Heineken Cup Final - Dublin 2013 [NO TICKET SALES HERE!!!]

Rightwing

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Did you give everyone who told you Clermont would beat Munster a pat on the back? :pac:

Yes, to those who predicted a tight win, not the 30 odd point thrashing that I was reading about. Not the Clermont are unbeatable brigade.

trouttrout

Rightwing wrote: »

Yes, to those who predicted a tight win, not the 30 odd point thrashing that I was reading about. Not the Clermont are unbeatable brigade.

can you find a post from anyone on the board saying that Clermont would win by that margin? Or that they were unbeatable?

Rightwing

thomond2006 wrote: »

Just a bit of fun mate, don't take it personally. I explained the Christian Cullen thing and jm08 accepted it graciously. I knew **** all about anything when I first posted it here, I'd like to think I've educated myself a litte bit.

No harm if you changed your mind. We all have when it comes to backing teams at the start of a season.

Still, I want my praise now!! You promised you'd give it, now I want it.

I changed my mind a few times, went toulon first, then clermont, then back to toulon.

If I criticise someone, I can definitely praise them too, so yes, well done in your prediction with toulon.

jamiedav2011

Buer

Rightwing wrote: »

smart until I read about your C Cullen nugget.
I felt Toulon would win after the semis. Clermont struggled badly against Munster, they were on the ropes, toulon easily dismissed Sarries.

You shouldn't care so much. You seem rather agitated over that.

:pac:

Teferi

There was a load of Heineken Cup reps around taking pictures all weekend - anyone know where they would put them up? No luck on their facebook.

Hagz

Jeez, talk about being hard on someone. I don't think there was any need to jump down his throat like that.

totallegend

Probably remarked upon already but the number of players with Super Rugby and Heineken Cup medals doubled on Saturday - Botha, Roussouw and Giteau joining Doug Howlett, Rod Kafer and Brad Thorn.

Botha and Roussow also join Thorn in having won the World Cup, HC, Super Rugby and Tri Nations.

.ak

Looking back on the game, clermont were defo the better team, they were painfully unlucky.

Grandpa Hassan

.ak wrote: »

Looking back on the game, clermont were defo the better team, they were painfully unlucky.

Their inability to execute was nothing to do with luck.

vienne86

Clermont were desperately unlucky, and Toulon played smart. I still think Munster or Leinster, in Clermon't position, would have closed it out. They let their supporters down badly, and probably know that - Rougerie even spoke of the disappointment for the supporters in his post match interview.

......so, when is the draw for next season's Heineken Cup?

.ak

Grandpa Hassan wrote: »

Their inability to execute was nothing to do with luck.

True, however, even factoring their faltering they were still the better team, and still very unlucky not to win, considering a failed conversion and some of the stuff that happened within the breakdown in Toulon's 22.

Clermont were all over Toulon for 80 min.

totallegend

vienne86 wrote: »

......so, when is the draw for next season's Heineken Cup?

It's usually in June I think.

I'd be hoping for

Leinster
Perpignan
Gloucester
Zebre

The nightmare draw would be:

Leinster
Leicester
Ospreys
Racing

Buer

They absolutely dominated possession and territory. I think they were very naive. For a cup final, they should have been looking to pick off points whenever they could instead of constantly recycling and looking for the try. Skrela and James are both well able to hit a drop goal; Skrela actually nailed two sweetly in his last HEC final. With that amount of field position they should have picked off a couple much earlier in the game to keep their side ticking along. At that point there would have been much less pressure from the defence. The team leaders and coaching team have to take a chunk of blame for that. They played into Toulon's hands.

