Champions Cup 2023

Clegg

Good win for Exeter at the very death of extra time, but I can't see them troubling the bigger sides in the competition. They look very poorly coached.

Utterly failed to exploit their extra man, played no structured attacking rugby and essentially bashed their way to a win.

Larbre34

Ah that was European knock-out rugger at its finest.

Hogg looks pleased!

FrancieBrady

How was that game decided?

A-Train

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120431374#Comment_120431374

After extra time if teams are still level it goes by number of tries scored, if still level on this then it goes to kicks

Cracking game.

I would have preferred to see the penalty shoot out that see it settled on tries scored, but that’s the rule I guess.

Keiran Williams tearing up trees for the Ospreys against Sarries so far

Clegg

Bulls are doing a good job at the ruck and really slowing down Toulouse's attacking ball.

But their discipline is appalling and they've conceded at least three penalties from high tackles.

Clegg

Two trys for Toulouse in the opening 15 minutes of the second half. The Bulls look to be tiring a bit and aren't contesting the breakdown and viciously as before. With conditions improving and more time on the ball Toulouse are accelerating ahead.

Bulls are also painfully limited in attack. Very little in the way of variation in the backline.

Clegg

Ospreys beating Saracens 13-20 away.

Ben Bailey

Sarries making hard work of this.

20-20 with 20 mins left

A-Train

Absolute brain dead quick throw to hand Sarries a try.

Ben Bailey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120431730#Comment_120431730

Yep, brain dead play but Taylor was quickest to react.

A-Train

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120431778#Comment_120431778

Correct it read it so well, the Osprey players weren’t even aware of the quick ball happening.

Jump_In_Jack

Every home team won, just goes to show how important the pool stages are.

icdg

Quarter final FTA picks:

Leinster v Leicester Tigers RTE2 Fri 8pm

La Rochelle v Saracens ITV1 Sun 3pm.

(S4C get Scarlets v Clermont in the European Challenge Cup, Fri 8pm).

Ciaran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120432746#Comment_120432746

Or how pointless the last 16 is.

PMC83

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120432746#Comment_120432746

Two games won with the last play of the game though. La Rochelle and Chiefs could easily be out this morning. A brilliant weekend I must say, but hopefully the last we see of the comp in this format. Crazy to think teams were in the last 8 having won only one game.

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120434084#Comment_120434084

If you think it’s pointless to watch 8 matches between the best teams in Europe, I wouldn’t agree and the profile of the sport is better for the increased coverage.

It just bolsters the point that despite the many posters complaining about the pools being a waste of time, clearly any team that did well in the pools has progressed to a quarter final now so that complaint is proven invalid.

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120434119#Comment_120434119

What team made the last 8 with only one game won? I think you meant made the last 16, and subsequently all of those teams have lost away. So it proves the system worked exactly as designed.

Interested Observer

Dunno who to support between LaR and Saracens. Can they both lose?

PMC83

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120434149#Comment_120434149

Mistype, I meant last 16. And come off it. Hardly high stakes pool rugby if you can get to the last 16 winning 1 match. We wound up with clubs fielding second teams by only round two. This weekend was brilliant, but at the cost of a fairly meh pool stage IMHO.

'The system' needs to be able to provide an entertaining product that fans can follow and that keeps teams hungry. The fact that they are reverting to an older one is proof that the current one isn't doing what it needs to do.

pickarooney

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120434084#Comment_120434084

Two of the games were won at the death/extra time and another was in the balance all the way through. If the last 16 is pointless then exciting rugby is pointless.

Dubinusa

Toulouse v Sharks will be a cracker! Seriously good players on both teams.

Eod100

The round dates for next season still have 4 rounds of pool games so doesn't look like the pool format is changing next season anyway. https://www.epcrugby.com/2023/03/30/epcr-2023-24-season-dates-announced/

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120434873#Comment_120434873

Thanks for that, that announcement was last Thursday and the dates given seem to confirm no change planned.

KevinK

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120432746#Comment_120432746

I think the format was demoralising for the away teams - they knew they would have to win 3 games away from home just to get to the final - that’s was unrealistic for most of them and could well be a factor in the result. Think last year with two legs was fairer.

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120435030#Comment_120435030

Fair point, but I think on balance it's probably better with a single knockout round of 16. It places greater importance on the results of the pool matches. Teams that scrape through the pools stage have a mountain to climb, so to win the competition a team would have to win the hard way, away 3 times, to get into the final and win that, whereas teams that have topped the pools would potentially have 3 rounds at home to make money with a good chance to get to a final, or else be somewhere in between teams that didn't top the table but maybe finished in the top half, would get 1 home fixture.

Given the competing priorities of clubs between their own league and the European cup, without a massive change to the way the three leagues operate, the current system seems a decent fit.

Also, since there haven't been postponements due to a pandemic, the results seem to be normalised, which has helped avoid weird situations for example Toulouse or Leinster ending up down the rankings for playoffs.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120435030#Comment_120435030

Well maybe they should have tried to win more games in the pool stages so they'd be the ones with the home advantage then?

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120423281#Comment_120423281

Disagree, didn't like this feature at all. It exaggerated further the advantage of getting a handy pool draw.

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120434198#Comment_120434198

" 'The system' needs to be able to provide an entertaining product that fans can follow and that keeps teams hungry. The fact that they are reverting to an older one is proof that the current one isn't doing what it needs to do. "

The quote button doesn't seem to have captured the edited part of your post, but I've copied it in above to reply to all of your post.

For a round of 16 you need 16 teams to progress, so like it or not, with 24 teams competing, some teams may progress with 1 match won out of 4 (in this case that only happened to 2 teams, both of which picked up 3 bonus points and one of them got a draw as well), but they will face a very difficult road after that, and if they could win the competition playing away 3 times and then win the final, then they would have earned it.

If you consider that in the older system the 5th and 6th rounds would have contained a lot of dead rubbers, at least these 2 rounds are now rolled into a single knockout round where there is a lot at stake for 16 teams.

I think the biggest gripe that posters have had is that they don't understand the new system.

No matter what system, the teams are free to prioritise their own league over the Champions Cup, so keeping teams hungry isn't always possible, in fact the more rounds you have in the pools the more likely it is that teams will lose interest. I think your point that they are reverting to an older system isn't true, for next season at least, based on their announcement of 4 rounds in next season's pools stage.