Heineken Cup Quarter Finals

Heineken Seedings;

1. Leicester Tigers (28pts)
2. Clermont Auvergne (27pts)
3. Gloucester (26pts)
4. Ulster (26pts)
5. Northampton Saints (24pts)
6. Toulon (20pts)
7. Toulouse (19pts)
8. Leinster (19pts)

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So that would give us quarter finals for the Heino;

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Team & Tactics - 0000hrs Sunday
Predictions - 2000 hrs Tuesday

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Leicester Tigers vs Leinster
Location - Welford Road
Weather - Sunny, 8 degrees, 5mph North Easterly

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Leicester Tigers

Manager – Sgt_Pooly

01. Thomas Domingo	09. Ben Youngs
02. Tom Youngs	10. Toby Flood
03. Dan Cole
04. Luke Romano	11. Digby Ioane
05. Geoff Parling	12. Berrick Barnes
06. Willam Alberts	13. Manu Tuilagi
07. Sam Warburton	14. Christian Wade
08. Sergio Parisse(c)	15. James O'Connor

16. Bismark du Plessis 17. Alex Corbisiero 18. Martin Castrogiovani 19. Richie Gray 20. Liam Gill 21. Karl Dickson 22. Jordan Turner-Hall 23. Miles Benjamin

Tactics

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Leinster

Manager – Josef Schmidt

01. Cian Healey	09. Eoin Reddan
02. Richardt Strauss	10. Jonathan Sexton (k)
03. Mike Ross
04. Devin Toner	11. Andrew Conway
05. Leo Cullen (c.)	12. Gordon D'Arcy
06. Sean O'Brien	13. Fergus McFadden
07. Shane Jennings	14. Luke Fitzgerald
08. Jamie Heaslip	15. Rob Kearney

16. Heinke van der Merwe 17. Sean Cronin 18. Michael Bent 19. Tom Denton 20. Kevin McLaughlin 21. Isaac Boss 22. Ian Madigan 23. Isa Nacewa

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Clermont Auvergne vs Toulouse
Location - Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin
Weather -

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ASM Clermont Auvergne

Manager – Vern Cotter

01. Thomas Domingo	09. Morgan Parra (k)
02. Benjamin Kayser	10. Brock James
03. Davit Zirakashvili
04. Julien Pierre	11. Napolioni Nalaga
05. Nathan Hines	12. Wesley Fofana
06. Julien Bonnaire	13. Aurelien Rougerie (c.)
07. Alexandre Lapandry	14. Sitiveni Sivivatu
08. Elvis Vermeulen	15. Lee Byrne

16. Vincent Debaty 17. Daniel Kotze 18. Ti'i Paulo 19. James Cudmore 20. Damien Chouly 21. Kevin Senio 22. Julien Malzieu 23. Regan King

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Stade Toulousain

Manager – Guy Noves

01. Jean-Baptiste Poux	09. Jean-Marc Doussain
02. Gary Botha	10. Luke McAlister(k)
03. Census Johnston
04. Yoann Maestri	11. Vincent Clerc
05. Patricio Albacete	12. Gael Fickou
06. Thierry Dusautoir (c.)	13. Florian Fritz
07. Yannick Nyanga	14. Yoann Huget
08. Louis Picamoles	15. Maxi Medard

16. Antoine Guillamon 17. Christopher Tolofua 18. Vasil Kakovin 19. Romain Millo-Chluski 20. Gregory Lamboley 21. Luke Burgess 22. Lionel Beauxis 23. Clemont Poitrenaud

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Gloucester vs Toulon
Location - Kingsholm
Weather - Sunny, 9 degrees, 8mph North Easterly

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Gloucester

01. Nick Wood	09. Dan Robson
02. Rory Best	10. Freddie Burns (k)
03. Adam Jones
04. Jim Hamilton	11. Johnny May
05. Sam Whitelock	12. Jamie Roberts
06. Tom Savage (c)	13. JDJ
07. Akapusi Qera	14. JSD
08. Luke Narraway	15. Pat Lambie

16. Korree Britton 17. Antoine Guillamon 18. Rupert Harden 19. Sam Cane 20. Alisdair Strokosch 21. Dimitri Yachvilli 22. Jimmy Gopperth 23. Henry Trinder

Tactics

Key Points

Big 2nd Rows
We have selected our strongest 2nd row pairing to disrupt the Toulon lineout and to create pressure on them in defence with strong carrys.

