European Rugby Champions Cup

[COYBIB]

Glasgow let us down a bit by losing at home to Montpellier. Had they of gotten the home win and we do a double over Exeter, the group is all but home and hosed going into the final two rounds, especially when one of those games is away in France.

With the knock-out set up the way it is now, being a top 2 seed is crucial for the home quarter and potential home semi, more than ever you can win the cup in the group stages.

Lets just hope we're a Sunday game in the final round, we always seem to be up early and never have the luxury of knowing a draw would do or that we would need exactly x amount of tries.

Last season 24 group points would have been enough and we're on 14. No reason why we shouldn't look to push for 2 bonus point wins in the next two home games, I thought we were unlucky not to have a couple more tries in Exeter and I'd imagine Glasgow wont show much interest in Dublin and presumably eliminated.

[artaneboy]

Comments about McGrath bypassing Marmion after today's performance should check out Cooney's Masterclass against 'Quins, which earned him MOTM.

Yeah, Cooney is definitely the 9 with the steepest upwards curve. Very impressive performances this year. If he was playing behind a properly dominant pack, he’d be attracting more attention.

I’d still say Marmion is the backup, But I’m sure that Joe had mapped Cooney and if he place kicking was a bit better, he might push the Connacht man further.


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[R-Dog]

With the knock-out set up the way it is now, being a top 2 seed is crucial for the home quarter and potential home semi, more than ever you can win the cup in the group stages.

With the way the semis are done do you think your better coming 5th seed where you have an away 1/4 but 100% Guaranteed home Semi? all depends on the opposition of course.

Think I would take 5th and an away quarter ahead of 3/4th and an away semi

[blockhead]

Saracens v Clermont game is on at 5.30 pm today. Fans are permitted.
C'mon the draw!

[neilinboston]

Comments about McGrath bypassing Marmion after today's performance should check out Cooney's Masterclass against 'Quins, which earned him MOTM.

Yeah, Cooney is definitely the 9 with the steepest upwards curve. Very impressive performances this year. If he was playing behind a properly dominant pack, he’d be attracting more attention.

I’d still say Marmion is the backup, But I’m sure that Joe had mapped Cooney and if he place kicking was a bit better, he might push the Connacht man further.


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If Marmion doesn’t place kick, why would cooneys place kicking hold him back?

[simonokeeffe]

Carbery's flakey kicking? But that might be more a case of Cooney consistently kicks at 80% + it would help his claim

[kermischocolate]

Saracens v Clermont game is on at 5.30 pm today. Fans are permitted.
C'mon the draw!

This is ridiculous. At least have it at a sensible time so people might have the chance to attend!

Absolute shambles.

[artaneboy]

Comments about McGrath bypassing Marmion after today's performance should check out Cooney's Masterclass against 'Quins, which earned him MOTM.

Yeah, Cooney is definitely the 9 with the steepest upwards curve. Very impressive performances this year. If he was playing behind a properly dominant pack, he’d be attracting more attention.

I’d still say Marmion is the backup, But I’m sure that Joe had mapped Cooney and if he place kicking was a bit better, he might push the Connacht man further.


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If Marmion doesn’t place kick, why would cooneys place kicking hold him back?

C’mon- it’s not a direct replacement choice on another player; it’s another ‘string to the bow’ that a player brings to the collective skill set.


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[neiliog93]

Saracens v Clermont game is on at 5.30 pm today. Fans are permitted.
C'mon the draw!

This is ridiculous. At least have it at a sensible time so people might have the chance to attend!

Absolute shambles.

It's not ideal but it's a compromise as the initial plan was to have it behind closed doors.

We should be able to get the BP at home to Glasgow, which takes us to 19. If we're pessimistic and gives ourselves a losing bonus point against Montpellier, that's 20...so if we can get a result at the weekend against Exeter without a BP we may well have enough to be one of the top 2 seeds. Saracens and La Rochelle will be the main contenders there, both could get 25+ points.

[cormac]

Clermont taking out their frustration on Saracens so far. Some uncharacteristically sloppy defending from the home team and it's 0-14 after 20 mins

[Oldschool]

Clermont taking out their frustration on Saracens so far. Some uncharacteristically sloppy defending from the home team and it's 0-14 after 20 mins

Nigel reffing.
35mins gone.
7-24 and commentator talking about Clerment giving up 19 point lead at ht in a recent Top 14 game.
HT
Still 7-24.
Saracens putting on a lot of pressure before ht wihen Clerment had a YC.

[Ruckedtobits]

Les Jaunes reach h-t having had No 8 in the bin for final ten minutes but still leading 7-24. Could this be a 'Whitewash' of Premiership teams on top of their Ashes woe? Shurely not Sir!

[Xanthippe]

Saracens v Clermont game is on at 5.30 pm today. Fans are permitted.
C'mon the draw!

This is ridiculous. At least have it at a sensible time so people might have the chance to attend!

Absolute shambles.

It's not ideal but it's a compromise as the initial plan was to have it behind closed doors.
.

Behind closed doors would have been fairer to Clermont - tickets from yesterday may be valid for game but if your supporters have all headed home then it doesn't matter that tickets are still valid

[Oldschool]

47mins
7-31 TBP for Clerment, greedy f^ckers.

[Ruckedtobits]

It's certainly very clear that La Rochelle and Clermont and Toulon are playing in a League which is nowhere near as demanding as the Premiership (ahem)! How else would all the Premiership teams look so poor against their opponents this weekend?

Eddie Jones will be revising his plans for his Christmas camp as he has watched on this weekend. None of the big name English players who toured NZ in the summer appear to be wintering well. On the other hand, Clermont really do look back to their best and their mid-field with the big NZ out-half and a fit-again Fofana are scary.

Throw Montpelier into the mix (as they still might be regardless of how our last game against them goes) and France have three or four real contenders for European success this Season.

[Fan with smartphone]

Jaysis. An annihilation from start to finish.

[Oldschool]

Saracens minus B Vunipola, in particular, and Itoje are, like England, beatable.
Farrell needs a kick up the hole for tapping two penos in succession.
There was always the possibility of TBP.

[jimbobjoe]

Nigel Wray counts cost of historic defeat. He said: "That’s £300,000 down the drain. We’re quite big losers because we’ve lost a sell-out crowd and will make a substantial loss. You know my views on organisations like EPCR and the RFU, they’re all chaotic."

https://twitter.com/SunJonnyFordham/sta ... 9580533762

No words

[kermischocolate]

Nigel Wray counts cost of historic defeat. He said: "That’s £300,000 down the drain. We’re quite big losers because we’ve lost a sell-out crowd and will make a substantial loss. You know my views on organisations like EPCR and the RFU, they’re all chaotic."

https://twitter.com/SunJonnyFordham/sta ... 9580533762

No words

Except EPCR weren't responsible for the game not going ahead in the first place. The shambles after, yes.

[JohnB]

I admit to taking some pretty gratuitous pleasure from this result! Sorry to my English friends but I can’t help it - it’s a reflex.