Heineken & Amlin Cup 2012/13 General Discussion

decisions

Surprised there is not a thread already with it kicking off next weekend.

Heineken Cup Pools

• Pool One: Munster, Edinburgh, Saracens, Racing Metro 92
• Pool Two: Toulouse, Leicester, Ospreys, Benetton Treviso
• Pool Three: Biarritz, Harlequins, Connacht, Zebre
• Pool Four: Northampton, Ulster, Glasgow Warriors, Castres
• Pool Five: Leinster, Clermont Auvergne, Scarlets, Exeter
• Pool Six: Cardiff Blues, Toulon, Sale, Montpellier

Fishooks12

Glasgow Warriors

decisions wrote: »

Surprised there is not a thread already with it kicking off next weekend.

Heineken Cup Pools

• Pool One: Munster, Edinburgh, Saracens, Racing Metro 92
• Pool Two: Toulouse, Leicester, Ospreys, Benetton Treviso
• Pool Three: Biarritz, Harlequins, Connacht, Zebre
• Pool Four: Northampton, Ulster, Glasgow Warriors, Castres
• Pool Five: Leinster, Clermont Auvergne, Scarlets, Exeter
• Pool Six: Cardiff Blues, Toulon, Sale, Montpellier

Predictions

Pool 1: Munster and Saracens
Pool 2: Toulouse and Leicester
Pool 3: Quins
Pool 4: Ulster
Pool 5: Clermont :eek::eek:
Pool 6: Toulon (Sale might pull a surprise)

Tox56

Hard to imagine a team going for 3 in 4 not even getting out of their group, but it's a very real possibility

Fishooks12

Glasgow Warriors

Tox56 wrote: »

Hard to imagine a team going for 3 in 4 not even getting out of their group, but it's a very real possibility

I think they'd get out of any other group with ease. Just a bad draw especially considering Leinster's injuries

Hopefully I'll be proven wrong

danthefan

Clermont Auvergne

Tox56 wrote: »

Hard to imagine a team going for 3 in 4 not even getting out of their group, but it's a very real possibility

Leinster have won 3 in 4. They're going for 4 in 5.

The group will hinge on the Leinster injuries. The squad as it is will be beaten out the gate by Clermont. If the majority of the squad can be fit by December then who knows.

.ak

Kinda snook up on us. Excited/nervous now.....

Tox56

danthefan wrote: »

Leinster have won 3 in 4. They're going for 4 in 5.

Wow, that would be something

GerM

Fishooks12 wrote: »

I think they'd get out of any other group with ease. Just a bad draw especially considering Leinster's injuries

Hopefully I'll be proven wrong

I think the crucial game for Leinster will be in Llanelli. Win there and I think they'll win the group. The injuries clear up significantly over November and they'll be primed for the showdown with Clermont. They should come out of that double header in better shape over the two matches. Clermont are pretty awful on the road in Europe.

Win in Llanelli and we're in good shape (if we beat Exeter obviously). It's going to be tricky to get through that game with all the injury problems. The back line is fairly decimated and their back line is fairly lethal. If they manage to get some decent ball to the backs, we could be in real trouble.

I think Clermont could well lose one of their games in Exeter or Llanelli. In any season, have never won more than 1 game on the road in the pool stages in the Heineken Cup. I can see the teams being very pumped up for their visit and giving them problems. They'll face Exeter in Devon on a Saturday night for Exeter making their HEC home debut in the prime TV slot. Sandy Park will be absolutely heaving that night. Glad we get Exeter at home first.

decisions

Munster

I don't think we have 4 in 5 in us tbh but it would be some achievement.

freyners

Ospreys

Connacht need to win both games v zebre at minimum this year, couple that with nicking a win v biarritz or quins (like last year) and Ill be a happy bunny

decisions

Munster

I thing Connacht have at the very least 3 wins in them this year.

Chuck Stone

Connacht

I threw €10 on Ulster at 25/1 to win it.

