Turn off the phones, lock the kids in the soundproof basement, prepare your food and drink and turn on the telly, ‘cos it’s time for the European cups again.
Prognostication is not my forté, but I’ll give it a bash for the Big Cup matches.
Northampton v Racing 92
I was surprised to discover that Racing 92 are only in 8th position in the Top 14, whereas the Saints are sitting pretty in third place in the English Premiership. However, Racing know how to bring their best game to an important match, so I’m going for les Parisiens by 7.
Cardiff v Toulouse
Can’t see anything other than a Toulousain trouncing of the hosts by about 15 points.
Leinster v Bath
With Bath languishing at the bottom of the Premiership, this can only go one way. Blue Meanies by 40.
Bordeaux v Leicester
The two top teams in their respective leagues, again to my surprise. I’ll raise a glass of Haut-Médoc to the home side by 3.
Clermont Auvergne v Ulster
Having attended this fixture in a previous competition, ordinarily I’d say a safe win for the home side. However, TomPirracas’ sleuthing informs us that Clermont is a Covid-ravaged camp, so that and downright foolish optimism leads me to predict Ulster by a point.
Exeter v Montpellier
Another tough one to predict, so home advantage to provide a narrow win.
Ospreys v Sale
Ospreys must be exhausted after last week, but Sale are not doing very well this year. Ospreys by 7.
Connacht v Stade Français
Connacht are on good form, and have been unlucky to narrowly lose a couple of their matches so far. I have no similar insights on SF, but they are towards the bottom of the table. Connacht by 4.
La Rochelle v Glasgow
Two fifth-place sides competing. Hmm. Chez nous by 3.
Wasps v Munster
Given Munster’s very depleted squad, Wasps by 15. At least.
Onna telly this week
Friday 10th December
| Northampton v Racing 92 | 20:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Lyon v Gloucester | 20:00 | BT Sport 3 |
Saturday 11th December
| Cardiff v Toulouse | 13:00 | Channel 4 / BT Sport 2 |
| Leinster v Bath | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
| Bordeaux v Leicester | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 |
| Clermont v Ulster | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| USAP v Dragons | 17:30 | S4C |
| Exeter v Montpellier | 20:00 | BT Sport 2 |
Sunday 12th December
| Ospreys v Sale | 13:00 | BT Sport 2 | ||
| Connacht v Stade Français | 13:00 | BT Sport 3 | ||
| La Rochelle v Glasgow | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 | ||
| Wasps v Munster | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
Ovally Balls 
In literary news we went to the library yesterday and my boy chose a children’s biography of Johnny Sexton. On the second page there’s some ‘*** anger-inducing lines:
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Bloody hell, both Sale and (particularly) Ospreys kits are awful. Think Ospreys are trying to be camouflaged against the grass.
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And Sale run right through them for the first try.
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Sale maul over for a second try. 14-3 already.
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Gwan Connacht! 19-6 just after HT.
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BP try for Connacht.
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And a fifth for good masure!
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And one last one as the clock goes red. 36-9.
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Ok, who had Connacht giving Stade a shoeing, in the sweepstake?
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Well, I predicted the win, I was just a wee bit off on the points difference…..
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‘Mon ra Weedge!
Said more in hope than expectation.
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Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse with the two sides missing 59 players between them, out walks Romain Poîte with the whistle….
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Superb try-saving tackle by POM.
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This is an entertainingly shambolic match, as you’d expect. Munster scrum getting absolutely pulverised.
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Good first 20 minutes from us. La Rochelle haven’t really got started yet. 0-6 we lead.
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Wasps’ captain red-carded for a marginal shoulder to neck. (TMO did not agree with Poîte.)
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Topsy Ojo – “It wasn’t direct contact with the head, just the chin.” ????
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Poîte said ‘neck’. It wasn’t clear from the footage, but you did see Kilcoyne’s head snap back, so I think there probably was a hit to the head.
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Oh, that was a lovely line and pass by POM.
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Wasps try after much madness.