Qera and Jones

Jones will anchor the scrum and will look to get the edge on Toulon. He is in great form and full of confidence after Wales' recent results. Qera is picked siply to take Armitage off of his game, he will use his heavy carrying and hitting to target the Touln backrow and look to Savage to hit rucks hard and free up quick ball for us.

Home Advantage
We are at home and will have the shed being vocal. This will buy us a couple of extra points and will be different to what TOulon have experienced. We have good form coming into this game and we will be looking to use our strong runners out wide to stretchTOulon and the international experience to steady the ship.

Attacking

• We come off the back of a huge win and expect nothing else but another big win.

• Robson and Burns to play what's in front of them and look to release Roberts or snipe as much as possible. If it isn't on then Burns will stick it in the corners and, with Hamilton, Whitelock, Cane, JVN and Savage we have a number of jumpers to gain the ball back.

• Look for runners off of 10 and 12 channel to make the initial break before sending the ball out wide to JSD and May.

• We will look to use our big pack to carry alot of ball and, if it isn't on then run off of 9 and take a couple of 'up the jumper' phases to drag defenders in.

• Our back three will look to come off their wings and hit the right angles.

• Impact bench to shore up our victory and to keep the scoreboard ticking (Gopperth) , Yachvilli and Trinder will play fast-in your face-rugby, Qera and Narraway will have a field day against tired legs in the loose.

Set Piece

• Strong scrum which will get the edge up on the tighthead side and a good bench to come on as well to continue the pressure, 8-9-10 is a move we will use alot.

• We will use the maul to get ourselves up the pitch quickly and power over from short distance.

• Lineout has been mentioned previously where we have many strong jumpers here who will look to control attacking and defensive ones.

Defending

• Banana blitz defence targetting 10 so he has no time to kick or give quick ball to the centres, we will protect the channels to stop 9 sniping.

• Robson will look to sweep and counter attack off any kick through's.

• We will hit the breakdown quick to give Savage and Cane time to get over the ball and obliterate any protection they have in place.

• If the turnover isn't on we won't commit and will fan out defending inside-out.

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RC Toulonnaise

Manager – Bernard Laporte

01. Andrew Sheridan	09. Freddie Michalak
02. Sebastien Bruno	10. Johnny Wilkinson (k)
03. Carl Hayman
04. Joeclino Suta	11. Alexis Palisson
05. Bakkies Botha	12. Matt Giteau
06. JMF Lobbe	13. Mathieu Bastareaud
07. Steffon Armitage	14. Luke Rooney
08. Joe Van Niekerk (c.)	15. Delon Armitage

16. Gethin Jenkins 17. Jean-Charles Oriolo 18. Davit Kubriashvili 19. Simon Shaw 20. Chris Masoe 21. Nicholas Durand 22. Maxime Mermoz 23. Vincent Martin

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Ulster vs Northampton Saints
Location - Ravenhill
Weather - -

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Ulster

Manager – Mark Anscombe

01. Tom Court	09. Ruan Pienaar (k)
02. Rory Best	10. Paddy Jackson
03. John Afoa
04. Ian Henderson	11. Tommy Bowe
05. Johann Muller (c.)	12. Luke Marshall
06. Stephen Ferris	13. Darren Cave
07. Chris Henry	14. Craig Gilroy
08. Roger Wilson	15. Jared Payne

16. Callum Black 17. Rob Herring 18. Declan Fitzpatrick 19. Dan Tuohy 20. Sean Doyle 21. Paul Marshall 22. Paddy Wallace 23. Andrew Trimble

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Northampton Saints

Manager – SirJohnnyEnglish

01. Soane Tonga'uiha	09. Lee Dickson
02. Dylan Hartley	10. Johnny Sexton
03. Paul Doran-Jones
04. Courtney Lawes	11. Chris Ashton
05. Andries Bekker	12. Sonny Bill WIlliams
06. Stephen Ferris	13. Gael Fickou
07. Tom Wood	14. JP Pieterson
08. Kieran Read	15. Ben Foden

