[Article]Heineken Cup Draw 2007/08

[url=http://www.thefreekick.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=28]http://www.thefreekick.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=28

After huge doubts over the future of the competition the draw has now taken place for the Heineken Cup for 2008/09:[br][br]Pool 1: Benetton Treviso, London Irish, Perpignan, Newport Gwent Dragons[br /]Pool 2: Ospreys, Gloucester Rugby, Bourgoin, Ulster Rugby[br /]Pool 3: Stade Francais Paris, Bristol Rugby, Cardiff Blues, Harlequins[br /]Pool 4: Glasgow Warriors, Saracens, Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque, Viadana[br /]Pool 5: London Wasps, ASM Clermont Auvergne, Llanelli Scarlets, Munster[br /]Pool 6: Leinster, Leicester Tigers, Toulouse, Edinburgh Rugby[br][br]. … .

Predictions:

  1. Perpignan then London Irish
  2. Ospreys then Ulster
  3. Stade Fracais then Bristol
  4. Biarritz then Saracens
  5. Wasps then Munster
  6. Leinster then Leicester

Christ they are extremely tough draws for Munster and Leinster.

Happy with Ulster’s draw. Are they actually called ‘Ulster Rugby’ now?

It was about time Ulster got a reasonably favourable draw and I think they’ll get out of that group. The other two have big problems though.

9/11/07 20:00 P2 Ulster v Gloucester Rugby Ravenhill Sky Sports
9/11/07 21:00 P1 Perpignan v Dragons Stade Aime Giral Canal + Sport / Sky Sports
10/11/07 13:30 P6 Leinster v Leicester Tigers RDS Sky Sports
10/11/07 14:30 P4 Viadana v Biarritz Olympique Stadio Luigi Zaffanella

10/11/07 14:35 P3 Stade Francais v Harlequins Stade Jean-Bouin Canal+
10/11/07 15:00 P1 London Irish v Benetton Treviso Madejski Stadium

10/11/07 15:30 P6 Edinburgh Rugby v Toulouse Murrayfield Sky Sports / France 2
10/11/07 17:30 P5 London Wasps v Munster Ricoh Arena Sky Sports / Sport+
10/11/07 17:30 P2 Ospreys v Bourgoin Liberty Stadium Sport+ / Sky Sports / S4C**
11/11/07 13:00 P3 Cardiff Blues v Bristol Rugby Cardiff Arms Park Sky Sports
11/11/07 15:00 P4 Saracens v Glasgow Warriors Vicarage Road

11/11/07 16:00 P5 ASM Clermont Auvergne v Llanelli Scarlets Stade Marcel Michelin France 2

Big weekend for the Irish provinces. Considering their tough draws it’s important Leinster and Munster win all their home games and Leinster simply have to beat Leicester at the RDS. Munster going to Wasps are slightly less pressurised but they probably can’t afford to lose more than one game so they won’t want it to happen now. Ulster have a chance to qualify this year and obviously will need to beat Gloucester at home to have any chance given their poor away form.

None of the provinces are really firing in the Magner’s League. Leinster were poor at home to Connacht. Munster had some decent individual performances at home to Edinburgh (O’Gara in particular) but still struggled to put them away. Big step up next weekend.

Anyone know the odds for none of the Irish Provinces to get out of their groups? accumulator

I can’t see any of the provinces them doing it. Ulster have the best chance to get out, but have a history of blowing it in the group stage.

5/4 on Patrick Power.

Shit odds

Anyone have an opinion on the Irish provinces’ treatment of the Magner’s League?

Ciaran Cronin in The Tribune the other week was saying our elite players don’t play enough games and are wrapped up in cotton wool.

Also, one of the Welsh players (can’t remember who) was pretty loud in his condemnation of the Irish teams’ attitude towards the competition saying that it wasn’t doing the Welsh sides any favours to be playing largely second string Irish teams.

Might it also cause a morale issue in that the international players play about a handful of Magner’s League games and then step straight back into the side for the big European Cup ties?

I think they’re taking it more seriously these days. It’s a roundabout way of deciding European qualification places too so there’s a chance of one of the Big 3 losing out to Connacht, but I think there has to be another combination of circumstances to make it happen too. Not sure on that though - might look it up at some stage.

