On fire: Montpellier
It is time for our weekly wrap up of who has their name in lights at the moment...and who is making the headlines for the wrong reasons.
They're smokin'....!
Harlequins and Clermont: Hats off to seeds one and two heading into the Heineken Cup knockout stages. Both won six out of six games in the Pool rounds and now face Munster and Montpellier respectively in the quarter-finals. With Clermont's home route to the final, they are now clear favourites.
Montpellier: What a performance it was from Fabien Galthié's team. Following the passing of coach Eric Béchu, the French side put in an excellent effort that saw Toulon come off distinctly second best. It was a showing that possessed immense power from their pack while Benoit Paillaugue was exceptional.
Simon Zebo: The second of his three tries against Racing-Metro was something out of the top drawer. Zebo's stocks continue to soar in Ireland and Europe so expect to see a good deal more of him in the Six Nations. We expect to see him in an Irish back-three with Rob Kearney and Craig Gilroy.
Tigers v Toulouse in the snow: Quote of the week, heard from Ed's wife as the players took the field at Welford Road: "Rugby is epic. If they were soccer players they'd be in their pyjamas at mommy's house."
King Carlos: Spencer will be in South Africa for a while yet after agreeing to help out at the Sharks in the upcoming Super Rugby season. He'll primarily work with the backline and that obviously includes Bok fly-half Pat Lambie. Invited by coach John Plumtree, Spencer is delighted to be there.
Someone turn up the heater...!
Lionel Beauxis and Guy Novès: More than a few pundits questioned the logic behind shifting Luke McAlister (who had won 10 out of 12 games for Toulouse starting at fly-half) into midfield to accommodate Beauxis's boot in Leciester. The move backfired badly as the recently-returned-from-injury former France pivot looked totally out sync and not very keen to be on the park. A bad situation was compounded by what we can only interpret as the Toulouse manager's failure to swallow his pride and change his plan. Yannick Jauzion was injured before the game but Novès still had two other options: Clement Poitrenaud could have moved to 12 or Jean-Marc Doussain could have shifted to 10. Isn't hindsight wonderful?
Heineken Cup semi-finals draw: Is it fair that the Heineken Cup semi-final hosts are decided by a draw rather than ranking? Harlequins are the top seeds after the Pool stages but if they win their quarter-final they will have to travel to either France or Ireland for their semi-final. There is some merit to the argument that not all pools are equally strong, making the rankings lopsided, but then surely it would make sense to have legitimately neutral venues for the semi-finals?
Edinburgh, Scarlets and Zebre: Winless after six games, which was expected from Zebre but not from last season's quarter-finalists, Edinburgh are without doubt the biggest disappointment of the European season. A big fat zero in the points column is not happy reading for fans of Scottish rugby. Scarlets could only manage two bonus points.
Antoine Battut: The Racing-Metro flank shouldn't book a holiday in Dublin any time soon, as there are a few Leinster fans who might have a few choice words for him after his stupid red card against Munster paved the way for a bonus-point win for the hosts at Thomond Park and sealed the champions' fate in the process.
Ronan O'Gara's one-week ban: We have a few problems with Judge Jeff Blackett reducing the prescribed suspension for ROG's kick from four weeks to one. Firstly, the good judge found that act was "out of character." Don't forget that one next time you get pulled over: "Sorry officer, I don't normally run red lights, it's wholly out of character. Best you reduce my fine by half." He also accepted that "O'Gara had intended to trip rather than to kick Cox." Did he watch the reply? And since when was tripping OK? Then he decided that, in his opinion, "a two-week suspension would be wholly disproportionate to the level of offending". What is the point of having guidelines if they can be ignored by those appointed to implement them?
Zac Guilford: News broke on Sunday that the 23-year-old All Blacks wing was under investigation after an alleged late-night incident at a residential home in Christchurch. A few hours later the NZRU released a statement saying Guildford had voluntarily stood down from involvement with the Crusaders, who "were very disappointed to learn of this incident". Hopefully the finisher can sort himself out and work his back into professional rugby.
Comments
Sincero says...
