Challenge Cup Round One

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Bayonne vs Gloucester Rugby
Stade Jean Dauger
Sunny, 21 degrees, 8mph Southerly Winds

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Bayonne

01. Aretz Iguiniz	09. Manu Saubusse
02. Manu Leiataua	10. Raphaël Lagarde
03. Richard Choirat
04. Pierre Gayraud	11. Julien Jane
05. Pelu Taele	12. Gabiriele Lovobalavu
06. Jean Monribot	13. Félix le Bourhis
07. Jean Jo Marmouyet	14. Kade Poki
08. John Beattie	15. Romain Martial

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Replacements: 16 Grégory Arganese, 17 Ben Broster, 18 Pablo Huete, 19 Baptiste Chouzenoux, 20 Guillaume Rouet, 21 Tanerau Latimer, 22 Willie du Plessis, 23 Lorenzo Cittadini

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Gloucester 
Manager – Matt

01. Coenie Oosthuizen	09. Dan Robson
02. Joe Grey	10. Danny Cipriani (k)
03. Juan Figallo
04. Elliott Stooke	11. Jonny May
05. Tomás Lavanini	12. Matt Toomua
06. Yacouba Camara	13. Matt Scott
07. Julian Salvi	14. Will Addison
08. Willem Alberts	15. Johan Goosen

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Subs: 16. Rob Evans, 17. Andries Strauss, 18. Uini Atonio, 19. Tom Croft, 20. Ross Moriarty, 21. TJ Perenara, 22. Billy Burns, 23. Sam Davies

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Ospreys vs Exeter Chiefs
Liberty Stadium
Light Cloud, 14 degrees, 11mph South Easterly Winds

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Ospreys

01. Nicky Smith	09. Rhys Webb
02. Sam Parry	10. Sam Davies
03. Dmitri Arhip
04. Bradley Davies	11. Eli Walker
05. Alun Wyn Jones (c)	12. Josh Matavesi
06. James King	13. Ben John
07. Justin Tipuric	14. Jeff Hasller
08. Dan Baker	15. Dan Evans

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Replacements: 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Paul James, 18 Ma'afu Fia, 19 Rory Thornton, 20 Dan Lydiate, 21 Tom Habberfield, 22 Dan Biggar, 23 Ashley Beck

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Exeter Chiefs 
         
Manager – StNick

01. Nathan Catt	09. Chris Cook
02. Dane Coles	10. Alex Lozowski (k)
03. Kyle Sinckler
04. Jake Ball	11. Noa Nakaitaci
05. Juandre Kruger	12. Stuart McCloskey
06. Dave Ewers	13. Maxime Mermoz
07. Marcell Coetzee	14. Olly Woodburn
08. Fritz Lee	15. Maxime Medard

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16 Tom Youngs,  17 Thomas Domingo, 18 Harry Williams, 19 Kane Douglas, 20 Brad Shields, 21 Greg Laidlaw, 22 Colin Slade, 23 George Pisi

Phase Attack: Attacks build momentum until an opportunity arises.
Territorial Kicking: Looking to pin back sides and kick for open spaces or touch.

Breakdown - Slowing up ball: The defenders can get over the ball to slow it up and prevent the attack from building momentum and allowing your defence to set.
Chop Tackle: Tacklers look to get low and chop down attackers before gaining momentum or metres over the gain line.

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Enisei-STM vs Leicester Tigers
Slava Stadium, Moscow
Thick Cloud, 5 degrees, 3mph North Easterly Winds

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Enisei-STM

01. Alexey Volkov	09. Alexey Shcherban
02. Nazir Gasanov	10. Iurii Kushnarev
03. Innokentiy Zykov
04. Uldis Saulite	11. Denis Simplikevich
05. Viacheslav Krasylnyk	12. Mikhail Babaev
06. Vitalii Orlov	13. David Kacharava
07. Andrey Temnov	14. Jurijs Baranovs
08. Anton Rudoi	15. Ramil Gaisin,

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Replacements: 16 Stanislav Selskii, 17 Andrei Polivalov, 18 Evgenii Pronenko, 19 Mikhail Sidorov, 20 Igor Kurashov, 21 Dmitriy Simonov, 22 Nikolay Serkov, 23 Plavel Butenko

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Leicester Tigers
Manager – Fluxy

