Clermont Auvergne: TBA
Leinster: TBA
It's semi final time again and as always the Heineken Cup has lived up to it's great reputation. An absolutely mouth watering clash awaits both of these teams in Stade Chaban Delmas, Bordeaux. As the designated home team Clermont have a distinct advantage with a huge number of their fans expected to travel to see their team compete in it's first ERC semi final. They won't have it all their own way though as it's expected that the number of Leinster fans, making the trek to French south-west, will be in the thousands.
Both teams are now considered heavy weights of the European game, yet Clermont have failed up to this year to really make a mark in the prestigious tournament. Most notably it is Leinster who have been the cause of their demise for the past two seasons, knocking them out at the quarter final stages two years and ago, and qualifying ahead of them from their group last year. While this may look to make Leinster keen favourites, not many fans will forget just how close Leinster came from being defeated in their own backyard in the quarter final two years ago. An epic battle awaits both sets of players.
Generals:
Calls on how the team play and when they move the ball falls largely on each teams half-back general. In Morgan Parra Clermont have the top European scrum-half. Always talking, making his forwards work hard, this Frenchman was born to play rugby. His kicking from hand or off the tee is hard to fault and his superb passing and breaking skills make him an absolute nightmare to play against. Likewise, Leinster will be relying on Jonathan Sexton, their star number 10, to control their game. Not afraid to speak his mind during a game he'll be demanding the ball from his half-back partner once the team starts moving forward. His own running game makes him as much of a threat with the ball as his passing it. Both players can get a little caught up in the heat of the moment, but at this level you've got to keep your head for the whole 80 minutes. Expect both to play a huge roll in the outcome of this game.
Master or the Pretender:
Depending upon selections, this weekend we'll get to see what should be a fantastic clash between the ever present Brian O'Driscoll and young, brilliant Wesley Fofana. Many an up and coming centre who has had stardom waiting for him has be dumped back down to earth by the talismanic Irish 13. Having missed the 6 nations through injury O'Driscoll missed his chance to line out against the headline winning Fofana, who had a sensational tournament himself, scoring 4 tries in his first 4 games for France. His fortuitous try against Ireland still sticks out as a sore point for many Irish fans. Would he have been as fortunate had O'Driscoll been on the pitch?
Grunt up Front:
As always in rugby, the real battle will begin in the forwards. These two teams have top class tight fives and dynamic, harding running backrowers that most other teams would kill for. The spotlight will be stolen by the clash of ex-Leinster player Nathan Hines and All Black, World Cup winning lock, Brad Thorn. Hard, physical games are what these players want and they usually get just that. Expect absolutely no holds barred when these two packs meet, I know I'll be bracing myself for the first collision.
As tight a game as there's been in years. Neither team has obvious faults. It's totally 50:50 going into it but being a proud Leinster supporter, I'll have to go with
Leinster to win by 6.
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I've taken pictures from various sites. Hopefully there's no issue with them but let me know and I'll take them down or credit them properly.
