2022/23 Champions/Challenge Cup

[Ovals]

Reasonable weekend for the English clubs. Can't see any of them troubling the favourites but we should see a few get into the next round.

[Paddington Bear]

Been playing great, kicked a penalty to go 6 up with a couple of mins to half time. From the Sarries kick off, an idiotic block, then throw the ball away so penalised another 10m. Sarries kick to the corner and score from the line out

I just don't get Scottish ill discipline. We see it year after year (esp at intl level). It's like it's institutionalised stupidity.

Difficult to argue with that. I think there is a mental thing that the players don’t really believe they are really good enough to compete with the top sides, but they are and need to get over it

Don’t know how obvious it was on the TV but they were getting wildly agitated with the ref which seemed to become more and more of a distraction as the game went on

[Slick]

I just don't get Scottish ill discipline. We see it year after year (esp at intl level). It's like it's institutionalised stupidity.

Difficult to argue with that. I think there is a mental thing that the players don’t really believe they are really good enough to compete with the top sides, but they are and need to get over it

Don’t know how obvious it was on the TV but they were getting wildly agitated with the ref which seemed to become more and more of a distraction as the game went on

Didn’t really to be honest. They seemed to be frustrated at the scrum penalties but didn’t notice too much else

[Torquemada 1420]

Could Webb be any more orange? He looks a total twat.

I frequently comment on the amount of Oompa Loompas there seem to be in Wales.

[Torquemada 1420]

Pisspreys probably blew their best chance of a win in this years HEC.

Plus ca change with them. I would have made a trip there to watch whichever Fre side they played....... but it's MH and if you think the Leicester game was turgid sh*te, MH are the undisputed, rugby-cancer champs at the moment.

[Torquemada 1420]

Been playing great, kicked a penalty to go 6 up with a couple of mins to half time. From the Sarries kick off, an idiotic block, then throw the ball away so penalised another 10m. Sarries kick to the corner and score from the line out

I just don't get Scottish ill discipline. We see it year after year (esp at intl level). It's like it's institutionalised stupidity.

Difficult to argue with that. I think there is a mental thing that the players don’t really believe they are really good enough to compete with the top sides, but they are and need to get over it

It's friggin' annoying as a neutral. I feel your pain though as it reminds me so much of Fre sides (all levels) for decades. In fact, Racing did a great effort of harking back to the past this w/e.

[Uncle fester]

Sale looked strong. Was the Stockdale in the back 3 for Ulster any relation to that winger the Nordies were talking up as world class a few years back? Maybe his uncle?

He's been wracked with injuries and his confidence is gone.
Probably bulked up too much during the downtime as well.

[Sards]

Champions cup table

[OomStruisbaai]

Challenge Cup

[Sards]

Champions cup table

Pleased we don't play Sale Sharks in our group

Saffer teams up in the top again...

[Torquemada 1420]

Sale looked strong. Was the Stockdale in the back 3 for Ulster any relation to that winger the Nordies were talking up as world class a few years back? Maybe his uncle?

He's been wracked with injuries and his confidence is gone.
Probably bulked up too much during the downtime as well.

Thought it was funny that he was thought he was being clever taunting the Sale midget when Ulster were being hammered. Midget should have pointed Stockdale to the scoreboard.

[Simian]

Sale looked strong. Was the Stockdale in the back 3 for Ulster any relation to that winger the Nordies were talking up as world class a few years back? Maybe his uncle?

He's been wracked with injuries and his confidence is gone.
Probably bulked up too much during the downtime as well.

Thought it was funny that he was thought he was being clever taunting the Sale midget when Ulster were being hammered. Midget should have pointed Stockdale to the scoreboard.

Yeah, that was rather bizarre. Bit embarrassing really.

[Brazil]

Sale looked strong. Was the Stockdale in the back 3 for Ulster any relation to that winger the Nordies were talking up as world class a few years back? Maybe his uncle?

He's been wracked with injuries and his confidence is gone.
Probably bulked up too much during the downtime as well.

Thought it was funny that he was thought he was being clever taunting the Sale midget when Ulster were being hammered. Midget should have pointed Stockdale to the scoreboard.

Which midget? Akker or Reed?

[Torquemada 1420]

Champions cup table

Pleased we don't play Sale Sharks in our group

Saffer teams up in the top again...

I hate this format.

[SaintK]

I hate this format.

Yep, it's awful.

[robmatic]

Dear God you’ve got to be keen to watch this stuff.

Presumably Ospreys at least got a decent crowd in with a proper atmosphere for this one, because I heard that it's playing English opposition that will rescue Welsh rugby.

