blametheref says...

...It's all very well hearing teams will squeeze Leinster and starve their backs of quick ball, teams try that all the time as they always assume Leinster's forwards have a soft underbelly, but they don't and they've great carriers if the game gets tight, so trying to sqeeze them is like trying to sqeeze the wet preverbial bar of soap....Still, with the talent both sides have, this could go anyway, and it's why Barnes should NOT be in charge, but I expect to see Leinster in the final

Posted 19:55 27th April 2012

notbitathisnow says...

I would like to apologize bitathisnow......your knowledge of rugby is far greater than mine. I went over the line it's just that I'm such a big fan of Brock James. I hope you can see it in your heart to forgive me,

Yours sincerely,

Notbitathisnow

Posted 19:29 27th April 2012

notbitathisnow says...

I enjoy rugby

Posted 19:22 27th April 2012

JMehrtens says...

"Ulster, Edinburgh, Clermont and Leinster are the lucky teams left standing"

Lucky? I think there was a bit more involved than luck, even for Edinburgh.

I predict an Ulster vs Clermont final, than Leicester can consider themselves unlucky

Posted 13:33 27th April 2012

notbitathisnow says...

Brive, stade franca is , ulster and clermont to win.........Brive are at home, therefore they will win - Biarritz are appalling away from home ( at Bayonne for e.g), stade will be more focused than Toulon on Friday ( whom are putting more of an emphasis on top 14) ulster are simply a better side than Edinburgh and clermont will win bcos they have an amazing record in France against other European teams...it will be close though. But I particularly disagree with that guy who said James would bottle it.... He is in the form of his life atm......have you watched top 14 this year?

Posted 20:33 26th April 2012

liam2me says...

PR would go into melt down if there was an all Irish final at 'HQ'

Posted 19:01 26th April 2012

leinster_goy says...

@Mr. O. Punt

fairly selective with your statistics there. if you dig a little deeper, you will find that, excluding the away rout of aironi (irrelevant), clermont too have scored only 3 tries away from home against half-decent opposition (one against ulster, leicester and saracens respectively). there is nothing between leinster and clermont on that basis

you seem to contradict yourself by flagging leinster's low away try count as a handicap, then hand clermont the advantage by citing the top 14 emphasis on set piece. the fact that leinster won two of their away games and got a draw in the other (in the cauldron of montpellier - last year's top 14 finalists, I would add) while scoring only 3 tries in the process, demonstrates a team with an excellent set-piece foundation, powerful forwards, an ability to be pragmatic away from home and rely upon the boot of their fly-half to kick the points when they are on offer. you will also see less of a reliance on "quick ball" in those matches - boss normally picked ahead of Redders, mainly in the interests of defense. leinster can do "conservative" just as well as any top 14 side - we're not all just about running rugby, you know ;)

in any event, the issue of tries is a red herring. i don't see that many tries being scored on sunday. it is likely that both teams will be cagey - particularly clermont, since they are the ones under all the pressure (you mentioned clermont's "desperation", which is telling). it may well come down to a kicking duel between parra and Sexto. it could come down to sheer luck. small margins like the idiosyncracies of wayne barnes could determine it ultimately. either way, this game is absolutely 50-50 and impossible to predict. let's just enjoy it

Posted 15:51 26th April 2012