By smoothhound
December 17 2004

The Heineken Cup may get all the column inches, but there's another competititon out there, and one that interests Sale supporters very much. How did things in the European Challenge Cup pan out for the hopefuls, and what do the prospects look like for the victors in the quater finals?

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Having cast an envious eye at the HC last week, perhaps a glance at the second tier competition may fill in a few moments. The programme for the Narbonne game rounded up the first leg results so now is a good opportunity to review the second legs, and look at the prospects for the later rounds. We have reached the quarter-final stage, and Sale will be playing Sporting Union Agen, with the home leg on Friday 7th January ko 1945, and the return leg in Agen at the Stade Armandie on Saturday 15th January ko 1930.

Sale beat Narbonne by 25-10 on Friday night, their fourth straight win over the Tangerines thus establishing themselves as Narbonne’s bogey team. Following the away win of 15-33, the 18-point lead proved too much of a handicap to both sides. Narbonne never looked like overcoming it, while Sale found the weight too much to perform to their expected standard. Tries were scored by Mayor, Hanley and Chabal, while Bedes finished off some direct running from the French side. Chabal boshed to good effect, both defending and going forward, and Mayor was the pick of the backs.

Agen meanwhile, lost to one of the Italian improvers, Viadana. The Agenais took a stronger side to Italy than that which provided them with an uncomfortably thin 8-point cushion (23-15) at Stade Armandie. Yet Viadana overturned them 22-17, although it didn’t look likely at halftime, when Agen led 17-3 (tries by Elhorga and Mirande) after Italian anxiety to reduce the deficit had led to numerous unforced errors. Viadana showed solidity and experience to breach the Agen defence thrice in the second half (Steyn 2 and Aguero) and stopped any further score against them. Agen’s defence held out in the final minutes and although the Italians won the game, Agen squeezed through with a three point margin. It is difficult to assess whether Agen are actually taking the competition seriously – an article on the ECC site quotes Conrad Stoltz as seeing the competition as “massively important”, yet a mere eight-point advantage after the first leg, and a loss away would seem to indicate otherwise. We shall see!

Grenoble v Beziers seems to have been a tale of two philosophies. The reluctance of some French teams to participate fully in Europe preferring to concentrate in gaining a place in the Top14 for next season has already been discussed in this column, and seems to have extended to Beziers. Any Dean Richards-led side is liable to fight for everything they’re entered for, and the results seem to indicate that these two fit those moulds. Grenoble won both ties 12-27 and then 38-26. It is difficult to find any reference to the ECC on the Beziers site, while the Grenoble site mentions it only as an unexpected opportunity for them. Grenoble will play Connacht in the next round and are a possible semi-final opponent for the winners of Sale-Agen. If Sale win, we must hope for a Connacht victory – sorry, Deano, but trying to arrange a flight to Grenoble in the skiing season will be a nightmare!!

The mention of Connacht brings me to their tie with Montpellier, who were smashed in the first leg at the Sports Ground 56-3. The Connacht train hit the buffers on the shores of the Med in a fractious ill-tempered game, in which there were several fights. Diomande scored from a Benezech break for the home side, while the visitors’ Australian revelation Paul Warwick replied. The Italian Bortolussi’s boot was the difference between the sides as Montpellier extracted hard-fought revenge for the first leg battering. They won 19-14, but the men in green had the last laugh with a 70-22 aggregate.

At the top of the other half of the draw, London Irish welcomed Pau to the Madjewski stadium trailing the visitors by 6 points (25-19) from their first encounter. Conor O’Shea indicated on European Rugby Special that it was a deficit that was “not a huge mountain to climb”, backed at home by the green bewigged ones. A load of blarney Conor, it was an Everest for the Irish as they struggled to contain Pau. Section Paloise played efficiently, with former PSA Glos signing Ludo Mercier steering them home. Irish won 19-16 (one try each, Murphy (for LI) and O’Neill (not for LI)), but a nicely-judged effort took Pau through by three points overall to meet fellow Top16ers Clermont.

Scottish participation in the ECC evaporated as Borders were seen off by Clermont Auvergne (formerly Montferrand). Flattened at the Stade Marcel Michelin by Clermont 44-14, the Borderers were always going to find it an uphill struggle at Netherdale. Borders put in the effort, but their two tries were no match for the Auvergne side’s four, and Clermont ran out 23-34 winners.

Cheeks burning after their 19-18 first leg defeat by Parma, London Sale were looking forward to playing the Italians at Watford on Sunday. One cannot help but think that the embarrassing defeat and Kafer’s remarks that his side (of highly-paid professionals) were unable to play on the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi muddy “cabbage patch” (it was the same for both sides, Tugboat) contributed to his downfall. An eight-try drubbing was duly dished out with former Sale front-rowers Cairns and Yates on the score sheet., with Nicki Little kicking the goals. London Sale won 52-6, a score which Thomas Castaignede in his punditry role admitted should have been administered in the first leg.

