Pre-Ramble
And so it came to pass that the brave men of North London were vanquished by the dastardly Gallic hordes from Paris. Maidens wept as, with victory in sight, the dark sorcerer from beyond the Wall waved his spell and teleported the ball into the hands of a nefarious Argentinian who committed the most heinous of crimes and scored. All the brave fighting and sacrifice from these heroes undone in a second. All seemed lost. Sarries are doomed to smash lesser teams for many moons before being allowed back to play with the big boys. Who can stand up to the Scottish Wizard and his Parisian aristocrats?
Brave and mighty Rohan Exeter have answered that call despite the fact that they would prefer to dance on the graves of The Fallen whilst plundering their silverware. But that doesn’t fit my narrative so we’ll ignore it. They come seeking vengeance for their fallen kin!!!!
How do these teams compare? Who will win? Will it matter when the brave Londoners return from their exile to lay waste to all in their path? Let me make an uneducated guess … and copy some stuff from Wikipedia and other sites.
Racing 92
Quelle surprise innit, Teddy Thomas has been left out of the squad. Shirely this Try Scoring Machine is essential. I guess he must have Covid. In which case I wish him well but this is an unexpected gift to Exeter.
Elsewhere, Racing’s forwards (especially the tight five) are genuinely scary, as you would expect from a team in the European finals. They can compete in the scrum against anyone, and should lay a good foundation for the kids in the back seat.
We all know what Finn can do if given the opportunity and there is plenty of superstar strength, speed and guile (and cheating Irishmen*) outside him. Racing have a genuinely impressive team, and it is hard for this fan to find a chink in their armour. The only thing that I could think of is a highly cohesive team grinding them into the dirt….
Exeter
Mighty, mighty Exeter. Imagine them lining up on the hill, swords drawn, in full battle cry, riding down to trample the enemy…. Sorry, I got carried away there.
If anyone can stop Racing (apart from *sobs* Sarries) it’s them. They have brutal bastards up front and a game plan to crush teams into the dirt. They also have a high (the highest?) strike rate when in the opposition 22. If they can get into the ‘red zone’ enough times then they will win.
Their backs also have stardust with Henry Slade, Jack Nowell and Stuart Hogg CJ pleasing their way through opposition teams like Bruce Lee through a karate dojo or Joe Marler through some bollocks (or something).
The memory of love’s refrain
Prediction
Racing have the ability to strike in open play and I fancy them to get a couple of decent scores. I feel that they will have to play with a bit of structure to keep Exeter in their half, but that will be difficult against a team that typically like to keep hold of the ball. A lot rests on Finn Russell. If we see good Finn then it will be a close match and I fully expect him to pull out the jizz factor. Their Finishers also have buckets of jizz so I expect a late score or two.
Exeter’s key challenge is to maintain the fizzikality up front against the French team. Players like LCD, Jonny Gray and Dave Ewers need to pay out of their skin. Again, I expect them to do this. Later on I expect Hogg and/or Nowell to get onto the scoresheet with some well worked tries and the grown-ups start to get tired.
I hope it’s a belter, and these are two very good sides. I expect (want) Exeter to sneak it as they have the game plan for a final. It will be amazing if they do win given their journey. Similarly, Racing have been here before so I won’t begrudge them the win. If they do, it will be art over practicality, the rapier over the sledge hammer, Gallic joie de vivre over Anglo pragmatism. Probably won’t happen.
Final Score
Exeter 28 – 25 Racing 92
Teams
Exeter
Exeter: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Jack Nowell, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Ian Whitten, 11 Tom O’Flaherty, 10 Joe Simmonds (c), 9 Jack Maunder, 8 Sam Simmonds, 7 Jacques Vermeulen, 6 Dave Ewers, 5 Jonny Hill, 4 Jonny Gray, 3 Harry Williams, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 1 Alec Hepburn
Replacements: 16 Jack Yeandle, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Tomas Francis, 19 Sam Skinner, 20 Jannes Kirsten, 21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, 22 Gareth Steenson, 23 Ollie Devoto
Racing 92
Racing: 15 Simon Zebo, 14 Louis Dupichot, 13 Virimi Vakatawa, 12 Henry Chavancy (c), 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Teddy Iribaren, 8 Antonie Claassen, 7 Fabien Sanconnie, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 5 Dominic Bird, 4 Bernard Le Roux, 3 Georges Henri Colombe, 2 Camille Chat, 1 Eddy Ben Arous
Replacements: 16 Teddy Baubigny, 17 Hassane Kolingar, 18 Ali Oz, 19 Donnacha Ryan, 20 Boris Palu, 21 Maxime Machenaud, 22 Olivier Klemenczak, 23 Kurtley Beale
* Hehehe just channelling ExPro.
