Super League - Week 2

First topic message reminder :

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RC Toulon vs Racing Metro 92
Location - Stade Mayol
Sunny, 14 degrees, 8 mph North Easterly winds

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Toulon


prop_lyd

01. Andrew Sheridan	09. Aaron Smith
02. Richard Hibbard	10. Johnny Wilkinson (k)
03. Carl Hayman
04.  Bakkies Botha	11. Bryan Habana
05.  Jocelin Suta	12. Matt Giteau
06. Julien Bonnaire	13. Adam Ashley-Cooper
07. Steffon Armitage	14. Drew Mitchell
08. JVN (c)	15. Delon Armitage

16. Kyle Cooper 17. Gethin Jenkins 18. Dan Cole 19. Danie Russouw 20. Juan Smith 21. Sebastian Tillous-Borde 22. Butch James 23. Wesley Fofana

Tactics
Tactics
We have strength all over the pack with international position in the majority of positions. Hard hitting rugby is what we are looking for with strong carriers in our pack who will look to make the holes and in defence to clear out and give Armitage and Bonnaire time and space to get over the ball. Johnny is our captain as he can pull the strings at 10 and bring influential passages of play. In our backs we have excitement everywhere with Giteauand AAC both looking to pull the strings and for the offloads from the tackles and we know how dangerous all of our back three are going to be. We will not lose at home. Our bench is strong again and brings impact all of the park, we will utilise this as and when and will look to run at tired legs throughout the last 20 minutes.

*Familiarity- Hibbard and Cole met on Lions, Suta-Botha-Armitage-JVN play together, Back 3 are all similar and play together.
*9-10 combo-we have Smith who can deliver quick ball to Johnny who will then look to play a fast attacking game especially from turnover ball.
*Bench-Our bench is full of impact and will look to dominate the end of the game.
*Defence-we have strong defensive leaders in Giteau, AAC and Wilkinson and will look to slow down/turnover a lot of ball.
*Set Piece-power is key today at scrum time  (targetting Ben Arous) and in the lineouts Hibbard's darts have improved and he has quality jumpers lead by Bonnaire and lifters to utilise. 

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Racing Metro TBC

01. Eddy Ben Arous	09. Maxime Machenaud
02. Andries Strauss	10. Jonathon Sexton (k)
03. Adam Jones
04. Juandre Kruger	11. Juan Imhoff
05. Brodie Retallick	12. Jamie Roberts
06. Dan Lydiate	13. Henry Chavancy
07. Francois Louw (c)	14. Ben Smith
08. Jacques Cronje	15. Juan Martin Hernandez

16. Luc Ducalcon 17. Dimitri Szarzeswski 18. Soane Tonghu'ia 19. Jone Qovu 20. Wenclas Lauret 21. Sebastian Descons 22. Jonthan Wisnewski 23. Benjamin Fall 

TACTICS ALL TBC
We like to focus around a solid set piece,and forcing the opposition into making mistakes in their half. In Strauss, Louw and Kruger we have a proven lineout combination. Kruger will call the lineout and look to challenge opposition ball in the air, by marking Bonnaire. In Strauss and Jones we have 2 big scrummagers that we will look to exert pressure at scrum time. We like to play in the right areas and don't take risks in our third. Use Sexton and JMH boot to kick in behind and for territory. Use up and under off slow ball in when in centre channel. Keep the scoreboard ticking over with Sexton.
- Hound Arron Smith. Pressurise him around the ruck and keep his head down. We know that this ploy works well against him. 
- Louw to play as out and out 7, looking to slow ball and force turnovers. Target Carter, who is injured as out of form; force him to play deep and limit his options. Lydiate to be first man in defence in the 1 out channel
- Roberts to lead the fan defence, looking to isolate individuals and allow back row to compete for turnovers. Machenaud to sweep up.
- Utilise the Lions 10/12 combo and get Sexton on the wrap around, using Roberts to draw defenders and encourage Smith to come into the space
- Use Tiny, Strauss, Retallick, Cronje as our big ball carriers around the fringes to keep the defence narrrow. Machenaud to snipe to keep them honest.
- Smith and JMH encouraged to come into the line as 2nd receivers

