Champions Cup Pool 1: Oyonnax/Saracens 13/19 December

The first appearance from Oyonnax Europe's top flight competition co-incides with a desperate run of form in the T14. With just twi wins from ten matches, they sit firmly at the bottom of the table and may well choose to select 2nd/3rd string sides for this fortnight. Perversly, meeting the form team in Europe may be just what they need. There will be no expectations on them and they could find the lack of pressure liberating.

Saracens will probably field a much changed team from the one that won at Newcastle and will firmly expect to secure two more TBP wins and seal a 1/4 final spot early - if not at the end of this round then before round 5 starts when postponed matches have been played.

Possible Saracens lineup for Match 1:

Vunipola, Brits, Du Plessis, Kruis, Hargreaves/Itoje, Rhodes, Burger, Vunipola, Wigglesworth, Farrell, Wyles, Barritt, Bosch, Ashton, Goode

George, Barrington, Figallo, Itoje/Hamilton, Fraser, de Kock, Hodgson, Taylor

                                
Union Sportive Oyonnax Rugby v Saracens
Sunday 13 December 2015
KO 14:00
Stade Charles Mathon, Oyonnax

Live on Sky Sports / beIN Sports

Referee Marius Mitrea (Italy)
Touch Judge 1 Matteo Liperini (Italy)
Touch Judge 2 Stefano Penne (Italy)
Fourth Official Carlo Damasco (Italy)
TMO Carlo Damasco (Italy)
Assessor Nigel Yates (England)
Citing Commissioner John Charles (Wales)

A. Head to Head

#These teams are meeting for the first time.

B. Current European Form

Saracens
20 November 2015
Ulster Rugby 9 - 27 Saracens

14 November 2015
Saracens 32 - 7 Toulouse

Oyonnax 
21 November 2015
Toulouse 24 - 18 Oyonnax

14 November 2015
Oyonnax P - P Ulster Rugby

C. Teams

Oyonnax

15 Quentin Etienne
14 Silvere Tian
13 Guillaume Bousses
12 Alaska Taufa
11 Dug Codjo
9 Fabien Cibray

1 Soane Tonga'uiha
2 Jeremie Maurouard
3 Horace Pungea
4 Leon Power
5 Geoffrey Fabbri
6 Valentin Ursache
7 Olivier Missoup
8 Pedrie Wannenburg

16 Thomas Bordes
17 Lukas Rapant
18 Rory Clegg
19 Antoine Guillamon
20 Pierrick Gunther
21 Florian Faure
22 Arthur Aziza
23 Regis Lespinas

Saracens

15 Alex Goode
14 Chris Ashton
13 Marcelo Bosch
12 Brad Barritt
11 Chris Wyles
10 Owen Farrell
9 Richard Wigglesworth

1 Mako Vunipola
2 Jamie George
3 Juan Figallo
4 Jim Hamilton
5 Maro Itoje
6 Michael Rhodes
7 Will Fraser
8 Billy Vunipola

16 Schalk Brits
17 Rhys Gill
18 Petrus Du Plessis
19 Kelly Brown
20 Jackson Wray
21 Neil de Kock
22 Charlie Hodgson
23 Mike Ellery

LondonTiger wrote:https://www.606v2.com/t61524-champions-cup-pool-1-oyonnax-saracens-13-19-december

Merged the two threads.

A team that can't win vs a team that hasn't lost... Hard to see beyond a Sarries win.

As an aside, does anyone know if Oyonnax get any Swiss fans?

Londontiger you are right - from an attacking standpoint Saracens need to be much more ambitious than they were against Newcastle. Leaving it to the 83rd minute for a try bonus is not where Saracens need to be. Also it felt like the more attacking backline was wasted.

If Saracens are to become the European champions they'll need to be less predictable, far too much kicking and going to the lineout catch and drive instead of giving the ball to the backs.

That possible line up is not the most attacking backline in the world - a bit lack of pace. I also think Taylor has been the better centre for Saracens than Bosch when Taylor is fit.

The positive is that with the Vunipola bros starting there should be more carrying to help punch holes.

Oyonnax have been in horrible form this year after surprising everyone last year. Don't think they'll be pushing too hard in Europe TBH, more like focussing all their efforts on staying up.

Sarries aren't everyone's cup of tea, but they've been pretty awesome this year you'd have to say. The level of criticism they got for the win at Newcastle was somewhat ridiculous IMO, OK they could have opened up earlier, but they got the job done, and Newcastle were never in the game.

Agree with beshocked that Taylor has looked better than Bosch this year so far, would also add that George has looked much better than Brits (or at least, Sarries look a much better team with him on the pitch), so would prefer him starting at the moment.

