Sunday saw the end of Round 2 of games in the 2011/12 Heineken Cup. Reigning champions Leinster, fresh from a close thing in the South of France last week, hosted Glasgow, who had mugged Bath in stoppage time. Later, the two sides who felt aggrieved last weekend, would meet at the Rec in Bath, more of that to come.
So Leinster kicked off early in Dublin and Glasgow's side, like their touring fans, must have wished they'd stayed in bed. Hangovers accompany any European weekend in Dublin's fair city, be the game at the RDS or Lansdowne Road (note lack of sponsor name used). Leinster clearly had no cobwebs, and Nacewa very much to the fore, they ran in 4 unanswered tries after Duncan Weir had briefly given Glasgow the lead. This was Leinster at their best, forwards and backs combining seamlessly, O'Driscoll missing, but not missed, as a new kid on the block, O'Malley, stepped into the breach with 2 tries, slightly outperforming his more illustrious partner D'Arcy who managed the 4th synonymous with the bonus point.
Shellshocked, Glasgow shored up their perforated defence in the second half, and indeed managed a try to pull things back to 31-13 with just over ten minutes to go. Alas, that was as good as it got, and with yet another last second play (what is it with injury time scores this year?) a 5th Leinster try meant a 25 point margin (38-13), a bonus point win for Leinster and a marker laid down for everyone else in the competition. Heaslip won moustache of the match, sorry man of the match.
Rounding off the weekend, in a slightly misty South West, Bath were the hosts of the runners-up in the Top 14 last year, Montpellier. World cup stars were very much to the fore during the build-up, with Stephen Donald making his first start against his fellow replacement world cup final fly half, Francois Trinh-Duc. Both sides were looking to make up for disappointment in the first round of games, and it was Bath who got off to the better start.
Donald's move to the blind side, vision and stunning long pass setting up an early try, before his interception, 70 yard burst and clever offload allowed Bath to recycle, draw a penalty for slowing the ball down and then spread the ball wide where Flatman, in true prop forward style, was unstoppable from 1 yard. To be fair, he took a bad pass well and fleet-footedly dived over.... Trinh-Duc was yellow carded having been the man fingered by Mr Rolland for slowing down the ball under the posts.
Bath led 13-3 at this point, and looked like running away with the game, particularly as Montpellier had been reduced to 14 men. However, a second penalty would get them back to within a score, but another kickable chance went slightly left, meaning the half closed with a score of 13-3. An early Bath score should have settled nerves, and Donald hauled himself to his feet and slotted 3 more points despite a hand injury. Gorgodze had clearly had his half-time brew spiked with caffeine pills though, and his supercharged second half performance, allied with Trinh-Duc's accurate kicking, gradually brought Montpellier into the ascendancy. Indeed, they scored their first try when with half an hour to go, Bustos Moyano benefitted from a knock on and a forward pass to romp in in the corner, and add the conversion too, to make it 16-10.
Montpellier reached their first French final last year, having made a speciality of winning close games (Castres by 1 in the Quarter FInal, Racing Metro by 1 in the semi final which I attended in Marseille). They are clearly not side whose feathers ruffle easily, and Moyano slotted another penalty with 10 minutes to go, to bring back thoughts of last week once more. As Bath rang the changes, the Montpellier pack took the upper hand, pushing Bath off the ball with remarkable consistency. They pressed and pressed, but Bath's defence was up to the challenge time and again, and when Gorgodze let the ball slip in front of the Bath posts, as Montpellier sought the drop goal chance for Trinh-Duc, which would have given them the record of P2, D2 in Heineken Cup rugby, the game was up and Bath cleared their lines to a collective sigh of relief amongst West country folk.
So that was that. 24 games gone and I don't think even the staunchest fan of Rugby Union could have expected the thrills and spills we have seen so far. Favourites in freefall, very much unsung sides performing beyond expectations, last minute thrills and spills, ridiculous scenarios (overcoming a 24 point deficit in the last 17 minutes, 41 phases and an 84th minute drop goal, blocked drop goal turned into a try). Next up is the double header in December.... put a ring around the date on your advent calendar folks.
Country Table
1st Wales - 91.7% (5-1-0)
2nd Scotland - 75% (3-0-1)
3rd Ireland - 56.3% (4-1-3)
4th England - 42.9% (6-0-8)
5th France - 37.5% (4-1-7)
6th Italy - 12.5% (0-1-3)
The Welsh continue to ride the crest of the confidence wave, and the two Scottish sides, while living on the edge, have only lost one game, and that away to the reigning champions. The Irish too have been sitting a little close to the fire, but in Munster and Leinster have two sides capable of going all the way. The English and French, with the odd exception (Toulouse and Harlequins spring to mind) have disappointed, and the Italians are progressing, certainly at home, and have picked up a draw from their 4 games. The double header will certainly be interesting....
Stat Attack
Those who know me will know I love the statistics, so this section will come as no surprise. Just a few of the crazy numbers that have come out of the Pools so far:
15 - the number of games (out of 24) that have finished within 1 score. That shows the intensity of the battles so far this year, and is incredibly high versus previous years.
10 - the number of games that have finished after the last points were scored. Again, a ridiculously high proportion, showing the value of the losing bonus point system, making sides play till the end.
95 - points scored at Murrayfield in the highest scoring game. Normally a game with 95 points is one-sided, this as far as I can tell, is the highest scoring senior game with a single point margin (let me know if this is wrong)
0 - number of points scored in the first half between Biarritz and Saracens, but this belies the battle and interest in the first half
2 - Ronan O'Gara drop goals to win games in stoppage time. I'll be very surprised if this increases as the tournament goes on...
12 - the number of games I've correctly predicted. Out of 24, this is pitiful but can only get better.
19 - the number of Amlin games I've predicted correctly (Agen let me down in the 20th game)
Well as ever, let me know your thoughts. People do by e-mail at marktheeggchaser@googlemail.com or on twitter @theeggchaser, but I'd love to see comments here.
Speak next week when I may have something different for you (that's called a teaser)
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