As foretold by Craigsman
On the telly
Friday 16th October
| Cheetahs v Bulls | 17:55 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Toulon v Bristol | 20:00 | BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 17th October
| Griquas v Pumas | 15:25 | Sky Sports Mix |
| Exeter v Racing 92 | 16:45 | Channel 4 / BT Sport 2 |
| Stormers v Lions | 17:55 | Sky Sports Mix |
Sunday 18th October
| New Zealand v Australia | 03:00 | Sky Sports Arena |
Ovally Balls 
One for Refit! How good is that.
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When we took daughter number 3 back to Brizzle after lock down we dropped her off and walked over to the bridge, which isn’t very far and the area is far posher than we were used to, by a long shot.
Anyway, walking across the bridge I got a really bad fear of heights – I got the sickening adrenalin running down the back of my legs and nausea, a wee bit dizzy – I really wasn’t prepared for it at all as I got rid of that in my teens by doing a lot of rock climbing
Weird.
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@Ticht – I guess you were having some sort of premonition of the dizzy heights Bristol were to scale tonight.
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We have a picture of the suspension bridge on the wall here at home.
If you’re ever allowed to again, have a jar in the Avon Gorge hotel. A lovely view.
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Ooh, this is good! (The song stops at around the 4 minute mark, you can ignore the rest).
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/oct/16/bristol-on-standby-for-premiership-final-if-wasps-have-more-positive-covid-tests
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I think they should check if Sale are now clear. If they are then have them play the game and give the title to Wasps if they win.
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This is a great tackle:
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Words, Craigs, btw.
I have no idea how to call this one.
Anyone started drinking yet?
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Tidy ATL-ing Craigs, thanks!
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I get most of that reaching the top of a step ladder, Ticht. Funny thing is I get the adrenalin legs if someone I’m with gets too close to a cliff-edge or high spot.
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We live fairly high up, at the top of 4 floors. We had some problems with creeper plants escaping down the walls, and went out on the balcony to do some trimming.
Mrs.Iks flourished from out of nowhere a window cleaners harness. Stepped into it, hooked it up and set off over the safety rail before I got my wits about me. Gave me the heaving adrenalin panics it did. My counter argument went on the lines of ‘what? no? No! WHAT?!
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Anyway, having a quiet beer in a bar in the dregs of freedom before the next looming lockdown arrives.
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Anyone started drinking yet?
It’s Saturday, isn’t it?
I used to be fine with heights, and now they give me the screaming heebie-jeebies.
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RL Challenge Cup final was a good match with a disappointing outcome.
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Racing doing a number on the Exeter line-out early on but not good enough to take advantage.
DNA within 6 minutes.
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Exeter are just lethal inside the 22
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There you go. Champagne.
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Really smart from Exeter, poor from Racing though
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Paris 9 having an absolute shocker
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Less than lethal there
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Kinell Finn
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Racing raising the bar for the stupid rugby teams.
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Game on! Great pass from Finn for Zebo to score.
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Kinell Finn, but for the opposite reason
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Good score for Racing.
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Well that opens things up.
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Lovely finish.
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Sneaky score by Racing!
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Finn’s passing is superb
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“Man-watching”
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Nice by Imhoff. Come on, the massive underdogs.
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Bit of a disaster there for Racing.
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It’s agricultural, but it’s effective
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I think I prefer watching people kick penalties to Exeter’s pick and go game.
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Scrum resets are starting to look more entertaining that pick and go.
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I bet Slade is hating the pick’n’goes :-)
I’d love to see Edinburgh winning the Euro Cup final any way they could
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Another quality finish from Zeebo
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Racing are good on attack but Exeter are getting caught out a lot.
Good finish by Zebo.
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Zebo even
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Oh Finn.
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Hogg could’ve done a bit better on that Zebo try.
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Look how they can run! Shit by Russell.
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Both Finns are playing today
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Probably should have been disallowed.
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Chat scores after a one-on-one with Maunder and Nowell. Or a one-on-two as I’d call it.
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Craigs’ prediction very nearly accurate … if the match ended now (66 mins, 28-27).
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The law is an ass in that case
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Great defending from Exeter.
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Well done by Hidalgo-Clyne, Very clever play.
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