By skibum
October 28 2004

The return leg of our first round tie in the European Challenge Cup is nearly upon us, and the thankfully now well-again Phil Davies has announced just 2 team changes from the side that disappointed in the away leg. Jordan Crane makes his full debut in the back row replacing Stuart Hooper who, unluckily, damaged ankle ligaments early in last Saturdays game. Colm Rigney moves into the tight five to take Hooper's place.

The other change is Mark Regan returning to replace Rob Rawlinson at Hooker. The bench looks a little heavy to me with a full front row of Holt, Rawlinson and Cusack, Dunbar, Rees, Dickens and Care.

Last week’s game was a bit of a none event, with both sides equally failing to impress, reports are that the Grenoble side of last week was very much a ‘B’ team, with many players making their first appearance of the season. If Deano brings a stronger side this week the Leeds team will have to improve dramatically to ensure the necessary victory. The French sides, however, do not appear to be taking this competition too seriously, their league structure demands that they cannot afford to take their eyes off the more important competition.

What else can I tell you about Grenoble……………

Not a lot, apart from the people are friendly, the mountain views are spectacular and the bars are plentiful (On the message board we were given a bum steer by Chris the Saint, the Bar Brennus was crap). Every town has a decent Irish bar, Grenoble is no different, we had plenty of Guinness, which made a pleasant change from the lager. We watched the Gloucester game on a big screen in the Bar Gambetta, they made us very welcome, let us drape our flag over the balcony, put up with our singing and even played ‘Swing Low’ a few times on the CD player.

We were pleasantly surprised by the ground, it was an excellent venue to watch and play rugby, although they had no programmes and a strange system of buying vouchers from a garden shed to exchange for beer in a marquee. There was a distinct lack of trays at the bar, so when we ordered 20 lagers we had to carry a table, full of beer, the length of the ground. After the game most of the Leeds fans managed to blag their way in to the official function, and were rewarded with free drinks for the rest of the night.

Apologies that I can’t tell you any more, 2 reasons for that, Alcohol induced short term memory loss and "what goes on tour, stays on tour".

Tykes team for Friday:
15. Tim Stimpson
14. Iain Balshaw
13. Chris Bell
12. Andre Snyman
11. Tom Biggs
10. Gordon Ross
9. Mark McMillan
1. Mike Shelley (c)
2. Mark Regan
3. Gavin Kerr
4. Colm Rigney
5. Scott Morgan
6. Jordan Crane
7. Dan Hyde
8. Alix Popham
16. Matt Holt
17. Rob Rawlinson
18. Jon Dunbar
19. Michael Cussack
20. Alan Dickens
21. David Rees
22. Danny Care