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ASM Clermont Auvergne vs Crusaders
Location - Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin
Light Clouds, 2 degrees, 7 mph North Easterly winds

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ASMClermontAuvergne

Manager
= ChequeredJersey

01. Thomas Domingo	09. Morgan Parra (k)
02. Benjamin Kayser	10. Aaron Cruden
03. Davit Zirakashvili
04. Julien Pierre	11. Julien Malzieu
05.  Andries Bekker	12. Ma'a Nonu
06. Tom Wood	13.   Aurelien Rougerie (c)
07. Sam Cane	14.  Sitiveni Sivivatu
08. JMF Lobbe	15. Jean-Marcellin Buttin

16. Clement Ric 17. Corey Flynn 18. Frans Malherbe 19. Jamie Cudmore  20. Julien Bardy 21.  Ludovic Radosavljevic 22.  Brock James 23. Lee Byrne

Tactics: As usual the focus will be on selectively attacking the breakdown to acquire turnover ball and quick attacking ball. Cane will be looking to track the ball to achieve this, backed up by Wood and Kayser with the rest of the pack cleaning out with intensity and momentum. Use only the minimum required numbers unless a turnover looks on either way then throw them in to make sure we get the ball. Slow ball controlled by Parra using groups of 3 forwards driving or Parra kicking into space or high to chase. Quick ball to be immediately spun wide for Cruden to attack the line and bring our strike runners into play. Move the ball around with our great handlers until there is a gap, attack it, draw the defence and offload into space. Backrow, Buttin and blindside wing look to come in for the pop inside off 10/12 as that may be where space appears. Cane chasing ball can also look to take offloads and recycle.

- Defence: blitz led by Rougerie. Cane look to scrag Carter, Parra harry Pelisse on backwards back and cover the inside of Cruden on attacking ball to allow the backrow to tackle more aggressively.

- set piece: Debaty can target Franks who has looked weak here. Use several options in lineout, and if ball is messy at all maul and create quick ball as in plan above. Pressure the rear and middle of lineout, force them to go for the front and take them on in the maul.

- kicking and territory: don't kick deep. If the kick to touch isn't an option, either retain possession or chip/grubber into space for our wings. Take all points available.

- targets: JD2's distribution at 12 is weak, look to double team him and hold him up for a maul. Folau positionally vulnerable, so draw him in.

- home advantage: Clermont is literally the hardest place to win away in sport, we are unbeaten in over 65 matches here

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Crusaders

01. Vincent Debaty	09. Jonathan Pelissie
02. Dylan Hartley	10. Dan Carter(k)
03. Owen Franks
04. Luke Romano	11. Zac Guildford
05. Sam Whitelock	12. Jonathan Davies
06. Mamuka Gorgodze	13. Ryan Crotty
07. Richie McCaw (c)	14. Israel Folau
08. Kieran Read	15. Israel Dagg

16. Ben Funnell 17. Wyatt Crockett 18. Nepo Laulala 19. Dominic Bird 20. Matt Todd 21. Andrew Ellis 22. Tom Taylor 23. Tom Marshall

Set piece: Debaty has come over from Clermont, so will have experience scrimmaging against Zirikashvili and we expect him to hold his own on that side. Franks is backed up by the strong scrummaging of Hartley, and will also have the 120kg of Romano backing him up. Clermont have a 6'5 lock playing with a 6'10 lock so there may be an imbalance there when it comes to locking the scrum. Whitelock is our main lineout jumper, backed up by Romano, Read and Gorgodze.

Kicking: Carter and Dagg are our primary kickers, we want to pin them back deep in their half, so the chips and grubbers they want to use become a very risky option. Pelissie to sweep up behind the defensive line to counter this. If they miss touch we will counter hard and fast. Carter is free to put up the high kick if he sees an opportunity for Folau to chase, especially when he can challenge the smaller Buttin aerially

Attack:  Read and Whitelock to carry in the wider channels. We want to counter the strength of the Clermont back row at the breakdown by carrying mainly tight to the ruck and straight at Cruden with big ball carrying from Franks, Hartley, Romano and Gorgodze,. tying in their back row. We will then go wider, with Read effectively our 3rd centre in terms of his ball skills and running ability. Davies will occasionally line up at 13 in attack, with Crotty and Read running dummy lines and a miss pass from Carter out to Davies/Folau/Dagg aimed at catching Rougerie on his outside shoulder

Defence: No obvious weak defender in the backs, Folau to stay tight to the touchline as Malzieu is less likely to come inside looking for work. Gorgodze to set the tone in defence, we want to smash their carriers back and give McCaw the chance he needs to school the young pretender Cane. Parra to be targeted for big hits early doors to try and rattle him and disrupt Cruden.