But they’re certainly coming round to the opinion that they need the Irish players for as many games as possible to help them gel before the ERC. Also the IRFU probably don’t have as much of a need for centralised players this year with the World Cup over which probably frees the elite players for a few extra games.

TEAMS:

Munster:

MUNSTER:

15: Shaun Payne
14: Brian Carney
13: Rua Tipoki
12: Lifeimi Mafi
11: Anthony Horgan
10: Ronan O’Gara (capt)
9: Peter Stringer
1: Marcus Horan
2: Jerry Flannery
3: John Hayes
4: Donncha O’Callaghan
5: Mick O’Driscoll
6: Alan Quinlan
7: David Wallace
8: Denis Leamy

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Frank Sheahan
17: Tony Buckley
18: Anthony Foley
19: Jake Paringatai
20: Tomas O’Leary
21: Paul Warwick
22: Ian Dowling

Dowling is a bit unlucky, Thought he was very impressive against Edinburgh.

LEINSTER

15: Girvan Dempsey
14: Shane Horgan
13: Brian O’Driscoll CAPTAIN
12: Gordon D’Arcy
11: Rob Kearney
10: Felipe Contepomi
9: Chris Whitaker

1: Ollie le Roux
2: Bernard Jackman
3: Stan Wright
4: Leo Cullen
5: Malcolm O’Kelly
6: Keith Gleeson
7: Shane Jennings
8: Jamie Heaslip

REPLACEMENTS:

16: Brian Blaney
17: Juan Francisco Gomez
18: Cameron Jowitt
19: Kevin McLaughlin
20: Cillian Willis
21: Christian Warner
22: Luke Fitzgerald

Keogh’s injury means there’s two openside flankers playing. Big loss in terms of ball carrying but it does allow them to spread it wide often.

ULSTER

Ulster Team: (15-9) B Cunningham; T Bowe, A Trimble, R Dewey, M McCrea; P Wallace, I Boss; (1-8) J Fitzpatrick, R Best (Capt), B Young, J Harrison, C Del Fava, M McCullough, N Best, R Wilson

Replacements: (16-22) N Brady, D Fitzpatrick, R Caldwell, K Dawson, K Campbell, D Humphreys, M Bartholomeusz

Surprised Wallace got the nod at out half. That looks a decent pack.

im surprised to see Ollie Le Roux in goal !!

Good win for Leinster earlier after Ulster’s capitulation yesterday.

Leinster were well worth the win. They defended superbly throughout and stole lots of ball on the ground through penalties and turnovers - Gleeson, Jennings and D’Arcy were competing at nearly every ruck.

Textbook try too. Lovely angles and both O’Driscoll and Contepomi kept the defenders honest with eyes.

This is some match between Waps and Munster. Munster started like a train and after an exchange of penalties went 10-3 up. Then Wasps came back to level it at 13 all and looked like they were well on top. Munster rallied and got themselves a couple of turnovers and then piled the pressure on and came away with a try in the corner at the end which O’Gara converted.

13-20 at half time.

Who won this pointless match in this pointless sport?

Wasps won by a point in the end Bandage. Cracking game.

therock67 wrote:

Wasps won by a point in the end Bandage. Cracking game.

Cheers Rocko. Great to see Leinster flying the flag as usual.

Decent enough performance from Munster yesterday. Took their time in getting the bonus point but always looked like getting it in the end. Some decent performances from their big players again and they look to have shaken off any World Cup hangovers. Up front I thought Hayes was excellent, O’Callaghan was decent and Quinlan was very good again. Stringer had another decent game and O’Gara controlled the game. Centres started brightly but faded again and don’t look rock solid defensively. It looked at one stage like Dowling swapped with Tipoki in the second half. On that note I thought Dowling was the best player on the park yesterday. He doesn’t have blistering pace but his defence was brilliant and he showed great strength with ball in hand.

Then Leinster went and produced a performance which reminded of Ireland’s world cup efforts. A reasonably competitive first half which didn’t generate (m)any chances but at least kept the opposition out and kept them in the hunt on the scoreboard. Then when the pace was increased Leinster just couldn’t live with Toulouse. They gave up 5 yards on every phase of possession, they made massive numbers of handling errors and too many players just disappeared. The two flankers were anonymous (especially Gleeson), O’Kelly disappeared, D’Arcy never recovered from the first knock he took and Horgan continued his abysmal form in terms of individual errors. Rob Kearney simply handed them their second try as well which you just can’t do at that level.

