Very real chance that all the English sides will lose their 1st round Champions Cup matches?

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more to follow later.........

Come on Sale, this yellow card period is crucial for Sale

formerly known as Sam wrote:Sale are playing out of their skin against Munster. The Sky commentary don't know what to say it's brilliant.

You mean Mark Robson, the Munster and Paul O'Connell psychophant? They usually give him the Munster games.

Sale have been brilliant.

Good half by Sale - I think the wind will be a big factor in the final quarter though.

Finding all the jokes about the ref getting hurt a little distasteful

2 w 2 l

Quins and Sarries won at least

Hound of Harrow wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:Sale are playing out of their skin against Munster. The Sky commentary don't know what to say it's brilliant.

You mean Mark Robson, the Munster and Paul O'Connell psychophant? They usually give him the Munster games.

Literally the worst commentator ever!

ChequeredJersey wrote:Quins and Sarries won at least

Winners: Quins, Saracens, Leicester; Losers: Saints, Sale, Bath, Bath (a beat-down like that deserves to be mentioned twice)

No talk about Sarries-Clermont?

Of the 3 games I watched - Quins-Castres and Tigers-Ulster it was by far the best IMO.

Sarries played as well as I have seen them this season. 4 tries against the current top side in the top 14 isn't bad at all! Clermont also were incredibly competitive throughout the match.

beshocked wrote:No talk about Sarries-Clermont?

Of the 3 games I watched - Quins-Castres and Tigers-Ulster it was by far the best IMO.

Sarries played as well as I have seen them this season. 4 tries against the current top side in the top 14 isn't bad at all! Clermont also were incredibly competitive throughout the match.

Did not see it, so cannot talk about it, sorry.

beshocked wrote:No talk about Sarries-Clermont?

Of the 3 games I watched - Quins-Castres and Tigers-Ulster it was by far the best IMO.

Sarries played as well as I have seen them this season. 4 tries against the current top side in the top 14 isn't bad at all! Clermont also were incredibly competitive throughout the match.

Translation...

Sarries were incredibly lucky and except for some exceptional play from strettle and to a certain extent Ashton got out of jail. At 23 all the Clermont lock got a disallowed try because Chouly had a brain fart and elbowed de kock in obstructing him when he didnt have to. Then Guildford made a complete hames of a simple catch and gifted sarries a try. Overall Clermont looked the better team for the majority of the game. Sarries looked off the pace but got out of jail.

Well that's petty.

Gutted I missed the second half of the Sale game. Had to go play for my team, Sale took Munster apart like I've not seen a team take Minster apart in that first half. I was shocked can only imagine what was said at half time because the Munster men are too proud not to come back fighting.

Tigers I watched and it was a great win for a squad in it's knees with injuries. Losing Manu and Thorn during the match certainly didn't help. Good physical contest.

Sarries vs Clermont I have on record. Had a feeling that might be an enthralling contest. Sarries are a strange team to watch as they seem most confident when they are defending.

ME-109 wrote:

beshocked wrote:No talk about Sarries-Clermont?

Of the 3 games I watched - Quins-Castres and Tigers-Ulster it was by far the best IMO.

Sarries played as well as I have seen them this season. 4 tries against the current top side in the top 14 isn't bad at all! Clermont also were incredibly competitive throughout the match.

Translation...

Sarries were incredibly lucky and except for some exceptional play from strettle and to a certain extent Ashton got out of jail. At 23 all the Clermont lock got a disallowed try because Chouly had a brain fart and elbowed de kock in obstructing him when he didnt have to. Then Guildford made a complete hames of a simple catch and gifted sarries a try.  Overall Clermont looked the better team for the majority of the game. Sarries looked off the pace but got out of jail.

Iam waiting to seethe highlights later, but I did think that Clermont are too good a team to roll over for Saracens so easily as was made out.

Have some of you listened to yourself? What an embarrassed to our sport.

Which comments, nathan?

You fought tooth n nail to get this competition, now you're all getting turned over by average Pro12 teams. What changes will you propose next?

Saracens- asm was quite a good game indeed. For most of the game, both teams were playing catch up with each others. Saracens played to their strenght and Ashton had one his best game for a while. Clermont had to blame themselves as missed a few opprtunities in 1st half. The ref wasnt very nice to them in the last 15 minutes but that's how things go in England anyway. Its going to be tough for them even with one BP as would have to target 15 points at home to have a chance.

Also, do you blame the pitch for Shalk Brits injury? Not sure it would have happened on standart grass

The Saint wrote:You fought tooth n nail to get this competition, now you're all getting turned over by average Pro12 teams. What changes will you propose next?

Munster and Glasgow are the only pro12 teams that have beat the Jeff sides. If they're average, and in the top 4 of the league...does that mean the league is average??

maestegmafia wrote:

ME-109 wrote:

beshocked wrote:No talk about Sarries-Clermont?

Of the 3 games I watched - Quins-Castres and Tigers-Ulster it was by far the best IMO.