I think that's an outrageously good price for them.

bamboozle

Castre

Once again Serge Blanco's Biarritz get the group of death....

really hope Connacht beat them in the sportsground.

justsomebloke

Truthfully I'd say pool 4 and 6 are more likely to have 2 go through then pool 1

totallegend

Clermont Auvergne

justsomebloke wrote: »

Truthfully I'd say pool 4 and 6 are more likely to have 2 go through then pool 1

Who would you fancy from pool 6? As sh*te as Sale are, they will probably win both home games against the French, can't see Cardiff getting any wins in France, Toulon and MP will probably take points off each other. That's a lot of dropped points for two teams to get through...

I would expect the best runners-up to come from the group where teams 1 & 2 are significantly better than 3 & 4. For me, that's pool 3 (Biarritz and Quins to emerge) and 4 (Ulster and Saints).

That means Leinster and Munster will each need to come out on top in their December head-to-head games. I'm cacking it already.

bilston

Castre

justsomebloke wrote: »

Truthfully I'd say pool 4 and 6 are more likely to have 2 go through then pool 1

I think Glasgow might nick a win against either Ulster or Northampton at home which might rule out the two team theory from Pool 4. As for Castres who knows. I'm just glad Ulster play them away from home in round 6 as they're likely to be dis-interested by that stage.

As for the other Irish sides...Munster should come through Pool 1, Sarries away (is it at Wembley?) Edinburgh will hardly repeat last year, Racing are beatable and if Munster keep their discipline against Saracens then Owen Farrell won't be able to kick Saracens to victory.

Leinster and Clermont will both qualify with 5 wins. The big games come at Parc Y Scarlet. The rest nshould go to form, it's who gets the home Q/F that will be interesting.

I wouldn't be shocked if Connacht finished on 4 wins and got into the Amlin. They'll need a bit of luck but if they do beat Quins and Biarritz at home and get 10 points against Zebre then flip they might even be in contention for the Q/Fs of the HEC.

justsomebloke

totallegend wrote: »

Who would you fancy from pool 6?

Truthfully none of them but if any teams give it there all they could easily do it so I'd say toulon and sale could come out of it as I don't think Cardiff will be a force this season

bilston wrote: »

Edinburgh will hardly repeat last year

I'd say they have at least one or 2 upsets in them though

irishbucsfan

Munster

justsomebloke wrote: »

Truthfully none of them but if any teams give it there all they could easily do it so I'd say toulon and sale could come out of it as I don't think Cardiff will be a force this season

Sale?!

Have you seen what they've been like this season?

justsomebloke

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Sale?!

Have you seen what they've been like this season?

ye but I think pool 6 could easily come down to non bad you are as oppose to how good you and so it's the group that could easily provide a wildcard

irishbucsfan

Munster

justsomebloke wrote: »

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Sale?!

Have you seen what they've been like this season?

ye but I think pool 6 could easily come down to non bad you are as oppose to how good you and so it's the group that could easily provide a wildcard

If it comes down to how bad you are then Sale would be bottom, based on this season so far!

totallegend

Clermont Auvergne

BTW, there was a HEC 'supplement' in the Sunday Times yesterday; Stephen Jones is tipping Leinster to make it three in a row. Kiss of death there so.

Also, there was an interview with James Downey which said he is one of only three people to represent three provinces; that's surely wrong? Off the top of my head, I can name Cronin, Reddan and John Fogarty - any more?

bilston

Castre

totallegend wrote: »

BTW, there was a HEC 'supplement' in the Sunday Times yesterday; Stephen Jones is tipping Leinster to make it three in a row. Kiss of death there so.

Also, there was an interview with James Downey which said he is one of only three people to represent three provinces; that's surely wrong? Off the top of my head, I can name Cronin, Reddan and John Fogarty - any more?

Cillian Willis for sure and didn't Ronan McCormack spend a year or two at Connacht? I know he was Ulster and obviously Leinster.

Zzippy

Castre

Sean Cronin has played for Munster, Connacht and Leinster too.

bamboozle

Castre

totallegend wrote: »

BTW, there was a HEC 'supplement' in the Sunday Times yesterday; Stephen Jones is tipping Leinster to make it three in a row. Kiss of death there so.

