The new European Champions Cup competition started on the weekend in a trimmed down version of the old Heineken Cup.
A few teams performed above themselves in Round One, and Munster played another one of their signature European games with a stirring finish.
For those who don’t know the European Champions Cup [ERC] has a similar programme to the old Heineken Cup but instead of six pools of four, there are five pools. With 20 teams involved instead of 24 there will be fewer easy-beats than in the past.
The pool games will be held over six weekends: two in October, two in December and two in January. The quarter-finals and semi-finals will be played in April and the final at the beginning of May, with a fortnight gap between the stages.
The five pool winners and the three best runners-up will compete in the finals.
Teams were chosen from their results last season in the English Premiership [EP] (seven teams), Top 14 (six) and Pro12 (seven) although one of the Pro12 spots was guaranteed for each of the participating countries (read “Italy”). Automatic qualification from previous years was abolished.
A second-tier European Challenge Cup will run in tandem with the ERC.
Pool One
Clermont, Munster, Sale, Saracens
Three of last year’s sem-finalists were in this pool and two of them—Clermont (first place) and Saracens (second)—had been impressive in their domestic competitions up to now.
But Munster, was in a transition—of players and coaches—and had played some listless games. They were only in the middle of the Pro12 table but at least they beat their old rivals, Leinster, a few weeks ago.
Sale was tenth out of twelve in the EP and playing like it.
Aussie Andrew Smith on the move for Munster
Munster 27 – Sale 26
Munster, who qualified for the last two Heineken Cup semi-finals after losing their opening game both times, looked on track to do the same against visiting Sale.
Sale proved that European rugby is different from domestic rugby and rose to the occasion with the wind at their backs.
Munster scored the first try but Sale, with the ringmaster 10 Danny Cipriani cracking the whip and kicking goals from everywhere—and their backs finding space out wide—scored the next two tries to lead 23-7 at half-time.
Munster used the wind to advantage in the second half and tries came at 56 and 65 minutes.
The tackling from both sides was brutal, time after time, and commentator Mark Robson remarked that it was “haematoma rugby”.
Crikey, it was exciting, and there was tension in every play. At 80 minutes Sale led 26-24, but Munster had the ball. In the twelfth phase the ball was passed back to 10 Ian Keatley for the winning field goal and he slotted it for Munster to win 27-26.
It wasn’t quite as nerve-racking as the 84th minute field goal of Ronan O’Gara for Munster to beat Northampton after 41 phases in 2011, but it was the next best thing.
Happy Munster players
Sale may not qualify from this pool but geez, they got a lot of respect.
Munster’s second home game in a row, against Saracens, should be a cracker.
I don’t know who got man-of-the-match but 9 Conor Murray of Munster must have been close. For Sale 10 Danny Cipriani had a commanding first half but didn’t get enough good ball in the second.
Aussie watch—Ex-Brumbies player Andrew Smith wore the 13 jersey for Munster but he played without trace.
Saracens 30 – Clermont 23
The first half was an arm wrestle and the score was tied 10-10 at the break, which would have pleased Sarries because Clermont should have done better with the wind behind them.
There wasn’t much in it in the second half though some cracking rugby was played by both sides on the artificial surface at Allianz Park.
There was a huge turnaround after the 62nd minute when Clermont went over after Sarries lost control of their lineout ball close to their goal line, but the try was disallowed for obstruction.
Chris Ashton scores one of his two tries
After the penalty kick to Saracens 10 Charlie Hodgson hoisted the lineout ball and it floated in the wind. 11 Zac Guilford of Munster was confused and he fumbled the ball which 14 Chris Ashton kicked through to score for Saracens.
What a reversal of fortune in a couple of minutes !!
Clermont pressed in the closing minutes to tie the game but with seconds to go they were penalised from their own scrum on the Saracens five metre-line.
Charlie Hodgson, the Sarries flyhalf was the man-of-the match, in a high quality game, but the wingers David Strettle and Chris Ashton were valuable, each scoring two tries that were not gimmies. Als0 8 Billy Vunipola had several damaging runs
Workhorse 8 Damien Chouly and slippery 12 Wesley Fofana were the best for Clermont.
Billy Vunipola had several damaging runs
Pool 2
Castres, Harlequins, Leinster, Wasps
Castres were near the bottom of the Top14 and were thrashed by 50 the previous week; Quins was in eighth place in the EP; the once-mighty Leinster had the worst record of the four Irish provinces in the Pro12, and Wasps had lost as many as they had won in the EP, but at least they were the only side to beat leaders Northampton.
The pool was wide open.
Nick Easter – well grounded
Harlequins 25 — Castres 9
Quins beat Castres, the losing finalists in the Top 14 last season, in the opening game of the ERC but the French club performed better than they had in the Top 14 to date.
The visitors contended well in the first hour of the game and had their lineout been as good as it had been in the Top 14, they could have surprised Quins. There wasn’t a lot of joy for them in the scrum either.
9 Rory Kockott and 10 Remi Tales, two of the best Castres players, tried to lift them but the Quins’ 9 Danny Care and 10 Nick Evans were the better halves paring; the try they concocted between them, in the key moment of the game in the 63rd minute, was sweet rugby.
Luke Wallace – man of the match
The man of the match award went to 6 Luke Wallace of Quins but Care and Evans (who kicked seven from seven) must have been considered, as would have 15 Mike Brown, who came back from an below-par performance last week.
Aussie watch -13 Chris Tuatara-Morrison, who played for the Western Force in 2013, and in the Shute Shield in Sydney, mainly for Northern Suburbs, started for Castres. He had been called in by Castres as a “medical joker” and although he didn’t shine, he held his own.
