Stade Francais vs Leicester; Sunday 24th Jan - 14:00 (GMT)

Match Officials

Referee George Clancy (Ireland)
Touch Judge 1 Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)
Touch Judge 2 Mark Patton (Ireland)
TMO Marshall Kilgore (Ireland)
Citing Commissioner Peter Ferguson (Ireland)


Head to Head
9 Played 9
4 Wins 5
4 Losses 4
0 Draws 0
14 Tries 18
10 Conversions 10
37 Penalties 28
6 Drop Goals 1
219 Points 197


Recent Form

Stade
16/1/16 Munster 26 - 13 SF Paris
9/1/16 SF Paris 27 - 7 Munster
19/12/15 SF Paris 40 - 14 Treviso


Leicester
16/1/16 Tigers 47 - 7 Treviso
20/12/15 Tigers 17 - 6 Munster
12/12/15 Munster 19 - 31 Tigers



Team Lineups

Stade:
15. Hugo Bonneval; 14. Jérémy Sinzelle, 13. Waisea Vuidarvuwalu, 12. Jonathan Danty, 11. Djibril Camara; 10. Jules Plisson, 9. Julien Dupuy; 1. Zak Taulafo, 2. Laurent Sempéré, 3. Rabah Slimani, 4. Hugh Pyle, 5. Paul Gabrillagues, 6. Jonathan Ross, 7. Raphael Lakafia, 8. Sergio Parisse
16. Laurent Panis, 17. Emmanuel Felsina, 18. Paul Alo Emile, 19. Pascal Papé, 20. Antoine Burban, 21. Julien Tomas, 22. Morné Steyn, 23. Geoffrey Doumayrou

Leicester
15. Matthew Tait; 14. Adam Thompstone, 13. Manu Tuilagi, 12. Matt Smith, 11. Telusa Veainu; 10. Freddie Burns, 9. Ben Youngs; 1. Marcos Ayerza, 2. Tom Youngs, 3. Dan Cole, 4. Dom Barrow, 5. Graham Kitchener, 6. Michael Fitzgerald, 7. Tom Croft, 8. Lachlan McCaffrey
16. Harry Thacker, 17. Logovii Mulipola, 18. Fraser Balmain, 19. Sebastian De Chaves, 20. Laurence Pearce, 21. Sam Harrison, 22. Thomas Bell, 23. Peter Betham

That may be the most EQPs we have fielded this season 12 in the starting 15 with another 6 on the bench. half of them through our academy too.

Nice squad very good rotation despite having multiple players out injured.

Allez les Tigres

Well this should be quite a game. Nice to see a good number of EQs in the squad. Looking forward to seeing the Smith/Manu midfield.

Stade:
6. Jonathan Ross

Bit late to change career surely? I never thought he had the mad dog aggression for 6 either.

Ugh why is Ugo Monye commentating? It's like rugby paint by numbers.

Oh and an Irish referee. Sigh.

Tigers starting brightly but Stade looking ominous when they have the ball.

Hmmm, neck role on croft

Knee to Tom Youngs ref notes is foul play but it's only a penalty?

They've found us with numbers over twice on the right. Need to be smarter. We've not looked after the ball well either. One piece of real skill from Smith to put us on the scoreboard.

Awful by thompstone there

Need to sort our defence out. Ref needs to sort himself out. Deliberate knock on missed and then no penalty as a retreating scrum collapses.

Stade very ruthless in our 22.

Why stop play for a marginal high tackle call that happened three foot away from the assistant? It didn't effect possession or injure a player. Not what the video ref is for. Sums up the ref so far.

Leicester look very disinterested. Little pace or agressive cover defence.

Stade just need to knock in the fourth try and the two teams can amble round the pitch for the rest of the match.

Dismal last round match to go along with Munster v Treviso.

I was kind of hoping that Leicester would sign off with a good away win. Agree with Pot, dismal last round.

If Racing had won yesterday it might be different as Tigers would need to win. As the game has gone on it looks more like the Tigers players are trying to avoid injury.

Burns isn't controlling the game. We're playing too much and we've left 6 points out there. A little more pragmatic and pressuring Stade's lineout in their half would be more productive though we'd need to stop them in the gain line first. Plisson and Danty making French midfield selections easy.

eirebilly wrote:I was kind of hoping that Leicester would sign off with a good away win. Agree with Pot, dismal last round.

