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 
Well, exactly. Why can’t the bastards just roll over and let Wasps have 2 points?
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My mistake. Of course Munster will face a team from the OTHER pool.
Ulster Tolouse it is, then. Great.
Stade seem marginally better than Wasps so I’d rather see them qualify but then Wasps beat Toulouse so who knows?
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The worse is yet to come. To think that a team like Montpellier that shipped no less than 19 tries in two games can still qualify if they get just one point from their game vs Exeter, well… it grates.
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So Munster win 45/7. Well oiled machine. They’ll be hard to beat in the knock out stage.
Wasps… not sure they should even get into the Challenge Cup.
Stade get through.
Too bad the organisers couldn’t find a way to prevent teams from the same country to face one another.
There’ll be La Rochelle vs Bordeaux, Racing vs Stade (and some inter Irish games as well (?).
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Wasps have a LOT of injured players, but they were pathetic today. No clue what to do when they did the ball.
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It’s pretty much all Montpellier so far!
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oh, dear – so far
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They’re catching up, but the Scots must be watching from behind the sofa.
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To be honest, after the last two games I’m not sure we deserve to be in the Champions Cup. We’d possibly/probably play Leicester, who are a far different proposition than the last time we played them.
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I’m reminded how unpleasant Montp. can be
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Surprisingly interesting game in Montpellier.
Simmonds (#8) is quite a player. Surprised Jones’s been blind to him for so long.
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I need Ticht to explain the scrums to me; Moon getting penalised but his oppo. dropping his knee beforehand
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Unfortunately, Skinner and Lonsdale are a step down from Gray and Hill – but I think M. look like they will run out of puff so E just need to stay in contention……………
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9 players for France now unavailable due to Covid, among whom Dupont, Cros, Ntamack, Baille , Jelonch, Barlot … plus Woki and Atonio injured. Thank dog it’s only Italy.
Among the replacements. Galthié called what the French press
call a UFO (you’d call him a bolter I suppose ) a SH from Mt de Marsan who has not played a single game in T14 yet, Coly.
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I like ‘UFO’!
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Flair – I think Simmonds (8) is/was seen as a bit ‘light-weight’ for the position, when you compare him to Billy V or even Nathan Hughes.
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Well that’s buggered it.
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And Montpellier through. They lead 34/26 and got their BP.
Sorry for Glasgow.
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Thaum, in French it’d be OVNI. Objet volant non identifié.
Jaminet was the one last summer.
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So no Italian, no Scottish, no Welsh club in the last 16.
It may be logical, but that’s not fun.
More and more like football then. Wish we could go back to the knock out games and be done with the round robins.
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flair, because of the way the competition is you can game it and qualify with only one win so identify the home game you are most likely to win and win that and there’s around a 50/50 chance you’ll make it to the last 16. Throw in a bonus 5-pointer for a Covid cancellation and you’re there. Toulouse got unlucky with the “Covid draw” v Wasps and then the “Covid loss” to Cardiff. They were poor v Wasps in Coventry.
Munster v Exeter’ll be close. Munster have been a far from well-oiled machine this year and got a right slagging after the first Castres game and a loss to Connacht. The Irish media were all out for them. It was a ridiculously over the top reaction considering they’d only lost 2 in 8 up to that point (now 2 in 11).
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Apart from drawing Munster ,I don’t think that will have done Exeter too much harm. They kept at it quite well and the physical experience can be banked …………………
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There’s never been a straight knock-out in the Heineken.
It’s happened before – no It, Sco or Wal teams in 2019/20 quarters. 2015/16 was a purely English and French affair.
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Tomp, I know there never was a straight knock out game in the Hcup.
I was thinking, old fart as I am, about the early football European cups when the likes of Ajax, Benfica, Red Star Belgrade etc… could go all the way before the 4 or 5 big European countries confiscated the competition.
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I was pretty critical about the loss to Connacht – but winning with 14 vs Ulster (notwithstanding Ulster weren’t good) and digging out a win away vs Castres was impressive. Castres putting it up to Quins probably makes the 2 results when Munster played them look a lot better. Today, Munster played at high-tempo, Healy played well, Granted Wasps were injury struck but Munster played well. Game was dead when they got the 4th try early in the 2nd half.
