London Irish 20 – 9 USAP / Perpignan
Hines and Cusiter had a good start, with Cusiter in particular rescuing Percy Montgomery from a few classic Percy moments under high balls etc, but Irish piled on the pressure as the match wore on, and consequently ran out the winners. Hines kept his discipline, indeed what could easily have been an ill-tempered affair only really spilled over in the dying minutes, and for once big Nathan was far from the action.
Gloucester 3 -16 Munster
Paterson (starting on the wing) had a shocking start, missing two bread-and-butter kicks and one tricky one, which seemed to unsettle him for the rest of the game. Substituted after 55 minutes. You wonder what lies in his future at Kingsholm if he’s no longer considered a kicker, given the presence of Lamb at 10 and plenty of pacier/bigger depth in the back three. It is unlikely that he will have experienced anything like the high pressure of European knockout rugby, in an atmosphere created by such devoted fans as Munster and Gloucester posess, but I hope he will get a chance to do so again, and am sure he will bounce back. Lawson marshalled his forwards as well as he could but made a few poor decisions early on that led to turnovers and could in fact have led to worse. No sign of Strokosch (or Dickinson), and to be honest they could have done with Stroker’s physicality up front, considering the size of the hits even the Munster centres were putting in from start to finish. Dean Ryan will not, one suspects, be too happy.
Saracens 19 -10 Ospreys
No Nikki Walker due to injury, and SuperGordo is absent from the bench for Saracens.
Toulouse 41 – 17 Cardiff
No Scottish interest here either. So I can post this article now, rather than tomorrow. I’ll update it with the scores as and when.
UPDATED:
Scores posted above. Semi Finals will be as follows: London Irish v Toulouse and Saracens vs Munster on the weekend of the 25th April. Not a Scot in site, unless you count uncapped but eligible Sarries prop Nick Lloyd, or Marcus di Rollo makes an appearance for Toulouse in a random display of rashness by Guy Noves. Stranger things have happened.
DOUBLE UPDATED:
As Giorgia pointed out, Mossy is taking a kicking (sorry) on the Gloucester Forum. Interesting, a Worcester fan posting there claims to have heard rumour linking him to the Warriors (Worcester that is) next season. Interesting. I wonder if a lack of pressure – and a better chance of first team games with Shane Drahm heading off to Japan – would suit him more, assuming they escape relegation.
2 responses
Oh dear, poor Paterson. I’m beginning to think the Gloucester move was the right idea at the wrong time – think he really needed to go there some years ago to get established. What a lousy time to have a bad day with the boot, wonder what the odds of him making a first team place at Gloucester are now.
> No sign of Strokosch
Uhm, someone on the Gloucester forum said he’s injured, but I really can’t find anything confirming that anywhere so I really dunno…
*sigh*
(still in deep mourning for Mossy’s Deadly Boot gone AWOL. Also, I feel really bad for him as most Gloucester fans now are blaming him and him only for yesterday’s disaster – failing to realise the other 14 players didn’t play that well, either… Scapegoating, that’s the word. Anyway, I hope beloved Deadly Boot will make a comeback ASAP, really.)