The quarter final draw.

It's all done and dusted, the quarter-final line ups are complete in both competitions.Top seeds Racing Metro host Saracens, Toulon take on Wasps, Clermont Auvergne face Northampton Saints and Leinster will welcome Bath in the Champions Cup.

and I will tell you the finalists now too

Toulon v Clermont

What is the semi final draw?

Toulon at home and Clermont at home

EPC haven't announced the home semis yet.

Agree with Stand - can't see past Clermont and Toulon, a step above all the others.

They just put the semis up as I posted

Yeah would have been clearlymore interesting if those two were playing away (specially Toulon)

Stupid question. But he can bath be away from home if we won the group? I'm confused

Think there is 5 groups and Bath was the winner with less points...

Ah. I see. Thought there were only 4

Semi draws have been made but cant find them anywhere yet.

I do know that if Wasps and Saints win they will have home advantage in the semis.

Toulon/Wasps-Leinster/Bath
Clermont/Saints-Racing/Saracens

I would say Toulon Clermont final in the challenge cup its

Gloucester/Connacht v Exeter/ Newcastle
Irish/Edinburgh v Dragins/Blues

Am hoping for a Dragons Exeter final there myself

bedfordwelsh wrote:I would say Toulon Clermont final in the challenge cup its

Gloucester/Connacht v Exeter/ Newcastle
Irish/Edinburgh v Dragins/Blues

Am hoping for a Dragons Exeter final there myself

Toulon v Clermont agreed.
and Cardiff v Gloucester in Twickenham again would be good.

Good year for English clubs making up half the quarterfinalists in both competitions. Tall order to get much more out of the main one though

The english clubs have equited themselves very well from the group stages this season.

4 quarter finalists from the champions cup and 4 quarter finalists in the challenge cup (kind of a pity exeter have to meet newcastle in the qf, would prefer more variety). It's a tough set of quarters for them, all Champions cup teams on the road while in the challenge, 3 of the english teams will knock each other out on route to the final while the fourth (Irish) is arguably the weakest english team left in that competition.

French clubs are top 3 seedings in the champions cup.......... but no further representation which goes to show that while Toulon/Clermont/Toulouse have ambitions in europe, the others disregarded it.  The headlines will go with ASM and Toulon, but they is a serious question mark over the Top 14's participation levels in both comps.

A poor year for Ireland but in the grand scheme 1 of 3 get out of the group in the champions cup and 1 of 1 gets out of the challenge cup group. A lot of injuries across the 3 champions cup provinces early in the campaigns to marquee players and it was the early rounds that knobbled their challenges to get out of their respective groups.

Welsh 0 from 2 in the champions, 2 from 2 in the challenge.
Scots 0 from 1 in the champions, 1 from 1 in the challenge.
Italians 0 from 1 in the champions, 0 from 1 in the challenge.

toulon clermont would be a good final.

i do think bath will beat leinster, and earn the right to go to toulon for the semi final, but it's hard to see toulon losing at home, unless the climax of their domestic season is stretching their teams big resources.

when did they revert to home advantage for semi finals? i thought the semis were at a neutral ground within the country of the drawn team?

Leinster were without Healy, Ross and O'Brien yesterday and for most/all of the season. With those guys hopefully being able to feature for the rest of the season then I see the ladyboys finishing with a flourish. Not a good year by their very high standards but they're still there-abouts. Any team who loses those 3 players and BOD and still competes is without a doubt a vintage team.

I think it is still a different ground albeit neutral only by name. Clermont would play in St Etienne while Toulon would  probably  go to Marseilles.

Toulon Clermont final...


... probably for quite a few years to come unless Racing or Montpellier can get their act together.

Hell of a shock not to see Ulster and Munster in there, no Welsh teams as usual but were cannon fodder now.
Go Leinster!

all sides have injuries to deal with. and i wonder how many men leinster will be missing after the 6Ns.

bath on the other hand, brought on the following subs at 50mins...Auterac, Batty, Thomas, Attwood, Fearns.

i dont think there is a side in the AP with a starting tight 5 that good!

should be a great game.

thebandwagonsociety wrote:
French clubs are top 3 seedings in the champions cup.......... but no further representation which goes to show that while Toulon/Clermont/Toulouse have ambitions in europe, the others disregarded it.  The headlines will go with ASM and Toulon, but they is a serious question mark over the Top 14's participation levels in both comps.

Toulouse?
This year you can add Racing to your list of team playing the champions cup.
For Castres, well sorry but with Castres fighting to avoid relegation this year, we can't blame them if they send their b team in the cup.
For Montpellier, the bad relations between Galthié and his players are to blames for the crisies there.
But I agree with the challenge cup, we don't care about it. It's sh.t and we (the fans) call it Mickey (mouse) cup here.
We would even be happier if we didn't have to play these games at all.

