JOE looks ahead to another bumper weekend of European rugby where the Irish provinces will face off against the same opposition for the second time in the space of a week.
The fixtures
Heineken Cup
Bath v Ulster Saturday 1.30pm Live on Sky Sports 1
Ospreys v Munster Saturday 3.30pm Live on Sky Sports 1
Leinster v Clermont Auvergne Saturday 5.45pm Live on Sky Sports 1
The previews
Bath v Ulster
Brian McLaughlin’s side got the win they wanted against Bath last weekend, but it was achieved in a far from impressive fashion. After two early tries, Bath could well have been out of sight, but seemed to be afflicted by the crisis of confidence that has caused their pretty abysmal domestic form.
Ulster don’t seem to be in full flow at the moment, but they’re still grinding out wins, something they are well capable of doing again this weekend ahead of a potentially massive encounter with pool leaders Biarritz at Ravenhill in January.
Ulster had their pack to thank for last weekend’s win, but it would be nice to see more of a contribution from their back division, particularly Ruan Pienaar, who has been pretty quiet after an excellent start to his Ulster career and Ian Humphreys, who was good with the boot last weekend, but ponderous at times in open play, particularly when conceding the intercept try early on.
Last week’s man of the match Stephen Ferris misses out for Ulster
Stephen Ferris is a big loss, but Ulster have history at the Recreation Ground and while a win in the fashion of the 28-10 defeat of the same opposition in January will be hard to repeat, four points should be well within their grasp on Saturday afternoon.
Teams:
Bath: J Cuthbert, M Carraro, O Barkley, S Hape, M Banahan, B James, M Claassens (captain), D Flatman, L Mears, D Wilson, S Hooper, D Grewcock, A Beattie, L Moody, S Taylor.
Replacements: P Dixon, D Barnes, D Bell, I Fernadez Lobbe, B Skirving, M McMillan, S Vesty, N Abendanon
Ulster: Adam D’Arcy; Andrew Trimble, Nevin Spence, Paddy Wallace, Simon Danielli; Ian Humphreys, Ruan Pienaar; Tom Court, Nigel Brady, BJ Botha; Johann Muller (Captain), Dan Tuohy; Pedrie Wannenburg, Willie Faloon, Robbie Diack
Replacements: Andi Kyriacou, Paddy McAllister, Bryan Young, Tim Barker, Chris Henry, Paul Marshall, Ian Whitten, Jamie Smith
Odds: Bath 4/9, Ulster 9/5, Draw 20/1
JOE Prediction: Ulster to claim a narrow win for the second week in a row.
Ospreys v Munster
On Saturday, it will be five years to the day that the Ospreys have lost at the Liberty Stadium in European competition, which gives you an idea of the size of the task facing Munster this weekend. The way the pool has developed so far, however, Munster could come away with a losing bonus point this weekend and still be in control of their destiny in the competition this season.
The furore surrounding Paul O’Connell’s red card on his return to Heineken Cup action last weekend has disguised the fact that McGahan’s side could easily have lost Sunday’s clash at Thomond Park, especially if Ospreys had shown a little more ambition after O’Connell’s departure.
This moment of madness earned Paul O’Connell a four week suspension
Tommy Bowe was the only one of the Welsh side’s star studded backline to cut loose on Sunday and you’d imagine that more of them will perform this weekend. As they showed against London Irish earlier in the season, there’s no better team in Europe than Munster at getting something out of a game, even if it’s only a bonus point and even without O’Connell, they will probably do just that yet again and set themselves up nicely for the two remaining pool games next month.
Teams:
Ospreys: B Davies, N Walker, T Bowe, J Hook, R Fussell, D Biggar, M Phillips, P James, R Hibbard, A Jones, R Jones, A Jones (captain), J Collins, M Holah, J Thomas.
Replacements: M Davies, D Jones, C Mitchell, I Gough, J Tipuric, J Nutbrown, S Parker,
Munster: Paul Warwick, Doug Howlett, Keith Earls, Sam Tuitupou, Johne Murphy, Ronan O’Gara, Tomas O’Leary, Wian du Preez, Damien Varley, Tony Buckley, Donncha O’Callaghan, Mick O’Driscoll, James Coughlan, David Wallace, Denis Leamy (captain) .
Replacements: Mike Sherry, Darragh Hurley, John Hayes, Donnacha Ryan, Alan Quinlan, Peter Stringer, Lifeimi Mafi, Denis Hurley.
Odds: Ospreys 4/9, Munster 17/10, Draw 20/1
JOE Prediction: Munster to come away with a losing bonus point.
Leinster v Clermont Auvergne
What was already the tie of the weekend has been given further spice by Vern Cotter’s quite unnecessary comments about Leinster’s apparent lack of respect for Clermont in France last weekend. This will be the third meeting between the sides this year and it seems as if the familiarity between them – increased by Joe Schmidt’s ties with the French side, is breeding contempt.
If Leinster can perform to the level they did in France on Sunday, they will be well on their way to a victory and who knows, maybe even a try-scoring bonus point along with it. In the absence of the likes of Driscoll, Kearney, Fitzgerald entirely and Heaslip for the majority of the game, the Blues more than held their own against the reigning French champions, with fringe players Eoin O’Malley and Fergus McFadden standing out.
O’Driscoll and Heaslip – providing he passes a late fitness test – are back for the game that’s being dubbed as ‘Fever in the Aviva’ (Why not Feva in the Aviva – surely people would have got the message?), a further boost for Schmidt ahead of a game that could well decide who comes out on top of Pool Two.
Teams:
Leinster: Isa Nacewa; Shane Horgan, Brian O’Driscoll, Gordon D’Arcy, Fergus McFadden; Jonathan Sexton, Eoin Reddan; Cian Healy, Richardt Strauss, Mike Ross; Leo Cullen (Captain), Nathan Hines; Sean O’Brien, Shane Jennings, Jamie Heaslip/Dominic Ryan.
Replacements: Jason Harris-Wright, Heinke van der Merwe, Clint Newland, Devin Toner, Dominic Ryan/Rhys Ruddock, Isaac Boss, Shaun Berne, David Kearney
Clermont Auvergne: A Floch, N Nalaga, A Rougerie [capt], G Williams, J Malzieu, B James, M Parra, T Domingo, T Paulo, D Zirakashvili, J Pierre, T Privat, J Bonnaire, A Lapandry, S Lauaki
Replacements: M Ledesma, L Faure, C Ric, L Jacquet, E Vermeulen, B Baby, K Senio, T Lavea
Odds: Leinster 4/7, Clermont Auvergne 7/5, Draw 20/1
JOE Prediction: Leinster to win and deny Clermont a bonus point.
For more rugby, read Malcolm O’Kelly’s latest column here and listen to Part One of our Weekly Maul podcast here and Part Two here.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
