ECC Preview


By Mark H
October 18 2006

The European Challenge Cup - or as it was known last season, our last hope - begins again this weekend with the same format as last year, and a lot of familiar names, with only one club making their European debut.

Pool One - Dragons (seeds), Bristol, Bayonne, Bucuresti

 

For the first time in years, there's a Welsh team in the competition.  The Dragons' loss to Overmach Parma in the Heineken Cup play-off meant the secondary competition for Paul Turner's men, but ironically that may give them their best chance of a route back into the Heineken Cup.  Any squad with the likes of Kevin Morgan, Ceri Sweeney, Aled and Nathan Brew, Ian Gough, Colin Charvis and our old friend Jamie Ringer (boooooo) stands more than a decent chance if they perform.  Looking at Pool 1 as a whole, they should all be lined up for target practice on the M4 if they don't make the quarter-finals.

 

Bristol coach Richard Hill has said that they're targeting this competition this season - it seems to be working for them in the Premiership.  Knocked out by a last day pool stage loss last season, the presence of Bucuresti in the pool should mean a hatful of tries, and as long as they can win one of the matches against the Dragons, they should go through.

 

Bayonne are a club in turmoil at the moment.  After an abysmal start to their Top 14 campaign, they've been trying to play catch up, but still sit bottom with only 12 points from 11 matches.  Despite their quarter-final appearance last season, this time round survival domestically is the aim, and I would guess there may be some weak line ups being fielded away from home.

 

It's lovely to see Bucuresti in the competition again this season, and they had their reward last time around with a victory over Toulon   The games will continue to bring Romanian rugby on, but they will have done an excellent job is they come out with points again.

 

Key clash - Bristol v Dragons, round two - an away win and the Welsh region, having a Romanian double to follow, could be through by Christmas; a home success and the pool winner could come down to try count.

 

Pool winners - Dragons.  Just.

 

Pool Two - Glasgow (seeds), GRAN Parma, Narbonne, Saracens

 

On paper, it's an intriguing pool.  Glasgow, despite their troubles off the pitch with their funding, are getting it right on the pitch.  They're playing their games at one of the most picturesque grounds I've been to - Hughenden - and the pool could hopefully be all set up for a tumultuous decider in round six.

 

Parma's second team, GRAN, will no doubt be looking enviously at their city rivals in the Heineken, and they couldn't really have it much tougher here, as all of the other sides could, on their day, win the pool.  It could be a long tournament for them.

 

Narbonne were the unluckiest side in last year's competition, being denied a quarter final place by virtue of having their game in Viadana abandoned after 41 minutes and this denying them the chance to gain a try bonus point that would have seen them, and not Bayonne, heading for Kingsholm (a rule that has now, incidentally, been fixed).  It's pretty much the same team as last year; Heineken Cup winner Christian Labit is in his last season before retirement, and former Falcon Andrew Springgay is still a mainstay of their lineout.  The wind may blow for 250 days per year there, but it may have to really get up to take them into the quarters this year.

 

Sarries, all things being even, should win this pool.  The Fez have this annoying habit though of going backwards just when you think they've solved their on-pitch problems, and even that 55-23 win over Bath does nothing but make you wonder where such a win came from.  The recent circus around Andy Farrell isn't really helping them (solution - whoever's paying 51% of his wages has the right to say where he plays, and no-one else), and memories are still fresh of a beating up north a few seasons ago.  I think they owe Glasgow some revenge...

 

Key clash - Glasgow v Sarries, round six.  If the Scots need a win to qualify, they'll be selling spaces in the Town House Hotel's upper floors to see it.

 

Pool winners - Saracens

 

Pool Four - Connacht (seeds), Bath, Harlequins, Montpellier

 

Someone at ERC has a wicked side.  If you were to ask me the best eight sides in the competition, three from this pool would be in there.  One of them is guaranteed not to make the knockout stages, possibly two - and it could be any of them.  The one team I don't see featuring in the shake up is Montpellier, but they could cause some damage to the others along the way.  They're yet another side more concerned about league rather than cup, and may struggle badly on the away trips.

 

Connacht, as we know, exited in the last eight last season, and will do very well to get there again, particularly as they play the Premiership sides in their first two games.  That said, they did gain a victory at the Sportsground over Quins three seasons ago, and a better Quins team than the current one at that.  The first round in Galway could be a stepping stone or a stoning to their hopes.

 

Quins and Bath.  You can't separate them.  They should have met in the final three seasons ago, but for Bath's capitulation in Montferrand.  they could well meet in the final this time round (unlikely, yes).  What I do know is that their two pool matches in December hold the key to whether one or both progress, whilst results on their travels will decide how they go through.  At the moment, I think Bath have a slight edge if they can get people fit again, but any more injuries and they could be in peril early, whilst Quins will surely have to find some form sooner or later, otherwise it won't matter what they do in the competition they've won twice already.

 

Key clashes - Any that involve two of Connacht, Quins and Bath.

 

Pool winner - Bath.  Possibly.

