Ulster back in the mix whilst Exeter look down
Ulster hauled themselves back into contention with a bonus point victory over Pool 5 pace-setters Clermont. It was somewhat bittersweet at the end, as two late tries gifted their opponents a double bonus point in a 39-32 classic. However, given they started the competition so poorly, they will be mightily pleased to be still in the mix.
The first half was an explosion of points, starting after just two minutes. Perceli Yato crossed for a converted score for the French giants, before Luke Marshall responded soon after. A Morgan Parra penalty retook the lead, but Iain Henderson was on the end of a spectacular cross field kick move, initiated by scrum-half Pienaar to give the hosts the advantage. Paddy Jackson and Parra then traded penalties, before Scott Spedding went over out wide. Jackson got a try of his own to give his side a 22-18 lead going into the interval. Post-break, Marshall grabbed his second to secure the crucial extra point within six minutes. Charles Piutau then created an unassailable lead with a wondrous converted effort, a lead that was extended further with another Jackson penalty soon after. Nick Abendanon and Damien Chouly saved Clermont’s blushes late on, sealing a vital two points.
Ulster now have the unenviable task of having to back this result up in the Auvergne next weekend. This becomes all the more important given that they are still likely to need an away result to confirm a passage to the last sixteen. With the two bonus points, Clermont are effectively through with another win, maybe needing a bonus point or two, which given their early form, shouldn’t be a problem.
That need for an away win for the Northern Irish became more prominent on Sunday evening. Bordeaux sent Exeter as good as out with a 13-7 win on the South Coast, putting themselves in a rather good position as well. The hosts had slightly the better of a poor game, but inaccuracies meant that they will probably have to wait another year before they can have a go at the knock out stages again.
Wasps cling on to unbeaten start
Wasps kept up their unbeaten start in Europe and claimed top spot in Pool 2, with a 32-17 win over Connacht, scoring four tries in the process. The result should mean that the Coventrians go through comfortably, given that they have Zebre in their pool and had already registered an away draw with Toulouse.
It began with a dream first touch for new arrival Kurtley Beale. He muscled his way over the line to gift his side the lead seven minutes in, before the referee showed him a slightly soft yellow card for a high tackle. Connacht stayed well in the game, scoring a try of their own and a penalty in response to two from Jimmy Gopperth to go in only three points down. The teams traded tries early in the second half, but Joe Launchbury and Josh Bassett scored in the final quarter to put the game beyond doubt.
The return fixture next week will be crucial for both sides. Wasps could almost secure their route to the latter stages with a win, whilst the Irish side will harbour hopes of getting through themselves. Needless to say, bonus points may be crucial in Galway either way.
The Toulouse v Zebre match was stopped after 63 minutes due to horrific fog, however the 36-6 result stood because more than an hour was played. It keeps the French side in the mix, due mainly to their bonus point, and they should be confident of doing the same again in the reverse at home next week.
Last season’s semi finalists left with it all to do in Pool 1
Glasgow Warriors recorded one of their most impressive ever results with a 23-14 win away to Racing Metro. The Parisian outfit, last season’s finalists, now look odds-on to crash out at the group stage, with a grand total of zero points from two fixtures.
The Scots, led by the brilliant Finn Russell, put in a controlled and effective performance to put themselves in an excellent position in Pool 1. They suffered an early setback, as Juan Imhoff scored a converted five-pointer. But the Glaswegians hit back, with Russell scoring a couple of penalties and Alex Dunbar carving an excellent line at pace to leave the defenders stranded for a try, giving his side a six point advantage. After the interval, Ali Price showed good initiative to extend the lead, and Russell converted before scoring another penalty. Dan Carter got a late consolation, but it was to be nothing more.
Elsewhere in Pool 1, Leicester were humbled by Munster. The rejuvenated Irish province smashed the East Midlanders 38-0. It was a thoroughly dominant victory, and on any other weekend may have been a major talking point, for the scoreline at least (being Leicester’s record defeat in the competition). However, Tigers are not the team of old, and the result was probably never in doubt, with the Irish building a score with the boot before letting loose on the tries, scoring four to make it a second bonus point win in as many matches in the competition.
The pre-tournament money may have been on Racing and Tigers to make it through this pool, but now they look like they have it all to do, with both needing bonus points and to nab at least an away win. Warriors and Munster look hot favourites to go through now.
Montpellier and Leinster seize control
Dylan Hartley was shown a red card, deservedly, for swinging an arm into the head of Sean O’Brien in his side’s 37-10 loss at home to Leinster.
