Toulouse squad announced....

[jezzer]

Forwards: Hasan, Menarska, Bru, Lacombe, Poux, Mill-Chluski, Brennan, Pelous, Bouilhou, Nyanga, F. Maka, Lamboley

Backs: Elissalde, Michalak, Dubois, Clerc, Heymans, Fritz, Jauzion, Kunavore, Poitrenaud, Medard.

[ckav]

Forwards: Hasan, Menarska, Bru, Lacombe, Poux, Mill-Chluski, Brennan, Pelous, Bouilhou, Nyanga, F. Maka, Lamboley

Backs: Elissalde, Michalak, Dubois, Clerc, Heymans, Fritz, Jauzion, Kunavore, Poitrenaud, Medard.

Oh Feck. I'm scared even reading that.

[jezzer]

Did you watch the Agen game? Shaggy's going to be a busy boy keeping an eye on Heymans... One thing for sure, we won't be kicking any possession aimlessly downfield.

[ckav]

Did you watch the Agen game? Shaggy's going to be a busy boy keeping an eye on Heymans... One thing for sure, we won't be kicking any possession aimlessly downfield.

Thank God that's not in our gameplan. That's Team Eddie. I just hope that the players returning from the Gulag have been deprogrammed by Cheika, Knoxie et al.

[Uncle Mort]

Oh Feck. I'm scared even reading that.

but why when we have

Will Green, the Blaneys, Reggie, Mal, Gissing, Jowett, Miller, Gleeson, Heaslip, Easterby, Felipe, D'Arce, BOD, Shaggy, Girv, Kearney, Dennis and more - all we need is a bit of ball and we'll score tries. In any Rugby match if you know your opposition can score tries this is a big block - we can (and do) run from everywhere - that's very hard for them to defend against. Of course we may lose but I predict we'll score at least three tries.

[jezzer]

Anyone notice how Toulouse and France in particular (but also Wales and some of the Italians) have started using a two-handed basketball-style pass to affload? Tons of them in the Agen game. Works very well if you have both arms free in the offload.

Read a really interesting piece on forward passes a while ago and they made the point that offloads in tackles are the areas that cause most forward passes - the body is decelerating from top speed to zero but the offloaded ball is still travelling forwards at the speed of the runner, so you have to make an extra effort to pass backwards and with force just to have the ball travel sideways. Makes sense really, but looks as though this basketball pass is becoming more common as a way of achieving it.

Haven't seen any Irish players really use it. it's a skill Shaggy could well learn, as his only real weakness is timing his offload in contact....

[epaddy]

Forwards: Hasan, Menarska, Bru, Lacombe, Poux, Mill-Chluski, Brennan, Pelous, Bouilhou, Nyanga, F. Maka, Lamboley

Backs: Elissalde, Michalak, Dubois, Clerc, Heymans, Fritz, Jauzion, Kunavore, Poitrenaud, Medard.

Looks shite, Leinster by 17