01. Max Lahiff	09. Micky Young
02. Dave Ward	10. Freddie Burns (k)
03. Atu Moli
04. Steve Mafi	11. Henry Purdy
05. Dominic Bird	12. Billy Twelvetrees
06. Sam Jones	13. Damien Penaud
07. Hienrich Brussow	14. Alex Cuthbert
08. Liam Messam	15. Kurtley Beale

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Subs: 16. Julien Marchand 17. Mikheil Nariashvili 18. Lasha Tibadze 19. Pascal Pape 20. Don Armand 21. Francois Hougaard 22. James Lang 23. Ben Teo'o

In reasonable conditions we will be looking to play a possession based game, going through the phases and continually shifting the point of attack. Look to make ground carrying close to the ruck and recycling quickly, with offloading and forward inter play to keep the ball off the ground and moving, preventing a ruck and defsive line being set. 

In defence, as always we will be running a blitz defence. Our focus will be on the gainline collisions and driving back in the tackle. Line speed and no dog-legs will be key components for us. Young will sweep in behind the defensive line to counter any chips/grubbers.

Specifics 

• Line-out: Nothing flash. Hit our front and middle jumpers and ensure that we secure our ball. We will also mix it up, shortening the line-out and using our back row as crash ball options off the top. 
  
• Scrum: Get low and underneath their props and drive straight. Really test their props technical abilities rather than get in to a battle of strength.
  
• Breakdown: When we carry in, we will flood the breakdown rucking well past the ball to free it up quickly and go again. In defence, if we have made a passive tackle and the carrier has momentum we will not over commit, but will maintain a strong defensive line. If we win the collision and knock the carrier back we will look to get the second man in hard over the ball to slow up momentum, or turn over possession. Key for us is being selective, and only committing men to a winnable ruck. 
  
• Attacking Play: We will be looking to play a fast offloading game, with the ball shifted on to the support runner just prior to the point of the tackle with the defender already committed. We will also utilise the pick and go, meaning their defensive line cannot blitz efficiently. We will then we will look to exploit the delay in their blitz that results. We will then look to shift the direction of play and pull their defenders out of position to create gaps. Young to also look to snipe around the fringes and keep us going forwards all the time.  
  
• Look to get the ball out wide and in the hands of our backs, when the Bath defensive patterns are broken. 
  
• Tactical Kicking:  If we kick, we will look to kick in behind their wingers and get them on the turn going back towards their own line, with our wingers on the kick chase to really target them defensively. 
  
  

Tigers Attributes
Defensive Traits

• Blitz Defence: Your side is known for Blitz and excels at it
  
• Breakdown - Slowing up ball: The defenders can get over the ball to slow it up and prevent the attack from building momentum and allowing your defence to set.
  

Attacking Traits

• Offloading in the tackle: Moving the point of attack preventing a defence to set and keeping play fluid.
  
• Breakdown - Clearing: Ensuring the possession is clean and quick with quick support to the breakdown
  

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Pau vs Bath Rugby
Stade du Hameau
Sunny, 21 degrees, 3mph South Easterly Winds

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Pau

01. Geoffrey Moise	09. Julien Tomas
02. Thomas Bianchin	10. Colin Slade
03. Malik Hamadache
04. Fabrice Metz	11. Mosese Ratuvou
05. Julien Pierre	12. Tom Taylor
06. Paddy Butler	13. Conrad Smith
07. Steffon Armitage	14. Louis Dupichot
08. James Coughlan	15. Charly Malie

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Replacements: 16 Mehdi Boundjema, 17 Jamie Mackintosh, 18 Daniel Ramsay, 19 Ben Mowen, 20 Thibault Daubagna, 21 Jale Vatubua, 22 Watisoni Votu, 23 Matthew Tierney

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Bath Rugby
Manager – CJB

01. Steven Kitchoff	09. Maxine Machenaud
02. Mikey Haywood	10. Finn Russell
03. Scott Wilson
04. Charlie Ewers	11. Lolagi Visnia
05. Mitch Lees	12. Sam Hill
06. Sekou Macalou	13. Harold Vorster
07. Liam Gill	14. Andrew Kellaway
08. Josh Beaumont	15. Cheslin Kolbe

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16. Ellis Genge 17. Rory Best 18. Nepo Laulala 19. Will Skelton 20. Toby Falateu 21. Richard Wigglesworth 22. George
Moala 23. Liam Williams

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Bristol Rugby vs Cardiff Blues
Ashton Gate Stadium
Light Rain, 14 degrees, 9mph South Westerly Winds