No fan of Toner. No fan of Toulon's mercenaries. No fan of surrendermonkeys. French teams... Stereotypes confirmed.
It was logical to let the Germans walk into France every few decades... not honourable.
Posted 03:41 23rd January 2013
ben7 says...
Zebo is sooooooo overrated its not even funny.
Posted 22:17 22nd January 2013
ShamanSheep says...
Playing rugby in the snow is clearly not 'epic'. Its just playing rugby in the snow.
Posted 21:42 22nd January 2013
NHsaints says...
@Sincero oh yes and Leinster are absolutely smoking too with their what? Lack of QF qualification and pro12 placing below Ulster and Glasgow (Glasgow being a team who's usual turnout is about half of Leinsters')...Zebo was good, really good. ROG ban is a joke, I'd have said 4 weeks minimum. Zebre and Edinburgh have no place in the HC, replace them with this years top 2 seeded non-HC qualified Amlin cup contenders...eg: Stade Francais and/or Gloucester/Wasps/Welsh ect (assuming none of those qualify domestically).
Posted 20:49 22nd January 2013
PatrickH says...
Pots came out a bit funky there.. anywho;
Pot 1: Leinster, Biarritz, Harlequins, Leicester, Toulouse, Clermont
Pot 2: Saracens, Ospreys, Munster, Northampton, Glasgow, Scarlets
Pot 3: Toulon, Exeter, Castres, Montpellier, Ulster, Racing Metro
Pot 4: Cardiff, Sale, L-Irish, Connaught, Trevisio, Edinburgh
Posted 20:16 22nd January 2013
PatrickH says...
@APV1: I see where you're coming from. I'm sure you know though that the Heineken Cup like most other large sporting competitions are primarily commercial ventures. If you didn't have teams from the weaker nations the competition would lose out on significant revenue and probably fail. Also, why would fans pay considerably more to see their clubs face the same teams as in their domestic league anyway? They'd get bored of it pretty quickly I think, again possibly leading to the collapse of the competition. So considering that, I've sorted the teams into a ranking system to come up with four pots of six teams, Ranked 1 - 4. The winners of both cup competitions get assigned top rank status (this would help the amlin-cup also) the remaining teams are ranked based on their average points over the season and the H-Cup rules for max teams per country is used also, meaning stad-francais miss out as the did anyway.
the 4 pots look like this;
Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4
Leinster Saracens Toulon Cardiff
Biarritz Ospreys Exeter Sale
Harlequins Munster Castres L-Irish
Leicester Northampton Montpellier Connacht
Toulouse Glasgow Ulster Trevisio
Clermont Scarlets Racing Metro Edinburgh
Posted 20:02 22nd January 2013
Dougie says...
Sincero, why do you refuse to ever give Munster players credit? It's pathetic how much your provincial bias comes through in every single post on here. I wouldn't be surprised to see you advocating for Toner to start ahead of Donncha Ryan in the 6N.
Posted 17:36 22nd January 2013
ArmchairGeneral says...
Sincero: Muppet!! some of your "French national stereotypes" all in the starting 15 (who lost to... oh a French team with more French players) are:
Armitage, Wulf, Giteau, Wilkinson, Masoe, Armitage, Gunther, Suta, Shaw, Ivaldi, Sherridan
Posted 17:16 22nd January 2013
new_j4a says...
Hey Ed, Yellow Cards before the kickoff? Has Wayne Barnes joined the editorial staff? Just as well to protect the gentle and well meaning souls whose world has just imploded.
Posted 17:02 22nd January 2013
APV1 says...
@ PatrickH - until the actual competition is merit-based, your proposal is moot. What's the point of having merit-based pools, when the actual competition isn't?
Posted 16:48 22nd January 2013
new_j4a says...
The editor says.... @ new_j4a and @sincero: Give it a rest, both of you.
Posted 16:13 22nd January 2013
99call says...
Quins hot I dont think so, here's the comedy of the HCup seedings for the knock out stages, there has only been one team that has gone into the knock out stage as no. 1 seeding that has gone on to win the comp and that was toulouse in the very first one in 1995/96. No other first seed has won and they quite often get knocked out in the quarter as they have usually been no. 1 due to being in an easy group and then they have to play a team that has fought its way through a hard group to get the last qualifying place.
