Europe (ish) round 4

First topic message reminder :

Starting on Friday night with the Ospreys visit to Welford Road. The Ospreys were somewhat humiliated to lose to a heavily rotated Tigers side in Wales but have since then been impressive beating Montpelier home and away. Tigers have beaten Clermont home and away but had issues with injuries and some shocking league form (as well as losing their head coach and defence coach).

The teams for this one showing a good number of internationals and Owen Williams returns to Welford Road. Tigers still very short on outside backs but the return to the bench of Montoya is a huge boost, particularly with the 6N just round the corner. The second row could be a fun watch with Tigers sporting Chessum and Henderson who have both been selected for the 6N and who are 23 or under Vs AWJ and Beard the experienced Welsh campaigners. Nicky Smith Vs Cole will be a fun watch, Smith caused Heyes all sorts of issues in the last game, on rare occasions he even did it legally, and having been snubbed by Gatland he'll want to lay a marker down against Dan Cole who's managed to force his way back into England contention at 35 (he could reach his century of caps as well).

STARTING XV
15 Freddie Steward [66]
14 Harry Potter [55]
13 Matt Scott [56]
12 Dan Kelly [50]
11 Harry Simmons [28]
10 Handré Pollard [3]
9 Jack van Poortvliet (vc) [59]
1 James Whitcombe [33]
2 Charlie Clare [67]
3 Dan Cole (vc) [303]
4 Ollie Chessum [42]
5 Cameron Henderson [26]
6 Hanro Liebenberg (c) [73]
7 Tommy Reffell [90]
8 Olly Cracknell [13]

REPLACEMENTS
16 Julián Montoya [32]
17 Dan Richardson [8]
18 Will Hurd [17]
19 Harry Wells [170]
20 Sean Jansen [14]
21 Ben Youngs [293]
22 Jimmy Gopperth [8]
23 Charlie Atkinson [9]

Ospreys: C Evans; Cuthbert, Collins, Hawkins, Giles; O Williams, Morgan-Williams; Smith, Lake, Botha, Beard, AW Jones, R Davies, Tipuric (capt), J Morgan.

Replacements: Baldwin, G Thomas, Henry, Sutton, Morris, Aubrey, K Williams, North.

I think it is pretty obvious for some defenders who are caught flat footed and stationary when faced with a charging ball carrier. In that split second having the time to go low and not be bounced off by the ball carrier leading with his forearm is slim to none and it is going to hurt. Self preservation simply kicks in and defender arms go out to hold onto the player.

Pretty sure that when Piers Francis put out his arms and got his face smashed by Tuipulotu, that was not his intention. At the end of the day head on head is not much debate but not sure the onus is completely on the defender.

Confirmed that the URC qualifiers for next seasons Champions Cup will be based on merit with the top 8 qualifying.