Fantasy Amlin Challenge Cup Final

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London Welsh vs. RC Toulon
at RDS, Dublin

Light Rain Showers, 13 degrees, 9 mph winds.

London Welsh
Manager Ozzy3213

01. Alex Corbisiero	09. Morgan Parra
02. Rob Hawkins	10. Owen Farrell
03. Dave Wilson
04. George Skivington	11. Digby Ioane
05. Jim Hamilton	12. Pat McCabe
06. Tom Johnson	13. Tim Nanai-Williams
07. Thierry Dusautoir ©	14. James Simpson-Daniel
08. Duane Vermeulen	15. Gareth Anscombe

16. Bismarck du Plessis 17. Ben Alexander 18. Martin Castrogiovanni 19. Sitaleki Timani 20. Luke Wallace 21. Paul Hodgson 22. Bryan Habana 23. Jack Nowell

Key Points

• Desire. In reality this will not be a priority for Toulon, they will want the T14 more than this. We will be more up for this game.
  
• Form. We have some real form players in the likes of TNW, Ioane and Anscombe that can really hurt Toulon.
  
• Discipline. Most penalties are at the breakdown. We are not flooding it as a rule, and will look to maintain discipline there and not give Toulon opportunities for 3 pointers.
  
• Bench. We have world class individuals to bring on to see the game out.
  

Basic Game Plan
Parra, Farrell and Anscombe to put us in the right areas of the field to play. Once in the right areas we will go ball in hand and have the forwards trucking the ball up in the tight and looking to suck players in to create space for the backs. Our game plan will be as it has been all season, although with a little more emphasis on playing in the right areas today. We will go from deep if it is on, but we will not take risks in our 22.

Specifics

• Support runners to ruck past the ball quickly if the carrier goes to ground in order to secure quick ball to go again.
  
• Forwards to look for Bastareaud in the defensive line, with TNW in support and get him on the outside shoulder of Bast, where he has the pace and step to break the line and get us going forward. Support runners to finish the move.
  
• With the boot, hit the space in behind the two wingers and force them to turn and go back. Kick chase to be strong.
  
• We will look to play a blitz defence with quick line speed to hit the ball carrier before he gets to the gainline and knock him back even further. Parra will sweep in behind.
  
• We will not overcommit to the breakdown. If a turnover is on, we will go for it, counter rucking and hitting on the break. If it is not on to win the ball, we will send in a couple of players to legally slow it, and get our defensive line set quickly and strongly a la France in the World Cup. We want to control the gainline in defence and attack.
  

RC Toulon

01. Andrew Sheridan	09. Sebastien Tillous-Borde
02. Sebastien Bruno	10. Jonny Wilkinson
03. Carl Hayman
04. Bakkies Botha	11. Alexis Palisson
05. Nick Kennedy	12. Matt Giteau
06. Danie Rossouw	13. Matthieu Bastareaud
07. Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe	14. Rudi Wulf
08. Chris Masoe	15. Delon Armitage

16. Jean-Charles Orioli 17. Gethin Jenkins 18. Davit Kubriashvili 19. Joe van Niekerk 20. Steffon Armitage 21. Maxime Mermoz 22. Nicolas Durand 23. Jocelino Suta

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London Welsh name their side to face Toulon in the Amlin Challenge Cup Final this weekend. Alex Corbisiero returns from injury in the front row and the side will be captained by former world player of the year Thierry Dusautoir. The in form Digby Ioane, Tim Nanai-williams and Gareth Anscombe take their places in the back line, with a host of internationals set to be introduced from the bench during the game. Head coach Ozzy3213 had this to say;-

“This is it. This is our season in 80 minutes. We’ve prepared well over the past fortnight and the guys who’ve got the jerseys are the ones who have really stuck their hands up with their performances in recent weeks. Toulon have a great side, but so do we, and we are going to Dublin to win. We know how we want to play, and where the threats are from Toulon, and if we stick to our gameplan we believe we can come home with the trophy.”

London Welsh
Manager Ozzy3213

01. Alex Corbisiero	09. Morgan Parra
02. Rob Hawkins	10. Owen Farrell
03. Dave Wilson
04. George Skivington	11. Digby Ioane
05. Jim Hamilton	12. Pat McCabe
06. Tom Johnson	13. Tim Nanai-Williams
07. Thierry Dusautoir ©	14. James Simpson-Daniel
08. Duane Vermeulen	15. Gareth Anscombe

16. Bismarck du Plessis 17. Ben Alexander 18. Martin Castrogiovanni 19. Sitaleki Timani 20. Luke Wallace 21. Paul Hodgson 22. Bryan Habana 23. Jack Nowell

Key Points

• Desire. In reality this will not be a priority for Toulon, they will want the T14 more than this. We will be more up for this game.
  
