Heineken Cup - General Discussion Thread

irishbucsfan

liammur wrote: »

That Biarritz team would blow this Ulster team away

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/club/8262011/Ulster-9-Biarritz-6-match-report.html

Not really.

liammur

irishbucsfan wrote: »

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/club/8262011/Ulster-9-Biarritz-6-match-report.html

Not really.

Biarritz beat Munster, a european powerhouse, then went onto narrowly lose to Toulouse, 19-21, the best team in the history of the H Cup


You need to do more research than scrounge up a useless telegraph article.

irishbucsfan

liammur wrote: »

Biarritz beat Munster, a european powerhouse, then went onto narrowly lose to Toulouse, 19-21, the best team in the history of the H Cup


You need to do more research than scrounge up a useless telegraph article.

You mean a useless telegraph article of a match report from whem Ulster beat that Biarritz team? Certainly doesn't fall in line with

That Biarritz team would blow this Ulster team away

Biarritz beat Munster, a European powerhouse... Ulster beat who this year exactly?

danthefan

And they finished 9th in the Top14 that season. No way they'd "blow Ulster away".

circos

liammur wrote: »

Biarritz beat Munster, a european powerhouse, then went onto narrowly lose to Toulouse, 19-21, the best team in the history of the H Cup


You need to do more research than scrounge up a useless telegraph article.

Do more research? His post makes your last post invalid.

liammur

Everyone knows Munster are on the fall, year on year they are getting worse.

would the team of 10 beat today, absolutely
Would biarritz beat ulster, absolutely

Look at Leinster, they got a draw off a very limited french team in the pool this year, does this mean that french team are as good as Leinster?

Chuckle chuckle.

Podge_irl

liammur wrote: »

Would biarritz beat ulster, absolutely

Based on? Considering they meet 6 months later and Ulster beat them that's a bit of a stretch. Finals are nearly always close affairs but Biarritz in general were not very good that year.

GerM

liammur wrote: »

Everyone knows Munster are on the fall, year on year they are getting worse.

would the team of 10 beat today, absolutely
Would biarritz beat ulster, absolutely

There's no absolutely about it whatsoever. The Biarritz team of 2010 was probably the worst side ever to contest a final since the turn of the century. Ospreys were absolutely robbed against them in the QF by a shocking call by Clancy. Biarritz had a solid (not brilliant) set piece, a goal kicker and a guy that could slot drop goals. The scrum and the kicker beat an average Munster side. Toulouse beat them up in the final and pulled away very comfortably, destroying their scrum. A last minute try and missed kicks by Skrela made the score look very different to the reality.

If played in a neutral ground, I'd expect Ulster to win against that Biarritz side.

danthefan

GerM wrote: »

There's no absolutely about it whatsoever. The Biarritz team of 2010 was probably the worst side ever to contest a final since the turn of the century. Ospreys were absolutely robbed against them in the QF by a shocking call by Clancy. Biarritz had a solid (not brilliant) set piece, a goal kicker and a guy that could slot drop goals. The scrum and the kicker beat an average Munster side. Toulouse beat them up in the final and pulled away very comfortably, destroying their scrum. A last minute try and missed kicks by Skrela made the score look very different to the reality.

If played in a neutral ground, I'd expect Ulster to win against that Biarritz side.

Was that the offside that was actually about 2 metres onside?

GerM

danthefan wrote: »

Was that the offside that was actually about 2 metres onside?

Yachvilli slapped the ball out of Phillips' hands in the last seconds after the clock went 80. He was actually onside. Deliberate knock on though, slapping the ball out of the scrum half's grasp so an absolute penalty. Clancy put his arm out for advantage. It was a great position and pretty much a simple three pointer so Biggar tried a snap drop goal on the advantage and missed. Clancy put his arm down and said he was only giving scrum advantage but there wasn't time for it and blew the final whistle. Even the Biarritz coach said it was a penalty.

danthefan

GerM wrote: »

Yachvilli slapped the ball out of Phillips' hands in the last seconds after the clock went 80. He was actually onside. Deliberate knock on though, slapping the ball out of the scrum half's grasp so an absolute penalty. Clancy put his arm out for advantage. It was a great position and pretty much a simple three pointer so Biggar tried a snap drop goal on the advantage and missed. Clancy put his arm down and said he was only giving scrum advantage but there wasn't time for it and blew the final whistle. Even the Biarritz coach said it was a penalty.

Fair enough, thanks.

I can't remember if this was the same game but I was thinking of a chip over the defence which an attacking player ran onto and looked very likely to either score or get very close to scoring, which the ref called back for offside. Replays showed the guy who gathered the ball was miles onside, it wasn't even contentious. Clancy was the ref as far as I remember. As I said though might have been a different game.

irishbucsfan

Wasn't Clancy the ref for the infamous Leicester Ospreys game as well?

Ospreys must hate him!

liammur

Podge_irl wrote: »

Finals are nearly always close affairs but Biarritz in general were not very good that year.

I'm making a very bold prediction then. This year's final will NOT be a close affair.

