Euro Finals Weekend

Interesting to me is that the four finalists are from four different countries.  So one way or another we have a good weekend, and can satisfy the people who want to support the teams from their nation.  I am off work for the weekend, so looking forward to working in the garden (lugging mulch, cutting some bushes, and having a pint or two) and watching the Rugby.  Weather forecast for here is 86°F (30°C in French) so great day in the garden then relaxing in front of the tv nursing a Boddingtons. And a happy Boddington's to all...

Challenge Cup Teams:

Gloucester:
15 Santi Carreras, 14 Jonny May, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Seb Atkinson, 11 Ollie Thorley, 10 Adam Hastings, 9 Caolan Englefield, 8 Zach Mercer, 7 Lewis Ludlow (captain), 6 Ruan Ackermann, 5 Arthur Clark, 4 Freddie Clarke, 3 Fraser Balmain, 2 Seb Blake, 1 Jamal Ford-Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Santi Socino, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Kirill Gotovtsev, 19 Albert Tuisue, 20 Jack Clement, 21 Stephen Varney, 22 Max Llewellyn, 23 Josh Hathaway.

Sharks:
15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Werner Kok, 13 Ethan Hooker, 12 Francois Venter, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Siya Masuku, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Phepsi Buthelezi, 7 Vincent Tshituka, 6 James Venter, 5 Gerbrandt Grobler, 4 Eben Etzebeth (captain), 3 Vincent Koch, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nche.
Replacements: 16 Fez Mbatha, 17 Ntuthuko Mchunu, 18 Hanro Jacobs, 19 Lappies Labuschagne, 20 Dylan Richardson, 21 Cameron Wright, 22 Curwin Bosch, 23 Eduan Keyter.

Date: Friday, May 24
Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London
Kick-off: 20.00 (21.00 SA time; 19.00 GMT)
Expected weather: Sunny intervals and light winds from the South-West. Temperature will be 17°C at kick-off
Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)
Assistant referees: Andrew Brace (Ireland), Pierre Brousset (France)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (France)

Leinster Rugby (caps in brackets)
15. Hugo Keenan (65)
14. Jordan Larmour (104)
13. Robbie Henshaw (88)
12. Jamie Osborne (43)
11. James Lowe (78)
10. Ross Byrne (158)
9. Jamison Gibson-Park (138)
1. Andrew Porter (118)
2. Dan Sheehan (59)
3. Tadhg Furlong (143)
4. Joe McCarthy (32)
5. Jason Jenkins (37)
6. Ryan Baird (66)
7. Will Connors (48)
8. Caelan Doris (79) CAPTAIN

Replacements:
16. Rónan Kelleher (60)
17. Cian Healy (276)
18. Michael Ala’alatoa (68)
19. James Ryan (80)
20. Jack Conan (144)
21. Luke McGrath (208)
22. Ciarán Frawley (84)
23. Josh van der Flier (139)

Will Connors getting the nod over vdF the big news on the team selection here.

Stade Toulousain
15 Blair Kinghorn
14 Juan Cruz Mallia
13 Paul Costes
12 Pita Ahki
11 Matthis Lebel
10 Romain Ntamack
9 Antoine Dupont (c)

1 Cyril Baille
2 Peato Mauvaka
3 Dorian Aldegheri
4 Thibaud Flament
5 Emmanuel Meafou
6 Jack Willis
7 François Cros
8 Alexandre Roumat

Replacements
16 Julien Marchand
17 Rodrigue Neti
18 Joel Merkler
19 Richie Arnold
20 Joshua Brennan
21 Paul Graou
22 Santiago Chocobares
23 Thomas Ramos

With the game tonight I'm looking forward to seeing the two Sebs in action for Glaws. I think both could push into the international side in the near future.

formerly known as Sam wrote:With the game tonight I'm looking forward to seeing the two Sebs in action for Glaws. I think both could push into the international side in the near future.

I think the Gloucester-Sharks match has a number of interesting stories.  Good point and agree about the Sebs.  Frankly, I forgot about Blake.
Also, I want to see Zach Mercer play in a meaningful match and see how he gets on.  I think it's fair to say he has been good but not great for Gloucester, but how much of that is the general performance of the team?  We should find out today because there is nothing to hold one back.  Also how will Gloucester choose to deal with Eben Etzebeth?  Not an easy assignment for any player or coaching team.  Sharks have a terrific front five and should put the Cherry and Whites under a lot of pressure in the scrum.  But from that platform I think Sharks will to try play fast, so can Gloucester keep up whilst being pushed back?  And so on.  K/O is at 3:00pm my time, so perfect time for an afternoon pint or two in nice summer weather.

Man that was close. Hate how that’s given as a knock on when it’s knocked out of the hand by the defender

Always tackle the man with the ball!!!

Some piss poor tackling from Gloucester for that try

carpet baboon wrote:Some piss poor tackling from Gloucester for that try

Hastings steps out the line and then it's always a scramble and as soon as the 8 slips that first tackle they are in trouble.

Mercer has been pretty disappointing so far. Glaws are getting hammered in the collisions. The lineout is working well with Blake coping well with the aerial threat of the Sharks. Scrum is getting battered mind.

Perhaps a change of prop might help but there needs to be a change in kicking tactics as well as Engelfield is kicking too long and Hastings is finding neither grass nor touch. It's all to easy for the Sharks after that first 10ish mins of Glaws pressure.

Shark scrum destroying Gloucester

Game over

Beautifully struck crossfield kick for the win there.

OK, Gloucester look like the team which had only two wins in the Premiership against teams other than Newcastle. And Sharks look like a solid side, which they are. So far a thoroughly professional performance by the Sharks.