In the last 20, Gorgodze to come off, Todd to 7 and McCaw to 6. Taylor to come on at inside centre and we will play wider, with Taylor's distribution to get our back 3 running into gaps in the tired defence.

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Leicester Tigers vs Stormers
Location - Welford Road
Cloudy, 4 degrees, 11 mph North Westerly winds

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Leicester Tigers

01. Marco Ayerza	09. Ben Youngs
02. Rob Hawkins	10. Toby Flood (k)
03. Martin Castrogiovanni
04. Paul O'Connell	11. Gonzalo Camacho
05. Geoff Parling	12. Anthony Allen
06. Tom Croft	13. Manu Tuilagi
07. Pablo Matera	14. Blaine Scully
08. Juan Martin Legiuzamon (C)	15. Mathew Tait

Replacements: 16.Ghiraldini 17.Stankovich 18.Schuster 19.Deacon 20.Weepu 21. Williams 22.Benjamin 23.Huget

With the signing of O'Connell this week are defo stronger in the forwards, in fact from 1-8 that is a powerful forward pack and its exicting to be able to put these comibnations together. Hawkins getting a go today at hooker, and we are looking for a solid line out and looking to Paul and Geoff to get good ball and start off attacks. They will also look to carry ball over the gain line. Croft and Matera will also run the ball on all opportunities. Youngs will look to get quick ball and make sure we play with good attacking intent. Flood will kick in behind, when there is plenty of space for the runners to get on to the ball. Manu and Allen revert to their oridnary roles after last week's experiment failed. Tait also comes in for Huget

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Stormers

01. Alex Corbisiero	09. Will Genia
02. Deon Fourie	10. Owen Farrell (k)
03. Nicolas Mas
04. Nathan Hines	11. Julian Savea
05. Eben Etzebeth	12. Jean De Villiers (c)
06. Sean O'Brien	13. Juan De Jongh
07. Siya Kolisi	14. Gio Aplon
08. Duane Vermeulen	15. Jaco Taute

16. Scarra Ntubeni 17. Steven Kitshoff 18. Brok Harris 19. Rynhardt Elstadt 20. Damien Chouly 21. Dewaldt Duvenage 22. Elton Jantjies 23. Gerard Van Den Heever

Look to play a simple game based around the strong set piece game to secure possession. The pack is full of heavy carriers to get over the gain line consistently and capable of clearing out the rucks quickly and efficiently to create quick ball when possible. Look to create quick ball off pods outside the fringe defences of the ruck. Genia and Faz to run the game. Genia will look to keep the defences honest and punish any lapse in fringe defence by sniping any holes. Looking for any quick ball for Genia to orchestrate the attacking movements of the backs, and to keep the opponents guessing. Faz to play flat in attack to bring in the centres who can play simple and direct rugby or get it wide to our dangerous back three.

Set-piece - strong and efficient, put pressure on in certain situations on opposition ball. Eg clearing kicks from scrums and line outs in their 22
Breakdown - Collectively look to clear ball and smash opposing players out of the way. Opposing slow down legally by flooding the breakdown. 
Momentum - Use the momentum form last weeks game and our forward pack going forward to break the Tigers team apart.
Playing the %'s - Faz will keep the board ticking over and pegging the back, with Flood the only reliable kicking option in the back line.
Working on Players - Corbs to target Castro at the scrum, Wood to man mark Parling come the line out, with Etze up at the front.