 

Pool Five - Clermont Auvergne (seeds), Worcester, Viadana, Albi

 

Another interesting pool, but at least I can only see one winner here.  Clermont are currently second in the Top 14, and have a 46-9 beating of Toulouse and 44-3 hammering of Brive under their belts in the last three weeks.  They missed out on the Heineken Cup spot that went to Castres in the last two minutes of the season, and have gone some way to putting that right this time around; South African fly-half Brock James is the top points scorer in France, whilst inspired captain Aurelien Rougerie is the top try scorer and producer of a drop goal on the run, on an angle, from halfway in that Brive game.  I can see Clermont doing damage, both in this competition and in the French league, where they're one of only five of the current top division sides never to have won the championship in its 114 year existence.  They won this tournament in 1999; it could be time for a repeat.

 

The other French side in the pool are European newcomers Albi, who've had a great start to their first season at the top level.  Six wins so far have seen them to a mid-table position; four more may well keep them up, which to coach Eric Bechu and his men would be like winning the league.  The first five wins came at home, where they're unbeaten in 29 games, and the only away win came in the Tarn derby at Castres on Saturday night, where their pack (and they have an awesome pack) forced a penalty try with just 92 seconds of the game remaining.  This tournament, as much as they'll enjoy the travelling, will not be a priority, but Bechu has said that he can't deny his key players the chance to play foreign opposition, so expect to see some fireworks.  Their first game, at home to Clermont, will be key to their hopes, both as a marker for the pool, and as a way of maintaining that home record, as they entertain the same visitors a fortnight later in the league.

 

Worcester need to get playing and quickly.  The league form has been horrible, but you can be sure that they will want to repeat their trip to the semi-final at least.  Like Falcons, this may well be the best route into the Heineken, and they will be going for it, simply as that is the Worcester way.

 

Viadana picked up only one point in their six pool matches last season, in that abandoned game against Narbonne.  More worryingly for the Italians, in their four completed matches, they conceded a try bonus point in each match.  Whilst that particular record may nor recur, they may be struggling to get even a point from this pool.

 

Key clash - Worcester v Clermont, round five.  If Worcester lose in France, as I expect them to, then they will have to win this to have any realistic hope of progressing.  If Clermont win, they may well be heading for a top two seeding and that home semi-final possibility.

 

Pool winners - Clermont.

 

Pool Three - Falcons (seeds), Brive, Montauban, Petrarca Padova

 

And so to what looked to be a relatively straightforward draw for Falcons, which now resembles something requiring a minesweeper.  Brive were our French opponents last season, and were pretty disappointing, despite getting to the quarter-finals.  Another season of nothingness in the league meant another go here for the 1997 European champions, but their form this season has been poor.  It's only been in the last few weeks that results are slowly starting to turn around, and with fly-half Maxime Petitjean starting to find his range again, losses are slowly turning into wins.  they're still in the bottom two in the Top 14 though.

 

More worryingly for Falcons has been the form of Montauban.  Winning Pro D2 with a big pack last season was not necessarily a guarantee of success this time around, but they have started fantastically.  I'd have said in the summer that their main aim would have been to stay up, but wins over Biarritz, Perpignan (away) and Stade Francais (their first loss after nine successive wins) have lifted them to fifth, with 29 points already.  To put that into perspective, Bayonne stayed up with 43 points in May.  What makes those particular victories all the more remarkable is that they came in consecutive games over a twelve day period.  They will be serious rivals for the top spot.

 

Petrarca Padova, on the other hand, off the most straightforward of starts for Falcons on Friday night.  They finished sixth in the Italian Super 10 last season, and are the lowest ranked of all Italy's European challengers - indeed, they may off the same sort of challenge that L'Aquila did last December, in building up tries to what could prove a crucial countback system.  One thing that can be said for them is that with ex-Sarrie Nicky Little controlling operations, they will have more direction than their counterparts.  Their supporters are truly passionate, and having shared the delights of an England international in Rome with some of them, I would encourage anyone going to Italy in January to get them to sing - preferably their national anthem.

 

As for our lot, it's a second consecutive season in the Our Last Chance Of Silverware Cup.  That defeat against Irish in April still rankles, possibly even more so because I watched the same referee miss the same obstruction in an EDF match (hey, consistency in a referee, what more could we want?).  What hurts most is that we were well beaten, and may never get a better chance of winning a European trophy.  This pool is harder that its equivalent last year, so it's unlikely that a top two seeding can be obtained.  As this could then mean a trip to Clermont, Newport or Watford in a possible semi - all places where we've been hammered before - there's a sense of foreboding that one mistake could mean elimination.  Here's hoping that there are no such mistakes.

 

Key clash - Montauban v Falcons, round three.  Sapiac may be a velodrome, but it's Falcons who will have to get on their bikes to silence the home support early.

 

Pool winner - Falcons, of course.

 

 

So that makes it the Dragons, Sarries, Bath, Clermont and Falcons as my pool winners, and I'd expect to see Bristol, Glasgow and Worcester also getting there as best runners up, making a quarter final draw something like this:-

 

Clermont v Glasgow

Saracens v Worcester

Dragons v Bristol

Falcons v Bath

 

meaning a potential trip to France for a semi-final.  S'alright, it's near my birthday.  Clermont to win the tournament though, or I'll be very shocked.

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