Fishooks12

That Biarritz side were probably the worst to contest a HC final

Ulster would beat them 7 or 8 times out of ten in Ravenhill and would have probably made a better craic at them away in that semi than we did given we didn't have a functioning front row

GerM

danthefan wrote: »

Fair enough, thanks.

I can't remember if this was the same game but I was thinking of a chip over the defence which an attacking player ran onto and looked very likely to either score or get very close to scoring, which the ref called back for offside. Replays showed the guy who gathered the ball was miles onside, it wasn't even contentious. Clancy was the ref as far as I remember. As I said though might have been a different game.

Perpignan against Northampton last season in the semi final? Little chip over the top in midfield, Marty burst through and gathered the chip with a clear run from about 40m and Clancy called it back. Marty had been about a full metre behind Laharrague when he kicked. Northampton slotted the resulting penalty from halfway. 10 point swing on a terrible call.

liammur

GerM wrote: »

There's no absolutely about it whatsoever. The Biarritz team of 2010 was probably the worst side ever to contest a final since the turn of the century. Ospreys were absolutely robbed against them in the QF by a shocking call by Clancy. Biarritz had a solid (not brilliant) set piece, a goal kicker and a guy that could slot drop goals.

That Ospreys team were good enough to beat the pick of this Ulster/Edinburgh selection.

Fishooks12

liammur wrote: »

I'm making a very bold prediction then. This year's final will NOT be a close affair.

It more than likely will be bar an Edinburgh upset which is highly unlikely

An Ulster Clermont final will see a third meeting of two sides who have gone toe to toe home and away in two very tight games

An all Irish affair in Dublin would probably see a Leinster victory but Ulster would be nothing close to a pushover

Fishooks12

liammur wrote: »

That Ospreys team were good enough to beat the pick of this Ulster/Edinburgh selection.

:D:D:D:D

Sometimes you just have to laugh

danthefan

GerM wrote: »

Perpignan against Northampton last season in the semi final? Little chip over the top in midfield, Marty burst through and gathered the chip with a clear run from about 40m and Clancy called it back. Marty had been about a full metre behind Laharrague when he kicked. Northampton slotted the resulting penalty from halfway. 10 point swing on a terrible call.

That's the one, yep.

GerM

Fishooks12 wrote: »

Ulster would beat them 7 or 8 times out of ten in Ravenhill and would have probably made a better craic at them away in that semi than we did given we didn't have a functioning front row

Scrum and two moments of madness from Fla and Warwick cost Munster that game. If those issues hadn't been there, Munster would have contested the final. Every single scrum was watched through my fingers. That was the day everyone knew John Hayes was done and dusted as a top level player.

Fishooks12

GerM wrote: »

Scrum and two moments of madness from Fla and Warwick cost Munster that game. If those issues hadn't been there, Munster would have contested the final. Every single scrum was watched through my fingers. That was the day everyone knew John Hayes was done and dusted as a top level player.

Shows how poor that Biarritz side really were, because we were godawful that day

I genuinely worried about the future for Irish scrummaging that day

liammur

Fishooks12 wrote: »

It more than likely will be bar an Edinburgh upset which is highly unlikely

An Ulster Clermont final will see a third meeting of two sides who have gone toe to toe home and away in two very tight games

An all Irish affair in Dublin would probably see a Leinster victory but Ulster would be nothing close to a pushover

I see both Clermont and Leinster wipe the floor with either Ulster or Edinburgh. But as they say, only time will.

Fishooks12

liammur wrote: »

I see both Clermont and Leinster wipe the floor with either Ulster or Edinburgh. But as they say, only time will.

Anything to back that up?

Did Clermont wipe the floor with Ulster the two times they've met this year? What evidence is there to suggest this will happen if they meet in the final?

liammur

Fishooks12 wrote: »

Anything to back that up?

Did Clermont wipe the floor with Ulster the two times they've met this year? What evidence is there to suggest this will happen if they meet in the final?

As I said, only time will tell. I may be wrong, but we'll see.

Fishooks12

liammur wrote: »

As I said, only time will tell. I may be wrong, but we'll see.

ok so nothing actually got to do with rugby in the prediction

fair nuf

thomond2006

Coming home next weekend for the semi, can't wait!

totallegend

GerM wrote: »

Scrum and two moments of madness from Fla and Warwick cost Munster that game. If those issues hadn't been there, Munster would have contested the final. Every single scrum was watched through my fingers. That was the day everyone knew John Hayes was done and dusted as a top level player.

Harinordoquy being passed fit was a massive turning point too. He was immense that day.

Fishooks12

totallegend wrote: »

Harinordoquy being passed fit was a massive turning point too. He was immense that day.

He also looked like a mad man with the face mask!

irishbucsfan

Harinordoquy singehandedly dragged Biarritz past Munster.

liammur

Fishooks12 wrote: »

ok so nothing actually got to do with rugby in the prediction

fair nuf

Nothing apart from:
ulster are struggling to make the playoffs in the magners
Clermont have potentially the best squad in Europe.