.ak

Yeah, I thought whenever they got into the Toulon 22 they got sucked into a dog fight. From up the heavens it was pretty plain to see. Everytime I thought, 'Ah, they're getting sucked into this...' it would end up as a knock on or turn over. Defo thought they should've spread Toulon out a bit and then try a few grubbers through.

rrpc

Buer wrote: »

They absolutely dominated possession and territory. I think they were very naive. For a cup final, they should have been looking to pick off points whenever they could instead of constantly recycling and looking for the try. Skrela and James are both well able to hit a drop goal; Skrela actually nailed two sweetly in his last HEC final. With that amount of field position they should have picked off a couple much earlier in the game to keep their side ticking along. At that point there would have been much less pressure from the defence. The team leaders and coaching team have to take a chunk of blame for that. They played into Toulon's hands.

Also they got a very poor performance from Rolland at the breakdown. Toulon were constantly not releasing the tackled player and consequently Rolland was giving penalties against Clermont for holding on when in many cases, they couldn't possibly release. There was a lot of frustration from Clermont players because of this and Rougerie got pinged for getting up in the tackle at one stage.

It stretches belief that a team can defend for as long as Toulon did in the red zone and not get penalised at least once.

Buer

rrpc wrote: »

Also they got a very poor performance from Rolland at the breakdown. Toulon were constantly not releasing the tackled player and consequently Rolland was giving penalties against Clermont for holding on when in many cases, they couldn't possibly release. There was a lot of frustration from Clermont players because of this and Rougerie got pinged for getting up in the tackle at one stage.

It stretches belief that a team can defend for as long as Toulon did in the red zone and not get penalised at least once.

Very true. But I'd say that Clermont should have responded to that. They're getting into the red zone and then getting none of the calls. Pick them off then and stop going into contact once within striking distance. I just can't understand that a team wouldn't take a drop goal when it was screaming for it. Cup final rugby is the place to always be on the look out for such an opportunity. As crazy as it sounds, Damien Traille would have been more effective than Fofana at the weekend; if Clermont had someone like him in their midfield, I'm convinced they'd have the trophy.

rrpc

Buer wrote: »

Very true. But I'd say that Clermont should have responded to that. They're getting into the red zone and then getting none of the calls. Pick them off then and stop going into contact once within striking distance. I just can't understand that a team wouldn't take a drop goal when it was screaming for it. Cup final rugby is the place to always be on the look out for such an opportunity. As crazy as it sounds, Damien Traille would have been more effective than Fofana at the weekend; if Clermont had someone like him in their midfield, I'm convinced they'd have the trophy.

Completely agree. It's not as though it only happened at the end, it was very clear in the first half as well and I expected the coaching setup to come up with a strategy to deal with it, but they clearly didn't. Not sure Cotter is as tactically aware as his erstwhile backs coach but a few pick and drives with two forwards on the carry would negate a lot of that and eat up a bit of ground, pull in some defenders and give the out wide boys something to work with.

The worst episode for me was where the hooker was on the touch line with nobody covering him and they skip passed Byrne to the centre who tried to go around the defense and ate up the space available leaving the hooker in no mans land when he got the ball. The crowd could even see a certain try coming and they just butchered it.

totallegend

Delon Armitage on the, erm, charm offensive about his little wave to Brock James:

"I don't understand it. On the contrary, I'm very respectful of the morals of rugby. In doing that, I just wanted to have a bit of fun. Rugby, it's still just a game, it's not a war! And also, everyone should know that the Clermont players didn't stop winding me up before my try. When they scored both their tries, each time, certain players made obscene hand gestures to me, something I've kept quiet. So, I wanted to respond in my own way but didn't mean anything nasty."

http://www.rugbyrama.fr/rugby/coupe-d-europe/2012-2013/d.-armitage-je-n-ai-pas-cesse-d-etre-chambre-par-les-clermontois_sto3764494/story.shtml

trouttrout

totallegend wrote: »

Delon Armitage on the, erm, charm offensive about his little wave to Brock James:

"I don't understand it. On the contrary, I'm very respectful of the morals of rugby. In doing that, I just wanted to have a bit of fun. Rugby, it's still just a game, it's not a war! And also, everyone should know that the Clermont players didn't stop winding me up before my try. When they scored both their tries, each time, certain players made obscene hand gestures to me, something I've kept quiet. So, I wanted to respond in my own way but didn't mean anything nasty."