Munster were a bit rough around the edges yesterday, some great play at times and some poor at times. ROG is a totally different player to the one who played in France. Quinlan really is making it more and more unbelievable in that EOS didnt play him in France, he’s playing out of his skin at the moment. Dowling is doing well and is hungry for the ball all the time. How Cracker (Reggie Corrigan) could give the MOTM to Joubert, the Clermont Centre was farcical. Obviously the jeering/abuse/banter got to him.

Clermont seem to be just focussing on the Top 14, which considering the way the lost the final last year to Stade is understandable.

Toulouse were incredible in the second half, some of the handling from Poitrenaud and Heymans was fantastic. No team could live that performance.

Wasn’t brilliant from Munster throughout but they were alwys in control really and when they had a slightly unsteady spell around the hour mark O’Gara stepped up and assumed total control.

Rugby really needs to look at its structures though before these uncompetitive selections get out of hand. Munster don’t care that much about the Magner’s League and to be honest who can blame them when their international pack is missing for a fair chunk of the tournament?

Bougoin haven’t been arsed playing away matches in the ERC. Clermont to be fair look like they put in more effort - and they’re desparate to win a French Championship, having never won one before. The problems are that different teams concentrate on different tournaments and the hierarchy is diminished as a result.

There are some crazy articles on RT these days. This effort by Brendan Cole ( http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2007/1119/heinekencuproundtwo.html ) blames Dusautoir for Whittaker’s injury, despite any evidence to suggest there was any intent to cause harm, and aside from the fact it was a perfectly legitimate and legal tackle.

Thierry Dusautoir tackles Chris Whitaker:

To recap: Whitaker was taken off after Toulouse wing forward Thierry Dusautoir - who, incidentally, won the man of the match award - tackled him just after the 30-minute mark in the first half. The tackle looked peculiar on first viewing, and also looks odd in replays and pictures. It seemed to take longer than usual and Dusautoir, although he might have been able to get at the ball or the right leg, elected to keep hold of Whitaker’s left leg only. As can be seen in this picture, Whitaker’s foot is trapped by Dusautoir’s lower chest, stomach and left elbow, and there is pressure on Whitaker’s knee from the right shoulder.
http://dynamic.rte.ie/0001283610e.jpg

While leg breaks are not uncommon in rugby it is unusual for a player to come away from a seemingly harmless and relatively stationary half-tackle situation with such a serious injury.

Players are answerable for their on-field actions, and also responsible for the safety of opposition players. Of course it must be added that the injury may well have been completely accidental, and Dusautoir is, of course, entitled to be presumed innocent.

So after rambling on for 3 paragraphs (the length of time the tackle took, the fact he could have grabbed both legs…???) the esteemed writer then decides Dusautoir might be worth the benefit of the doubt. Gobshite.

That’s just bollocks from Cole and grist to the mill of southern hemisphere fans (avid readers of RTE’s online rugby coverage) that NH and the Irish in particular are desperate whingers.

Toulouse were good but Leinster just fell away. Again, there just didn’t seem to be much on field leadership. This pack and team just don’t seem to have any ability to function when they’re not on top. The only leadership appears to be making big plays. They’re not tough enough to overpower everyone and they’re not cute enough to be able to think or cheat their way past this problem.

This wasn’t helped by the backs being woeful. If it wasn’t for the injuries, Chieka would have had to consider dropping Horgan. His absolute utter inability to judge a high ball in flight while running backwards has been noted by every team now and is curious considering his skill at running onto them going forward. When he does do that for restarts, everybody mutters sagely about his ‘GAA hands’, but how come he couldn’t hit a fucking barndoor with his passing out of those same hands then? His kicking out of hand is also absolutey terrible.

He repeatedly goes in a first receiver now with zero net effect, merely succeeding in slowing down our ball by staticly taking it into contact in an upright position.

He was nothing short of catastrophic last Sunday. I need a new avatar.