European Champions Cup Play-Off - Gloucester v Connacht, 24 May

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Gloucester v Connacht Rugby
Sunday 24 May
KO: 15:30
Kingsholm

Live on BT Sport 2

Referee: Romain Poite (France)

A. Previous Meetings

Friday, April 3, 2015 - European Challenge Cup Quarter-Final - Gloucester 14 Connacht 7, Kingsholm
Saturday, December 17, 2011 - Heineken Cup Pool 6 - Gloucester 23 Connacht 19, Kingsholm
Saturday, December 10, 2011 - Heineken Cup Pool 6 - Connacht 10 Gloucester 14, the Sportsground

B. Recent Form

Gloucester - (European Challenge Cup semi-final): Won 30-19 at home to Exeter Chiefs; (Aviva Premiership): Won 42-40 at home to Newcastle Falcons; (European Challenge Cup final): Won 19-13 against Edinburgh at Twickenham Stoop; (Aviva Premiership): Won 35-13 at home to London Irish; Lost 50-30 away to Bath

Connacht Rugby - (European Challenge Cup quarter-final): Lost 14-7 away to Gloucester; (GUINNESS PRO12): Lost 27-20 at home to Ulster; Lost 31-13 at home to Glasgow Warriors; Won 40-10 away to Zebre; Lost 24-20 at home to the Ospreys

C. Teams

Gloucester: Charlie Sharples; Jonny May, Bill Meakes, Billy Twelvetrees (capt), Henry Purdy; James Hook, Greig Laidlaw; Nick Wood, Richard Hibbard, John Afoa, Tom Savage, Tom Palmer, Jacob Rowan, Dan Thomas, Ross Moriarty.

Replacements: Darren Dawidiuk, Yann Thomas, Shaun Knight, Elliott Stooke, Lewis Ludlow, Dan Robson, Billy Burns, Rob Cook.

Connacht Rugby: Tiernan O'Halloran; Fionn Carr, Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki, Matt Healy; Jack Carty, John Cooney; Denis Buckley, Tom McCartney, Rodney Ah You, George Naoupu, Aly Muldowney, John Muldoon (capt), Eoghan Masterson, Eoin McKeon.

Replacements: Dave Heffernan, JP Cooney, Finlay Bealham, Andrew Browne, James Connolly, Ian Porter, Miah Nikora, Shane O'Leary.

Chunky Norwich wrote:".....when other teams get robbed, there's nothing in it....when Irish teams win in the last minute, the opposition are "sore losers".

Disgusting rugby nation.

Why don't you start a thread with this emboldened title?   And outline your reasoning and rationale as to why you view Ireland as a disgusting rugby nation and why it  occasions such regular bilious commentary from you?

Gloucester are a big rugby club. They know they shouldn't have won that encounter except for some capricious refereeing.... but they did so I hope they smash Bordeux who BAA couldn't care less about Europe.

Chunky Norwich wrote:Disgusting rugby nation

Actually if you just accept this premise then all of Chunky's posts start to make complete sense.

HongKongCherry wrote:The Goon, I don't feel I need to justify my comment, nor did I make any suggestion on the quality of the refereeing. The officiating was poor all round, it was a thrilling match that neither side deserved to lose. The Connacht fans at the ground were very gracious in defeat and we wished each other well.

Unless I was mistaken, your comment was a pop at the all the "we woz robbed", "dodgy ref call" comments; rather ppl should have just acknowledged that Glos won because they were better. They weren't, and needed the ref to help them out. I don't think the officiating was poor overall. Poite let the game flow, and favoured the attacking team a lot which helped make the game so open; where he got it wrong was the scrum, ironically penalising the dominant scrum (Connacht) at crucial times, and of course the entire last 2 minutes. He missed crossing calls, as well as the block and the obvious rolling away call.

If im wrong I apologise, I shouldn't post so soon after the full time whistle.

stub wrote:whocares - they beat Lyon recently and have been within 2 points of Toulouse and Castres... I hope you're right but I'm not so sure. I can see that Lyon and Castres don't look that good based on table position but even so I'm still thinking Bordeaux are more than in with a chance.  