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Bristol Team 
Manager: CJ

01. Loni Uhila	09. Kahn Fotuali'i
02. Rob Buchanan	10. Christian Lealiifano
03. James Johnston
04. Sam Carter	11. Rene Ranger
05. Kearnan Myall	12. Jimmy Gopperth (c,k)
06. Chris Robshaw	13. Nick Tompkins
07. John Barclay	14.  Charlie Sharples
08. Carl Fearns	15. Rhys Patchell

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16. Tom West 17. Richardt Strauss  18. Mike Ross 19. Grant Gilchrist 20 Judicaël Cancorriet, 21. Tomas Cubelli, 22. Piers Francis 23. Digby Ioane

Tactics:

Attributes:

Attacking:
1) Breakdown - Clearing: Ensuring the possession is clean and quick with quick support to the breakdown
2)  Phase Attack: Attacks build momentum until an opportunity arises. 
Defending:
1) Breakdown - Slowing up ball: The defenders can get over the ball to slow it up and prevent the attack from building momentum and allowing your defence to set. 
2) Breakdown - Organised Ruck defence: with guards and body guards set, allowing the rest of the line to set off them.

Tactics:

We have our team focus on the breakdown (I know I don't need 3 attributes here, but I'm stuck with them for now!) and twin fetchers in a dynamic backrow backed up with hard clearing out - Williams especially is known to be lazy rucking, so we are confident we can bully out and dominate the Blues backrow, especially if we aim to tire Jenkins out as below.

Attack: We have a playmaking and game running 10 and 3 fly-half type players in the backline to give us control, the playmaking that our high pace relentless phase attack relies on, a plethora of kickers to control the game and play territory and good decision making. Lealiifano is the main decision maker, helped out by Gopperth when needed.

Plan to keep up a relentless stream of phases, securing quick possession with our fetchers above, using our 3 playmakers to ensure there is always someone to start the attack at first receiver, looking to use simple 1-2 pass moves until the gaps appear, then capitalise with our quicker players. Use our carriers like the front row, Carter, Ranger, Fearns to make the gainline and suck in players and in later phases the speed of Gopperth, Tompkins and Sharples to break the stretched defence. Also encouraging Fotuali'i to snipe when it looks on.

Also happy to kick if nothing is on, with a hard chase and the players to win a kicking battle.

Defence: Blitz, led by Tompkins, with 9 sweeping. Look to kick back 3 behind their back 3 with opportunistic Sharples chasing especially. Especially bringing Lealiifano into 12 on defence on their set piece ball to hit their source of go-forward ball (Lee-Lo) with a strong defender early and kill their momentum, with 1 or both flankers in quick support to look to spoil that ball early.

Set piece: keep mixing up the receiver in the lineout, and look to use the maul with Barclay at the back.

Knowing we have a strong scrummager on the bench in Ross, aim to target and go hard at Jenkins in every scrum - aside from the scrums themselves we are looking to tire him to neuter him in the loose and take away a major source of their rucking and workrate.

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Cardiff Blues

01. Gethin Jenkins (c)	09. Lloyd Williams
02. Kristian Dacey	10. Gareth Anscombe
03. Taufa’ao Filise
04. Macauley Cook	11. Tom James
05. Josh Turnbull	12. Rey Lee-Lo
06. Josh Navidi	13. Garyn Smith
07. Ellis Jenkins	14. Blaine Scully
08. Nick Williams	15. Dan Fish

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Replacements: 16 Matthew Rees, 17 Rhys Gill, 18 Scott Andrews, 19 James Down, 20 Cam Dolan, 21 Tomos Williams, 22 Steven Shingler, 23 Matthew Morgan

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Worcester Warriors vs Stade Francis Paris
Sixways Stadium
Light Cloud, 14 degrees, 9mph South Easterly Winds

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Worcester Warriors
Manager - Prop

01. Val Ruskin	09. Sam Harrison
02. Ross Batty	10. Owen Williams (k)
03. Henry Thomas
04. Devin Toner	11. Adam Thompstone
05. Tom Savage	12. David Havili
06. Mike Williams	13. Huw Jones
07. George Smith	14. Sergeal Petersen
08. Jackson Wray	15. Jonah Placid

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16. Jack Walker 17. Luca Paz 18. Will Collier 19. Leone Nakawara 20. Sam Warburton 21. Rory Kockett 22. Dan Biggar 23. Jarrad Payne

