Champions Cup Playoff

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Saracens v Connacht
Light Cloud, 16 degrees, 9mph winds.

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Saracens
Manager – Pooly

01. Alex Waller	09. Morgan Parra
02. Keven Mealamu	10. Pat Lambie
03. Dan Cole
04. Brad Davies	11. Juan Imhoff
05. Flip van der Merwe	12. Sonny Bill Williams
06. Callum Clark	13. Malakai Fekitoa
07. Thierry Dusatoir(c)	14. Chris Ashton
08. Nathan Hughes	15. Scott Spedding

:-
16. Jamie George 17. Nick Auterac 18. Tom Francis 19. Sam Carter 20. Dave Denton 21. Francois Hougaard 22. Bernard Foley 23. Matt Tait

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Connacht

15 Tiernan O'Halloran, 14 Fionn Carr, 13 Robbie Henshaw, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Matt Healy, 10 Jack Carty, 9 Kieran Marmion, 8 Eoin McKeon, 7 Eoghan Masterson, 6 John Muldoon (c), 5 Aly Muldowney, 4 Andrew Browne, 3 Rodney Ah You, 2 Tom McCartney, 1 Denis Buckley.

Replacements: 16 Dave Heffernan, 17 JP Cooney, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 Michael Swift, 20 George Naoupu, 21 John Cooney, 22 Miah Nikora, 23 Shane O'Leary

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Didn't realise this was straight away

Saracens
Manager – Pooly

01. Alex Waller	09. Morgan Parra
02. Keven Mealamu	10. Pat Lambie
03. Dan Cole
04. Brad Davies	11. Juan Imhoff
05. Flip van der Merwe	12. Sonny Bill Williams
06. Callum Clark	13. Malakai Fekitoa
07. Thierry Dusatoir(c)	14. Chris Ashton
08. Nathan Hughes	15. Scott Spedding

:-
16. Jamie George 17. Nick Auterac 18. Tom Francis 19. Sam Carter 20. Dave Denton 21. Francois Hougaard 22. Bernard Foley 23. Matt Tait

So am I automatically qualified for the ERCC then? I was expecting to play this game

Play off place goes to the side who finishes 7th (you finished 8th) but if an English side wins the the Challenge Cup and haven't already qualified they get the spot hence Sarries in this.

Ah I see! So did Gloucester miss out on ERCC too then?

Yep they did. Think its the first time ever Matt hasn't been involved in the top competition

Heads are going to roll at Kingsholm 

Fluxy wrote:Heads are going to roll at Kingsholm 

I've heard they've approached Driver as Matt is getting the boot!

Saracens 32-22 Connacht
Sarries have gone full strength here and are just to much for the Galway men.

Saracens 30 Connacht 17

Sarries 30-18 Connacht
Sarries have too much up front and will bully Connacht. Good ball sees the sarries centres run rings and get a big win.

Saracens 32 - 19 Connacht

Could be a good battle at 13 between Henshaw and Fekitoa, but Saracens are dominant all over the rest of the park, and can't see anything other than a nice easy win for them. Far too strong in the pack and the backs have a real cutting edge

Saracens 30 - 29 Connacht

Saracens 34 - 23 Connacht

Saracens will strangle the life out of Connacht up front and make the game relatively easily. Connacht will fight back later on in the game with the likes of Marmion and Henshaw coming to the fore.

Saracens 29 - 15 Connacht

Saracens a lot better rugby team. Only Really at 13 where Connacht possibly have the stronger individual. Saracens comfortable.

Sarries 33 - 10 Connacht
At home, easy win - get halfbacks to play at a high tempo and could easily have been another 15-20 points on the scoreboard.

RESULT

Saracens 35-19 Connacht