Craig Doyle asks Dallaglio at half time if going for top seed is enough and he replies it is but they're playing against the French champions so.... and gives a Gallic shrug.

It's really entertaining stuff says Doyle valiantly

Ho hum.

It's all been a bit meh really, I suppose e have nothing to play for.

This ref is awful at the breakdown

It's so difficult to get flow in a game when the ref switches between pinging everything and nothing.

This ref is an embarrassment. That's not a strike. Tom Youngs was kneed in a ruck which the ref pinged as foul play in the first half and no card. Youngs has some pushing and shoving on a player that refuses to roll away despite off feet and it's a yellow. Just no consistency. Shambolic.

BT commentator - "I think that Chris Aston decision just on the record was absolutely appalling."

Really?

formerly known as Sam wrote:This ref is an embarrassment. That's not a strike. Tom Youngs was kneed in a ruck which the ref pinged as foul play in the first half and no card. Youngs has some pushing and shoving on a player that refuses to roll away despite off feet and it's a yellow. Just no consistency. Shambolic.

He is always an embarrassment. The worst ref on the international circuit by a large margin.

formerly known as Sam wrote:This ref is an embarrassment. That's not a strike. Tom Youngs was kneed in a ruck which the ref pinged as foul play in the first half and no card. Youngs has some pushing and shoving on a player that refuses to roll away despite off feet and it's a yellow. Just no consistency. Shambolic.

Whereas in reality he dropped into the player with his forearm and then tries to punch him in the face. Stupid and not necessary since the ball was available.

Anyway, predictably, Stade go over for their fourth and that's job done.

Pot Hale wrote:BT commentator - "I think that Chris Aston decision just on the record was absolutely appalling."

Really?

I refer to my earlier comment about Ugo Monye and commentating.

Exiledinborders wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:This ref is an embarrassment. That's not a strike. Tom Youngs was kneed in a ruck which the ref pinged as foul play in the first half and no card. Youngs has some pushing and shoving on a player that refuses to roll away despite off feet and it's a yellow. Just no consistency. Shambolic.

He is always an embarrassment. The worst ref on the international circuit by a large margin.

Yep am amazed by his consistency in being mediocre week after week. Also generally a bit of a homer so nothing new today.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:BT commentator - "I think that Chris Aston decision just on the record was absolutely appalling."

Really?

I refer to my earlier comment about Ugo Monye and commentating.

Lol. I must have missed that. He's got foot in mouth disease, has he?

Oh and Ulster are now out of things.

19 points is now the requirement.

Pot Hale wrote:BT commentator - "I think that Chris Aston decision just on the record was absolutely appalling."

Really?

Yes. Appalling.

Swinson deliberately punches in the face a player who is held in the maul and cannot defend himself. Result a one week ban. Ashton carelessly hit a player in the face not in the eyes as the player has admitted. Result a long ban.

A fair outcome would be to reverse the two bans.

To be fair he normally states the obvious repeatedly.

Youngs needs to be putting those box kicks into touch. Too many aren't making it. We've not seen those mistakes this season.

Double movement.

And lost control.

Bloody hell. TMO and ref completely wrong on that one.

Homer ref???

Exiledinborders wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:BT commentator - "I think that Chris Aston decision just on the record was absolutely appalling."

Really?

Yes. Appalling.

Swinson deliberately punches in the face a player who is held in the maul and cannot defend himself. Result a one week ban. Ashton carelessly hit a player in the face not in the eyes as the player has admitted. Result a long ban.

A fair outcome would be to reverse the two bans.

Except that's not what Ashton did. He moved his arm up deliberately to take player around the head and drags his hand across his face/eye area whilst neck rolling him down onto the ground. Stupid and reckless. And completely unecessary to have even attempted in the first place.

Pot Hale wrote:Double movement.

And lost control.

Bloody hell.  TMO and ref completely wrong on that one.

Homer ref???

Are you a clueless Clancy fan boy or something? Where's your Pom poms?

Pot Hale wrote:Double movement.

And lost control.

Bloody hell.  TMO and ref completely wrong on that one.

Homer ref???

Considering that TMO and ref disagreed that cannot both be wrong.

As a by the way, I suspect that citing officer may look closely at actions of some of the French players in this match.

Leicester players have now indicated twice that their eyes were attacked/gouged. Cole one player. And Slimani one of the accused.

Pot Hale wrote:As a by the way, I suspect that citing officer may look closely at actions of some of the French players in this match.

Leicester players have now indicated twice that their eyes were attacked/gouged.  Cole one player. And Slimani one of the accused.

Did the ref go the TMO at all?

Exiledinborders wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:Double movement.

And lost control.

Bloody hell.  TMO and ref completely wrong on that one.

Homer ref???

Considering that TMO and ref disagreed that cannot both be wrong.

Well TMO thought it was double movement. Clancy didn't.

And looked like Leicester player lost control of the ball.

Anyway, let's see if it makes any difference to result and outcome.

nathan wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:As a by the way, I suspect that citing officer may look closely at actions of some of the French players in this match.

Leicester players have now indicated twice that their eyes were attacked/gouged.  Cole one player. And Slimani one of the accused.

Did the ref go the TMO at all?

Well the first was on the Slimani try so there were replays. But no specific investigation.

TMO sod off. It's a marginal call and you've not got a camera in line.

Stade have fallen asleep at the wheel again.

Lucky that officials have picked up a forward pass.

Damn. That might have made the last ten minutes interesting.

nathan wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:As a by the way, I suspect that citing officer may look closely at actions of some of the French players in this match.

Leicester players have now indicated twice that their eyes were attacked/gouged.  Cole one player. And Slimani one of the accused.

Did the ref go the TMO at all?

This TMO is only involved when he wants to give a decision against Tigers.

formerly known as Sam wrote:TMO sod off. It's a marginal call and you've not got a camera in line.

Correct call.. it was forward.. TMO made correct call earlier too.. The grounding of the ball was way before the line, ball lost and no momentum move (hence double movement).. Should not have been a try.

Wish the Saints forward pass yesterday against the Scarlets had been picked up for their try as well, as they shouldn't have had the BP. Big call that if Saints qualify.

Hope Ospreys win with BP, Clermont win with BP and Stade maintain to win... I think that will correct the unjust calls and push Saints out...

Bugger off ugo, such a crap commentator

And there ends that nail-biter.

No9 wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:TMO sod off. It's a marginal call and you've not got a camera in line.

Correct call.. it was forward.. TMO made correct call earlier too.. The grounding of the ball was way before the line, ball lost and no momentum move (hence double movement).. Should not have been a try.

Wish the Saints forward pass yesterday against the Scarlets had been picked up for their try as well, as they shouldn't have had the BP. Big call that if Saints qualify.

Hope Ospreys win with BP, Clermont win with BP and Stade maintain to win... I think that will correct the unjust calls and push Saints out...

I've seen those given plenty of times though

nathan wrote:Bugger off No.9, such a crap commentator post

corrected

No9 wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:TMO sod off. It's a marginal call and you've not got a camera in line.

Correct call.. it was forward.. TMO made correct call earlier too.. The grounding of the ball was way before the line, ball lost and no momentum move (hence double movement).. Should not have been a try.

Wish the Saints forward pass yesterday against the Scarlets had been picked up for their try as well, as they shouldn't have had the BP. Big call that if Saints qualify.

Hope Ospreys win with BP, Clermont win with BP and Stade maintain to win... I think that will correct the unjust calls and push Saints out...

The Harrison pass was to a man clearly in line so any forward motion needed to be viewed by a video in line with the pass. The footage was always slightly behind Harrison so the pass always looked like it was going forward.

Barrow is allowed to place the ball. He wasn't held and he was sliding for the line. Just because it took him a while to place it doesn't matter as no one is competing for the ball. At no point does he stop trying to reach for the line and go again.

Bell's interception pass at the end was criminal. He didn't look and should he kicking himself for that. Really hope Owen Williams is back soon so we're not relying on him for big games. Williams would have also allowed us to play more pragmatically rather than keeping the ball live for so long and playing to Stade's strength.

I see that BT have picked up on the 'gouging' incident with Cole.

BT panel says it looks accidental.

Pot Hale wrote:I see that BT have picked up on the 'gouging' incident with Cole.

BT panel says it looks accidental.  

Makes no difference, eye contact is not allowed, should have thought about it before he made facial contact

I'd like to see it again before I pass comment. Doesn't look good but you have to see movement of hand and fingers before you can say whether it's intent or accidental. Given we all saw Cole holding his eye why didn't the TMO refer this?