Champions Cup Knockouts thread

[thebandwagonsociety]

Semi Final Fixtures
Champions Cup
The semi-final fixtures, which will be played on the weekend of 30 April – 1/2 May, are confirmed as follows:
La Rochelle v Leinster Rugby, Stade Marcel Deflandre
Toulouse v Bordeaux-Bègles, Stade Ernest Wallon

CHALLENGE CUP
Leicester Tigers v Ulster Rugby, Mattioli Woods Welford Road
Bath Rugby v Montpellier, The Recreation Ground

Quarter Final Fixtures
Champions Cup

Saturday
La Rochelle  v Sale (15:00)
Exeter v Leinster (17:30)

Sunday
Bordeaux Begles v Racing 92 (12:30)
Clermont Auvergne v Toulouse  (15:00)

Challenge Cup

Friday
Bath v London IRish (20:00)

Saturday
Leicester v Newcastle (12:30)
Montpelier v Benetton (21:00) (is this local time?)
Northampton v Ulster (20:00)
Sunday

[thebandwagonsociety]

Toulon team out too;


Toulon: Gervais Cordin; Masivesi Dakuwaqa, Rudi Wulf, Julien Heriteau, Gabin Villière; Duncan Paia'aua; Baptiste Serin (capt); Jean Baptiste Gros, Christopher Tolofua, Beka Gigashvili; Eben Etzebeth, Romain Taofifenua; Swan Rebbadj, Charles Ollivon, Sergio Parisse.

Replacements: Bastien Soury, Sébastien Taofifenua, Emerick Setiano, Raphael Lakafia, Julien Ory, Frederick du Plessis, Anthony Meric, Simon Moretti.

This is an early kickoff on Friday!

[mikey_dragon]

That Toulon pack looks huge.

[formerly known as Sam]

That Toulon pack looks huge.

Pack looks scary but backs not quite so much. I presume there's some injuries because of the notable absentees.

[westisbest]

Good Leinster team. Should be a good match.

[BamBam]

Leinster v Toulon is off

[geoff999rugby]

With the QF next weekend that should be Toulon eliminated

[jimbopip]

Has anyone heard if this is due to France going into a national lockdown? If so are all the French sides similarly affected?
From a Glasgow perspective Montpellier tonight and then possibly Agen next week could both be non runners.

[jimbopip]

To answer my own post...
It appears that a Toulon player who has not travelled has tested covid positive. All concerned agreed the match should be cancelled. It would appear that all the other matches will go ahead.

[westisbest]

Leinster through to the quarter finals then.

[TightHEAD]

Another game ruined.

Might as well turn off the London Irish v Cardiff game now.

[TightHEAD]

Another French TMO/Ref combo favouring a Welsh team.

[TightHEAD]

Navidi pulling a players neck is allowed?

Crazy call, should be red.

[Heaf]

Under the current interpretations I can't argue too much against the red although it was unlucky and Irish have had far worse against them this season with one being deemed a 'rugby incident' and a couple of other only given as yellow - so again there is no consistency. The yellow looked harsh to me as Loader's wrist made contact with the Cardiff player's chest and it was a soft contact within the tackle.

TMO also happy to chime in trying to get Irish players carded but said nothing about the clear pre-binding for Cardiff's first try.

[Heaf]

Navidi pulling a players neck is allowed?

Crazy call, should be red.

Ah but he was warned it would be a yellow next time

[TightHEAD]

Navidi pulling a players neck is allowed?

Crazy call, should be red.

Ah but he was warned it would be a yellow next time

Could have broke the guys neck, what was the TMO doing?

[Heaf]

Also no mention of the shoulder to chin from the TMO in that last sequence...

[TightHEAD]

Another penalty against Blues!!!!!

[TightHEAD]

What a pathetic TMO.

Need to check foul play. .. oh nevermind!

[RiscaGame]

Was amazed to see there have been some tries in this game. You would never have guessed.

[No 7&1/2]

What a game and a finish.

[westisbest]

Great game of rugby. Brilliant win for Irish. Great stuff.
Some great young backs for Irish.

[TightHEAD]

Good game, Irish deserved that.

[Heaf]

Good game, Irish deserved that.

[Heaf]

Hope we don't get that TMO again though - or if we do he brings his other eye

[TheMildlyFranticLlama]

Great ending and brilliant fight back from Irish, congrats!

[formerly known as Sam]

Another game ruined.

Might as well turn off the London Irish v Cardiff game now.

This comment aged well.

