It wasn’t a vintage weekend for the Australians in the Heineken Cup, after some outstanding performances on and off the field last week the majority of the Aussies had a week they may want to forget.
After a truly magnificent performance last week Matt Giteau and Toulon produced an almost stereotypical on the road French performance in a lackluster display away to the Rabo 12 whipping boys Cardiff. Despite a handful of Lions in their ranks, including captain Sam Warburton and Leigh Halfpenny, Cardiff have been nothing short of woeful for 18 months however they finally produced a performance worthy of some of their players international achievements.
Giteau struggled in the face of some aggressive D from the Welsh side, his run metres where nonexistent (he ran four times for the gain of one metre) and only managed one off load. His side Toulon now faces a battle for a home quarter final with two more tricky away trips to come. New signing Drew Mitchell was listed on the bench for this game and didn’t get a run out as Toulon opted not to use any of their outside back replacements.
Salesi Ma’afu had a game to forget from a personal point of view yesterday but his Northampton side enjoyed a 27-16 win against the Ospreys which all but ends any hope of progression to the knock stages for the Welsh heavyweights. Ma’afu gave away 3 penalties as the Saints front row looked at times like they were struggling against the all Welsh international trio of the Ospreys. Added to some missed tackles Ma’afu has plenty to work on in the next few weeks when the Saints will be without the majority of their international players.
Matt O’Connor endured a tough home European debut as Leinster coach as French Champions Castres pushed the Irish province all the way in Saturdays clash. O’Connor seems to have set his side up to play in a defensive manner and a stuttering display from Kiwi outhalf Jimmy Gopperth didn’t help Leinster’s attack which looked far from the ruthless backline which Joe Schmidt had built over his time in Dublin.
Dean Mumm’s Exeter were beaten by Glasgow, however they grabbed a valuable losing bonus point in Scotland and are an outside shot at progression however they will have to pick up at least 5 points in their December double header against the reigning champions Toulon. Brock James produced a better performance in his sides win at home to Harlequins. James still failed to get the best out of the star studded backline outside of him as Clermont couldn’t get the 4 tries required for a bonus point.
Other results from Europe included wins for Irish trio Ulster, Munster and Connacht and also wins for Leicester, Toulouse, Perpignan whilst Racing Metro and Scarlets shared the spoils in Llanelli. With only 3 teams remaining unbeaten over the first two games, Leinster, Ulster and Toulouse, all the groups in this year’s competition look like they’ll be going down to the wire. After the traditional December double header we’ll have a far clearer picture about who the front runners in the competition are. At this early stage it looks like there will only be a handful of Aussies in the knockout stages.
With a hat tip to G&GR’s video man Vinnie, we’ve got the best action of all the games for you to enjoy:
