Domestic and European Rugby Union

[dcdavecollett]

Just caught up with this today!

It must be the best comeback win since the Bristol-Quins game from a couple of years ago.

[paul_e]

Saints are home to Bayonne tonight and it's about the most 1sided game I've ever seen in the champions cup, not even half hour gone and Saints could have 6-7 tries but had one disallowed and had a couple of unlucky bounces.

[UK Redsox]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/67995451

LRZ quits Rugby for a shot at the NFL

[PaulWinch again]

That’s quite a shock.

[paul_e]

The first knockout round in the champions cup has turned into a farce.


5 of the fixtures have already been played in the groups and 1 of the other 3 is Toulouse vs Racing92 who were in the same group but didn't play because they're from the same league. Worse still with a tiny bit of thought it was entirely predictable that it would work out like this.


I really hope they sort it out for next year and just have a home pot and away pot.


On the games, Toulouse were exceptional and are my favourites for the title, Bath did superbly to give them a game but the quality difference was incredible. Willis was incredible, England need to change the rules so he can be selected because he's far too good to ignore. For Bath Obano put in an excellent performance and Lawrence was destructive, I hope both get regular game time in the 6N.
Bayonne smashing Exeter showed just how good Saints were last week but maybe the pressure being completely off helped them. The Jenkins yellow was an incredibly poor decision.
Sarries put in their best performance of the season to come back after Lyon blew them away early on.
Quins were great but Ulster were shocking in defence.
Saints showed some real grit to beat Munster after going down to 14men, red card was very harsh for me. Fin Smith put in a masterclass and I can see him really pushing for England starts very soon.

[paul_e]

Bordeaux vs Quins has been an exceptional game so far, both sides have the quality to score from nothing and both teams have the moments of defensive fraglity to leak points.

Sadly the difference in the depth on the bench looks like it's going to see Bordeaux snatch it.

[paul_e]

Massive win for Quins courtesy of a fucking awful conversion from Lucu.

[taylorsworkrate]

Northampton will be kicking themselves. Didn't start playing until after 60 minutes and made about a seasons worth of handling errors before then.

Leinster away is always going to be extremely difficult but they pretty much gave it to them.

[paul_e]

Northampton will be kicking themselves. Didn't start playing until after 60 minutes and made about a seasons worth of handling errors before then.

Leinster away is always going to be extremely difficult but they pretty much gave it to them.

Yep, Leinster pulled out al lthe dirty tricks towards the end to hang on, not least Gibson-Park sitting on the floor pushing the ball back to his side at the last break down. I'm also far from convinced Doris showed any clear release on the tackle that gave them a penalty a couple of minutes before.

Final point I'd love to know how Porter has managed to convince refs that him releasing his bind causing a collapse is a penalty in his favour, he did it 3 times today and Reynal gave him the decision for all of them.

[Brazilian Villain]

Nice to see Leinster winning at Croker, in front of an attendance of 82,300 (which is a new Champions Cup record).

[taylorsworkrate]

That's all true. I think the referee wilted in the face of a partisan 82,000 strong crowd at times.

Even so, Northampton gifted Leinster 2 of their tries and made so many unforced errors. They'd have won if they hadn't played like rabbits in the headlights for 75% of the match

[dcdavecollett]

For give my ignorance of the rules, but is Doris allowed to 'jackal' with just one hand on the ball, as he did near the end?

[paul_e]

For give my ignorance of the rules, but is Doris allowed to 'jackal' with just one hand on the ball, as he did near the end?

1 hand is fine, the big things to look out for are:
clear evidence that they either weren't part of the tackle or had released the player before going over the ball
that they aren't supporting their weight on their hands
that they don't go past the ball and then let the opposition push them back onto it.

My issue with that one at the end is that Doris was part of the tackle and if he did release the player it was by millimetres, 9/10 that would've been called up for no clear release and it would've been a penalty 25yards out direct in front of the posts.

Saints made too many mistakes today but they were also on the wrong side of a lot of marginal calls that played a big part in the result, the most pivotal being that turnover and the scrum penalty that they scored to go 15-0 up which was the clearest example of Porter dropping his bind to create a collapse whilst the ref was the other side and didn't see it.

Away from that the other thing that really pissed me off today (and is a recurring theme in the game right now) is the amount of times players in the attacking team are allowed to come in from the side to clearout the ruck. It's become so accepted by refs that teams like Leinster and Ireland just do it without any concern now and it completely devalues the advantage of knocking a player back in the tackle.

[dcdavecollett]

Thanks for that Paul.

I felt sorry for Saints but felt that they started playing too late.

[paul_e]

Saints clearly in no mood to have the season end in disappointment, 40-0 against Gloucester at half time and could've had more, exceptional first half.