Also, there was an interview with James Downey which said he is one of only three people to represent three provinces; that's surely wrong? Off the top of my head, I can name Cronin, Reddan and John Fogarty - any more?

i read that interview, there was some badly worded line suggesting Downey was the only man sacked by Connacht to go on and play in a HC final

Winters

totallegend wrote: »

BTW, there was a HEC 'supplement' in the Sunday Times yesterday; Stephen Jones is tipping Leinster to make it three in a row. Kiss of death there so.

Also, there was an interview with James Downey which said he is one of only three people to represent three provinces; that's surely wrong? Off the top of my head, I can name Cronin, Reddan and John Fogarty - any more?

And there was a good H Cup magazine in Saturdays Examiner. Lots of Donal Lenihan articles and interviews and a run down on each team.

Has the Irish Times done a H cup supplement?

Dietsquirt

Castre

Lads anyone know if there's a Heineken Cup Fantasy Rugby site?

Cheers

phog

Quinny is back on the Irish Times tomorrow looking ahead to the first round of the H/cup

ormond lad

Ulster

phog wrote: »

Quinny is back on the Irish Times tomorrow looking ahead to the first round of the H/cup

His article is now up online
www.irishtimes.com/newspaper......1224325094083

Grimebox

Castre

ormond lad wrote: »

His article is now up online
www.irishtimes.com/newspaper......1224325094083

This?

Fairly poor article imo. Does anyone else not give a flying **** about what the aviva premiership does? I'll pay attention once they actually pull out. All this talk tires me

phog

Grimebox wrote: »

This?

Fairly poor article imo. Does anyone else not give a flying **** about what the aviva premiership does? I'll pay attention once they actually pull out. All this talk tires me

Have a look here, over 30k views and nearly 800 posts.

CatFromHue

"But if you follow that argument through to the end, it will obviously mean fewer Scottish and Italian clubs playing in the Heineken Cup, which will mean the competitiveness of their international teams will inevitably suffer."

Half of Scotland's RWC squad now play outside Scotland, Italy have had teams in the HEC for years with no real improvement, if anything they regressed for a period. The Rabo has helped a lot I think.

It will be interesting to see what Quinny does. The first season he started as a pundit, while he was still playing, I thought he'd nothing to offer. Last season he had some interesting enough points and could offer insight to his Munster days. That (talking about Munster when he played for them) won't last too long this season though as people will tire of it.

justsomebloke

phog wrote: »

Have a look here, over 30k views and nearly 800 posts.

Ye but take Irishbucsfan out of that thread and it probably would of died after 2 pages

totallegend

Clermont Auvergne

Edinburgh have refused to play Saracens in Cape Town.
http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/rugby/2012/1011/1224325164590.html

keith16

totallegend wrote: »

Edinburgh have refused to play Saracens in Cape Town.
http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/rugby/2012/1011/1224325164590.html

Good. Probably not the best game to advertise the H-Cup in the Southern hemisphere.

Winters

totallegend wrote: »

Edinburgh have refused to play Saracens in Cape Town.
http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/rugby/2012/1011/1224325164590.html

I’m not sold on this idea of taking games that far away. Irrespective of the knock out games in neutral venues, I can appreciate teams taking pool games to larger grounds nearby for extra revenue but this idea of Sarries outside their union in Brussels, Cape Town or Boston is nonsense. Just because the NFL and soccer teams do it doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.

How on earth is a game in Cape Town going to make Sarries any bigger a club in the long term? I doubt they would have even got 25,000 at that game. They should be concentrating their resources more on getting set up in Barnet and increasing their season ticket numbers for next season. They only had 11K in the quarter final last season which says a lot.