http://www.rugbyrama.fr/rugby/coupe-d-europe/2012-2013/d.-armitage-je-n-ai-pas-cesse-d-etre-chambre-par-les-clermontois_sto3764494/story.shtml

Haha, two days after the match, well done Delon :rolleyes:

rrpc

totallegend wrote: »

Delon Armitage on the, erm, charm offensive about his little wave to Brock James:

"I don't understand it. On the contrary, I'm very respectful of the morals of rugby. In doing that, I just wanted to have a bit of fun. Rugby, it's still just a game, it's not a war! And also, everyone should know that the Clermont players didn't stop winding me up before my try. When they scored both their tries, each time, certain players made obscene hand gestures to me, something I've kept quiet. So, I wanted to respond in my own way but didn't mean anything nasty."

http://www.rugbyrama.fr/rugby/coupe-d-europe/2012-2013/d.-armitage-je-n-ai-pas-cesse-d-etre-chambre-par-les-clermontois_sto3764494/story.shtml

It would all be so much more believable had he not tweeted the 'fat pr**k' comment to Brian Moore.

vienne86

trouttrout wrote: »

Haha, two days after the match, well done Delon :rolleyes:

...and what about that tweet?

Rightwing

I think they went over board about that incident, not nice to see, but that's all.

Buer

Rightwing wrote: »

I think they went over board about that incident, not nice to see, but that's all.

I don't think so. It was the actions of an utter cretin to taunt another player who was chasing back.

It's also near impossible to take it as a stand alone incident. The litany of incidents involving Armitage both on and off the field goes right back. He has had run ins wherever he has gone, insulting people and injuring players. Both pre-season games he had for LI in Ireland against Ulster and Leinster he was discussed for the wrong reasons for his interactions with the crowd and this was before he had his current reputation.

trouttrout

Rightwing wrote: »

I think they went over board about that incident, not nice to see, but that's all.

who went overboard? He was dead right to be called out as someone with no class

You wouldn't even see that crap in a soccer game

Rightwing

trouttrout wrote: »

who went overboard? He was dead right to be called out as someone with no class

You wouldn't even see that crap in a soccer game

People should just ignore it, he'll soon get tired of it then, when he gets a reaction and he is in the spotlight he thinks it's great.

Buer

Rightwing wrote: »

People should just ignore it, he'll soon get tired of it then, when he gets a reaction and he is in the spotlight he thinks it's great.

No, that's not the case. This is a guy that has given the finger to the crowd and mouthed at them in pre-season friendlies in front of 500 people. He'd start a fight in a phone box. I doubt it's anything to do with a reaction. He has been doing it for as long as he has been a professional player.

thomond2006

I don't think anyone who knows his record will buy that 'apology'. He's a bad apple and he's never going to change. He's probably got a higher yellow card ratio per game than his brother and his brother is a flanker! He mouths off to players in most games, he did when he got binned for the spear tackle against Montpellier, he did it when Grenoble scored their winning try a few weeks back. He's pushed an anti-doping officer for christ sake. I could go on.

He doesn't do anything for a spotlight, he's just an a-hole. You don't mouth off to players, push an anti-doping officer, cheap shot players or spear players for a spotlight. Judging by the reaction on twitter, he is equally despised by fellow players as he is by fans.

trouttrout

"what was the greatest moment of your life but still remembered for being a prat!" best quote on Delon

Buer

thomond2006 wrote: »

He's probably got a higher yellow card ratio per game than his brother and his brother is a flanker!

He has only managed 16 yellow and 1 red in his club career thus far which, ridiculously, I actually am surprised at. For comparative purposes, Dylan Hartley has only 12 yellows in his club career in a similar number of appearances and is considered a very abrasive, borderline dirty forward.