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Stade Francis Paris

01. Heinke Van der Merwe	09. Julien Dupuy
02. Laurent Sempere	10. Meyer Bosman
03. Rabah Slimani
04. Hugh Pyle	11. Jérémy Sinzelle
05. Paul Gabrillagues	12. Paul Williams
06. Sekou Macalou	13. Geoffrey Doumayrou
07. Sylvain Nicolas	14. Julien Arias
08. Raphaël Lakafia	15. Hugo Bonneval

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Replacements: 16 Rémy Bonfils, 17 Zurabi Zhvania, 18 Pascal Papé, 19 Mathieu de Giovanni, 20 Clément Daguin, 21 Jules Plisson, 22 Waisea Nayacalevu, 23 Sakaria Taulafo

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Exeter Chiefs side to face Ospreys

Exeter Chiefs 
         
Manager – StNick

01. Nathan Catt	09. Chris Cook
02. Dane Coles	10. Alex Lozowski (k)
03. Kyle Sinckler
04. Jake Ball	11. Noa Nakaitaci
05. Juandre Kruger	12. Stuart McCloskey
06. Dave Ewers	13. Maxime Mermoz
07. Marcell Coetzee	14. Olly Woodburn
08. Fritz Lee	15. Maxime Medard

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16 Tom Youngs,  17 Thomas Domingo, 18 Harry Williams, 19 Kane Douglas, 20 Brad Shields, 21 Greg Laidlaw, 22 Colin Slade, 23 George Pisi

Phase Attack: Attacks build momentum until an opportunity arises.
Territorial Kicking: Looking to pin back sides and kick for open spaces or touch.

Breakdown - Slowing up ball: The defenders can get over the ball to slow it up and prevent the attack from building momentum and allowing your defence to set.
Chop Tackle: Tacklers look to get low and chop down attackers before gaining momentum or metres over the gain line.

Bristol Team 
Manager: CJ

01. Loni Uhila	09. Kahn Fotuali'i
02. Rob Buchanan	10. Christian Lealiifano
03. James Johnston
04. Sam Carter	11. Rene Ranger
05. Kearnan Myall	12. Jimmy Gopperth (c,k)
06. Chris Robshaw	13. Nick Tompkins
07. John Barclay	14.  Charlie Sharples
08. Carl Fearns	15. Rhys Patchell

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16. Tom West 17. Richardt Strauss  18. Mike Ross 19. Grant Gilchrist 20 Judicaël Cancorriet, 21. Tomas Cubelli, 22. Piers Francis 23. Digby Ioane

Tactics:

Attributes:

Attacking:
1) Breakdown - Clearing: Ensuring the possession is clean and quick with quick support to the breakdown
2)  Phase Attack: Attacks build momentum until an opportunity arises. 
Defending:
1) Breakdown - Slowing up ball: The defenders can get over the ball to slow it up and prevent the attack from building momentum and allowing your defence to set. 
2) Breakdown - Organised Ruck defence: with guards and body guards set, allowing the rest of the line to set off them.

Tactics:

We have our team focus on the breakdown (I know I don't need 3 attributes here, but I'm stuck with them for now!) and twin fetchers in a dynamic backrow backed up with hard clearing out - Williams especially is known to be lazy rucking, so we are confident we can bully out and dominate the Blues backrow, especially if we aim to tire Jenkins out as below.

Attack: We have a playmaking and game running 10 and 3 fly-half type players in the backline to give us control, the playmaking that our high pace relentless phase attack relies on, a plethora of kickers to control the game and play territory and good decision making. Lealiifano is the main decision maker, helped out by Gopperth when needed.

Plan to keep up a relentless stream of phases, securing quick possession with our fetchers above, using our 3 playmakers to ensure there is always someone to start the attack at first receiver, looking to use simple 1-2 pass moves until the gaps appear, then capitalise with our quicker players. Use our carriers like the front row, Carter, Ranger, Fearns to make the gainline and suck in players and in later phases the speed of Gopperth, Tompkins and Sharples to break the stretched defence. Also encouraging Fotuali'i to snipe when it looks on.

Also happy to kick if nothing is on, with a hard chase and the players to win a kicking battle.

Defence: Blitz, led by Tompkins, with 9 sweeping. Look to kick back 3 behind their back 3 with opportunistic Sharples chasing especially. Especially bringing Lealiifano into 12 on defence on their set piece ball to hit their source of go-forward ball (Lee-Lo) with a strong defender early and kill their momentum, with 1 or both flankers in quick support to look to spoil that ball early.