The Northampton hooker left his side looking into the abyss. They had clawed their way back into the game from being 10-0 down, before the boys in blue pulled clear after the dismissal. With the Irish scoring three tries, adding to their earlier two, they secured an all important bonus point win.
In addition to Montpellier’s 32-14 win over Castres, it means the Saints need a miracle to salvage anything from the pool. They are lying bottom with no bonus points to give it any gloss; they need to win all their remaining games to have any hope.
Saracens maintain perfect start
Saracens have continued their (so far) perfect defence of their title with a 50-3 win against Sale at Allianz Park. The result only went to show that the competition is still imperfect, and that not all teams are there with genuine hopes of making it through the pool. Sarries ran in six tries against their English counterparts, most of which came after the break.
Leigh Halfpenny set Toulon back on course, scoring 16 points in a bonus point 31-20 win over Scarlets. They still need an away win or two, but should manage that against the Welsh side or Sale.
Bristol win big in Challenge Cup
Bristol turned their form on its head when they scored seven tries in destroying Pau 41-14. It is only their second win this season, yet they should be able to use this as a springboard to bounce onto greater things. A massive result for the Ashton Gate club. Cardiff also got a big win, seeing off Bath 28-3. It took until the second half for the Welsh side to really cut loose, but it didn’t matter as the win puts them in pole position to qualify from the pool.
Edinburgh and Harlequins were the big winners in Pool 5. The Scots gave themselves a mountain to climb, having been down 20-3 at half time, but fought back valiantly to beat Stade Francais 28-23. Quins were comfortable 42-3 victors against Timisoara, making it yet another bonus point and keeping the pressure on Edinburgh.
Ospreys proved their credentials as the favourites for the competition, travelling to the Alps to trounce Grenoble 59-7. Paul Bonnefond scored an impressive hat-trick against Newcastle, guiding his Lyon team to a 42-12 victory.
Gloucester got their third bonus point win in as many games, smashing La Rochelle 35-14 to make top spot their own in Pool 1. Treviso also upset the apple cart, surprising Bayonne 28-15 in France, proving that this competition is useful for the development of Italian sides.
In Pool 3, Enisei suffered their first defeat, 43-8 to Brive. Worcester also won, 33-20 over Dragons to leave the Welsh side bottom.
Try of the weekend
A few decent ones this week. I will plump for Charles Piutau’s effort. A cracking looped pass from Paddy Jackson set him on course to use his dancing, swerving feet in a lovely individual score.
Hero of the weekend
A splendidly controlled performance in Paris, where Racing 92 hadn’t been beaten since February, means Finn Russell grabs this award. He dictated play and outshone Dan Carter completely. It also means that Glasgow are well in position to make the knockouts for the first time.
Villain of the weekend
There is only one place this can go. Dylan’s Hartley displayed yet another moment of madness and is now looking at another ban. It looked like he was past his hot-headed stage and had matured, until he threw an arm into Sean O’Brien. Given that he is not the best hooker in England’s squad, he is relying on leadership skills to be there. This has raised questions about that yet again.
What do you make of the Hartley incident? Will it have ramifications for England and the Lions?
By Joe Large
Honourable mention in Villain of the Week category goes to Pascal Pape for his splendid impersonation of a man being shot by a sniper.
indeed. Should mention that Edinburgh played most of the second half a man down!
Genia and Steyne looked kind of embarrassed by Papé’s behaviour as Burleigh went off. Burleigh was dumb, Papé pathetic, and the refereeing team a bit hard. Not sure how this warranted a red but the Argie hooker who slapped Fraser Brown in the face didn’t even get penalised.
I don’t think Hartley meant to hit O’Brien in the head. Had O’Brien not started to fall, it would have been a penalty or a yellow card at most.
That of course, does not excuse Hartley for his actions and it certainly doesn’t excuse his judgement. WTF was he thinking? He had done so well in removing moments of idiocy from his game and until this point had answered all the critics of his appointment as captain,
There will be a ban, I’m sure and the knives are already out for him from the likes of Stephen Jones. This will probably cost him the England captaincy and probably his place, as to my mind George is the better hooker of the two
That was my conclusion as well, SoB’s head ended up where the ball was tucked under his arm a split second before. Pure conjecture, but I thought it was an attempt to dislodge the ball in the ‘tackle’
Reckless, yes. Dumb, definitely! Red, certainly, but I don’t think he needs to add significantly to his 54 weeks on the sidelines for it. But with his history there’s a lot of confirmation bias so I wouldn’t be surprised if he does.
