Champions Cup Round 3: The Irish Fixtures
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It’s a challenging weekend for the Irish contingent in Round 3 of Champions Cup who face a mixture of English and French opposition.
Castres vs Munster:
Munster will get the ball rolling when they tackle Castres on Friday evening at Stade Pierre Fabre in a return match in which the French outfit will seek revenge from Round 2’s 19-13 result at Thomond Park.
Munster are two from two thus far, having dominated Wasps 35-14 in the first round.
Munster boss Johann van Graan said:
“We came out of a very challenging time with two wins out of two that would put us in a very good position at the back end of Europe.
“The way it is structured currently, it is four games. If you win three out of your four games, it puts you in a very good position to make the knockout rounds.
“You might need less, but obviously we’d like to win every game that we play and we’ve got Wasps the following Sunday, which will be a nine-day turnaround.”
The last time Munster faced Castres away was in 2018. Van Graan recalls:
“The last game we played in Castres, we lost 13-12. We got one point and even that point we got was tight in that pool.
“We are going to have perform. It will be tight. Who knows what will happen in the other games, so you might have to wait quite a bit to know where your fate lies.”
It has been an antagonistic, bad-tempered rivalry in the past which has brought plenty of extra needle into the encounters. Fans will be licking their lips at the prospect of another good scrap.
Match facts:
- This will be the 18th clash between Munster Rugby and Castres Olympique in the Heineken Champions Cup, the most played fixture in the history of the competition.
- Castres’ defeat against Harlequins in Round 1 ended a run of nine games unbeaten at home in the Heineken Champions Cup (W7 D2). The last time they suffered consecutive home defeats in the competition was in 2014/15.
- Munster won their last away game in France in the Heineken Champions Cup (39-31 v ASM Clermont Auvergne in Round 2, 2020/21) but have not won consecutive away games against TOP 14 opposition since 2009 (v Montauban and USAP).
- Castres fly-half Benjamin Urdapilleta has successfully kicked each of his four penalty goal attempts in the Heineken Champions Cup this season. Only Ulster’s John Cooney (6/6) has attempted more penalty goals without missing after the opening two rounds.
- Munster centre Damian de Allende has beaten 12 defenders in the Heineken Champions Cup this season, the most of any player, while teammate Andrew Conway has made the most line breaks after two rounds (4).
Northampton vs Ulster:
Like Munster, Ulster will go into Round 3 with two wins under the belt. This week (as well as in Round 2), their opposition takes the form of Northampton Saints, whom they will challenge at Franklin’s Gardens.
Ulster hit the ground running with a valuable 29-23 victory over Clermont on the latter’s home turf. It was a see-saw battle of a match in which Ulster were able to capitalise on poor Clermont discipline to keep the scoreboard ticking over, thereby laying a foundation for victory.
Five points was the difference between Saints and Ulster in the second round as the final whistle blew with the score at 27-22. Ulster exploded out of the blocks and looked unstoppable in the opening exchanges before Saints pulled themselves together in the second stanza and made a contest of it.
Following the match, McFarland said:
“We put three tries on the board, nice counter-attack, nice phase play.
“On each occasion we were scoring and they were kicking into our half, we weren’t being accurate with our exiting and it was giving them an opportunity to get a foothold and put points over, and that’s what they did.
“In fact, I think a massive chunk of their points came in the three, four minutes after we scored. That is very unusual for us.
“In the last three or four games we’ve been excellent at exiting our half, really precise. But we did odd things, little offloads, losing the ball in contact, trying to get the ball away from mauls and giving up possession. That was a key reason why we weren’t able to maintain control on the game.
“Then, in addition, the back-row battle was a very interesting one, in that third quarter they started winning a lot of collisions. We started to get very handsy with our tackles which, again, is very unusual for us.
“Duane (Vermeulen) is a legend of producing a steal at the exact moment you need it, and Nick (Timoney) and Marcus (Rea) have been doing that well in recent games. I thought that was an interesting battle.”
Speaking this week ahead of the game, flanker Greg Jones said his side were eyeing the breakdown as a key area in the contest:
Certainly breakdown will be a big focus this week, they have guys like Lewis Ludlam - Teimana Harrison if he plays is another good guy at the breakdown,” he said.
