the ref if Sarries win again.

Notch wrote:I'm sorry, the idea that the ERC have anything to do with this attendance is just so completely risible I had to interject with some actual facts.

Yeah, it's laughable. Kind of shows what a great propaganda job Mark McCafferty did though.

Quins, I like you, but you're mad in the head sometimes.

Cyril wrote:

ME-109 wrote:

Cyril wrote:

ME-109 wrote:

Cyril wrote:It seems that when Saracens play brilliantly they have to be criticised for something  

Last time I looked you don't win games by having more fans.

I dont know...maybe Nigel is a fan...   

Part of me wants Toulon to smash Munster tomorrow but another part wants to wait for Sarries to do that instead

What a sorry person you are...  

Not really. Just a bit tired of the anti-Saracens sentiment on here. Still, I'm sure you'll be the first to blame the ref if Sarries win again.

Ah calm down will ya and dont be a victim...I like Clermont as Leinsterfan said they have a lot of goodwill in Ireland overall. As for the ref it is definitely the case that in two games now Sarries have had the rub of the green in terms of certain decisions which have affected the outcome of the game. Notwithstanding the excellent defence and how shocking Clermont were overall.

ME-109 wrote:

Cyril wrote:

ME-109 wrote:

Cyril wrote:

ME-109 wrote:

Cyril wrote:It seems that when Saracens play brilliantly they have to be criticised for something  

Last time I looked you don't win games by having more fans.

I dont know...maybe Nigel is a fan...   

Part of me wants Toulon to smash Munster tomorrow but another part wants to wait for Sarries to do that instead

What a sorry person you are...  

Not really. Just a bit tired of the anti-Saracens sentiment on here. Still, I'm sure you'll be the first to blame the ref if Sarries win again.

Ah calm down will ya and dont be a victim...I like Clermont as Leinsterfan said they have a lot of goodwill in Ireland overall. As for the ref it is definitely the case that in two games now Sarries have had the rub of the green in terms of certain decisions which have affected the outcome of the game. Notwithstanding the excellent defence and how shocking Clermont were overall.

Steady, you almost paid them a compliment there

Well if ever there was a blueprint for what is required of Munster tomorrow defence wise...I would however still sack the Clermont defence coach with immediate effect...their blindside defence was abject...apparently Toulon do something similar from what I have read..

Full marks to Saracens - absolutely smashed Clermont.

Vern Cotter is becoming the nearly manager - maybe he should move on to a new post.

Pot Hale wrote:Vern Cotter is becoming the nearly manager

Sounds perfect for Scotland!

Alright, I'm out. Be nice to each other. It's just rugby after all!

Of course sarries don't currenrly have an awful lot of support. That is my entire fupping point. Talk about missing the bloody point. Yes sarries managed to break attendance records this season for a HC match and AP match. How did they do that I wonder? Keeping quiet about the match and only letting season ticket holders in? Jeezus.

I am fed up with the Irish posters on here who seem to think that the provinces have always been well supported and anyone else who doesn't have he same amount of season ticket holders is not a proper club. Spur grapes I the most pathetic kind.

Would have liked to say I would look forwards (as a quins fan) to a sarries Munster final. But I can't lie. I hope Toulon drill Munster and drill them hard. Of course I know it'll be because of a couple of bad refereeing decisions, but anyway....

quinsforever wrote:Of course sarries don't currenrly have an awful lot of support. That is my entire fupping point. Talk about missing the bloody point. Yes sarries managed to break attendance records this season for a HC match and AP match. How did they do that I wonder? Keeping quiet about the match and only letting season ticket holders in? Jeezus.

I am fed up with the Irish posters on here who seem to think that the provinces have always been well supported and anyone else who doesn't have he same amount of season ticket holders is not a proper club. Spur grapes I the most pathetic kind.

Would have liked to say I would look forwards (as a quins fan) to a sarries Munster final. But I can't lie. I hope Toulon drill Munster and drill them hard. Of course I know it'll be because of a couple of bad refereeing decisions, but anyway....

Feelin a sit bore there, quins?

quinsforever wrote:Of course sarries don't currenrly have an awful lot of support. That is my entire fupping point. Talk about missing the bloody point. Yes sarries managed to break attendance records this season for a HC match and AP match. How did they do that I wonder? Keeping quiet about the match and only letting season ticket holders in? Jeezus.

I am fed up with the Irish posters on here who seem to think that the provinces have always been well supported and anyone else who doesn't have he same amount of season ticket holders is not a proper club. Spur grapes I the most pathetic kind.

Would have liked to say I would look forwards (as a quins fan) to a sarries Munster final. But I can't lie. I hope Toulon drill Munster and drill them hard. Of course I know it'll be because of a couple of bad refereeing decisions, but anyway....

        

why would i be feeling a sit bore?

Cyril wrote:]
Not really. Just a bit tired of the anti-Saracens sentiment on here. Still, I'm sure you'll be the first to blame the ref if Sarries win again.

No anti Sarries sentiment I have seen.  Played a good attacking game and provided entertainment all season.  A couple of their players are heartily disliked by many including me - but the team?  No.   Everyone think their team is hated once they get some success.

actually TJ, just yesterday two regular irish posters said quite clearly that they hate toulon and saracens.

TJ wrote:

Cyril wrote:]
Not really. Just a bit tired of the anti-Saracens sentiment on here. Still, I'm sure you'll be the first to blame the ref if Sarries win again.

No anti Sarries sentiment I have seen.  Played a good attacking game and provided entertainment all season.  A couple of their players are heartily disliked by many including me - but the team?  No.   Everyone think their team is hated once they get some success.

Its more the fact they are trying to buy success unlike some of the other Premiership teams. They havent really had much in the way of success as yet except for the one Premiership. Dont have any great dislike for them but dont really like seeing them winning either.