It is definitely a red card but it clearly wasn’t intentional. If you look at the photo at the top of the article you can see he closes his eyes when he starts swinging the arm which was rather silly. i would guess a mid range entry point with no reduction so 5-6 weeks but with his track record and the citation lottery you never know.
All I can say with any confidence is he will probably get more than the 3 weeks the Argie got for an intentional face stamp
Or the 1 week that Fekitoa got for his deliberate clothes-line tackle on Zebo. Or the zero weeks Cane got for his no arms, shoulder charge to Henshaw’s head
Actually its probably similar to the Fekitoa Incident in both intent and impact so that will be a good yard stick for consistency
Cane was innocent, Henshaw spun suddenly into his shoulder and there was nothing he could do to prevent it
Pablito
Bit of a storm in a tea cup! O’ Brien was already falling backwards into H’s tackle which made it high. Otherwise the contact (without the falling over) would have been against the upper back/shoulders!
The leading arm WAS dangerous so probably should have been yellow IMO. No intent to hurt IMO and slight over reaction on Y Draig’s part to get the knives out for carving “pig face” up!
More balance please!
Media storm principally fanned by the essence of who he is (a man who has been impeccable on the field since his elevation under EJ – FACT – so judge the man on ‘recent’ behaviour and form not the past)
The ban decision and sentence correct despite the call for a blood fest from some on here!
On a separate note we are fast entering the rugby realms of the surreal where players are being sent off to such gay abandon that the 15 aside will be soon officially resorting to 7 aside on a permanent basis.
IMO the only common sensical approach which i understand is already supposed to be applied…..really…..is to take the fit state of the said offended against player into account before dishing out and making the decision for yellownor red against the offender!
In other words…if he’s fine get on with it and if not revert to the card.
The alternatives:
We go down the lines of football rolling around in agony like Pape to get people sent off.
Or shape up and have a bit of old school honesty/common sense amongst player and officiator alike.
Hartley was unfortunate to hit O’Brien in the head but reckless and unnecessary as well as stupid.
The fact that he’s still not starting for Saints, is not the best hooker in the England squad and is now likely to be banned for some time, all makes it likely that Farrell will take over as captain of England and George will be the starting hooker.
Personally don’t think it was even all that bad. As you say, if SOB stays on hit feet it’s probably a penalty. It was slightly reckless but nothing more.
To my mind he is still England’s best option as captain, and by far our best set piece hooker. I’d also still have him as my Lions captain but I’ve probably slipped into the minority on that one now.
I hadn’t previously, but I’m beginning to question whether he is England’s best set piece hooker. I’ve noticed no problems with George’s line out throwing. And the scrum seems to be no weaker with him on.
Add into that George’s play around the park and its only Hartley’s captaincy that makes a difference
I would definitely agree with you on the set piece. Hartley’s throwing has been wobbly at times and I don’t think he’s as strong a scrummager as George.
I’m only assuming that Farrell will be captain if Hartley is not available. He deputised when Hartley was subbed in the AIs and I can’t see Jones handing it back to Robshaw?
Didn’t Hartley hit 15 out of 15 against Australia and went the year at like 93% lineout success for England? If that is your definition of wobbly that you have very high standards!
Itoje as skipper for me. No point delaying it with Farrell when he is destined for it anyway.
I don’t know the exact stats Jacob, but historically his throwing was probably the weakest part of his game.
He always does ok when Lawes is in the lineout, but not so consistent when he’s not. Makes sense as they’re clubmates, but I think an international hooker should be able to throw just as well whoever is in the lineout.
I would be happy to see Itoje as skipper but I don’t think Jones is ready to give him that responsibility yet. Farrell has bee in the squad for a couple of years now and has been a vice captain since Jones took over. For the moment it seems like the natural progression.
I’m not sure Robshaw would want it!
My try of the weekend would go to Sean Maitland for his second try agains Sale Sharks. his footwork confused the Sharks defence and he finished off a good try (after some great hands from Bosch and Mako V) in the corner.
Doutbtless the RFU will call in every favour possible to make sure that the Pigface gets only a minor ban.
I expect they will hire an expensive barrister (Wayne Barnes??) to argue that even though it is his 6th ban for violence on the field and he has missed 54 weeks to date due to his dreadful conduct then a 4 week ban is only right and fair for the captain of England who should also be Lions captain in NZ this summer.
Pigface can tell the panel how sorry he is and how he won’t do something like this again…not another 6 times no changed man see…all the better for the experience.
