Pack your suitcases and prepare for Round Two of the European Cup.
Cardiff v Harlequins
Home advantage and Ellis Jenkins won’t do enough for Cardiff against in-form Quins. Quins by 10.
Castres v Munster
No-one will ever know the result of this match as anyone who attempts to watch it will die the most horrible of deaths from boredom, judging by the reverse fixture.
Wasps v Toulouse
Ooh. Toulouse by at least 35.
Ospreys v Racing 92
Surprisingly, Racing 92 are languishing even further down the Top 14 table than Ospreys are in the URC. I still think they’ll win, though – by about 12.
Connacht v Leicester
This could be the surprise of the weekend, possibly depending on the weather. Connacht by 3.
La Rochelle v Bath
Bath to take a Bath. La Rochelle by 20.
Exeter v Glasgow Warriors
Glasgow have been looking the business in their last couple of matches, and Exeter are not what they were last year. Weegies by 6.
Bristol v Stade Français
Neither side setting the world on fire this season, so home players by 4.
Leinster v Montpellier
Despite being toppled off the top of the URC, Leinster remain a team to be very scared of, and are at home. Blue Meanies by 17.
Bordeaux v Scarlets
Ooh là là, les Médocs par approximately neufty.
Northampton v Ulster
Will the return of Baloucoune and Hume mean an Ulster away win? Probably not, but I’m going for Ulster by 7 anyway. (This is why I never win the leagues.)
Clermont v Sale
Oh dear, Yellow Army by 30.
Onna telly this week
Friday 14th January
| Castres v Munster | 20:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Cardiff v Harlequins | 20:00 | S4C / BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 15th January
| Wasps v Toulouse | 13:00 | Channel 4 / BT Sport 2 |
| Treviso v Dragons | 15:15 | S4C |
| Ospreys v Racing 92 | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 |
| Connacht v Leicester | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
| La Rochelle v Bath | 17:30 | BT Sport 3 |
| Exeter v Glasgow | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Bristol v Stade Français | 20:00 | BT Sport 2 |
Sunday 16th January
| Leinster v Montpellier | 13:00 | BT Sport 2 | ||
| Bordeaux v Scarlets | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 | ||
| Northampton v Ulster | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 | ||
| Clermont v Sale | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
Ovally Balls 
So not “fine” then?
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Standard, so “fine”.
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If Botica had kicked his kicks, it’d’ve been different, of course.
Nice to see Castres play after so many years of watching them not really being arsed away from home. They were good. Harlequins play all 80+ minutes so fair play to them.
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Was it also Botica who also dropped 7 points on the line having beaten the defenders to get there? It was right beside the posts so, a certain 7 pointer
The referee did not decide that game.
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1min 12sec in this if it doesn’t go to time stamp if you want to see the glorious sight of a lock running away from a scrum half and stand off to score from 50m
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OT – population density in Sweden is far lower than the UK. So not a fair comparison (my overarching point in all this). Plus fitness levels and diet etc.
Still had a dumb approach to covid though. A little lockdown would have sufficed.
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@craigs
There are lots of reasons why they aren’t fair comparisons, the main one being the data is completely useless. You can prove anything you like with it.
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@Trisk – Dying on a Friday seems to add a few days (at least at the moment) as the registration of it is all done by email etc between the hospital and the registry office. We could have had the funeral this week just gone, but the situation is complicated by no two parts of the family living in the same place and literally nobody other than the deceased living in Glasgow. I don’t know if quick is necessarily better, I don’t see this (just over two weeks) as being a long wait as there’s been a longer one for a number of people I’ve known in recent years. My brother who has been at least notionally living in Galway for the last few years (a lot of the pandemic he was stuck over here at my mum’s) has attended a couple of funerals of former members of his department etc and has been struck by how the whole business seems to be much more of an event than any he’s been to over here. He thinks the Irish are getting it right attaching a greater importance to these sort of ceremonial matters and that we’ve lost something over here and I’d be inclined to agree with him assuming his experience is typical.
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Five and a half minutes and Leinster are already on a card warning.
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Stat Attack
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‘MON ULSTER!
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TRY Herring!
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Semi!
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Little Ioan Lloyd!
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Refit @17:44 – that’s a little personal.
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The offload from Vui was just gorgeous.
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Clermont take the lead thanks to Doak bouncing the conversion off the posts, and two penalties.
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TRY Lowry!
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Conversion from nearly the same place missed.
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Parra brings Clermont back to within a point.
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Ulster give away another kickable penalty, and Clermont go ahead again.
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Raka gets a yellow as Ulster attack the Clermont try line.
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TRY Herring again! And Doak gets a conversion from the same place.
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This time it goes over! 17-12 at oranges.
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BP TRY Ulster! Didn’t see who it was (under a pile of bodies), maybe Vermeulen.
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It was indeed Vermeulen. Doak gets the exact same difficult conversion.
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Ah, he’s got that one down now. 27-12.
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Ulster have just played some great rugby, unfortunately cumulating in a forward pass.
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TRY Baloucoune!
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Was worried about the conversion as Doak’s gone off, but Burns makes it from the other touchline. 34-12.
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Clermont finally get a try, and a very good one.
Burns has gone off to be replaced by Gilroy, so I’m assuming Lowry’s playing 10.
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Clermont have suddenly turned up now Lopez is on the pitch! Raka goes over. 34-24; 7 mins to go!
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And Clermont go for the corner and then maul over the line!
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34-31. 3-and-a-bit mins.
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Match-saving tackle from Baloucoune. Ulster line-out.
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Ulster manage to stuff it up their jumpers and hold out. Whew!
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Bristol have kinda run away with this and end the match with a try starting almost on their try-line. Final score 21-52
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At one point Ulster looked out of sight and Scarlets were one try behind Bristol. By the end, Ulster were holding on for a 3 point win and Bristol ended up getting over 50 points.
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I’ve been a busy bee and didn’t see any rugby today.
Well done Ulster and Bristol, they are the only scores I’ve seen as well
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‘mon ra Weedge!!!
More like the first 50 minutes of last week, please.
Less like the last 30 minutes, please.
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Well done, Bristol! I was beginning to think I was just shouting into the void.
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Oh bugger, it’s Hastings commentating.
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Well that start could have been worse. Chance for a penalty to take the lead, even though we’re down to 14.
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That didn’t last long. Bloody restarts again.
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Struggling to get out of our 22 here, never mind our own half.
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That’s been coming – LAR try.
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Somehow we’re only a point behind now.
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We bolloxed that attack right up.
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La Rochelle score just on half time. Well deserve to be in front. At this rate we’ll be hoping that Montpellier get nothing against Exeter.
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