This could get ugly

It’s all gone horribly wrong for Gloucester

Lovely try from Glaws. Scant consolation but a nice bit of play.

Another nice try, way too late sadly.

Fair play to Skivington there.  TNT tried their best to prod him into being bitter towards the ref but he avoided it beautifully and was extremely gracious, very classy.

neilthom7 wrote:Fair play to Skivington there.  TNT tried their best to prod him into being bitter towards the ref but he avoided it beautifully and was extremely gracious, very classy.

Interviewers are getting worse for this. I remember that awful Sonia McLoughlin trying to goad Owen Farrell after an England loss. Fortunately he was more more classy than her and straight batted everything.

Well done Sharks. Looks like that Scrum dominance played a major role in the match. Gloucester didn't have any answers for it.

Goode will be happy though as Leicester now get in the Champions Cup next year.

I do wish they would look at how the qualification works because I simply don't think Premiership Rugby can carry on with 8 entries into the champions cup with a 10 team league. At the very least it should be reduced to 7 with the additional spot going challenge cup winner no matter which country they come from (so england could still get the 8 spots but for example like this year the UCR would get 9 entrants).

I dont think now that there are only 10 teams in that league compared to the 16 in the URC and 14 in France, they should get an equal share. Especially given that the Champions Cup is having some problems selling the UK rights as I think TNT deal expires this summer and the new ones on the table are not to the same value.

I'd love it if Premier Sports got the Champions/Challenge Cup rights next year although I doubt they could afford it but I would pay more if this was included by another £50 a year.

The TNT subscription price is nuts if you only watch rugby (which is what I do) as most of that money actually is paying for the football, which I'm sure is great if you watch that too but I do wish it was possible to buy sport packages for only the sports you watch as that would mean rugby subscriptions would be a lot lower on the TNT platform for example which for me is overpriced for Rugby as a sport.

Would be great if there was one broadcaster in the UK that actually made Rugby their primary focus and secured the rights for the URC, Premiership, European, Top14 etc. Wouldn't even be bothered in the long run if that resulted in international games going there.

Would make following rugby games simple for rugby fans. Its a royal pain for fans to have to subscribe to multiple services or follow where matches will be televised.

I don't know anyone who seriously thinks the Premiership should continue with 8 teams. Seemed to make sense when the Premiership had 13 teams and was looking to add one more. Not sure how the tv revenue is distributed, whether by league, by viewership numbers (profit), or by other measures. Would be good to know.

So I think it was based on how they reduced the rights from the Celtic Nations at the time they reformed. I believe it went something like 20 million went directly to the URC, 10 million then to England, 10 to the Top14. This covered the first 40 million of revenue every year. Everything above that is split 1-1-1.

This meant the first 40 million income split had a very specific agreement in place. But all income above that was then evenly split between leagues.

One of my main gripes as well is Premiership Rugby did have a good amount sponsorship as part of the package but word on the grapevine is TNT dont want the European rights for next season and any package they do offer is not anywhere near the previous European deal. They have already reduced the Premiership deal as well due to the change in teams.

Oooft. That’s what you can tight

What a match so far. Incredible intensity. Can't see this being kept up for 80.

Refereeing has been utterly abysmal so far!! Carley is only refereeing one side. They have missed so much.

Yep Leinster getting away with it  Assume that's what you mean.

Kinghorn having a blinder. Apart from that missed kick ...

Leinster inaccuracy is letting them down.

mountain man wrote:Yep Leinster getting away with it  Assume that's what you mean.

Not even close. The refereeing team cant even spot Kinghorn putting out the ball on the full outside his own 22, amateur stuff.

Carley is a total clown

I'm neutral in this, as as ever in matches of this intensity the officials miss stuff. I wouldn't say either team being favoured or punished.

Collapse2005 wrote:Carley is a total clown

Hey, it's my job to complain about the ref!

While Leinster didn't butcher any tries in the first half, there were at least two occasions when you could see how a try might unfold for them, and then it didn't.

Looks like pundits had a memo about dress code.

Interesting TMO calls in a forward pass by Toulouse whilst ignoring the previous one by Leinster ... didn't think TMOs could call in forward passes?

Well if you want to complain about officials, Leinster blatant forward pass not given but moments later one by Toulouse is.

That's the way sometimes

Would have been a 5m scrum to Toulouse too ... lucky escape there

Why didn’t he pass it inside?

WLF - but great tackle

Could be looking at extra time here ... just need a pen for Leinster

Called it ...

Leinster have been the better team.

Think they've both missed a lot of opportunities they would normally finish

Ramos has not been great under the high ball either - Kinghorn was very secure.

Should have left Ramos on the bench

It's a final - calls are going both ways - fair bit getting missed on both sides. Leinster have at times been been flirting with the offside line and some of the entries into the ruck and slowing the ball have been, erm at questionable at best.

Goods teams get away with stuff......New Zealand are masters at it....

That said I hope Leinster still win.....but given Lowe just got a yellow card its going to be hard work for them now.

Welshmushroom wrote:It's a final - calls are going both ways - fair bit getting missed on both sides.  Leinster have at times been been flirting with the offside line and some of the entries into the ruck and slowing the ball have been, erm at questionable at best.  

Goods teams get away with stuff......New Zealand are masters at it....

That said I hope Leinster still win.....but given Lowe just got a yellow card its going to be hard work for them now.  

Feels like Carley has been so quick to ping us compared to Leinster. But that's the way it goes.

Assume you meant Toulouse?

are you supporting Toulouse? Your name has me confused...

Heaf wrote:Assume you meant Toulouse?

Yeah haha the drinks are flowing.