Heineken European Cup 2012

[en_force_er]

Due to my heritage and a massive love of supporting the underdog I follow Italian rugby pretty closely BUT I can't find a highlights video and Treviso's Heineken Cup defeat of Biarritz.

Can anyone lend me a helping hand?

 

[qwerty51]

[video]http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/matchdaytv/play/media/id/10244[/video]

 

[machiavelli]

This weekend's fixtures
very formative weekend, Round 4

Edinburgh Rugby v Cardiff Blues
Ospreys v Saracens
Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque v Benetton Treviso
Leicester Tigers v ASM Clermont Auvergne
Aironi Rugby v Ulster Rugby
London Irish v Racing Métro 92
Gloucester Rugby v Connacht Rugby Kingsholm
Montpellier v Glasgow Warriors
Leinster Rugby v Bath
Munster Rugby v Scarlets
Northampton Saints v Castres Olympique
Toulouse v Harlequins

 

[Toby Lerone]

Saracens went and won 16-13 at the Ospreys last night - in all honesty, a terrible game ruined by scrum after scrum and the referee Jerome Garces just resorted to guessing and showing yellow cards for fun.

Edinburgh beat Cardiff: they're becoming quite difficult to beat at Murrayfield, but Cardiff got a last gasp losing bonus point by making the score 19-12.

Biarritz got a 5 point win by scoring 4 tries in their 29-12 win over Treviso - Treviso were leading 12-0 until their flanker Francesco Minto was red carded for a headbutt after 25 minutes.

 

[machiavelli]

all relevant Heineken and Amlin dat/results/pools/pre match teams etc can be found here :

http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/contact.php

 

[Bardon]

Leinster destroyed Bath 52-27 running in 7 tries to end Bath's chances of qualifying and put themselves in a good position to win the pool.

The big trend so far this round of games is how the Welsh regions have fallen away after such good starts to their pools.

 

[Bardon]

Munster did what they do best today, winning tight games. 19-13 against Scarlets who had chances to win the game. But Munster now 4 wins from 4 and top of the pool.

 

[Bardon]

Great game between Toulouse and Harlequins. Famous victory for Quins 31-24. What a turn around in a week. Game was pretty exciting and now there's only a point in it in the pool. Toulouse might have been closer in the end and may have won if McAllister didn't have a meltdown with the boot in the first half.

Some cynical stuff from Quins with off the field players and staff touching the ball in flight twice to prevent the quick throw. The 2nd time resulted in one of the Quins bench being red carded. So Quins got a red card but finished with 15 men on the pitch. Still a well deserved win for Quins.

On a side note, how badly did the pitch cut up at scrum time. The place looked like it had been invaded by moles by the end.

 

[HKTiger]

Was at the Leicester vs Clermont game. Not great but entertaining enough. Good defence by Clermont but some luck and a couple of busts and Leicester just got up.

Interesting listening to Richard Cockerill after the game and him slaming Nigel Owens, Paddy O'Brien and the IRB for the mess they're making of the ruck. The "gate" was never enforced and being on your feet was a luxury with penalty's picked at random with a fairly even distribution.

Sivivatu had a good game as did Parra for Clermont and Giordan Murphy was good for Leicester. Both sides looked leg weary and as though last week had been a battle. Clermont lost more players as well. Their depth is likely to get tested now.

 

[machiavelli]

Only Leinster out in the open given Tlse defeat ..

Pool status, remember 6 top of the pools, 2 best 2nds, 3 other 2nds go to the Amlin, finished for the rest ..

http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/heinekencup/pools/index.php

 

[Manuel]

Gary Botha is a huge step down from Servetw whenever he comes on for Toulouse. The guy can't scrummage, can't thriw a straight lineout, an is very slow around the park.... I reckon he needs to regain form, he was a Bok after all...

 

[Thomond78]

Met Nusadan and mates - and my apologies for bailing out, gentlemen, but I only barely made it out through the traffic in time to get the Christmas wine, get on the road, and get him to the missus. Lovely gentlemen all, even if Nusadan has a rather suspect liking for this running-around seven nonsense...

 

[the plastic paddy]

Anyone got any idea of good sites for watching rugby replays? Particularly after Rabodirect league, any help[ much appreciated!!!

 

[qwerty51]

Is it known who faces who in the quarters? Which pool winners will play each other?

 

[Bardon]

Qwerty it's not known before the pools are over, but come the last round of games you can probably have a good guess.