• Form. We have some real form players in the likes of TNW, Ioane and Anscombe that can really hurt Toulon.
  
• Discipline. Most penalties are at the breakdown. We are not flooding it as a rule, and will look to maintain discipline there and not give Toulon opportunities for 3 pointers.
  
• Bench. We have world class individuals to bring on to see the game out.
  

Basic Game Plan
Parra, Farrell and Anscombe to put us in the right areas of the field to play. Once in the right areas we will go ball in hand and have the forwards trucking the ball up in the tight and looking to suck players in to create space for the backs. Our game plan will be as it has been all season, although with a little more emphasis on playing in the right areas today. We will go from deep if it is on, but we will not take risks in our 22.

Specifics

• Support runners to ruck past the ball quickly if the carrier goes to ground in order to secure quick ball to go again.
  
• Forwards to look for Bastareaud in the defensive line, with TNW in support and get him on the outside shoulder of Bast, where he has the pace and step to break the line and get us going forward. Support runners to finish the move.
  
• With the boot, hit the space in behind the two wingers and force them to turn and go back. Kick chase to be strong.
  
• We will look to play a blitz defence with quick line speed to hit the ball carrier before he gets to the gainline and knock him back even further. Parra will sweep in behind.
  
• We will not overcommit to the breakdown. If a turnover is on, we will go for it, counter rucking and hitting on the break. If it is not on to win the ball, we will send in a couple of players to legally slow it, and get our defensive line set quickly and strongly a la France in the World Cup. We want to control the gainline in defence and attack.
  

Predictions OPEN

London Welsh 29-24 RC Toulon
Nothing in the front 5's where both hookers are the weakest players in their teams packs. In the backs there isn't much in it either, but I think Welsh are better on the wings. Obviously there are no Toulon tactics, but we know how they play, they bash it up the middle and take any 3 pointers they can. Tactics are right for Welsh to play for a bit more territory in the conditions and they have the players to do it. They also don't have any penalty machines on the field, which stops Toulon scoring lots of points. Nanai-Williams scorches Bastareaud for the decisive try.

Welsh 24-22 Toulon
SP: 2 strong set ups here, this Toulon could just edge it.
BK: This is an even battle with good players on show.
HB: 9 to Welsh, 10 to Toulon.
AT: I feel Welsh are stronger here and the cool head of JSD will cause problems.
BE: Huge benches from both, think Welsh have extra in the backs though.
TA: We all know how Toulon play. Welsh set out well for the conditions and territory game, I feel that with the runners they have, so long as it gets past Farrell they will cause Toulon all sorts of problems and Toulon have players who will lose their heads and give away that final penalty.

Welsh 23-18 Toulon

Scrum: Edge to Toulon with Corbs struggling in this one.
Lineout: Both sides should hold their own here. Feel Toulon would be more dangerous in attacking areas but conditions don’t help.
Breakdown: Edge to Welsh. No balance to the Toulon backrow and see them getting out worked..
HB's: 1 a piece but Welsh stronger as a combo.
Attack: Bit more of a threat for Welsh from deep.
Defence: Questions over TNW at 13 but Basteraud can be caught positionally as well.
Bench: Not sure how Anscombe would do at 10. See Welsh getting a good edge in the front 5 though.
Tactics: Welsh set up well and we know how to expect Toulon to play this. Welsh backrow outworking the opposition is crucial and see them really making a mess of the breakdown to get the win here.

Welsh 22 - 21 Toulon

Welsh 24-20 Toulon

Agree with SJe here. Can see welsh Backrow getting on top of opposition which has very little balance. Toulon can play one way and lack a plan b for me. One a piece at halfbacks. Will be tight until benches come on where welsh will turn screw

Welsh 20-18 Toulon

Welsh 23 - 17 Toulon
Although a very powerful Toulon team, they don't really score tries and Welsh have the players to stop the physicality and prevent them getting steamrollered. Also if you get at the Toulon no9 you can disrupt his entire game and this impacts quality of ball for Wilko.

Bench of Welsh make sthem stronger as game goes on, and Parra and Farrell are two halfbacks you want in a final and with a threat out wide Welsh will have the all important try that I can't see Toulon scoring.

London Welsh 24 - 21 Toulon

An all star side form Toulon contain a lot of power, but the Welsh side have the players capable of stopping the typical Toulon power game. Much like the Leinster and Clermont sides, I like this Welsh side as they have more than one game plan.

In the end I just feel the kicking combination of Faz and Parra will see Welsh home despite the heroics of Wilko.

wooo hooooo

Cracking win that Pete considering the weekend!
Fair play done great things with Welsh

Cheers mate. Think I got a bit lucky that most people predicted before the Heineken Cup final on Saturday.