[robmatic]

Champions cup table

Pleased we don't play Sale Sharks in our group

Saffer teams up in the top again...

I hate this format.

Play a couple of games against random opposition in the table and almost everybody qualifies. Who needs sporting drama.

[PCPhil]

Behold the future.

[JM2K6]

Well, I needed fewer demands on my time so that's okay really

[sockwithaticket]

The only good thing currently is the commitment to not having teams from the same league play eachother. However, I'm sure that could be managed with a less shit format too.

[Sards]

Champions cup table

Pleased we don't play Sale Sharks in our group

Saffer teams up in the top again...

I hate this format.

You guys don't like competition

[sockwithaticket]

2 pools of 12 where two thirds of the teams progress to the next round is rubbish.

[Torquemada 1420]

He's been wracked with injuries and his confidence is gone.
Probably bulked up too much during the downtime as well.

Thought it was funny that he was thought he was being clever taunting the Sale midget when Ulster were being hammered. Midget should have pointed Stockdale to the scoreboard.

Which midget? Akker or Reed?

Curly haired one OTTOMH. Apologies but I am quite out of touch with Prem players.

[Torquemada 1420]

Pleased we don't play Sale Sharks in our group

Saffer teams up in the top again...

I hate this format.

You guys don't like competition

The reverse is true. This makes it way easier to qualify for the later stages and reduces the pressure and hence the interest on the pool games. It also increases my pet hate of same nation sides playing one another.

[Torquemada 1420]

Pleased we don't play Sale Sharks in our group

Saffer teams up in the top again...

I hate this format.

Play a couple of games against random opposition in the table and almost everybody qualifies. Who needs sporting drama.

THIS

[Simian]

I hate this format.

Yep, it's awful.

It’s appalling. They’ve taken a really great competition and totally screwed it up.

[westport]

I hate this format.

Yep, it's awful.

I agree. They have spoiled it for players and spectators.

[Tichtheid]

I just don't get Scottish ill discipline. We see it year after year (esp at intl level). It's like it's institutionalised stupidity.

Difficult to argue with that. I think there is a mental thing that the players don’t really believe they are really good enough to compete with the top sides, but they are and need to get over it

Don’t know how obvious it was on the TV but they were getting wildly agitated with the ref which seemed to become more and more of a distraction as the game went on

As my plans for this morning fell through due to the weather I watched the game instead.

It would have been totally different if I'd watched it live, but I thought the ref was excellent for an hour* then made a couple of mistakes which went against Edinburgh. I like when a ref won't be intimidated by players but he really didn't want to engage with Jamie Ritchie at all, if that starts to redress the balance away from certain players bitching at refs then I'll take it.

The reason I put an asterisk against the ref being excellent for an hour is that for the scrums where you could see what was going on he got them 100% wrong, so I've little reason to believe otherwise for the ones where you couldn't see it.

That wasn't why Edinburgh lost though, oh for the ability to freeze frame a match and put another player in position for certain plays, if Kinghorn had taken the intercept rather than Hoyland he would have made it to the line. Lang made a dog's dinner of that move later on.
We still had it in our grasp to win after that and it was down to us blowing it, nothing to do with the referee.

If Farrell could kick at more than 50% or whatever it was Sarries would have been out of sight with 10 minutes to go, so it wasn't so much one that got away for us, at least not to my mind.
We are going to have to raise our game, but to be honest I thought we were going to take a battering so it was pleasant enough to see us not completely out-classed by a side that has had such a dominant start to their season.

[Torquemada 1420]

He's been wracked with injuries and his confidence is gone.
Probably bulked up too much during the downtime as well.

Thought it was funny that he was thought he was being clever taunting the Sale midget when Ulster were being hammered. Midget should have pointed Stockdale to the scoreboard.

Which midget? Akker or Reed?

Gus Warr.

[Paddington Bear]

Difficult to argue with that. I think there is a mental thing that the players don’t really believe they are really good enough to compete with the top sides, but they are and need to get over it

Don’t know how obvious it was on the TV but they were getting wildly agitated with the ref which seemed to become more and more of a distraction as the game went on

As my plans for this morning fell through due to the weather I watched the game instead.

It would have been totally different if I'd watched it live, but I thought the ref was excellent for an hour* then made a couple of mistakes which went against Edinburgh. I like when a ref won't be intimidated by players but he really didn't want to engage with Jamie Ritchie at all, if that starts to redress the balance away from certain players bitching at refs then I'll take it.

The reason I put an asterisk against the ref being excellent for an hour is that for the scrums where you could see what was going on he got them 100% wrong, so I've little reason to believe otherwise for the ones where you couldn't see it.

