Champions Cup - Pool 5, Round 1 (Treviso, Northampton, Ospreys, Racing Metro)

[TheSaffycen]

Smart to play Roberts as he can try and counter the power of Burrell and Pisi.
Looking at both line ups
Front Row- Waller/Hartley/Ma' Afu are very powerful and good at line out time. Brugnaut/Lacrombe/Ducalcon I must be honest i'm not big on Lacrombe, is he a good lineout thrower ? I expect that it will still be a tough front row to scrum against for the Saints.
Second Row-Lawes and Day are both good players, Lawes world class. Kruger has been good from what I have seen, Van Der Merwe is a good player as well.
Back Row- Wood and Clark are both tackling players but will struggle to slow down the ball. Wood is not bad at this he is kind of like Chouly who will get you one or two turnovers in a good game but you can't rely on him to do it consistently. Manoa is a great player. Claasens is a great carrying player, some how manages to stay on his feet all the time and Le Roux is a massive lump. Northampton will have to stop them to stop Racing getting a strong platform for Machenaud and Sexton.
Backs - In the centres I would give the edge to Saints, if they can stop Roberts on the line. The back three are pretty close but very different. Racing have 3 small elusive runners, whilst North offers the power and Foden/Pisi offer great speed.

I think Saints by 10

 

[Tony Manx]

Bit of justice there as the fullback was nowhere near that high ball with his hands and only just managed to get a foot to it yet George (the Idiot) Clancy gave a knock on and the scrum resulted in a Racing penalty!!!

Racing seem to have got the better of the Saints forwards so far...............

 

[SelimNiai]

Saints really need to inject some pace into their game

 

[Tony Manx]

Am I the only one bored with this match? Why does Clancy not yellow some of the forwards..........they would get it right then......

Kruger knew exactly what he was doing when he jumped into Foden.....his eyes were on him not the ball from about 10 paces away and his jump a total sham..........

Clancy seems totally scared of giving a yellow or he has forgotten them as he has warned Kruger too many times already but this was worthy of yellow on its own especially if you look at the other yellow in the Sale game!!

 

[SelimNiai]

That looked like a gouge to me

 

[Tony Manx]

That looked like a gouge to me

With his arm?

Doubt it!!

But why no effing yellow...............for gawds sake!!!

 

[SelimNiai]

With his arm? Doubt it!! But why no effing yellow...............for gawds sake!!!

There was a hand used

 

[UlsterRugby2012]

I wouldn't call using his fingertips to drag up the side of his face using an arm..

 

[Tony Manx]

There was a hand used

I wouldn't call using his fingertips to drag up the side of his face using an arm..

You would appear to be the only two (!) that came to that conclusion even after exhaustive TMO replays?

 

[SelimNiai]

Quite clearly a hand on face.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! ****.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Was a shocking YC.

But had to have a chuckle at that, two hands people.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Was a shocking YC.

Yep, we produce great referees on this island...!

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Saints getting away with some BS. No cards there? Ma'afu on Kruger? We had advantage at some stage and then Saints 13 intercepts.. some immaculate intervention there. Clearly getting intercepted is not to our advantage. Idiot this Clancy is.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

You would appear to be the only two (!) that came to that conclusion even after exhaustive TMO replays?

You can make that 3. Clearly ' reckless use of the fingers near the eye area'. Which is at least worth a yellow if you are copping out.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Well, that's the win. I'm glad enough for the win but after watching the Bledisloe and then both Currie Cup semi's I am very disappointed in the quality of rugby, or rather lack thereof, in this match. I mean, this try from Dulin didn't take skill; it was just some poor play from Northampton really.

 

[Tony Manx]

You can make that 3. Clearly ' reckless use of the fingers near the eye area'. Which is at least worth a yellow if you are copping out.

In that case no doubt he will be rightly cited...................lets us see what the next 48 hours say!

Did Clancy actually give a yellow as I gave up watching but he could have given at least four when I was watching up to the 60th minute but chickened out!! Idiot!

 

[racingmetro92]

I just wanna say one word after this game : ANDREUUUUUUUUUUU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[psychic duck]

Clancy is a useless ref and completely ruins games. Remains a mystery how he managed to work his way up to the top end of the sport and still remains there.

 

[Big Ewis]

I just wanna say one word after this game : ANDREUUUUUUUUUUU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

also saw my favorite scored, Dumoulin. Very good on him, very good. He's just attacking every opportunity he's got aggressively, scores a try at the start of the season Top 14, now first game of the Euro Cup against the England champs, bam, a try in the first 10. Goooood on him. Much, much better from Racing this season. Will try to watch it.