They missed a pen to come 6th in the 80th min, it was a sitter. If that isn't choking, I don't know what is.

http://www.the42.ie/penalty-lionel-beauxis-miss-top-14-2121992-May2015/

The Goon, my post was in relation to the comments referring to the league and coin toss, which were spurious at best.

I am in complete agreement about Poite who was awful. Meakes try shouldn't have stood. But he wasn't bias to Glaws. Connacht spent the entire game offside at the ruck, when he finally gave a penalty the ironic cheer was wonderful! Afoa shouldn't have been binned. It was bizarre to ask any reason not to award the try with the knock on, especially given where Poite was at the time. Numerous high tackles were missed. The maul leading to Meakes try had numerous indiscretions and Poite should have carded at least one. The list could go on!

Either way, it was a fantastic game between 2 sides who gave it their all. At times Connacht were unstoppable yesterday and if you play like that next season you won't need the playoffs. All the best for next season and I look forward to playing you again

Cracking game - great advert for rugby. Heart goes out to Connacht - could have / should have been them, for any number of reasons, but fair play to Gloucester, played right to the end.

Controversy makes the game what it is and at least this time gives Chunky something more solid to base his nonsense on

It doesn't suit Chunky's narrative though about the corrupt Irish.

Poitre (as we Irish have always known) is a disgrace.

Bit harsh sin é - yes its the bandwagon of the week, but to be fair to chunky, he is happy to jump on most (or create) new ones at will.

Poitre is a strange one - i usually like his reffing in particular the scrum - sees far less need to penalise and lets the game continue even if it has gone down. He missed Palmer off on the wrong side, but to be fair was the TMO who failed to act on twelvetrees holding the defender for the try.

the-goon wrote:

stub wrote:whocares - they beat Lyon recently and have been within 2 points of Toulouse and Castres... I hope you're right but I'm not so sure. I can see that Lyon and Castres don't look that good based on table position but even so I'm still thinking Bordeaux are more than in with a chance.  

They missed a pen to come 6th in the 80th min, it was a sitter. If that isn't choking, I don't know what is.

http://www.the42.ie/penalty-lionel-beauxis-miss-top-14-2121992-May2015/

Thanks for the link the-goon. Yes I think you can rest your case - choking of the highest order on display there!

It seems at the very least that Connacht finally put to bed the notion that they don't belong in a meritocratic Europe.

Here's to next season. And here's hoping for even more bite and steel from the 'Western Province'...

Great game. Frankly Gloucester should have won comfortably, given the stats on metres run with ball, line-breaks, etc. But their handling was poor and lots of final passes went down. When the supposed "knock-on" happened (the ref had that one right), the Gloucs guys stopped playing - a schoolboy error! Connaght were more controlled and disciplined, had great tackling and forward superiority.

Yes, the ref missed a lot. Twelvetrees was holding the Connaght forward when Meakes ran through - strangely, though, the Connaght guy didn't seem to be trying to break free. They just stood there like a courting couple. There was another instance when Hook floated a pass to a three man overlap and the Connaght player deliberately tapped forward. Should definitely been a card and probably a penalty try. Poite just gave a pen, which Laidlaw then missed. Anyway, plenty of instances for controversy on both sides. The final try was a fitting conclusion. Fantastic stuff.

Very bad luck Connacht. Easily the most improved team in the Pro12

The home draw was the deciding factor and we still don't know who tossed the coin to decide the home draw... I persume next year the Pro12 team will be at home?

LeinsterFan4life wrote:The home draw was the deciding factor and we still don't know who tossed the coin to decide the home draw... I persume next year the Pro12 team will be at home?

Again I say was this not one of the new rules that came in with the new Europe? I could be wrong but don't the AP side always get the Home draw? Someone will know the facts undoubtedly.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:The home draw was the deciding factor and we still don't know who tossed the coin to decide the home draw... I persume next year the Pro12 team will be at home?

Yes, as i said in my 1st post in this thread it was the deciding factor as all 50-50 call went for the home team.

The real question is how many time did they have to do the coin toss in order to get the "right" result. Sorry to be a pain in the ar*se but everything about this fixture stink and is a disgrace to european club rugby.