Sarries played as well as I have seen them this season. 4 tries against the current top side in the top 14 isn't bad at all! Clermont also were incredibly competitive throughout the match.

Translation...

Sarries were incredibly lucky and except for some exceptional play from strettle and to a certain extent Ashton got out of jail. At 23 all the Clermont lock got a disallowed try because Chouly had a brain fart and elbowed de kock in obstructing him when he didnt have to. Then Guildford made a complete hames of a simple catch and gifted sarries a try.  Overall Clermont looked the better team for the majority of the game. Sarries looked off the pace but got out of jail.

Iam waiting to seethe highlights later, but I did think that Clermont are too good a team to roll over for Saracens so easily as was made out.

Its an interesting game. Clermont played really smartly and probably should have won or at least got a draw. Looked a lot more potent going forward and as was stated except for a couple of decisions going against them rather strangely at the end would have got a draw. Having said that Sarries were well worth it for three of their tries the last one was just a comedy of errors by Guildford and Abendanon.

Yeah, Munster are average yet Sale must be world beaters or something. Of course the Pro12 vs AP match ups were gonna end mostly in wins for Pro12, you had last season's top 3 finishers up against those coming in 5th, 6th and 7th.

I thought we weren't doing this though? I've learnt my lesson and won't be lumping you all into one group again. It's 1-1 between Irish and English sides, soon to be 2-1 after Leinster win. Given that no Welsh teams have played the English what are you being smug about?

HammerofThunor wrote:

The Saint wrote:You fought tooth n nail to get this competition, now you're all getting turned over by average Pro12 teams. What changes will you propose next?

Munster and Glasgow are the only pro12 teams that have beat the Jeff sides. If they're average, and in the top 4 of the league...does that mean the league is average??

It was aimed at the brigadiers of PRL and LNR. It wasn't a serious post, but impressed with a bite anyway.

Me-109 disagree completely. It was an evenly matched contest but Saracens took their chances whilst Clermont didn't. That was the main difference. To say it was luck just smacks of bitterness on your part. Typical really.

Clermont weren't more potent going forward - it was pretty even.

Who cares analysis is far more accurate.
As for Brits? Perhaps.

Personally I thought the ref was good - he allowed the game to flow.

Different analysis smacks of bitterness....oh God You are a card beshocked...

The only difference was luck went Sarries way and the odd decision...for a home game for Sarries the main point being Clermont probably could have and more than likely should have won....not exactly ground breaking or amazingly controversial....or maybe you are just being a little precious..no?

Fuzzy Dunlop wrote:Yeah, Munster are average yet Sale must be world beaters or something. Of course the Pro12 vs AP match ups were gonna end mostly in wins for Pro12, you had last season's top 3 finishers up against those coming in 5th, 6th and 7th.

I thought we weren't doing this though? I've learnt my lesson and won't be lumping you all into one group again. It's 1-1 between Irish and English sides, soon to be 2-1 after Leinster win. Given that no Welsh teams have played the English what are you being smug about?

Munster are pretty average this year. They're getting better though now that the Penney era is over. The teams new to the competition (having broke into the top 6 last year) were always going to struggle.

I think we wait until round 2 for English and Welsh teams to meet. There's also the challenge cup where Pro12 teams have done well, though this is helped by the French not really bothering with it, which is poor. There needs to be some more incentive for this 2nd tier competition IMO.

Let's not forget though that it's been decidedly 'average' Munster that got to the semi finals of ye olde Heineken Cup both in 2014 and 2013. A period when they were done and dusted as far as most commentators felt.

Munster's European 'averageism' tends to be a cut above the averageness of other sides.  And correct me if I'm wrong, but were they not the only team that hit an away win yesterday?
If they hit a vein of honest to goodness form, which is overdue, then .....................................

SecretFly wrote:Let's not forget though that it's been decidedly 'average' Munster that got to the semi finals of ye olde Heineken Cup both in 2014 and 2013.  A period when they were done and dusted as far as most commentators felt.

Munster's European 'averageism' tends to be a cut above the averageness of other sides.  And correct me if I'm wrong, but were they not the only team that hit an away win yesterday?
If they hit a vein of honest to goodness form, which is overdue, then .....................................

All true...but we do look decidedly average at times and in fact very poor as well. The positives being the short periods we do play well we seem to be very good. Having said that in the second half yesterday we were encamped in Sales 22 for about 30 mins and still struggled to pull it off #veryluckyagain...

Me-109

Yes you are right. It's different analysis - it's just most of the comments from you can't be taken very seriously and smack of anti-English sentiment.

It's not as simple as luck - it was one side being more clinical than the other when it mattered.

Clermont shouldn't have given Saracens that opportunity of the 4th try by Ashton.

Clermont could have won but they didn't - not because of the ref but because they didn't take their chances.

Saracens scored 4 tries to 2 which is not easy against a side of Clermont's stature plus only the last was gift wrapped.

What a sad individual you are

Nevermind that game now! What about the ref we have who seems to love forward passes I think I've counted three so far...from one side.