16. Steven Kitshoff 17. Mike Haywood 18. Brian Mujati 19. Samu Manoa 20. Calum Clarke 21. Aaron Smith 22. Stephen Myler 23. George Pisi

Toulouse-

Stade Toulousain
Manager – Guy Noves

01. Jean-Baptiste Poux	09. Jean-Marc Doussain
02. Gary Botha	10. Luke McAlister(k)
03. Census Johnston
04. Yoann Maestri	11. Vincent Clerc
05. Patricio Albacete	12. Gael Fickou
06. Thierry Dusautoir (c.)	13. Florian Fritz
07. Yannick Nyanga	14. Yoann Huget
08. Louis Picamoles	15. Maxi Medard

16. Antoine Guillamon 17. Christopher Tolofua 18. Vasil Kakovin 19. Romain Millo-Chluski 20. Gregory Lamboley 21. Luke Burgess 22. Lionel Beauxis 23. Clemont Poitrenaud

Leinster
Manager – Josef Schmidt

01. Cian Healey	09. Eoin Reddan
02. Richardt Strauss	10. Jonathan Sexton (k)
03. Mike Ross
04. Devin Toner	11. Andrew Conway
05. Leo Cullen (c.)	12. Gordon D'Arcy
06. Sean O'Brien	13. Fergus McFadden
07. Shane Jennings	14. Luke Fitzgerald
08. Jamie Heaslip	15. Rob Kearney

16. Heinke van der Merwe 17. Sean Cronin 18. Michael Bent 19. Tom Denton 20. Kevin McLaughlin 21. Isaac Boss 22. Ian Madigan 23. Isa Nacewa

ASM Clermont Auvergne
Manager – Vern Cotter

01. Thomas Domingo	09. Morgan Parra (k)
02. Benjamin Kayser	10. Brock James
03. Davit Zirakashvili
04. Julien Pierre	11. Napolioni Nalaga
05. Nathan Hines	12. Wesley Fofana
06. Julien Bonnaire	13. Aurelien Rougerie (c.)
07. Alexandre Lapandry	14. Sitiveni Sivivatu
08. Elvis Vermeulen	15. Lee Byrne

16. Vincent Debaty 17. Daniel Kotze 18. Ti'i Paulo 19. James Cudmore 20. Damien Chouly 21. Kevin Senio 22. Julien Malzieu 23. Regan King

RC Toulonnaise
Manager – Bernard Laporte

01. Andrew Sheridan	09. Freddie Michalak
02. Sebastien Bruno	10. Johnny Wilkinson (k)
03. Carl Hayman
04. Joeclino Suta	11. Alexis Palisson
05. Bakkies Botha	12. Matt Giteau
06. JMF Lobbe	13. Mathieu Bastareaud
07. Steffon Armitage	14. Luke Rooney
08. Joe Van Niekerk (c.)	15. Delon Armitage

16. Gethin Jenkins 17. Jean-Charles Oriolo 18. Davit Kubriashvili 19. Simon Shaw 20. Chris Masoe 21. Nicholas Durand 22. Maxime Mermoz 23. Vincent Martin

Ludicrous strength in depth, with Kennedy, Rossouw, Elsom etc having no place on the 23...

Ulster
Manager – Mark Anscombe

01. Tom Court	09. Ruan Pienaar (k)
02. Rory Best	10. Paddy Jackson
03. John Afoa
04. Ian Henderson	11. Tommy Bowe
05. Johann Muller (c.)	12. Luke Marshall
06. Stephen Ferris	13. Darren Cave
07. Chris Henry	14. Craig Gilroy
08. Roger Wilson	15. Jared Payne

16. Callum Black 17. Rob Herring 18. Declan Fitzpatrick 19. Dan Tuohy 20. Sean Doyle 21. Paul Marshall 22. Paddy Wallace 23. Andrew Trimble

Do i have to change Toulon's team to fit with our rules, eg 7 French starts?

Not sure, might have too

No mate, they play to their own rules! Cheers boys.