It was just an odd situation because it's such an important thing that seems to have just been looked over, which has been compounded by a half empty stadium at Kingsholm.

Also the fact that BB only have to now win one game instead of the two that the Glaws have to win just doesn't make any sense. Why this spot can't be given to the Challenge Cup winners is beyond me. The EPRC has been a failure thus far.

Gloucs won every game in the Challenge Cup, then have two extra hurdles at the end. Another poor attempt by the authorities to milk more revenues from the fans. Even the football season is finished now.

Explanation of play off rules

Looks like its going to change again in a few years with 2 Pro 12 teams in the play-off games

No play offs next year either with challenge cup winner automatically going through

VinceWLB wrote:
The real question is how many time did they have to do the coin toss in order to get the "right" result.

So you deride Chunky for (admittedly bizzare) claims that the Pro12 is biased in Irish and especially ulster's favour yet still manage to come up with horse manure like this.

Congratulations.

LondonTiger wrote:

VinceWLB wrote:
The real question is how many time did they have to do the coin toss in order to get the "right" result.

So you deride Chunky for (admittedly bizzare) claims that the Pro12 is biased in Irish and especially ulster's favour yet still manage to come up with horse manure like this.

Congratulations.

Yeah, seems strange to suggest a coin toss was rigged without prior evidence because it would be incredibly easy for the side not included to verify that it was rigged. If there is no record of the coin toss and Connacht weren't presented with verification of it, I find it hard to imagine that no-one in the Connacht camp wouldn't be bringing that up. Pat Lam is not noted for shirking the hard topics, although he's been uncharacteristically silent about Poites performance as far as I have seen (no doubt due to fines accrued for his criticism of refs earlier in the season).

I'm guessing that some independent party or parties- most likely a lawyer- was in attendance to verify that the toss was all above board because that is what they do for their competition draws. Why wouldn't they just use the same process?

The coin toss was conducted on the grassy knoll...

Has this forum really stooped to the level of suggesting there was a huge conspiracy behind a bleeding coin toss?! The mods do a great job, but this is not a patch on the old 606 forum. Halcyon days perhaps, but the quality and quantity of posts are really at an all time low.

samuraidragon wrote:Great game. Frankly Gloucester should have won comfortably, given the stats on metres run with ball, line-breaks, etc. But their handling was poor and lots of final passes went down. When the supposed "knock-on" happened (the ref had that one right), the Gloucs guys stopped playing - a schoolboy error! Connaght were more controlled and disciplined, had great tackling  and forward superiority.  

Yes, the ref missed a lot. Twelvetrees was holding the Connaght forward when Meakes ran through  - strangely, though, the Connaght guy  didn't seem to be trying to break  free. They just stood there like a courting couple. There was another instance when Hook floated a pass to a three man overlap and the Connaght player deliberately tapped forward. Should definitely been a card and probably a penalty try. Poite just gave a pen, which Laidlaw then missed.   Anyway, plenty of instances for controversy on both sides. The final try was a fitting conclusion. Fantastic stuff.

Mr Dragon, good points well made
We've seen two entertaining finals this year Let's hope Saturday's is as good as the Clermont-Toulon game.

HongKongCherry wrote:The coin toss was conducted on the grassy knoll...

Has this forum really stooped to the level of suggesting there was a huge conspiracy behind a bleeding coin toss?! The mods do a great job, but this is not a patch on the old 606 forum. Halcyon days perhaps, but the quality and quantity of posts are really at an all time low.

No conspiracy for me, one odd refereeing decision which had a big outcome on the game, but to be honest a day on I'm not even that annoyed because the game was so bloody entertaining. Like I said before, I think Gloucester fans can be very proud of the spirit shown by their team when the chips were down. I'll be shouting them on next week.

Marshes wrote:

HongKongCherry wrote:The coin toss was conducted on the grassy knoll...

Has this forum really stooped to the level of suggesting there was a huge conspiracy behind a bleeding coin toss?! The mods do a great job, but this is not a patch on the old 606 forum. Halcyon days perhaps, but the quality and quantity of posts are really at an all time low.

