European games round 3.

First topic message reminder :

Didn’t see a thread. Apologies if there is one.

Good start by Quins. Cardiff seemed to be defending very narrowly again. A lovely conversion by Marcus Smith too.

Irish snatch a 1 point win against Edinburgh at the end too - good weekend so far for English teams

Heaf wrote:Irish snatch a 1 point win against Edinburgh at the end too - good weekend so far for English teams

Also down to 14 following Creevy red card at 57 minutes

Yep - this team now have some real grit ... disappointed with the card as losing Creevy to a ban is really bad news as he's been key to LI's recent improvements

Just switched over to La Rochelle - Bath. It is another one of those real foggy days, not quite as bad as the recent Glasgow-Exeter, but will be fun to watch (until Bath run out of puff).

Hmmm - looked like Glasgow collapsed that maul to me ...

A third game this season where Tigers have played very poorly but managed to get a win in the final minutes.

A very odd game. Such poor discipline and lots of unforced errors. The scrum was dominant but the lineout was horribly inconsistent to squander it. Though the lineout did improve when Clare come on to be fair.

Dan Kelly was excellent once he came on. Kini Murimurivalu was very good ball in hand. Jasper Wiese was everywhere.

A lot of mixed performances as well though. Genge was fantastic in the scrum but carried very upright on several occasions for instance.

Just a strange game of rugby rounded off by Aki have a go at the ref after the final whistle.

Darge looks a really good openside.

I thought there was a big momentum shift when JVP came on. He really added a lot of impetus to the Tigers side.

The berating of the referee was a bit unnecessary given the camera angles had conclusively shown that Saumaki's foot wasn't in touch. I understand the frustration as they were the better team for more of the game but it was misguided. They'd been a warning to Connacht's Arnold during the game for back chat as well. I thought the ref had a good game, no compliant over the Tigers yellow card. 

Was really good to see Murimurivalu roll back the years and skittle opposition players for fun. Saumaki looked a lot better in his cameo in a game where there was more ball in hand. Good finish for the match winning try with a great pass from Kelly to set it up.

king_carlos wrote:Darge looks a really good openside.

A real menace.

Like the rules or not Dempsey will surely play for Scotland in the 2022 AIs once he's had three years since his last Australia cap.

That 50-22 was brilliant play by Sam Maunder. Such a quick decision and perfect execution.

Rampant from Chiefs now.

Lovely try for Jack Nowell. He's not been scoring much recently so good to see him get over the line.

Exeter were mightily impressive.

Glasgow really looked gassed at the end. I turned it on just as Exeter's second half try tsunami was starting. What I saw was great by Exeter. A shame for Glasgow because they are much better than that score line.

I fancied Exeter for the win after recent defeats against Glasgow (is it me or do they get each other every year?) but not by that amount!

Sgt_Pooly wrote:I fancied Exeter for the win after recent defeats against Glasgow (is it me or do they get each other every year?) but not by that amount!

Few teams rack up the points like Exeter do when they get on top

Exeter's big players, especially Slade, just turned it on in that last quarter. When Slade clicks like that he can be fantastic. He just hasn't done it often enough at the top level.

O'Flaherty continues to impress whenever I see him as well.

A note for Ben Moon and Patrick Shickerling as well. They absolutely obliterated the Glasgow front row for a period there.

Just got in. Just in time to watch the second half of Ulster-Saints. However, not looking good at the moment for the men from the Rose of Shires.

And yesterday, oddly we had two teams, Glasgow and Connacht who put up really good fights against good teams but were simply out of juice and had nothing left in the tank except guts as the second halves wore on. Of course, it still took good teams to take advantage, but I wonder if they had any Covid issues earlier on which kept players out of training because it seemed to me their energy drop was palpable.

Finally, WTF did Leinster do to Montpellier? That is almost an AB-Tonga scoreline.

Montpellier had a few teenagers playing and it showed. Plus the fact that they didn't want to tackle either had a lot to do with it.

Montpellier rotated basically their entire first choice XV out. Safe to say they are concentrating on the league. Maybe a case of them not having much interest in travel outside of France due to covid complications, potential costs, etc. That's their last game outside of France this season if they don't make the last 16.

Montpellier are dealing with a Covid outbreak. Saint Andre claimed they had adjusted their 23 three times during the week due to new cases.  Begs the question why the walkover wasn't given, not that Leinster were complaining.

Montpellier are being eaten alive on French social media after that defeat by fans and former players. When I saw the score line I thought there must have been a typo. I didn’t see the game but Saint Andre saying they were missing eighteen players due to Covid goes a long way to explaining the score. Still it’s good to see that French rugby fans don’t ignore the European Cup or think that fielding a weak away side and getting trounced is acceptable. You read/ hear so much about how they don’t care about Europe. Todays twitter response shows the opposite. Hopefully this reaction will mean French teams in later stages will definitely put in a genuine effort.

https://actu.fr/sports/rugby/pro/champions-cup-humilie-au-leinster-89-7-montpellier-prend-tres-cher-sur-les-reseaux-sociaux_47966844.html

The only way to punish a team choosing to field an understrength side is to run up the score. Pity it needs that Leinster side having a chip on their shoulder and something to prove before they put up that kind of score.

PSA complaining about covid and injuries............ rant....... mode......... triggered (in jest).................. , strange that Cullen had the requisite number of players available to travel for the previous fixture (all with clear covid results) but the LNR/PRL, who are the true tail wagging this dog of a competition ever since the restructure, wanted to secure points for their own. Well how d'you like dem apples? It's what happens on the pitch that should matter the most..... stick that in your pipe and shove it up y'rrrr a**!!!!....... and relax.... calm it down, deep breath......... What next, fudge some officiating calls to make sure the Irish teams have to play each other in the next round so they eliminate half of LNR/PRL's problem?

Mighty impressive performance from Leinster to bounce back from the 28-0 thrashing they received in the reverse fixture.

Rumours of a Covid outbreak in the Toulouse camp

5 points to Cardiff?

geoff999rugby wrote:Rumours of a Covid outbreak in the Toulouse camp

5 points to Cardiff?

Doubt it.  Probably a 0-0 draw this time. Or they’ll decide that it can be postponed.

Yeah, when it's the French teams they just postpone it. The 28-0 drubbings from the first couple rounds still stand.

As a side point, how come there’s no European game for us (Dragons) this weekend? Have I missed something?

Bye week, due to the odd number of teams per group.

They should let us have a win.

RiscaGame wrote:Bye week, due to the odd number of teams per group.

They should let us have a win.

Yes please!

RiscaGame wrote:Bye week, due to the odd number of teams per group.

They should let us have a win.

We’d still lose!

The Oracle wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:Bye week, due to the odd number of teams per group.

They should let us have a win.

We’d still lose!

You're right aye

So Hibs has called time on his career at 38. He’s a bit of legend to be fair.

Meant to post that on the dragons thread btw.