Stade Francais are taking their Amlin games this season to Valenciennes, Le Mans and Le Harve which I think is ambitious and obviously they are trying to tap into a kind of north of France regional element rather than just Paris. At least any new supporters from these areas would be able to travel to Paris for any future games. South Africa? That's just a joke.

yimrsg

Sarries have a south african owner IIRC.

irishbucsfan

Munster

Can this be an Amlin thread as well?

http://planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,9989_8157714,00.html wrote:

Mont de Marsan: 15 Jean Baptiste Claverie, 14 Jordan Beaulavon, 13 Christofer Baegert, 12 Tamaz Mchedlidze, 11 Jean Baptiste Dubié, 10 Alexandre Douvesy, 9 Julien Cabannes, 8 Aldric Lescure 7 Sebastian De Chaves, 6 Yann Brethous,5 Vickus Liebenberg,4 Scott Murray,3 Mathieu Giudicelli, 2 Thomas Bordes, 1 Pierre Correia.
Replacements: 16 Ephraïm Taukafa, 17 Morgan Phelipponneau, 18 Eric Dos Santos, 19 Vincent Farre, 20 Laurent Magnaval, 21 Thibault Duvallet, 22 Yohann Durquet, 23 Sebastien Ormaechea.

Gloucester: 15 Martyn Thomas, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Tim Molenaar, 12 Mike Tindall, 11 Ian Clark, 10 Tim Taylor, 9 Dave Lewis, 8 Sione Kalafamoni,7 Andy Hazell, 6 Matt Cox, 5 Will James,4 Peter Buxton, 3 Shaun Knight,2 Koree Britton, 1 Yann Thomas.
Replacements: 16 Tommaso D'Apice, 17 Nick Wood, 18 Dario Chistolini, 19 Elliot Stooke, 20 Gareth Evans, 21 Jimmy Cowan, 22 Henry Trinder, 23 Billy Twelvetrees.

Date: Thursday, October 11
Venue: Stade Guy Boniface
Referee: Neil Hennessy (Wales)
Assistant referees: James Jones (Wales), Martyn Lewis (Wales)
Television match official: Gareth Simmonds (Wales)

I think this'll be an interesting game. MdM are at home, so I hope they'll show up and give Glaws a run for their money. I'm going to guess they will, It's a weak enough Gloucester team.

irishbucsfan

Munster

That's one of the worst misses you'll see!

irishbucsfan

Munster

Gloucester Openside sent off and blindside sin binned.

**** got crazy

nudger

Clermont Auvergne

Gloster 7 red card, and 6 yellow.:eek:

molloyjh

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Gloucester Openside sent off and blindside sin binned.

**** got crazy

Total madness. MDM don't look like creating anything anyway so it shouldn't affect the result. But what the f**k were they thinking?

Gloucester have been pretty crap though.

irishbucsfan

Munster

It's their 2nd team but Gloucester have been very conservative all season.

36 is on fire.

irishbucsfan

Munster

MdM win the ball, 2 minutes left and 5 points down. They decide to kick it away!

Podge_irl

Castre

What a truly awful display from both teams.

molloyjh

Podge_irl wrote: »

What a truly awful display from both teams.

Not the best start to the European action. Surprisingly there hasn't been anything but positive comments about it from the English commentators.

GerM

Thank God there's no movement afoot to try and secure additional HEC places for teams from the two countries that participated in this fixture.

irishbucsfan

Munster

MdM aren't up to it. Hopefully Bourdeaux will be better than that.

irishbucsfan

Munster

GerM wrote: »

Thank God there's no movement afoot to try and secure additional HEC places for teams from the two countries that participated in this fixture.

There isn't

irishbucsfan

Munster

Gloucester looklng for citings for gouging on Hazell before he was sent off.

I suppose the danger of playing a team like MdM who are sending out their 3rd XV is that they aren't as worried about getting a banning!

justsomebloke

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Gloucester looklng for citings for gouging on Hazell before he was sent off.

I suppose the danger of playing a team like MdM who are sending out their 3rd XV is that they aren't as worried about getting a banning!

Can't see Hazell playing for a long time no matter comes of it

Castre

wtf


Forget a season long ban, this guy shouldn't play again.