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Champions Cup 2020/2021 General Thread

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24567…34

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    #32
    Burkie1203
    Registered Users Posts: 11,171 ✭✭✭✭Burkie1203


    WhoamI2022 wrote: »
    Leinster are ok. I think Montpellier had to sell off loads of squad after they got caught breaking salary cap? or am I wrong? Northampton took a nose dive after the Leinster games last season. Don't expect much them to beat Leinster home/away.

    Ulster should beat Glou, maybe at home they can win v Toulouse.

    Munster should beat Clermont at home, probably lose away. I would expect them to beat Quins home & away

    Connacht just have nightmare draw, Bristol Bears are some outfit and Racing not too bad either. Pat Lam coming back is a bit of a story

    Radradra v Aki


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    #33
    twinytwo
    Registered Users Posts: 5,161 ✭✭✭twinytwo


    Boscoirl wrote: »
    the games look fairly balanced in each group, cant really pick a team that has gotten an "easy ride"

    Leinster got a fairly cushy number as did racing, connacht got boned.

    The pools are so imbalanced it's hilarious.


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    #34
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,062 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    twinytwo wrote: »
    Leinster got a fairly cushy number as did racing, connacht got boned.

    The pools are so imbalanced it's hilarious.

    Connacht went from not being part of the competition to being tier 3.... So saying they were "boned" is a bit disingenuous.
    They were always going to be a 'make up the numbers' team in order to allow the big French dogs in.


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    #35
    Podge_irl
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 25,463 Mod ✭✭✭✭Podge_irl


    twinytwo wrote: »
    Leinster got a fairly cushy number as did racing, connacht got boned.

    The pools are so imbalanced it's hilarious.

    Connacht are a tier 4 team, of course their draw is harder.


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    #36
    WhoamI2022
    Closed Accounts Posts: 180 ✭✭WhoamI2022


    twinytwo wrote: »
    Leinster got a fairly cushy number as did racing, connacht got boned.

    The pools are so imbalanced it's hilarious.

    Question to Connacht
    Would they prefer to play in top competition and have 4 really hard games
    Or
    Play in the second tier with 4 easier games?

    I think they will pick option 1 all the time


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    #37
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,062 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    Podge_irl wrote: »
    Connacht are a tier 4 team, of course their draw is harder.

    Tier 3


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    #38
    Podge_irl
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 25,463 Mod ✭✭✭✭Podge_irl


    sydthebeat wrote: »
    Tier 3

    Ah indeed. How did they go from basically not in the comp to tier 3? There was some nonsense like they took the top 4 from each conference but then did a joint table?


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    #39
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,062 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    Podge_irl wrote: »
    Ah indeed. How did they go from basically not in the comp to tier 3? There was some nonsense like they took the top 4 from each conference but then did a joint table?

    If you stop at "nonsense" it's easier to understand


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    #40
    Squidgy Black
    Registered Users Posts: 21,607 ✭✭✭✭Squidgy Black


    Podge_irl wrote: »
    Ah indeed. How did they go from basically not in the comp to tier 3? There was some nonsense like they took the top 4 from each conference but then did a joint table?

    They did it off league point totals before lockdown, tier 1&2 were the finalists of last year's final and the semi final losers, and then it was points totals for the next two tiers


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    #41
    Podge_irl
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 25,463 Mod ✭✭✭✭Podge_irl


    sydthebeat wrote: »
    If you stop at "nonsense" it's easier to understand

    It was nonsense though. Connacht qualified from 4th in their league, but they did a joint table and put them in tier 3. Whereas following that logic through, Treviso should have qualified ahead of Dragons. Connacht certainly not been screwed by the whole thing anyway.


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    #42
    Jump_In_Jack
    Registered Users Posts: 3,639 ✭✭✭Jump_In_Jack


    Essentially qualification and seeding were treated separately.

    The new ERCC format meant that 8 teams were to qualify from each of the three leagues this season instead of 7.
    Qualification from the Pro14 for the ERCC was decided by being one of the top 4 European teams in each conference (i.e. ignoring the Cheetahs so Dragons were 5th in conference but 4th for qualification).

    Thereafter to organise the 8 qualified teams into seedings, they said winner of Pro14 final is seed 1, runner-up is seed 2, and the other 6 teams are ranked by league points and other criteria where tied on league points.

    I feel bad for Benetton, they were unlucky to be in the opposite conference to Cheetahs, I think they were better than Dragons and they beat dragons by 12 on the one occasion they met last season.
    It was a bad system to take a 5th place team with fewer points than the 5th and 6th placed teams in the other conference with higher points without at least a playoff match as in previous years.
    With a pandemic going on this was an unfortunate side-effect of having to reduce matches, so no play-off was played, but in the absence of having a playoff match I think they should have used the match from the league as the decider.

    As rightly pointed out Connacht benefitted from being moved from tier 4 up to tier 3 according to the seeding rules, whereas Dragons benefitted from being a top 4 European team in their conference by the qualification rules.


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    #43
    Jump_In_Jack
    Registered Users Posts: 3,639 ✭✭✭Jump_In_Jack


    sydthebeat wrote: »
    Connacht went from not being part of the competition to being tier 3.... So saying they were "boned" is a bit disingenuous.
    They were always going to be a 'make up the numbers' team in order to allow the big French dogs in.

    Why do you say Connacht went from not being part of the competition?
    Were there supposed to be only 6 teams from Pro14 before deciding to go with 8?
    By the old rules Connacht would have qualified in 7th place, and they were in it last season, so I don't understand your point that Connacht went from "not being part of the competition...".