Remember 7 EQ starting lads

Leicester Tigers
Manager – Sgt_Pooly

01. Thomas Domingo	09. Ben Youngs
02. Tom Youngs	10. Toby Flood
03. Dan Cole
04. Luke Romano	11. Digby Ioane
05. Geoff Parling	12. Berrick Barnes
06. Willam Alberts	13. Manu Tuilagi
07. Sam Warburton	14. Christian Wade
08. Sergio Parisse(c)	15. James O'Connor

16. Bismark du Plessis 17. Alex Corbisiero 18. Martin Castrogiovani 19. Richie Gray 20. Liam Gill 21. Karl Dickson 22. Jordan Turner-Hall 23. Miles Benjamin

Tactics

01. Nick Wood	09. Dan Robson
02. Rory Best	10. Freddie Burns (k)
03. Adam Jones
04. Jim Hamilton	11. Johnny May
05. Sam Whitelock	12. Jamie Roberts
06. Tom Savage (c)	13. JDJ
07. Akapusi Qera	14. JSD
08. Luke Narraway	15. Pat Lambie

16. Korree Britton 17. Antoine Guillamon 18. Rupert Harden 19. Sam Cane 20. Alisdair Strokosch 21. Dimitri Yachvilli 22. Jimmy Gopperth 23. Henry Trinder

Tactics

Key Points

Big 2nd Rows
We have selected our strongest 2nd row pairing to disrupt the Toulon lineout and to create pressure on them in defence with strong carrys.

Qera and Jones

Jones will anchor the scrum and will look to get the edge on Toulon. He is in great form and full of confidence after Wales' recent results. Qera is picked siply to take Armitage off of his game, he will use his heavy carrying and hitting to target the Touln backrow and look to Savage to hit rucks hard and free up quick ball for us.

Home Advantage
We are at home and will have the shed being vocal. This will buy us a couple of extra points and will be different to what TOulon have experienced. We have good form coming into this game and we will be looking to use our strong runners out wide to stretchTOulon and the international experience to steady the ship.

Attacking

• We come off the back of a huge win and expect nothing else but another big win.

• Robson and Burns to play what's in front of them and look to release Roberts or snipe as much as possible. If it isn't on then Burns will stick it in the corners and, with Hamilton, Whitelock, Cane, JVN and Savage we have a number of jumpers to gain the ball back.

• Look for runners off of 10 and 12 channel to make the initial break before sending the ball out wide to JSD and May.

• We will look to use our big pack to carry alot of ball and, if it isn't on then run off of 9 and take a couple of 'up the jumper' phases to drag defenders in.

• Our back three will look to come off their wings and hit the right angles.

• Impact bench to shore up our victory and to keep the scoreboard ticking (Gopperth) , Yachvilli and Trinder will play fast-in your face-rugby, Qera and Narraway will have a field day against tired legs in the loose.

Set Piece

• Strong scrum which will get the edge up on the tighthead side and a good bench to come on as well to continue the pressure, 8-9-10 is a move we will use alot.

• We will use the maul to get ourselves up the pitch quickly and power over from short distance.

• Lineout has been mentioned previously where we have many strong jumpers here who will look to control attacking and defensive ones.

Defending

• Banana blitz defence targetting 10 so he has no time to kick or give quick ball to the centres, we will protect the channels to stop 9 sniping.

• Robson will look to sweep and counter attack off any kick through's.

• We will hit the breakdown quick to give Savage and Cane time to get over the ball and obliterate any protection they have in place.

• If the turnover isn't on we won't commit and will fan out defending inside-out.

Can JVN play for me or do I have to leave him for Toulon?

For Toulon mate

Ok cheers will edit now then!!

Northampton Saints
Manager – SirJohnnyEnglish

01. Soane Tonga'uiha	09. Lee Dickson
02. Dylan Hartley	10. Johnny Sexton
03. Paul Doran-Jones
04. Courtney Lawes	11. Chris Ashton
05. Andries Bekker	12. Sonny Bill WIlliams
06. Stephen Ferris	13. Gael Fickou
07. Tom Wood	14. JP Pieterson
08. Kieran Read	15. Ben Foden

16. Steven Kitshoff 17. Mike Haywood 18. Brian Mujati 19. Samu Manoa 20. Calum Clarke 21. Aaron Smith 22. Stephen Myler 23. George Pisi

Working nights, Flux?