Qualifying works like this: The top team in each of the 6 pools qualify, then the 2 runners up with the most points qualify also.

After that the 8 qualifiers are ranked 1 to 8 based on the number of points they got in the pool stage. Bonus points and tries scored are used for teams who got the same total points.

Once the ranking is known then it's:
Game 1: 1v8,
Game 2: 2v7,
Game 3: 3v6,
Game 4: 4v5

With those ranked 1-4 getting home advantage. This is crucial as every year almost like clockwork 3 of the 4 home quaterfinalist win, but leaves that chance for the other teams that they'll be the one to win away.

The one that the loses at home are generally unlucky to draw a true powerhouse that had one bad weekend and normally they make things worse for themselves by moving it to a bigger stadium which their opponents are more than happy to fill. Doing this at home to say Munster in a quarter final is basically making it a home game for them.

In the semi final it's

Winner of Game 1 v winner of Game 3
Winner of Game 2 v Winner of Game 4

Winners of Game 1 & 2 have home country advantage for the semi final.

The ranking format makes the final weekend more exciting because it means those teams that have already qualified for the quarters field a strong team in the hope of securing a top 4 rank and therefore a home draw.

 

[qwerty51]

Oh thanks, that's all I wanted to know, if it was 1v8 2v7 etc. obviously some pools are still wide open.

Pool 4 with Ulster, Leicester, Clermont will be very interesting.

I predict

1. Leinster
2. Munster
3. Toulouse
4. Saracens
5. Cardiff
6. Leicester
7. Harlequins
8. Clermont

 

[the plastic paddy]

Hate to disagree with you Bardon but I think the semi finals are drawn and are not according to seeding. Wrongly IMHO. And the draw is done before the QFs are played.

'(i) the Semi-Finals will be played at a venue designated by ERC, with the opponentsin each match determined by a draw conducted by ERC. The Final will be played at a venue designated by ERC'

You are correct about seeding for QFs however.

 

[Bardon]

No problem at all paddy. I'm happy to be corrected so that the right information is shared.

Didn't get to see last nights games as I've been sick the last few days. Would have loved to see the Ulster Leicester game. What a result for Ulster. Leicester are now out baring some very strange results as 17 points normally wouldn't be enough for a best runners up spot even if they do finish 2nd in the pool.

Ospreys got their bonus point win 44-17 against Treviso but it's looking more and more likely that the away draw against them earlier in the pool might cost Ospreys a quaterfinal spot.

Edinburgh pulled a last minute winning drop goal out of the hat (ala Munster) to keep up the pressure on Cardiff. Final score was 24-27 The results means that racing are out but the pool is still a contest with Cardiff and London Irish still in with a chance to qualify.

 

[the plastic paddy]

No problem at all paddy. I'm happy to be corrected so that the right information is shared.

Didn't get to see last nights games as I've been sick the last few days. Would have loved to see the Ulster Leicester game. What a result for Ulster. Leicester are now out baring some very strange results as 17 points normally wouldn't be enough for a best runners up spot even if they do finish 2nd in the pool.

Ospreys got their bonus point win 44-17 against Treviso but it's looking more and more likely that the away draw against them earlier in the pool might cost Ospreys a quaterfinal spot.

Edinburgh pulled a last minute winning drop goal out of the hat (ala Munster) to keep up the pressure on Cardiff. Final score was 24-27 The results means that racing are out but the pool is still a contest with Cardiff and London Irish still in with a chance to qualify.

Ulster were awesome, especially Ferris who was monstrous. Many highlights, my favourite was the Nordies singing 'swing low sweet chariot, coming for to carry YOU home'. Very funny. Apparently it is all the fault of the AP salary cap and nothing to do with the English players being complete sh*te: best player for Leicester was Geordan murphy by miles. Ulster V Clermont would be the game to watch this weekend, 15.40 GMT Saturday; if the Nordies play like last friday it will be a classic!!!!

 

[the plastic paddy]

Oh thanks, that's all I wanted to know, if it was 1v8 2v7 etc. obviously some pools are still wide open.

Pool 4 with Ulster, Leicester, Clermont will be very interesting.

I predict

1. Leinster
2. Munster
3. Toulouse
4. Saracens
5. Cardiff
6. Leicester
7. Harlequins
8. Clermont

Leicester are out. Leinster and Munster have qualified.