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Toulouse vs Natal Sharks
Location - Stade Ernest-Wallon
Misty, 5 degrees, 3 mph North winds

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StadeToulousian
DOR: Driver
 

01. Guthro Steenkamp	09. Jano Vermaak
02. Chilliboy Ralapelle	10. Remi Tales
03. Cencus Johnstone
04. Yoann Maestri	11. Hosea Gear
05. Romain Millo-Chulski	12. Luke McCallister
06. Thiery Dusitour (c)	13. Florain Fritz
07. Michael Hooper	14. Leigh Halfpenny (K)
08. Louise Pickamoles	15. Clermount Poitrinaud

 

16.Tom Youngs 17.Antonio Guillamon 18.Vasil Kakovan 19.Patrico Albacete 20.Joe Tekori 21.Yannick Nyanga 22.Jean Marc Doussain 23.Christian Lealiifano


Toulouse go with the game plan which served them so well against Leicester Tigers. Toulouse will aim to play with plenty of power in the attack based around some serious muscle in the pack. We've gone for a big pack with the aim of smashing over the gain line to allow our backs to play fast and loose and create chances for us to run some tries in against the Sharks.   Vermaak and Tales will be key to how we play and will look to bring runners in and put plenty of dents in the Tigers defence. Playing loose and at a high tempo this game will suit our game plan with our backs running wild into the space.

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 The Sharks
DoR: Ozzy3213
 

01. Cian Healy	09. Danny Care
02. Bismarck du Plessis	10. Patric Lambie
03. Jannie du Plessis
04. Pieter-Steph du Toit	11. George North
05. Courtney Lawes	12. Francois Steyn
06. Marcell Coetzee	13. Conrad Smith
07. Willem Alberts	14. JP Pietersen
08. Sergio Parrise (c)	15. James O'Connor

 
16. Sebastien Bruno 17. Tendai Mtawarira 18. Lourens Adriaanse 19. Franco van der Merwe 20. Sam Warburton 21. Ryan Kankowski 22. Freddie Michalak 23. Quade Cooper
 
TACTICS

We will play a traditional South African gameplan in the forwards, being ultra physical and looking to dominate the collisions in attack and defence.  We will be looking in the main to run the ball, using the pack and big backs off first phase ball, with support runners on the ball carriers shoulder for the offloads in or just prior to contact.  We will however be sensible and if running it is not on in our half we will use the boots of Lambie, Steyn and O'Connor to put ourselves in the right area.  We will be looking to play our game at a high tempo. Lambie will play flat with the outside backs coming from positions of depth to gain momentum.  In defence we will employ the blitz and look to hit the ball carrier before he hits the gainline to stop Toulouse getting any momentum.  Danny Care will act as a sweeper behind the defensive line.

• Breakdown.  In attack we will put numbers in rucking past the ball to free it up quickly to go again.  In defence we will be selective.  If it is on to clear out and turn ball over we will throw numbers in to do so, otherwise we will keep a strong defensive line.
  
• Spaces not faces.  Our runners will target the gaps in the defensive line rather than defenders and look to breach the gainline regularly.
  
• Target Poitrenaud.  We will look to put some bombs up in the misty conditions and get a good kick chase in and pressurise Poitrenaud.
  
• Target Vermaak.  Back row to look to hurry Vermaak and put him under pressure in order to disrupt the quality of ball to the backline.
  
• Target the scrum.  Healy to try to get underneath the taller Johnstone, with BdP focusing on driving between Ralapelle and Johnstone, to really destablisie Toulouse on the tighthead side.
  

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ChequeredJersey wrote:Well played, BamBam, nearly another away win there!

Well done mate, tight one there as I expected.. Thought I could have sneaked a win but am happy with a LBP. Won't be picking too many against Clermont at home!

Fluxy wrote:Cracking start for me!

CF, I'm going to have to request that you please provide descriptions in your predos for next week (if time allows). I'm worried how you finally derive the result and the final score. Seeing as the conditions and players would dictate the score, I honestly can't see how you could come up with the scores you produced - unless you were to justify them. 

Not looking to cause an argument, any comments please get back to me mate  

I have to agree. My game vs CJ had backs like Dagg, Folau, Carter, Sivivatu, Nonu and Cruden but you only saw 1 try each??

Don't mind the result but feedback would help

Full scores; Ozzy, Flux, Bam, Prop, Bathite, CJ (slight warning,as that was the bare minimum in descriptions!)
Scores; Driver, CF