Agree with most of that mad for chelsea.


http://www.saracens.com/saracens-name-team-for-oyonnax-clash/

15 Alex Goode (191)
14 Chris Ashton (84)
13 Marcelo Bosch (48)
12 Brad Barritt © (151)
11 Chris Wyles (186)
10 Owen Farrell (120)
9 Richard Wigglesworth (134)
1 Mako Vunipola (84)
2 Jamie George (137)
3 Juan Figallo (19)
4 Jim Hamilton (27)
5 Maro Itoje (36)
6 Michael Rhodes (6)
7 Will Fraser (64)
8 Billy Vunipola (46)

Replacements

16 Schalk Brits (153)
17 Rhys Gill (149)
18 Petrus Du Plessis (108)
19 Kelly Brown (116)
20 Jackson Wray (121)
21 Neil De Kock (240)
22 Charlie Hodgson (113)
23 Mike Ellery (11)

Numbers denote Saracens appearances


It's a strong team.

Need to see some creativity and need to notch up the try bonus.

I just hope they mix it up a bit.

pretty close to Sarries strongest team that. Very happy to see George starting ahead of Brits (sorry to sound like a but am a huge fan of his). Is Kruis injured? second row looks a bit bare, though seeing Itoje without Kruis alongside him will give us a good idea of Itoje's line-out ability, which will be instructive at least.

Come on Oyonnax!!

Mad for Chelsea wrote:pretty close to Sarries strongest team that. Very happy to see George starting ahead of Brits (sorry to sound like a but am a huge fan of his). Is Kruis injured? second row looks a bit bare, though seeing Itoje without Kruis alongside him will give us a good idea of Itoje's line-out ability, which will be instructive at least.

Yes Mad for Chelsea it's pretty close to Sarries strongest team but it's a backline that needs to show a bit more creativity and pace.

George is the first choice these days and deservedly so but Brits showed against Worcester he still can create things.

Kruis has a knock. Itoje was meant to be rested against Worcester but played most of the game. With Hargreaves also apparently out it means Itoje gets even more gametime.

My biggest surprise is that Rhodes is a first choice flanker despite only coming to the squad this season. I guess he did have the pre-season.

Seems to be carrying on a trend of bringing in lesser known players from SA and giving them prominence.

Is Duncan Taylor rested or injured?

Slight Knock like Kruis though he might have not started anyway as Bosch was going to get played at some point.

Taylor unfortunately is one of those players who is a bit injury prone. He's played well when fit though and I like to see him start when he's available.

Don't know what's happened to Brown - seems strange for a player to go from one of Scotland's MVPs to struggling to get past backrowers both at Scotland and Sarries. Seems to have fallen on hard times.

Sarries 24 - 3 up at half time. Very impressive performance so far.

Madder than a box of hair to see Rory Clegg on the Oyonnax team sheet.

It's very hard to see anything but two BP wins in two games, which would leave Saracens with an insurmountable lead.

The question for Ulster, with two games against Oyonnax to come, is if Saracens do comfortably beat them twice then what will their motivation be for their fixtures against us? Next weeks game in Toulouse is massive because if we can get something out there we have a shot at a runners-up spot.

Ulster should be full of self belief after Friday night - I shouldn't think Toulouse will be looking forward to seeing them again. I wouldn't  imagine that Saracens will lack motivation though when Ulster visit to be honest.

stub wrote: I wouldn't  imagine that Saracens will lack motivation though when Ulster visit to be honest.

No, they won't. 3 wins almost certainly won't be enough, 4 might- we need to beat Oyonnax twice and beat one of the other teams on the road. It looks more likely to be Toulouse, so next weeks game is pretty crucial. It will be very difficult (but not impossible) if we lose.

It's possible that even if we lose to Toulouse we could still qualify if we pick up losing bonus points to them and Sarries, and winning bonus points in both Oyonnax games. That would gives us 17 points. It might still not be enough though. I think we really have to beat them next week.

Picamoles might still be out, and if we play at the same level of intensity and discipline, we have a chance. Toulouse know what to expect next time, and won't be caught cold. I expect a very tough game.

Very comprehensive arsekicking dished up by Saracens.

Didn't expect anything less. Oyonnax know they have no chance of getting out of the group, and will be focusing on T14.

Excellent result for Sarries (though would have expected a TBP win).

Saracens are looking good to go far in this tournament.

http://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/match?gameId=271459&league=271937

Interesting stats.


http://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/matchstats?gameId=271463&league=271937

ESPN is great to pick up stats.

My favourite has to be the insane - Exeter vs Clermont -

http://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/matchstats?gameId=271457&league=271937

Also interesting when you compare these to the Wasps-Bath game.