Evidently Toulon, Clermont and Racing are the best in Europe; hardly a Frenchman between them. Then it's the rest.

toulon and clermont are probably that good. racing are not. too many journeyman welsh players for them to mentioned in the same sentence as toulon or ASM...

The Saint wrote:Evidently Toulon, Clermont and Racing are the best in Europe; hardly a Frenchman between them. Then it's the rest.

Well it doesn't seems having a lot of english players works too. No titles since Wasp in 2006/07.

Toulon v Clermont final then, yawn.

What a brave new competition

quinsforever wrote:toulon and clermont are probably that good. racing are not. too many journeyman welsh players for them to mentioned in the same sentence as toulon or ASM...

Ah, but they have a certain Ronan O'Gara in their corner who knows more about this competition than anyone else. They also have Sexton coming back who also knows a thing or two as well.

shuren34 wrote:

The Saint wrote:Evidently Toulon, Clermont and Racing are the best in Europe; hardly a Frenchman between them. Then it's the rest.

Well it doesn't seems having a lot of english players works too. No titles since Wasp in 2006/07.

Better go tell the English then. Least the Irish can do it with mostly Irish guys.

Out of curiosity, what do you believe to have caused your international team to go backwards these last few years?

quinsforever wrote:toulon and clermont are probably that good. racing are not. too many journeyman welsh players for them to mentioned in the same sentence as toulon or ASM...

They looked pretty good helping sink Premiership wonderboys Northampton though...

shuren34 wrote:

The Saint wrote:Evidently Toulon, Clermont and Racing are the best in Europe; hardly a Frenchman between them. Then it's the rest.

Well it doesn't seems having a lot of english players works too. No titles since Wasp in 2006/07.

seems to work fine for Toulon. having lots of english players in their key positions that is. wilko twice captaining toulon to top14 and HC victory? steffon armitage player of the year last year?

i just want to watch good rugby. i dont care what country any clubs players are from. i dont like seeing english clubs lose to the irish provinces and their "canny" rugby, but apart from that may the best team win.

would be very happy with a toulon ASM final. already have my tickets

The Saint wrote:

quinsforever wrote:toulon and clermont are probably that good. racing are not. too many journeyman welsh players for them to mentioned in the same sentence as toulon or ASM...

They looked pretty good helping sink Premiership wonderboys Northampton though...

i know. as whocares confirmed, that has absolutely not been the usual standard of play for roberts or RCM this season. lets hope they have both got it out of their systems now

Sin é wrote:

quinsforever wrote:toulon and clermont are probably that good. racing are not. too many journeyman welsh players for them to mentioned in the same sentence as toulon or ASM...

Ah, but they have a certain Ronan O'Gara in their corner who knows more about this competition than anyone else. They also have Sexton coming back who also knows a thing or two as well.

well at least one munsterman might see the semi finals this year...

yes o'gara was great to have on your side for those important clutch kicks...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCkHxSk3xWY

The Irish team drawn away again I see. Them stupid paddies heating up the wrong ball again!

BT Sport commentators kept talking as if the Semi Finals wil lbe on the ground of the team not a different venue as in the past.

If true someone has to win in Clermont or Toulon - cant see it myself

I agree - a Toulon-Clermont final is very likely indeed.

As for the quarter finals I think all home wins except I think Saracens will win.


I think Saracens can beat Racing away - afterall they have beaten them in Paris,Brussels and Nantes!

If Saracens were to play Clermont away again they would need to be far more intelligent. It's the same old problems plaguing Saracens - a lack of penetration in attack - just resorting to the predictable ship it to Billy.

Not being bold and not backing youth.

haha, I agree Beshocked. Saracens more than capable than winning against Racing anywhere in the world they are more streetwise than Northampton (who also had one of their bad days) and although racing did improve I think Saracens will prevail which would mean we'll have more or less the same semi finalists than last year (Munster couldnt make it since they were in the same group as 2 others so leinster replace them in a way).

whocares agreed. Belief is so important IMO.

It's why it's so difficult to beat Toulon and Clermont in France - sides are basically beaten before they turn up because of the daunting record.

Even most posters on here are saying it's a Toulon-Clermont final already!

The ABs have that aura when they play most sides too.

Clermont-Toulon are probably the form teams too. Clermont barely put a foot wrong in the pool stages (didn't play badly against Saracens at AP either, just Saracens happened to put in one of their best performances of the season), Toulon comfortably topped the pool.

i think it will be toulon v bath and clermont vs sarries in the semi finals

and while i do really like toulon, i have a sneaking suspicion that bath might somehow get a win there. the pressure would be all on toulon, as bath will have far exceeded expectations if they make the semis, and bath are getting stronger and more cohesive as the season progresses. And bath also have a very impressive set of forwards which i think are the equal of toulons. giteaa and 1/2P show the gulf in experience in the back line between the two sides, but Bath's backs are very exciting.

if it gets that far, i wonder what position sam burgess will be playing by then?

you live in hope QF teams like Toulon do not allow themselves to have a bad day in a knock out game. they thrive on pressure and games like that.