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    #44
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,062 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    Jump_In_Jack wrote: »
    Why do you say Connacht went from not being part of the competition?
    Were there supposed to be only 6 teams from Pro14 before deciding to go with 8?
    By the old rules Connacht would have qualified in 7th place, and they were in it last season, so I don't understand your point that Connacht went from "not being part of the competition...".

    Nope

    4 place in each conference, omitting the SAs, would have had to play off for the 7th spot... as ospreys and scarlets had to do at the end of the 18/19 season... which ospreys won.

    connacht were in the 19/20 HC by virtue of them finishing 3rd in conference A


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    #45
    Jump_In_Jack
    Registered Users Posts: 3,639 ✭✭✭Jump_In_Jack


    sydthebeat wrote: »
    Nope

    4 place in each conference, omitting the SAs, would have had to play off for the 7th spot... as ospreys and scarlets had to do at the end of the 18/19 season... which ospreys won.

    connacht were in the 19/20 HC by virtue of them finishing 3rd in conference A

    OK, but Connacht were never "not part of the competition", as they were in contention for a playoff at least, and due to not having playoffs this season they woud have been automatically qualified in 7th place by league points.
    That's what was confusing.
    I assumed there must have been a discussion to cut the number of teams that I missed.
    But it didn't happen anyway so it doesn't matter.


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    #46
    Burkie1203
    Registered Users Posts: 11,171 ✭✭✭✭Burkie1203


    I see there is new player registration rules for this competition


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    #47
    Squidgy Black
    Registered Users Posts: 21,607 ✭✭✭✭Squidgy Black


    Burkie1203 wrote: »
    I see there is new player registration rules for this competition

    Unlimited number of non-european players in the match day squad.


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    #48
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,062 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    Jump_In_Jack wrote: »
    OK, but Connacht were never "not part of the competition", as they were in contention for a playoff at least, and due to not having playoffs this season they woud have been automatically qualified in 7th place by league points.
    That's what was confusing.
    I assumed there must have been a discussion to cut the number of teams that I missed.
    But it didn't happen anyway so it doesn't matter.

    that's quite a leap of logic... im sure dragons would have looked at legal action should that have come to pass


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    #49
    Eod100
    Registered Users Posts: 11,653 ✭✭✭✭Eod100


    Fixtures out this afternoon.

    https://twitter.com/ChampionsCup/status/1327250837916225536


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    #50
    OldRio
    Registered Users Posts: 5,925 ✭✭✭OldRio


    Latest news

    https://twitter.com/Rob_OHalloran/status/1327286495825195010?s=20


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    #51
    The Lost Sheep
    Registered Users Posts: 14,967 ✭✭✭✭The Lost Sheep


    Andy Brace has seen his appointment for next weekend’s Heineken Champions Cup switched due to the online abuse hes received after Autumn Nations Cup

    He will now referee the game between Wasps and Montpellier instead of Toulouse v Exeter.


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    #52
    Former Former Former
    Registered Users Posts: 5,545 ✭✭✭Former Former Former


    FYI - you can get two months Now TV Sports Extra for the price of one at the moment - so that's legal streaming of all the pool games for €34


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    #53
    pickarooney
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 35,165 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    The Lost Sheep wrote: »
    Andy Brace has seen his appointment for next weekend’s Heineken Champions Cup switched due to the online abuse hes received after Autumn Nations Cup

    He will now referee the game between Wasps and Montpellier instead of Toulouse v Exeter.

    What's the logic there? Fears for his physical safety if he travels to France?


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    #54
    Tomtom364
    Registered Users Posts: 1,800 ✭✭✭Tomtom364


    pickarooney wrote: »
    What's the logic there? Fears for his physical safety if he travels to France?

    Gives it another week for things to settle down/blowover too.

    To be fair, couldn't blame the guy for just needing the weekend off after the disgraceful nonsense sent his way.


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    #55
    Cookiemunster
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 11,840 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cookiemunster


    Tomtom364 wrote: »
    Gives it another week for things to settle down/blowover too.

    To be fair, couldn't blame the guy for just needing the weekend off after the disgraceful nonsense sent his way.
    He hasn't been given an extra week. He's been swapped from a R2 game in France to a R2 game in England.

    He's doing Bristol v Clermont tomorrow.


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    #56
    Tomtom364
    Registered Users Posts: 1,800 ✭✭✭Tomtom364


    Cookiemunster wrote: »
    He hasn't been given an extra week. He's been swapped from a R2 game in France to a R2 game in England.

    He's doing Bristol v Clermont tomorrow.

    Oh right okay I misunderstood what I read the. Throight it was a round 1 to round 2 swap.


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    #57
    The Lost Sheep
    Registered Users Posts: 14,967 ✭✭✭✭The Lost Sheep


    pickarooney wrote: »
    What's the logic there? Fears for his physical safety if he travels to France?
    Gives the issue more time to blow over. Lot of anger and why give that more oxygen by having him in France for game now.


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    #58
    thomond2006
    Registered Users Posts: 45,433 ✭✭✭✭thomond2006


    Two away wins for the Top14 to start us off!


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    #59
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,062 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    Likelihood of vahamaahina getting carded today??

    I fancy bears by about 5


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    #60
    Dave_The_Sheep
    Registered Users Posts: 7,337 ✭✭✭Dave_The_Sheep


    I'm normally a Heineken Cup addict, watch all the games on a HC weekend, love a good back to back fortnight... I'm just not feeling it this year. Maybe it's the format, I don't know, but I just can't bring myself to care too much for some reason.

    I'm sure I'll still be glued to the TV come 6.30 though.

    [edit] Maybe this will put me in the mood ... yeah, that does it.



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    #61
    MaddChris
    Registered Users Posts: 547 ✭✭✭MaddChris


    BT Sport must be distraught Bristol are 14 behind already :pac:


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