Champions Cup Team of the Week: ‘Absolutely immense’ Jordie Barrett stars while England’s ‘impudent’ rising star delivers ‘mighty second-half performance’
Jordie Barrett and Henry Pollock make our Champions Cup Team of the Week.
And then there were four.
The weekend saw some amazing action with Bordeaux-Begles and Munster throwing up a thriller and Toulouse finally beating their Mayol hoodoo to scrape past a superb Toulon side.
Elsewhere, Northampton Saints and Leinster put in big scoring performances on Friday and Saturday respectively, as we now have our semi-finalists.
Following the quarter-final action, here’s our standout XV.
Champions Cup Team of the Week
15 George Furbank (Northampton Saints): First touch created a try, and he made another plus grabbed one himself in a memorable comeback performance. Melvyn Jaminet needs a shout out for accuracy off the tee that wouldn’t have disgraced Rory McIlroy, whilst Hugo Keenan was his usual brilliant self for Leinster.
14 Damian Penaud (Bordeaux-Begles): An absolutely thrilling display by the superb French wing, he changed the game with some phenomenal opportunism. A mention to Juan Cruz Mallia, brilliant out of position for Toulouse, and of course Leinster’s Tommy O’Brien who grabbed an early try for Leinster.
13 Yoram Moefana (Bordeaux-Begles): A player that’s turned a corner and keeps delivering both sides of the ball, Moefana was Bordeaux’s glue in midfield. Garry Ringrose was outstanding for Leinster, whilst Pierre Louis Barassi again reminded us of his class for Toulouse.
12 Jordie Barrett (Leinster): Absolutely immense. His defensive work is the key in Leinster’s improvement this season whilst he’s breaking every tackle going with ball in hand. Pita Akhi is our runner-up as he grabbed a crucial try for Champions Cup holders Toulouse, and a word too for Fraser Dingwall, an unsung hero of the Saints 9/10/12 combo.
11 Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints): We’ve switched him across to the left to get him in after another fantastic performance. Louis Bielle-Biarrey misses out for once, and Blair Kinghorn did his chances of Lions selection no harm as he was a rock under the high ball.
10 Sam Prendergast (Leinster): He had an armchair ride with the forward dominance his pack delivered but he shone with kicks from hand and in finding gaps. Fin Smith once again delivered a classy display for Saints as his backs enjoyed themselves at Franklin’s Gardens.
9 Maxime Lucu (Bordeaux-Begles): Literally a toss of a coin between Lucu and the outstanding Saint, Alex Mitchell. But we felt Lucu held Bordeaux together when Munster were on a comeback charge. A word for Naito Saito, who gave Toulouse huge impact at the Mayol.
The forwards
8 Pete Samu (Bordeaux-Begles): Samu was absolutely fantastic in go forward for UBB as he motored through the Munster defence at times. Alexandre Roumat was phenomenal in the early exchanges for Toulouse with some thundering pick and goes whilst providing a great source of lineout possession, Samu edges this battle.
7 Henry Pollock (Northampton Saints): Impudence personified. He came back well from a poor first half in his ruck work to deliver a mighty second half performance, keeping another try scorer, Jack Willis, out of our team. Toulon’s Esteban Abadie was one of the reasons that his club pushed Toulouse so close as he gave everything in defeat.
6 Francois Cros (Toulouse): Another ridiculous shift from one of the most effective forwards around, his workrate was crucial in seeing his team home. Max Deegan showed precisely why he’s got the starting shirt at Leinster, whilst Josh Kemeny gave a thundering display for Saints.
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5 RG Snyman (Leinster): Man mountain doing man mountain things, RG is a world class performer and he delivered once again. Alex Coles was brilliant for Saints and cannot be far from a recall to the England Test side for their tour of Argentina and USA.
4 Emmanuel Meafou (Toulouse): A dumper truck of a rugby player who is getting fitter and fitter. He delivered a full 80 in a thundering display, keeping Toulon’s skipper David Ribbans out, who once again gave everything in a classy performance.
3 Tadhg Furlong (Leinster): His enforced injury break has rejuvenated his running and barging brilliance and he treated his fans to a solid effort in the tight. Trevor Davison was part of a front-row who bested Will Collier’s Castres scrum.
2 Curtis Langdon (Northampton Saints): So hard to chose between Julien Marchand and Langdon, but the Saint is someone that’s on the upslope and is almost sure to tour with England in the summer. Peato Mauvaka replaced Marchand and also made a real impact at the Mayol, whilst Dan Sheehan scored yet another try off the bench for Leinster.
1 Emmanuel Iyogun (Northampton Saints): A hard call at loosehead, but given that the young Iyogun was up against one of the best tightheads in Europe in Collier and did a job on him, we couldn’t ignore his efforts. Josh Wycherley had a memorable first half for Munster, whilst Cyril Baille might have been our choice but for his yellow card.