There are numerous examples of this even last year Munster were no1 and they got turned over by Ulster who managed to get out of a group that Clermont and the Tigers so no easy games there and Leinster strolled through as no1 seed in 2004/5 but got turned over by a Tigers team that got out of a group with Biarritz and Wasps.
I feel history may be ready to repeat itself as I see Munster beating Quins as Quins have not had any real oppo yet in Connacht, Zebre and a very poor Biarritz side that couldnt even win in galway.
So Clermont are hot but I see Quins as being more luke warm and going out in the next round
Posted 16:10 22nd January 2013
PatrickH says...
Pool draws should be seeded based on each teams position in their domestic league / Amlin / Heineken cup in the previous year.
This would give the group draws more merit and the top performing teams can be rewarded with home routes to the finals.
Posted 15:57 22nd January 2013
Sincero says...
Sub-glacial: the French teams Toulon and Racing for confirming national stereotype. No heart, only cynical indifference.
Zebo? Wowzers! Three tries against 14 of Racingsurrendermonkey's children's reverve 4ths? HE'S SMOKING!!!
Posted 14:55 22nd January 2013
APV1 says...
Edinburgh, Scarlets and Zebre - I know this has been done to death, but as it's been raised again... How can anyone justify Zebre's inclusion in the HC, when they should be in the Amlin? Edinburgh obviously played the system last season and have now been exposed at the top level. Scarlets are just struggling.
Inclusion in the HC on merit. Please.
Citings and disciplinaries - still no sense or consitency. melkdave makes a good point about the minimum being fixed too. Can anyone make head or tail of the decision-making process? It's all just a load of tosh. Toss a coin and see what you get. 1 week - 52 weeks, depending on whether the judge got "happy time" from his beloved last night. Have standards and stick to them.
IRB - time to pull your finger out.
Posted 14:18 22nd January 2013
gingergenius says...
Karma has worked a treat for the HC semi-finals.
Harlequins had the piss-easiest pool I've seen in the Heineken for years. They've got a home quarter-final against a one-dimensional Munster side as a result. Their route to a semi couldn't have been easier. On the flipside, Munster who were incredibly lucky to sneak through, but have a really tough quarter at the Stoop as reward. Quins have an away semi, but so what. Didn't stop Leinster last year. Fair's fair.
Clermont, who've come from a pool containing rugby's Barcelona, Leinster, and still won 6 from 6, have earned a home quarter, and have earned a home semi.
Elsewhere, Toulon vs Leicester is an interesting tie, but Leicester didn't set the world alight in the pools, while Toulon had a pretty straightforward pool too, so neither can complain about an away semi final.
Leaving Saracens or Ulster, both of whom have had to really earn top spot in their pools, to a home semi-final.
It all seems about as fair as fair can be, unless you want to go down the road of fining Racing Metro for picking a 2nd XV to send to an important game at Thomond Park.
Posted 14:10 22nd January 2013
cambiassio says...
If dessie picks earls on the wing we may as well just give up now.
Posted 13:45 22nd January 2013
JDC1 says...
Re: Heineken Cup semi-finals - How about holding them over two legs, home & away.
Posted 13:37 22nd January 2013
melkdave says...
The ROG joke of a ban is by far the biggest problem the IRB have to sort out imo.We have seen to many players getting joke bans,and imoits making the game a bitof a joke.Best way to stop this nonsense.The gidelines become mimium manditory bans.The commitees cant give less than ,no matter what the circumstances or the players disaplinary recored or his character,There only reason to meet is to see if the incident warrants more than the minium manditory ban ie for malicious play and intent ect..That if enforced worldwide will see these joke bans gone from the game,and players and fans will know exactly where they stand .
Posted 13:28 22nd January 2013
makemehappy says...
The draw for the semis is ridiculous. Having this system acknowledges that the pool draws are even more ridiculous though!
Posted 13:27 22nd January 2013