Set piece: keep mixing up the receiver in the lineout, and look to use the maul with Barclay at the back.

Knowing we have a strong scrummager on the bench in Ross, aim to target and go hard at Jenkins in every scrum - aside from the scrums themselves we are looking to tire him to neuter him in the loose and take away a major source of their rucking and workrate.

Worcester Warriors
Manager - Prop

01. Val Ruskin	09. Sam Harrison
02. Ross Batty	10. Owen Williams (k)
03. Henry Thomas
04. Devin Toner	11. Adam Thompstone
05. Tom Savage	12. David Havili
06. Mike Williams	13. Huw Jones
07. George Smith ©	14. Sergeal Petersen
08. Jackson Wray	15. Jonah Placid

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16. Jack Walker 17. Luca Paz 18. Will Collier 19. Leone Nakawara 20. Sam Warburton 21. Rory Kockett 22. Dan Biggar 23. Jarrad Payne

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Gloucester 
Manager – Matt

01. Coenie Oosthuizen	09. Dan Robson
02. Joe Grey	10. Danny Cipriani (k)
03. Juan Figallo
04. Elliott Stooke	11. Jonny May
05. Tomás Lavanini	12. Matt Toomua
06. Yacouba Camara	13. Matt Scott
07. Julian Salvi	14. Will Addison
08. Willem Alberts	15. Johan Goosen

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Subs: 16. Rob Evans, 17. Andries Strauss, 18. Uini Atonio, 19. Tom Croft, 20. Ross Moriarty, 21. TJ Perenara, 22. Billy Burns, 23. Sam Davies

Predictions open

Challenge Cup - Round One Results:

Bayonne 18 - 35 Gloucester Rugby
Ospreys 24 - 30 Exeter Chiefs
Enisei-STM 11 - 53 Leicester Tigers
Pau 21 - 31 Bath Rugby
Bristol Rugby 34 - 22 Cardiff Blues
Worcester Warriors 30 - 18 Stade Francais

Bayonne 15 - 35 Gloucester
I'm not 100% sold that Alberts' best position is at 8. However, the rest of the Gloucester pack is well on top and with a great control from 9-10-12-15, able to double up playmaking and kicking for territory,  Gloucester win quite easily 

Bayonne 18-32 Glos
That Glos backline will run riot against Bayonne and they will get good ball to do this. Bench will extend the lead further.

Bayonne 17-22 Gloucester

Bayonne 20 - 30 Gloucester Rugby

Bayonne 19-23 Gloucester
Not a bad Bayonne side but Gloucester have enough in the pack and backs to see this one through.

Bayonne 18 - 35 Gloucester
Form of the away sides halfbacks is huge and will see Gloucester run away with the game. 

Bayonne 16-25 Gloucester 
Too much quality from Gloucester

Bayonne 18-30 Gloucester

Bayonne 20 - 33 Gloucester
Another weakened French side, and Glos are just full of ball players in their backline to dissect their defence, easy road win

Bayonne 21 - 32 Gloucester
Away in France never easy but Glos have enough for the win.

Ospreys 23 - 29 Exeter
Exeter props finding some nice form. Coles, Sinckler, Lee and Ewers all add a huge amount of carrying ability. Ospreys strong in the lineout and the second row, but Exeter equal to them. Ospreys actually have an edge at halfback with a classy pairing but outside of that Exeter have a much better backline 

Ospreys 22-28 Chiefs
Pretty solid pack battle with Coles still recovering from getting back to U.K. Backrows fairly evenly matched. Half backs close but Chiefs have more out wide and their bench gets them over the line.

Ospreys 26 - 28 Exeter Chiefs

Ospreys 27-29 Exeter
Prob the game of the round and this one will go right to the wire. Good bench from Exeter sees them scrape this one.

Ospreys 25 - 29 Exeter 
Good away win, can see the Chiefs pack being able to overpower the home side and get Lowzowski some great attacking ball. 

Ospreys 22-18 Exeter 
I like this Ospreys team and Exeter have a few players rested. The half back combo is where Ospreys confirm the win here for me. 

Ospreys 18-23 Exeter 
Little surprised to see Coles starting and can't see him having any affect with the travel and next week on his mind. Bit more quality to the Chiefs back row and 11-15 sees them picking up the away win.