That wasn't why Edinburgh lost though, oh for the ability to freeze frame a match and put another player in position for certain plays, if Kinghorn had taken the intercept rather than Hoyland he would have made it to the line. Lang made a dog's dinner of that move later on.
We still had it in our grasp to win after that and it was down to us blowing it, nothing to do with the referee.

If Farrell could kick at more than 50% or whatever it was Sarries would have been out of sight with 10 minutes to go, so it wasn't so much one that got away for us, at least not to my mind.
We are going to have to raise our game, but to be honest I thought we were going to take a battering so it was pleasant enough to see us not completely out-classed by a side that has had such a dominant start to their season.

Think I'd tend to agree with that. Probably off camera but Ritchie and others were spending a lot of the game chucking arms up in the air, yelling at the TJs and generally chuntering. It seemed to get under their skin far too much.

The intercept was pretty inexplicable, if you ran that 99 times again I reckon Edinburgh score. Faz's kicking is clearly off the boil with his ankle - even the ones he knocked over seemed to go up rather than forward and really lacked any distance. Someone needs to have the balls to take the tee away from him for a bit, and would love for them to film it.

Incidentally I think it was mentioned on the Scottish thread, but I though VdM was very poor. I've wondered for a bit if defences might get wise to his sideways running and we certainly seemed to manage him without fuss yesterday.

[Brazil]

Thought it was funny that he was thought he was being clever taunting the Sale midget when Ulster were being hammered. Midget should have pointed Stockdale to the scoreboard.

Which midget? Akker or Reed?

Gus Warr.

Huh. Good god!

[OomStruisbaai]

I hate this format.

You guys don't like competition

The reverse is true. This makes it way easier to qualify for the later stages and reduces the pressure and hence the interest on the pool games. It also increases my pet hate of same nation sides playing one another.

Yep we have more then enough derbies as it is. Tired of beating the Sharks.

[Tichtheid]

I don't know how to do two separate time stamps on the one video, so I'll do two posts.

There were a couple of very nice tries in the Zebre Toulon game

[OomStruisbaai]

I am not as bothered as Dupont and others about the Saffers playing but that's because Leinster are currently cock of the walk. If we were missing out on European rugby I might feel differently. Agreed that the format is shite as is the URC. These huge groups baffle me

Why URC?

[Simian]

I am not as bothered as Dupont and others about the Saffers playing but that's because Leinster are currently cock of the walk. If we were missing out on European rugby I might feel differently. Agreed that the format is shite as is the URC. These huge groups baffle me

Why URC?

I can only speak for myself, but I hate that we no longer have a traditional league structure with sides playing each other home and away each season.

[OomStruisbaai]

I don't know how to do two separate time stamps on the one video, so I'll do two posts.

There were a couple of very nice tries in the Zebre Toulon

Can't believe Zebre came that close. Always thought Toulon is very strong.

[OomStruisbaai]

I am not as bothered as Dupont and others about the Saffers playing but that's because Leinster are currently cock of the walk. If we were missing out on European rugby I might feel differently. Agreed that the format is shite as is the URC. These huge groups baffle me

Why URC?

I can only speak for myself, but I hate that we no longer have a traditional league structure with sides playing each other home and away each season.

At least all teams play each other. Home and away Derbies. Plus they make sure at least one team from the conferences go to Champions Cup.

The Champions Cup is something totally different.

[Tichtheid]

I don't know how to do two separate time stamps on the one video, so I'll do two posts.

There were a couple of very nice tries in the Zebre Toulon

Can't believe Zebre came that close. Always thought Toulon is very strong.

I didn't check the lineups, but the French clubs usually put out a thirds/academy team in the Champions Cup, they really don't care about it at all unless they get to a final.
It really devalues the competition, which is a shame, but there is nothing really that can be done about it, the Top 14 league is everything in France.

[Sards]

You guys don't like competition

The reverse is true. This makes it way easier to qualify for the later stages and reduces the pressure and hence the interest on the pool games. It also increases my pet hate of same nation sides playing one another.

Yep we have more then enough derbies as it is. Tired of beating the Sharks.

Just a reminder. We are 1 to 0 up against the Stormers this year

[OomStruisbaai]

The reverse is true. This makes it way easier to qualify for the later stages and reduces the pressure and hence the interest on the pool games. It also increases my pet hate of same nation sides playing one another.

Yep we have more then enough derbies as it is. Tired of beating the Sharks.

Just a reminder. We are 1 to 0 up against the Stormers this year

We got the real Xmast derby vs our rivals Bulls in two weeks time in Cape Town. Going to be a cracker!