“Obviously what happened at the weekend was disappointing. Tadgh Beirne got a few jackals, it is small things like when we are attacking as forwards how we tighten up our support ruckers and reduce that lag time where they get opportunities.
“I think all of us are going to be extremely focused on that this week and we are hoping to rectify that whole breakdown.
“As well as jackal turnovers there is the element of focusing on the breakdown to generate quick ball because we want to attack better. We were disappointed of how we attacked against Munster.
“We have looked at a few bits around the breakdown, even with our carries and placement.
“So I think there are definitely a good few things that we can implement this week to improve that speed of ball and to take those guys out of the game that are trying to jackal.
“I think a lot of it is the lag time between the carriers and the ruckers. I think if we can shorten that up it will certainly go a long way to helping us because if someone like Tadgh Beirne gets into a position like that he is very hard to move, so it is something that we are going to be focusing on - all the threats they have.”
Leinster vs Montpellier:
Leinster will run out onto their home turf at the RDS to square off against Top 14 opponents, Montpellier.
Leo Cullen’s men will be itching to get stuck into Montpellier after the latter were awarded five points in their scheduled second round fixture after Leinster were forced to withdraw after Covid-19 was detected in their squad, leaving them with some ground to cover in the campaign.
In Round 1, they enjoyed a juicy 45-20 victory over Bath:
Match facts:
- Each of the seven previous meetings between Montpellier and Leinster have come in the pool stage of the Heineken Champions Cup, with the Irish province winning five of those seven matches (drawing one and losing one, excluding cancelled fixtures), including each of their three home games.
- Leinster have recorded an average ruck speed of 2.3 seconds in the Heineken Champions Cup this season, the quickest of any club; Montpellier (4.1) are one of six sides with an average speed of more than four seconds per ruck.
- Montpellier are the only side with a 100% lineout success rate in the Heineken Champions Cup this season, having won each of their eight lineouts; Leinster have the joint third best rate (94%, level with Connacht and Sale Sharks).
This from powerful Leinster prop Andrew Porter:
“Our best performances is all that will do for the rest of the competition because the amount of competition in the [Heineken] Champions Cup is huge and we know what all the teams will bring. It’s almost knock-out rugby straight away now, so, it’s a huge challenge that we’re all relishing and we’re all really looking forward to it. You definitely use it as motivation.”
Connacht vs Leicester:
A great clash awaits fans on Saturday as Connacht look to get their own back against the fiery Leicester Tigers.
Connacht started the competition well with a commanding 36-9 victory over Stade Francais in Round 1:
Round 2, however, saw the glory go to Leicester as they came away with a 29-23 win at Welford Road:
Post match, Connacht boss Andy Friend said:
“If you asked me in the 49th minute, I would have said yeah, we’re in control here. At the 50th minute, when they brought on their three front-rowers — and I thought the timing of that for them was very clever — that changed things for us.
“They got that scrum penalty into the corner, we gave away a penalty off the lineout and the rest is history — the repeated scrums under the sticks, a yellow card. And it’s very, very hard to play against anybody [in that situation], let alone Leicester Tigers at Welford Road with 14 men.
“Upon reflection, they were the better team on the day because they dealt with those pressure points better, but I was really really pleased and proud of the fact that we got the bonus point, which has kept us alive, and now we welcome them on Saturday.”
This time around, Connacht will enjoy the familiar feel of their home paddock as they wrestle with the Premiership leaders.
After a marvellous winning streak in the Premiership, Leicester fell to Wasps this last weekend in their first defeat of the campaign. Friend is choosing not to alter his focus as far as the upcoming game is concerned, despite that result.
“That’s theirs. Whatever team turns up will be what will turn up. You know they are a proud outfit. You can see the way they play. I actually thought at the end of that game they were very unlucky not to get a penalty try. Ben Youngs went over, so they were probably unlucky as well. We know Leicester Tigers have big ambitions in Europe, so we know what is coming on Saturday and we’re ready for that.
“It’s a huge game. Europe is the ultimate stage. We put ourselves in a good position, but it means nothing if we don’t perform well on Saturday and hopefully pick up the win. We will be doing everything in our power to do that.”