Ospreys 24 - 30 Exeter
Ospreys are one of the stronger sides on paper, but still don't think any of the Welsh regions can compete with the teams in the league, just too much quality in the pack to ever be seriously threatened even on the road

Ospreys 22 22- Exeter
Chiefs don't quite have enough for the win but take a draw against a strong Ospreys side at home.

Enisei 3 - 55 Tigers
Enisei are at home but that's all they have here. Tigers especially dominant at the breakdown with the backrow and Mafi and Ward. Beale especially to make hay.

Ensei 12-58 Tigers
Tigers will run riot, Ensei may get a couple of points as they are used to the conditions but it won't be enough once Tigers have warmed up and are firing.

Ensei 9-33 Tigers

Enisei 20-23 Leicester
Really tough place to play as seen by numerous teams struggling. Tigers quite strong though and enough to see game out. 

Enisei 9 - 49 Leicester 
Too much quality throughout for Tigers to not come away with a routine win. 

Enisei 6-58 Leicester 
Easy for the Tigers

Enisei 7-88 Tigers 

Enisei 21 - 40 Leicester
Don't know enough Russian rugby to comment, but Tigers are plenty strong to handle most of the sides in the ERCC

Enisei 12 - 31 Tigers

Pau 17 - 30 Bath
Armitage can match Gill though Gill's form is good. Bath have a great backrow out, Full of pace and breakdown work. Pau are ahead in the centres with a great pairing but Bath edge the halfbacks and back 3. Pau keep things close at home until the Bath bench changes things up 

Pau 15-18 Bath
The front 5 battle should just go to Bath with the back row battle pretty close here. 9-13 there isn't a lot in it with the NZ players seemingly finding their feet at Pau now and out wide both teams are dangerous. The bench helps Bath out but it won't be an easy game for them today.

Pau 23-20 Bath

Pau 24 - 27 Bath

Pau 23-28 Bath
Good Pau side out but Bath looking pretty good and will take the win by a score. 

Pau 10 - 25 Bath
Again powerful Bath pack and can see the away side getting far more opportunities for attacking. 

Pau 22-27 Bath
Decent Pau side particularly 10-12-13 and the backrow. Can see a tight game here but late on the Bath bench seals this.

Pau 23 - 38 Bath
Pau have a few decent players but Bath have a decent pack out, and there's a lot of talent in that backline

Pau 23 - 29 Bath

Bristol 30-23 Blues
Front row will be a good battle but other than that Bristol are set up well for a dogged match with good breakdown players nullifying one of the Blues' strengths. The Blues backline have been on fire recently but Bristol a step up and with Gopperth pulling the strings at 12 they will be put into great positions. Tactically Bristol are set up well for the breakdown and with targeting tired players. A good win against a good Blues side.

Bristol 22-18 Cardiff

Bristol Rugby 32 - 28 Cardiff Blues

Bristol 34-20 Blues
Blues struggling this season and they'll not get things any easier against a handy Bristol outfit. 

Bristol 32 - 23 Cardiff
Good win for the home side, and more detailed tactics help increase the margin of the win.

Bristol 26-17 Cardiff
Cardiff are not the strongest whereas this looks a strong team from Bristol. 

Bristol 30-23 Cardiff
Cardiff going well this year and make a good game of this. Form of 9 and 12 a big plus for Bristol and can see them easing ahead later on.

Bristol 29 - 23 Cardiff
Probably the closest game of the round, with a decent Cardiff side. Bristol stronger throughout the pack though, and will have the pace to burn Cardiff for a solid home win

Bristol 26 - 20 Cardiff

Worcester 26 - 19 Stade
Stade can take Worcester's back up props in the scrum quite easily. However, Worcester do edge the second row and dominate the backrow with a great set up. Worcester also edge the backs with Williams controlling things.

Worcester Warriors 31 - 22 Stade Francais

Worc 17-15 Stade

Worcester 29-20 Stade
Good match but Wuss will pull away in the latter stages against a tough Stade outfit.

Worcester 24 - 11 Stade Francais
French side aren't what they used to be at all and Worcester too strong again. 

Warriors 24-14 Stade
Away from home, I cannot see Stade getting the win. They will put up more trouble at home. 

Worcester 28-20 Stade
Some scrum issues but see the Worc pack getting on top. Very young exciting back line but could probably do with an experienced hand in there to get the best out of them.

Worcester 30 - 19 Stade