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Refit – aye, he’s playing out of his skin.
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And now he needs medical attention….
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Just a cramp, I think.
Munster score!
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The Munster magician with an easy score.
Poite is enjoying it I think. One scrum on top of the other. Everything else is just gravy.
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Wasps have lost another man to the bin as the clock goes red for HT.
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7-13 to Munster.
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One of Munster’s yoofs has scored a try.
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And Conway over for another.
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Baby Munster hooker furra line and the BP try!
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Wasps score again.
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Looks like Carbery’s done his shoulder.
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18-year-old on to replace him.
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Child on for Murray.
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FT: 14 – 35. Quite a performance.
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Ach, it wasn’t to be, Skelton and Aldritt were the best players on the park.
Well done La Rochelle
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Only caught the first half hour or so Ticht. We were doing pretty well, but I could tell that La Rochelle were turning up the heat a bit.
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Was a bit grumpy about the rugby initially with Northampton and Sarries losing (congratulations hole stuffers :-)) but actually it’s been quite a good weekend as an English supporter. Quins, Sale and Leicester all winning away.
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I’m over the moon as all Irish sides had good wins. :-)
But more importantly, there was some lovely rugby played. Even today’s utterly chaotic match was fun to watch.
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Thaum – Ulster’s win was particularly impressive. Wasps and Bath have been a but shite this year.
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Craigs – Wasps were already missing a huge number of players through injury and then got hit by Covid on Friday. The red card certainly helped Munster, although I think they might have won anyway. Munster’s scrum was getting absolutely demolished, particularly before the replacements on both sides, but Wasps’ line-out was non-functional, and Munster won more of the very chaotic breakdowns. Poîte was, not unusually, a big factor in the result.
The Ricoh was almost empty, with of course a good Munster contingent in attendance, so that was probably a factor too. Munster just seemed to want it more. O’Mahoney was a man possessed.
Clermont were missing their first-choice (and possibly second-choice?) half-backs, which they very much rely on, and some other players too. Penaud was immense, but couldn’t save them single-handedly. Ulster more than stepped up, though, and I have experienced what it’s like in the Stade Michelin: bit like Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, or whatever it’s called now, with the roof closed. Just a wall of sound, including a brass band: massively intimidating. So I’m very proud of the boys.
Connacht’s Sportsground is a difficult place to play, particularly when there’s a bit of wind, and the Men of the Wesht played their home advantage to the max, with that creative style that we’ve come to know and love. Stade Français never really turned up, or weren’t allowed to, perhaps.
And, well, at the risk of channelling the tautological Theresa May, Leinster are Leinster. Missing a few players, but with a squad of that depth, it didn’t really matter. The least chuffing of the Irish results.
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This is best played with the sound on
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Not seen much of the weekend matches – except news highlights.
Great day for Munster – obviously helped by Wasps red card. Bit of luck in that even where they had newbies in – there were highly experienced players next to them. Only really raw unit was TH and hooker.
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The hooker got MotM, Trisk!
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Oh no, wait – it might have been the no. 8.
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No, it was the hooker Buckley.
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My careers teacher at school never told me about this job – the person at the darts who tells the TV director where on the board to point the camera:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/dec/13/zoom-call-how-the-camera-became-the-action-in-tv-darts
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Strikes me as fairly crippling disadvantage in darts….
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@cmw
That European cricket tournament just gets better and better. I think the wicketkeeper is the same old guy who fell over last week. He’s at the centre of hilarity again but the incompetence belongs to his teammates. First the bowler just walks off rather than guarding his stumps, then before he gets the second chance to run the opponent out his fielder decides to rip the stumps out for no apparent reason:
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He has a tremendous fit when his throw misses and the bowler isn’t there – very demonstrative stuff which is not a great surprise from Malta.
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“He needs to know that some players …are prone to miscounting and throwing at the wrong number entirely”
“Strikes me as fairly crippling disadvantage in darts….”
Speaking from experience I’d say that depends whether you normally hit what you aim for in the first place.
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