Irish media – Thornley in the Irish Times is good but rest of them generally are “sensationalist”, and blindly pro-Leinster. Big push now for Ross Molony in the Irish squad – he’s not really shown any evidence of being more than a vey good club player.
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Other thing to add is 18 of starting 23 were “home grown” – Kleyn, Loughman, Conway, Haley, Farrell came from elsewhere. It’s taken a while and Munster will never match the stream from Leinster’s fee paying schools.
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trisk, I was also thinking about the line RTE were pushing in the Ulster game as well -Stringer and Heaslip getting a push from the presenter and going all in. Then doing a swift about turn when Munster won the match with 14 players.
The lad Kinsella from the42 is good but he’s got lumbered with that interview job on the telly coverage. Good for his bank balance I suppose.
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and talking of the grass roots.
Our U16 girls won the Munster league on Saturday beating Ennis RFC 27-15 in the final in Limerick (not Thomond but next door in LIT). Tight game – converted try in the final moments put a gloss on it. I think it is the first time we’ve won Munster level trophy.
Meanwhile, less high stakes but our U14s won the West Munster League Plate final. Tight game at first but we got to half-time 14-0 up. So, next score was important and we got it. Final score 35-5!! At one point, I was congratulated by one of our U16 coaches who was watching – I told him I didn’t recall ever coaching them to play like that.
More seriously, what was pleasing was that they did the things we’d tried to emphasise – run straight, good ball presentation after the tackle, good support lines, and pass, pass , pass. It all came together.
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@TomP
I like Kinsella – his written stuff is good. He’s a bit wasted as the frontman – though I suppose his knowledge ought to help him guide the conversation.
Connacht game was a poor performance – and made worse by poor decisions especially in the minutes before half time. The pre-Christmas game vs Castres looks a lot better in retrospect. Munster weren’t great but Castres weren’t going to throw it around – the kicked deep and let us try to work out how to come 90 metres versus a very powerful team
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@Thauma
I thought they looked threatening if they got in close – though great defence kept them out just before half time. Further injuries pretty much did for them
But backline stuff was wild…. must have been half a dozen passes that went to who knows where – over players’ heads or behind the target.
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Trisk – yes, they looked like they had no training-field moves whatsoever. Just chuck the ball around wildly.
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trisk, are you claiming that the mighty Beirne is a Munsterman? Everyone knows he’s from Llanelli.
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Ah, yeah – forgot him.
I’ve an old program Munster vs Leinster Stephens Day match back in 2015 (?) – with one Tadhg Beirne as a replacement for Leinster
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Didn’t see too much rugby this weekend for various reasons, but happy to see the Blitzboks keeping up their winning run this season so far. They’re on a 29 match unbeaten run, the 3rd longest in 7s. I don’t know what the milestones above them are, but still quite a feat.
Unlike the Golden Lions, who managed to lose again. Bah! The Saffer sides are doing a lovely merry-go-round in the URC, beating each other every week, with no one side managing to get a stranglehold on things. Sharks probably best placed to make some kind of playoff spot.
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Jeeeez, he actually is using a bad impression of David Brent as his own comedy schtick.
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Hask doing a bit of a Ricky Gervais tribute there?
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Oh, thank fuck, OT! I was worried that it was just me thinking that!
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Haskell’s been at that for years. At least the ones he did for the tour videos weren’t scripted. I bet he had script approval for that promo:
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I do quite enjoy the Hask torturing poor faz
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Oh look! It seems the Bumbling Blonde Buffoon had a birthday party during first lockdown. Why am I not surprised?
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BB – I think this’ll be the one to do him in. How many people did not have birthday parties – nearly everyone, I’d think?
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It seems the Bumbling Blonde Buffoon had a birthday party during first lockdown.
We talking Bojo or the Hask here? Need some clarity on this!
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Lawes and May out – Scotland by lots
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Farrell out Ford in. England by a billion
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Wordle 220 3/6
🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
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Easy one :-)
Wordle 220 3/6
🟩⬜🟨⬜⬜
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Lewdle 07 4/6
🟨⬛⬛🟩⬛
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Lewdle 07 3/6
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https://www.lewdlegame.com/
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