And finally Brive racked up the highest aggregate score against Spanish side El Salvador, winning the home leg 57-6 and completing the rout under the beautiful sunshine of Valladolid with seven tries to win the away leg 23-45. Brive are London Sale’s opponent in the QF.

Regrettably a worrying trend has emerged from this second round of the ECC. The Times have run three stories this week alleging gouging by French sides. In the latest, ERC have cited David Attoub the Clermont prop for actions in the first leg following representations from Borders. While the Borders player, No. 8 Mark Blair, was not seriously hurt, the District side felt rightly that gouging should not be ignored and initiated the citing. London Irish apparently protested of recurring gouging by Pau in their second leg home game, even appealing to Scots referee Rob Dickson. And Michael Bradley, Connacht’s manager, alleged both gouging and biting by Montpellier, obviously bitter at the size of the previous week’s defeat. Bradley alleged that the first scrum had punches going in and the Connacht loosehead’s cheek was bitten, and that officials ignored what was obvious. No smoke without fire, and three cases make it seem like a forest blaze that southern France is notorious for. Yet these allegations will fan other fires, of French paranoia with Anglo-Saxon conspiracy, and of Anglo-Saxon stereotyping of the French game

But gouging and biting can never be condoned, and I fervently hope that the perpetrators get their come-uppance. Refs and citing officers must be vigilant with these and similar offences. There is a maximum ban of three years for gouging with a recommended penalty of 12 months, and disciplinary committees should enforce it. It makes me wonder whether it is a symptom of worsening violence in the game, of a time when a half-seen punch or sly stamp is ignored by the game’s officials, labelled handbags by the commentators, applauded by the spectators, but then deemed insufficient by perpetrators in the win-at-all-costs professional world. Are we teetering on the edge of increasing brutality, with the butt, the gouge and the bite becoming the currency of intimidation? Perhaps it is time now to draw the line before the punch, with heavy penalties for any act of violence.

And if the allegations of gouging are not proven, then we will surely sympathise with those who were the alleged perpetrators. Remember Big Pete and the Squeaky accusations? The feeling of impending shame if the appeal decision went unaccountably against us, the pointing fingers from outside, the intrusive, disbelieving e-mails on the message board, the Yes-he-did/No-he-didn’t pantomime. Well, no, he didn’t, and his chief accuser didn’t either – apologise that is. Still rankles. And CE, if you read this, public humiliation once is not enough.

So who’s left, and what are chances like? I hesitate to say it but Sale are seen as favourites by the bookies. Well, third in the ZP and with the closest French team seventh in the Top16, we can’t really avoid that tag. Five French teams are left of whom Clermont is second favourite, although lying 15th in the French table, I can’t think why, with Brive 8th, Pau 11th and Grenoble 12th. Connacht are mired in mid-table, the only Celtic representative left (the Welsh RFU thought themselves much too good to enter one of their provinces into the EEC – results have proved them resoundingly reassuringly wrong!) London Sale are hovering just above the relegation zone in the ZP, at 8th, having to cope with Kafer’s bail out, and a back line which, despite the occasional presence of TC, seems bereft of invention. And SU Agen, lying in wait for us handily placed at 7th in the French league.

Agen is an ancient club in French terms, formed in 1900 with the assistance of two Englishmen and a certain Albert Armandie, after whom the stadium is named. Stade Armandie looks to be an atmospheric venue when full (for a panoramic view see their website), yet surprisingly for a club with the history of Agen, has only about 7,000 seats, although capacity is probably around 10,000 including standing spectators. One of the grandstands is named after possibly their most famous son, Albert Ferrasse, who was President of the FFR. Their internationals include 8 captains of France, the most recently famous of whom are Sella, Benazzi, Dubroca and Berbizier. On their books is perhaps the best winger currently plying his trade in world, the Fijian Rupeni Caucaunibuca, along with other internationals from around the world Conrad Stoltz (S. Africa), Colin Yukes (Canada), Aaron Persico (Italy) and Frenchmen Christian Califano, J J Crenca, Francois Gelez and Pepito Elhorga. Agen therefore have a great history and tradition, and are very difficult to beat at home. Northampton Saints in the HC QF last season managed it, but in doing so ended a 25-game winning streak at the Armandie.

So its nail your colours to the mast time with predictions for the quarters. Have to go with Sale in our fixture, but we’ll have to keep Caucau out, and despite the flight finding difficulty, Deano’s determined Grenoble to surprise Connacht and meet us in the semi. And the other half of the draw to be an all French affair, Pau to overcome Clermont, and Brive to dispose of the London branch’s challenge. I’m not a betting man, but I’ll bet that I’m wrong somewhere. I can hear Sterops tut-tutting now!!!!