Irish Provinces were superb really superb..clearly the PRO12 is a minor and meaningless league compared to the Top 14/English Premiership ….all those clubs are so much better than anything the PRO12 can ever produce.
Funny how Pro12 fans who were myopic about the tournament since the Logical changes to the format have suddenly found a new love of the tournament now that their teams are performing.
Shows that the structure was not the problem just the standard of their teams performances
Good weekend for Sarries, Clermont and the Pro 12, even an Italian victory! Though Ulster and Connacht will be privately kicking themselves for not denying Clermont the LBP/getting at least a bonus point respectively, for most of the match Connacht had more of a chance of securing possession from a Wasps’ scrum than their own lineout, and dropped the ball/threw intercepts several times at crucial moments. Also, Launchbury was immense, nearly won the game singlehandedly!
And Hartley deserves a longish ban imo. Even if SOB wasn’t going down (which he had nowhere else to go), it was not going to be a legal tackle. It was a swinging arm into the back of a blind opponent, the other arm was nowhere near and he had no chance of hitting the ball. He may or may not have aimed for the back of SOB’s head, only he can say for sure, but he was certainly taking a cheap shot on an influential opposing player.
On a completely different note, I couldn’t believe when I saw that Bastereud(?) has actually managed to get even heavier, if he was a prop you’d probably tell him he’s too heavy, never mind a supposed international centre!
Totally agree about Launchbury. Hard to see how Jones can leave him out and he is putting his hand up as captain as far as I am concerned. His organisation of the defence around the fringes and ability to get to his feet quickly after making a tackle was remarkable as was his decision making with regard to when to compete for the turnover. Just does all the hard graft so well.
Had the ref been badly stung by a wasp in his youth? He gave Wasps absolutely nothing for the first hour and the Beale yellow was a joke.
Wasn’t at all surprised to see Hartley revert to type. He has always been a cheap- shot merchant and in my view vastly over-rated as a scrummager. For the past two seasons he has not even been the best hooker at Saints and I think England will be stronger without him.
I thought the ref didn’t have a great game overall. The Beale yellow was harsh, but then that seemed to make him completely forget that he’d given Wasps a warning for consistent infringement. It also seemed to be a lottery in the breakdown, particularly in the second half, as to whether the tackler was holding on/lying on the ball/attacker holding on.
I think NZ are gonna be disappointed if Hartley doesn’t travel. He is at most the third best hooker, as Best is part of the current strongest NH front row imo and definitely superior over the ball, and George is just a lot better all round. And you can guarantee that NZ would have just niggled and winded him up in a test until he did something stupid and got carded, that’s what I’d do even at school level.
Enoch, the fact that he has been banned for 54 weeks for 6 offences makes your argument that he somehow gets off lightly, by virtue of the deep pockets of the RFU, somewhat of a nonsense.
Egg Chaser
Typical England fan justifying a thug like Hartley and that is all he is a thug who has been caught out over and over again.
Biting, gouging, elbowing, blows to the head, punching the list goes on and on but people like you will still defend him to hilt.
He should be banned from the game permanently before he does some real and life changing damage to someone (as per Max Brito in 1995 RWC) because the 6 bans (soon to be 7) he’s got so far have not changed his behaviour.
Do you not get tired dragging that mountain of chips around? As someone who’s not an England supporter, I feel I can objectively say that Egg Chaser was not defending Hartley at all, nor were they excusing his behaviour. Instead, just pointing out there was a gap in your logic of saying someone who averages 9 weeks per ban gets off with just a finger wagging.
Quite right. Thanks, GKDA.
You are on your 123rd trolling offence but seem to escape any ban
^ +1, Thumbs up ^
What’s Max Brito got to do with it?? Surely his injury was a tragic accident? I don’t remember any foul play being involved, just a bloke unfortunately getting in a vulnerable position. Am I mistaken?
I predict this to be the QF
1 Saracens
2 Wasps
3 Munster
4 Leinster
5 Clermont
6 Glasgow
7 Connacht
8 Ulster
Saracens v Ulster
Wasps v Connacht
Munster v Glasgow
Leinster v Clermont
If you’re right, I’d then predict Saracens, Wasps, and Munster to go through. Not sure about Leinster / Clermont, though would lean towards Leinster. Would make for a fantastic finale to the competition!
Would say the exact same, I do think Leinster would win they are extremely hard to beat at home. Would be a great set of semi final’s for the competition. out of the 8 QF’s Connacht are the ones im very unsure about as its really a thin line in that group.