Can never write that LI team off with those outside backs. All three can score outrageous tries and Rona at 13 isn't bad either. I'd certainly expect Eddie to take at least one of the back three on the summer tour (Parton) possibly the other two as well.

[Heaf]

Would be interesting to see how many tries we score in the last quarter - we've had some amazing comebacks this season.

[No 7&1/2]

Brophy-Clews, hassell-collins and loader caught my eye.

[Heaf]

They are all good as is Parton ...

[No 7&1/2]

Just thought I'd name check them after sam had already done so with Parton!

[Heaf]

Just thought I'd name check them after sam had already done so with Parton!

[TightHEAD]

At last a Ref with some common sense. It's unfortunate but it's rugby.

[formerly known as Sam]

Glaws Vs La Rochelle game was a corker. Great to see two sides wanting to play. End to end stuff but the La Rochelle team had just too many gain breakers for Glaws to stay in touch. Good entertainment.

[mikey_dragon]

The loss just isn’t a good sign for Cardiff. Crap for years. Poor Dai was expected to walk in and turn things around, but I doubt he could with that front 5.

[BigTrevsbigmac]

Enjoyed both Glaws & L Irish games. Good attacking intent by all teams.
London Irish set piece attack from the line out - twice! Was a thing of beauty.
Really like their back 3.
As Warbs said the Blues game management was poor at the end.

[Guest]

To answer my own post...
It appears that a Toulon player who has not travelled has tested covid positive.  All concerned agreed the match should be cancelled. It would appear that all the other matches will go ahead.

Not sure they ALL agreed! Toulon not happy at all:

https://www.rugbypass.com/news/its-disgusting-toulon-president-slams-decision-to-cancel-his-teams-match-at-leinster-champions-cup/?fbclid=IwAR0SmAHtnEW8-CC60JO2fEFeZy7Gh_580eNlFREuU1m9K72T6C0bGb83Ujo

[y ddraig goch]

Good game, Irish deserved that.

Agreed. The game had an Irish win written all over it in the last 10 minutes.

Red cards aren't always the match winner we think they are. If there's less than 20 minutes to go it seems to make the team with 14 men play better.

[y ddraig goch]

Under the current interpretations I can't argue too much against the red although it was unlucky and Irish have had far worse against them this season with one being deemed a 'rugby incident' and a couple of other only given as yellow - so again there is no consistency.   The yellow looked harsh to me as Loader's wrist made contact with the Cardiff player's chest and it was a soft contact within the tackle.  

TMO also happy to chime in trying to get Irish players carded but said nothing about the clear pre-binding for Cardiff's first try.

Rugby is in serious trouble if Loader's hand off is a yellow card.

I thought Sean O'Brien was lucky to get away with two clearouts, one on Seb Davies and another on Navidi. The TMO tried to come in for foul play on the last one but the game was already restarting.

Great game to watch. Rugby hasn't suffered without fans in the same way football has.

[Duty281]

Wasps should be 14-0 up but, after doing all the difficult work, Minozzi drops the ball in the process of grounding. Still been an excellent start from Wasps.

[Heaf]

Yep SOB could sometimes do with calming down a bit but he's been out of action for a long time so I guess is keen to make an impact, and to be fair he largely has.  Thought there might have been a crafty stamp on the Irish 10 near the end too but fortunately as you say it was a great game to watch - even better if you're an Irish fan of course

[Geordie]

Is Odogwu is making a statement to Jones?

[lostinwales]

Is Odogwu is making a statement to Jones?

I am not watching but assuming he's playing well. You may have to accept that the statement is that putting a player into the England camp for a few weeks can improve his form.

[Geordie]

Yeah hes had a very good game...very powerful and fast...scored one and missed a fantastic second by 1mm of touchline chalk.

Well if Eddie states he's fitter and stronger for being n the England squad then its worked.

Despite being a winger.....he looks the centre that Eddie (and England) is crying out for.

[Duty281]

Wasps lose a last-gasp game. Their tank just didn't have enough left to withstand the final assault on their walls.

Clermont were very messy. Guilty of overplaying it on far too many occasions, and not utilising their powerful forwards often enough.

[Heaf]

Wasps really should have won that. Just needed to secure the line-out 2 mins from the end to close it out.

[Geordie]

Yeah Wasps should have won that.

[Heaf]

Just looked again and a clear forward pass by Para from the base of a ruck in the build-up - double unlucky for Wasps

[westisbest]

Good try from Earls. Good game so far. C’mon Munster.
From an Irish point of view, good to see Carberry back.

[Collapse2005]

Great stuff from Munster

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