No conspiracy for me, one odd refereeing decision which had a big outcome on the game, but to be honest a day on I'm not even that annoyed because the game was so bloody entertaining. Like I said before, I think Gloucester fans can be very proud of the spirit shown by their team when the chips were down. I'll be shouting them on next week.

Another post that would be 'liked'

I've said it here before, I believe 95% of referees do their job honestly. Poite, I believe has a bias issue with the Irish. Even if I am wrong, not sure how his incompetence as a referee hasn't lost him his "elite" status with the IRB. Odd.

Because the unbiased people in charge review them not from the point of view of fans and decide he's one of the better ones. Perhaps the way the IRFU (and perhaps the pro12) dictate their refs to interprete the laws differs from the FFR's in a way that can seem biased. I certainly see some difference with non-English refs that urine me off.

I was of the belief that it had been ruled all play-offs are to be played on Anglo-French turf? Supposedly to "compensate" for the fact an additional side qualifies from the Pro12.

Edit: See SecretFly asked the same question

theslosty wrote:I was of the belief that it had been ruled all play-offs are to be played on Anglo-French turf? Supposedly to "compensate" for the fact an additional side qualifies from the Pro12.

Edit: See SecretFly asked the same question

That was the initial proposal but the qualifications and format of the play-off structure has changed 2-3 times since last summer's negotiations as reality sets in. The Challenge Cup winner getting a chance to qualify soon got put back on the table after the French 3rd XV's starting turning up. And a load of dosh from the LNR helped appease French teams further.

I think by year 3 it should all settled into a familiar format assuming that teams are turning up in both comps.

The French asked to only be involved in one game this season (I think it has something to do with the World Cup). Next season, the late start means they're just going to have the Challenge Cup winning going through. The season after that it is (currently) the standard format of 2 pro12, 1 T14 and 1 AP, with T14 and P12 being at home.

Pot Hale wrote:

theslosty wrote:I was of the belief that it had been ruled all play-offs are to be played on Anglo-French turf? Supposedly to "compensate" for the fact an additional side qualifies from the Pro12.

Edit: See SecretFly asked the same question

That was the initial proposal but the qualifications and format of the play-off structure has changed 2-3 times since last summer's negotiations as reality sets in.  

But that doesn't change the point that for this year I don't believe there was any coin or any toss.  
Is there anyone in these parts that can confirm there was?  And I'm not talking about Grassy Knoll 911 conspiracies  I'm simply once again suggesting or asking was it not already written that This year Gloucester were always going to get a Home game?  I think it was.

Gutted for Connacht - I thought Poite got that last breakdown decision totally wrong and they should have closed it out before the fulltime whistle.

Really impressed by Matt Healy - he must be the form winger in Ireland right now along with Craig Gilroy - both must be putting serious pressure on Fitzgerald and Zebo.

Zebo is putting pressure on himself................................

SecretFly wrote:
But that doesn't change the point that for this year I don't believe there was any coin or any toss.  
Is there anyone in these parts that can confirm there was?  And I'm not talking about Grassy Knoll 911 conspiracies  I'm simply once again suggesting or asking was it not already written that This year Gloucester were always going to get a Home game?  I think it was.

From EPC Rugby page

Champions Cup play-offs:

Match 1: Aviva Premiership (seventh-ranked club or Challenge Cup winner from the Aviva Premiership if not already qualified) v PRO12 (highest-ranked club not already qualified)
Home advantage to be decided by toss of coin

Match 2: winner of Match 1 v Top 14 (seventh-ranked club)
Winner of Match 1 will have home advantage

So first play off - coin toss, second game is the first game winners at home.

And the where and when

http://www.gloucestercitizen.co.uk/Gloucester-s-Champions-Cup-play-home-advantage/story-26430513-detail/story.html

The coin toss will take place during coverage of the Champions Cup final between Clermont Auvergne and Toulon at Twickenham.

Thanks Mike.  I've been trying a while to get a direct answer to that one.  Yep, I was probably lazy in not seeking out the confirmed detail    but I've worked hard enough often enough in the research field so I decided I'd let others inform me for a change!

Coin toss it was. Conspiracy theories back on the agenda folks!!!!

Twickers????

Sucpicions rise! Was Chunky tossing the coin?