Yes I am

Hope it goes well, drunk and need to go to bed now. Busy day of early exercise followed by many hours of watching hEC tomorrow

Gloucester 32-30 Toulon

Good game with Gloucester lucky its not at Toulon. I think Gloucester can get a little advantage in the front 5 but Toulon will have a bit more in the backrow. I'm not totally sold on Burns and think he could be got at here by Toulon's big runners but Gloucester have a strong defensive midfield to cope. Good runners on Gloucester wings and a good match up. Very close but home advantage swings it.

Flux can you take Ferris off Saints team and put Clark in pls

Whats wrong with Ferris?

You need another EQ starter

I have 7 - PDJ, Hartley, Lawes, Woods, Dickson, Ashton & Foden

Then I don't know, he is injured but not banned as far as I can tell

Ulster have him Johnny

When was that rule brought in? Teams have named players in foreign sides all the way through the pools?

It's only when you are facing that team

Its been allowed in the pool stages. Query was raised Heino Round 3 were Pooly said it wasn't coming in till next season

https://www.606v2.com/t38358-hc-round-3-preados

Sgt_Pooly wrote:We never made it concrete I don't think boys, will bring it in for next season

I thought I'd said after group stages tbh, my bad.

We'll bring it in after this round anyway.

I'll be marking both Ferris's down anyway lol

Leicester28-24 Leinster
Tigers too strong in the front 5 for Leinster to cope, Leinster hb's will pull some back but Tigers back line is very dangerous and a great bench to help.

Clermont 26-22 Toulouse

Saints 24-22 Ulster
Front 5's are fairly even but Saints bring more to the table in the backrow. 9 to Ulster but 10 to Saints. SBW losing ratings but other than that Saints a little stronger and just have enough.

Leicester Tigers 24 - 20 Leinster

Some very strong power in up front for Leicester, but there is some bite back form Leinster. Halfbacks are about evens, but there is a bit more in defence and attack from Tigers. Home advantage and decent bench secures the win.

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Clermont Auvergne 30 - 25 Toulouse

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Gloucester 27 - 26 Toulon

Upfront its a slight edge to Glos with Jones anchoring the scrum. Lineouts are even with both having decent jumpers. Halfbacks I'll edge to Glos with both in brilliant form right now. Their outside backs are also very good and will sneak it at home with the boot of Yachvili.

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Northampton Saints 27 - 25 Ulster

The packs a very close, but just a bit more form the Saints and their backrow. Halfbacks are even, but the backs there's a little more again for the Saints. They will steal this one away from home, just.

More detail may follow-

Leicester 32- 26 Leinster
Clermont 34 - 17 Toulouse
Gloucester 20 - Toulon 20
Ulster 18 - Saints 19

Ulster 19-20 Saints

Ulster would get good edge in scrum but fancy Saints a bit more in back 5 although the 2 Ferris's have little rating. Saints have a bit more past there buys its so so close, hard to rate SBW now he's in RL. Saints just edge a thriller.

Tigers 29-25 Leinster
Clermont 28-16 Toulouse
Gloucester 26-27 Toulon
Ulster24-26 Saints

Leicester 36-32 Leinster
Clermont 27-22 Toulouse
Gloucester 22-25 Toulon

Closed

RESULTS


Tigers 32 - Leinster 25
Clermont 32 - Toulouse 21
Gloucester 26 - Toulon 27
Ulster 22 - Saints 26

Very happy to do a draw with a randomiser online for HEC as I am neutral

http://www.randomresult.com/ticket.php?t=1601L6NSR

Semi Finals are Saints vs Toulon in England (I suggest Twickenham?)
and Leicester vs ASM in England (I suggest Twickenham as well in a DH, or Wembley)

I was going to say they should already be decided. Just where needs to be.

Fluxy wrote:I was going to say they should already be decided. Just where needs to be.

Did we do a draw?

Thought I'd got that one!!

prop_lyd wrote:Thought I'd got that one!!

Was incredibly close, the only match that wasn't a clear win when I was adding them up. I'll double check if you like

Blame Johnny

nah it's ok fella! I knew it would be close!

Predo bonus:

Full: Pooly, Prop, Flux,

Half: CJ, CJB, SJE

Page: Flux

MARK