Leinster will also get stronger and should be competitive in south of France. Would be nice to have a Leinster/Clermont final and quite possible if the likes of healy and sob are back.

Hi guys, just a question regarding the semi final draw.

I see if Racing Metro win their quarter final they have an away semi, even though they are the highest ranked finalist?

That is irrelevant to the SF's which are an open draw.
Only the QF's are based on the group standings.

As I mentioned talk on BT Sport that the SF will be at club grounds not another ground in the home teams country - haven't been able to establish if true or not

The Saint wrote:

shuren34 wrote:

The Saint wrote:Evidently Toulon, Clermont and Racing are the best in Europe; hardly a Frenchman between them. Then it's the rest.

Well it doesn't seems having a lot of english players works too. No titles since Wasp in 2006/07.

Better go tell the English then. Least the Irish can do it with mostly Irish guys.

Out of curiosity, what do you believe to have caused your international team to go backwards these last few years?

Sorry I was tired yesterday, so with I saw "The Saint" i thought you was a Northampton fan.

For your question the quick answer would be bad coach like Lièvremont and now Saint-André. But we've got a problem with our young international players who are now all training at Marcoussis. The results are worse since our Union (the FFR) is in charge of the training.
If we compare them to the young players from SH, they're not as good physically and technically.
That's why we are going backwards and not because we have to many foreigners in top 14.
55% of the players are french, and there are 14 teams with 45 players on average by squad. So we have a choice of more than 280 player to make the french squad. More than enough.
But the real reason is our players aren't often enough good like the english in football in their premier league. And now with the JIFF quota it's worse, because everyone is fighting to have the good ones, so the wages for the french players are increasing. And a lot of good young players tend to chose to sit on the bench of the powerful clubs instead of playing with the small ones, because they earn more money.

quinsforever wrote:

shuren34 wrote:

The Saint wrote:Evidently Toulon, Clermont and Racing are the best in Europe; hardly a Frenchman between them. Then it's the rest.

Well it doesn't seems having a lot of english players works too. No titles since Wasp in 2006/07.

seems to work fine for Toulon. having lots of english players in their key positions that is. wilko twice captaining toulon to top14 and HC victory? steffon armitage player of the year last year?

i just want to watch good rugby. i dont care what country any clubs players are from. i dont like seeing english clubs lose to the irish provinces and their "canny" rugby, but apart from that may the best team win.

would be very happy with a toulon ASM final. already have my tickets

2 or 3 players aren't a lot, a lot is at least 9 or 10 players on th field.
If not we could say Toulon have a lot of french guy playing.
But I agree with you, I don't care either of what coutry the players are from.

shuren34 wrote:

thebandwagonsociety wrote:
French clubs are top 3 seedings in the champions cup.......... but no further representation which goes to show that while Toulon/Clermont/Toulouse have ambitions in europe, the others disregarded it.  The headlines will go with ASM and Toulon, but they is a serious question mark over the Top 14's participation levels in both comps.

Toulouse?
This year you can add Racing to your list of team playing the champions cup.
For Castres, well sorry but with Castres fighting to avoid relegation this year, we can't blame them if they send their b team in the cup.
For Montpellier, the bad relations between Galthié and his players are to blames for the crisies there.
But I agree with the challenge cup, we don't care about it. It's sh.t and we (the fans) call it Mickey (mouse) cup here.
We would even be happier if we didn't have to play these games at all.

Very true - I stand corrected.

quinsforever wrote:i fancy wasps to deny leinster a LBP and thus qualification.

That went well.

quinsforever wrote:
i do think bath will beat leinster, and earn the right to go to toulon for the semi final

quinsforever wrote: i dont care what country any clubs players are from. i dont like seeing english clubs lose to the irish provinces

Keep backing against us. It's entertaining me.

Jenifer McLadyboy wrote:

quinsforever wrote:i fancy wasps to deny leinster a LBP and thus qualification.

That went well.

quinsforever wrote:
i do think bath will beat leinster, and earn the right to go to toulon for the semi final

quinsforever wrote: i dont care what country any clubs players are from. i dont like seeing english clubs lose to the irish provinces

Keep backing against us. It's entertaining me.

it's all part of the craic

i wasnt the only person who thought leinster might not make it past wasps at home though to be fair. was a great game i thought. leinster looked out on their feet in the last 20.

yeah my predictions were pretty awful as it turned out.