European Rugby Champions Cup Final, 2 May

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ASM Clermont Auvergne v RC Toulon
Saturday 2 May 2015
KO 17:00
Twickenham Stadium

Referee Nigel Owens (Wales)
Touch Judge 1 Wayne Barnes (England)
Touch Judge 2 George Clancy (Ireland)
Fourth Official JP Doyle (England)
TMO Graham Hughes (England)

Citing Commissioner Jeff Mark (Wales)

Live on telly somewhere

Form:

ASM Clermont Auvergne
18/04/15 - ASM Clermont 13 - 9 Saracens
04/04/15 - ASM Clermont 37 - 5 Saints
25/01/15 - ASM Clermont 18 - 6 Saracens

RC Toulon
19/04/15 - Toulon 25 - 20 Leinster
05/04/15 - Toulon 32 - 18 Wasps
24/01/15 - Scarlets 3 - 26 Toulon

Teams:

ASM Clermont Auvergne

Abendanon; Nakaitaci, Davies, Fofana, Nalaga; Lopez, Parra, Debaty, Kayser, Zirakashvili, Cudmore, Vahaamahina, Bonnaire, Chouly, Lee.

Replacements: Delany for Nakaitaci (67), Rougerie for Nalaga (54), Radosavljevic for Parra (56), Domingo for Debaty (47), Ulugia for Kayser (63), Ric for Zirakashvili (66), Pierre for Vahaamahina (67), Bardy for Lee (54).

RC Toulon

Halfpenny; Mitchell, Bastareaud, J Hernandez, Habana; Giteau, Tillous-Borde; Chiocci, Guirado, Hayman, Botha, Williams, J Smith, S Armitage, Masoe.

Replacements: Wulf for J. Hernandez (66), Menini for Chiocci (48), Orioli for Guirado (63), Chilachava for Hayman (63), Taofifenua for Botha (47), Fernandez Lobbe for J Smith (58).

Not Used: Bruni, Michalak.

Eejit wrote:Just in the door. Great game of rugby. Don't think the lads in front of us watched two minutes of rugby all day. They were up for beer every few minutes and spent the rest of the time taking photos of themselves.

Unfortunately that is the Twickenham way. It's the only stadium I've been to where people didn't get up for the anthems - fair play to the real fans who dragged the offenders up.

Hopefully next years final will be at a more appreciative venue.

Hats off to the Toulon and Clermont fans, they were boisterous and good natured throughout. The game was a cracker , but that's now thirteen (13) domestic and European finals Clermont have lost.
Young Pipetto was totally blown away by the experience and is still wearing his Toulon scarf while having breakfast. Mind you, he still says Murrayfield is a better stadium.
The most surreal moment of the day had to be when the English part of the crowd all burst into a rendition of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot". Pavlovian behaviour of the highest order.
I got chatting to a couple of Leinster fans and it turned out that the male half was a poster/reader on these threads so good morning to you Sumo Ward.
Having arrived early we headed for the tented village thing but it wasn't there so we stood with the crowd at the main entrance to watch the players arrive. The BT team were all set up and fair do's to Austin Healy, I called to him and he came over to say hello and speak with Young Pipetto. Quite made his day. (Pipetto's not Austin's). Just as I was thinking that Austin ( I call him that now we're bezzies) was not winding anyone up I asked him who would win. He looked at Pipetto's Toulon scarf and said "Clermont".
After the Toulon team walked past there was one of those moments where everyone was quiet and my mate Jason shouted out,
"Hey Brian!"
BOD looked over to see this huge second row head and shoulders above the crowd, smiled and held eye contact at which point Jason said,
"They're a man short. Have you got your boots with you?"
Cue BOD dissolving in a fit of giggles. Priceless.
Finally on the train back a group of London City type lads, all well lubricated, sat beside Pipetto and me. They were quite sociable and we got chatting. The fellow beside me was saying he had been at the Calcutta Cup match. Turned out we had been drinking in the same boozer before the match and watching the Ireland -Wales game on the same screen. It's a small world after all. As Mrs Pip sings every time we visit Orlando.

Glad that Clermont didn't win for Vern Cotter's sake.
He doesn't need any further suggestions from God that he made a terrible mistake by accepting the Scotland job.

The Champions cup Facebook page has a picture of two Glasgow fans - that wasn't anyone on here was it??

RDW_Scotland wrote:The Champions cup Facebook page has a picture of two Glasgow fans - that wasn't anyone on here was it??

I assumed that it was FES and Maj being ironic.

George Carlin wrote:Glad that Clermont didn't win for Vern Cotter's sake.
He doesn't need any further suggestions from God that he made a terrible mistake by accepting the Scotland job.

or............. that Clermont just got better without him...... Yes, he and Scotland will be happy they lost.

I enjoyed the game - best final for a few years. Toulon deserved it, but I'm still left cold. An emotional reaction from a neutral, but I just can't enjoy seeing this expensive all star team keep winning. It doesn't sit well and I won't be changing my mind.

Agree offload.

Just 4 Frenchman in the Toulon starting line up. Only one of them being from the Toulon academy.

Average age of the pack is probably ridiculous too.

Compare that to Clermont who had 9 Frenchman in their starting line up.