There was plenty of action in this weekend's Heineken Cup matches. The Quarter Finals are now set, with the knockout stages starting up in April again.
This time round, we have even more tries than before & we've once again chosen a pick of the best from the top European games that took place.
Munster vs London Wasps - Denis Leamy Stade Francais vs Harlequins - Julian Arias Glasgow vs Saracens - Bernado Stortoni Leicester vs Leinster - Seru Rabeni Biarritz vs Viadana - Zee Ngwenya Treviso vs London Irish - Benjamin De Jager Toulouse vs Edinburgh - Vincent Clerc Gloucester vs Ulster - Akapusi Qera & Tommy Bowe
When it's as windy, rainy and just plain miserable as it was when Munster hosted Wasps at Thomond Park on Saturday afternoon, it's very difficult for star wingers to shine in the wet conditions.
Doug Howlett is different though. Munster's new signing is always looking for work, which has become a trademark of his game. Not only that, he gives his all in everything he does, as seen here by this fantastic chase to flatten young Wasps wing David Doherty as he catches the ball.
Reminds me of Howlett dealing with the pesky Earl Rose last season. This hit was similar in stature, but was most impressive for the way that Howlett chased so hard and timed the tackle perfectly, keeping it legal all the while.
Watch how Doherty actually bounces off Howlett he got hit so solidly. Great stuff Dougie. It just goes to show that if you're a wing who isn't getting any quality ball, or the conditions aren't suited to you, you can still make an impact.
The second of the big incidents in the Leicester vs Leinster game, this high tackle sparked a scuffle that had players running from all over to join.
Andy Goode almost took Brian O'Driscoll's head off with this high clothes line and then followed it up by trying to plant the Irishman's head into the Welford Road turf.
I have no idea what sparked this. Strange for a player to dish out a high tackle and then attack the guy he just nailed.
Goode gets his deserved Yellow Card which causes his team to be down to 13 players temporarily, after the Julian White punch.
Leicester vs Leinster at Wellford Road yesterday turned out to be somewhat of a classic. A game full of incident and good rugby, it was marred by a few moments of insanity that are hard to comprehend.
Big English front rower Julian White clearly lost his head after something must have been done to him deep in the trenches of the front row. He lost his cool completely, throwing a few airshots and then lining up big Malcolm O'Kelly and lauching a right hook that would have knocked most mere mortals to the ground.
The human punch-bag O'kelly barely budged, and White got sent to the bin with nothing more than a yellow card. The citing commission is going to be busy this week.
Saracens met Glasgow in a Round 6 Heineken Cup encounter that was played in howling wind and rain on Friday night in Scotland.
Less than 5 minutes into the game Glasgow Warrior Hefin O'Hare nearly profited when Richard Haughton hesitated on defence, hoping a high kick would go out. But, after racing onto the bouncing ball the former rugby league man O'Hare just put a foot in touch and was rightly called back.
The incident seemed to wake the Saracens speedster Haughton up and when Jackson drilled a low kick into the Glasgow touch-in-goal area, it was this time O'Hare's turn to hesitate, as he waited for the ball to run dead.
Haughton used his express pace to hunt down the ball and the Television Match Official ruled he had dived to touch down millimetres inside the line.
There were some great tries scored in Round 5 of the Heineken Cup this past weekend. We've got a pick of some of the better ones for those of you who didn't have a chance to watch the games or catch the highlights.
Cardiff Blues vs Harlequins - Dafydd Hewitt Leinster vs Toulouse - Luke Fitzgerald & Yves Donguy Saracens vs Biarritz - Rob Penney Ospreys vs Gloucester - Shane Williams, Rory Lawson & Ryan Lamb London Wasps vs Llanelli Scarlets - David Doherty & Dominic Waldouk
In an incident packed Heineken Cup encounter in France yesterday, Munster were narrowly defeated by Clermont Auvergne 26 points to 19, with Munster picking up a late bonus point for being within seven.
Referee Rob Debney was the centre of attention after dishing out three yellow cards to home players, but missing out on this terrible incident.
I've just seen the incident myself, and it looks pretty bad. Jerry Flannery lifted his leg then brought it down on French back-rower Julien Bonnaire's head.
It may well have been accidental, with Flannery attempting to free his leg from the grip of one of the other Clermont players. But, accidental or not, it caused some damage, and if the citing committee sees it as the malicious stamping that some people are calling it, Flannery may well miss the start of Irelands Six Nations Campaign.
Better late than never, we've decided to show you the fantastic Wasps try from a few weeks ago vs Clermont.
Danny Cipriani had an absolute stormer of a first half, showing all the skill, flair, and speed that will no doubt see the young 20 year old reaching higher honours very soon. Jonny Wilkinson will no doubt be looking over his shoulder with Cipriani showing the kind of devastating flyhalf play that could easily see him capturing the number 10 birth for England in the upcoming Six Nations.
Yes, he's young and inexperienced, but it's been a while since we've seen such raw talent at a young age, combined with confidence and the great ability to read a game and know when it's on or it's not.
In the case of this try, it most certainly was on. Cipriani does everything right, and after receiving the ball again, flips it inside to Paul Sackey who finishes off an excellent team try.
Danny Cipriani is definitely one to look out for. Remember that name.
Peter Stringer is officially the shortest international scrumhalf currently playing the game. He's about 4ft2 and probably weighs the same as a 13 year old girl. But despite that, he's a quality player, and has represented Ireland in over 70 tests and has been a stalwart of Munster rugby, notching up over 100 caps.
Amazingly though, in the recent Munster vs Llanelli game, that size 4 boot managed to knock big Argentinian Italian (still not sure how that works to be honest) prop Federico Pucciarello to the floor when this freak accident occurred.
Entering a ruck, I doubt Pucciarello ever thought in his wildest dreams that this would happen.
But, as with the great tackles we see Stringer making time and time again, for a small guy he clearly packs more of a punc... kick than we all thought.
England and Perpignan prop Perry Freshwater has been banned for one month following an outrageous swinging elbow/backhand that left London Irish flanker Kieran Roche with a fractured eye socket and blurred vision.
After a scrum collapsed and the ref had stopped play in order to reset it, Freshwater seemed to be leaning down on someone in the London Irish pack. Roche put his arm around Freshwater in an effort to pull him away seemingly, when out of the blue Freshwater lashed out, catching Roche square in the left eye, sending him to the turf clutching his face in agony.
Whether it was Freshwater's elbow, as reported, or the back of his hand, it certainly caused some damage with fears that surgery may be required on Roche's eye. As you can see by the top picture, the area around his eye certainly is a mess. Roche will be out of rugby for 4 weeks.
Opthalmologists in London have said that they would need the bruising and swelling to subside before determining the extent of the damage to the eye itself.
Neither ref nor touch judge saw the incident (that's their story anyway - not sure how the touch judge could miss it), so on the field a penalty was all that came of it. An independent citing commission has since ruled that "the offence was of mid-range in the level of seriousness". Whatever that means I don't know, but to receive only one month for this is pretty lenient I feel.
Then again, Phil Vickery has only received a two week suspension for trampling on Thibaut Privat's leg, so maybe they're trying to be consistent at least.
When Clermont Auvergne and London Wasps met at High Wycombe on the weekend for their fourth round Heineken Cup fixture, who would of thought we'd see such a classic match filled with high drama and rugby of the highest quality.
Both teams scored some incredible tries, with a first half being dominated by the future England flyhalf supremo, young Danny Cipriani. Expect to see him in the White jersey in the upcoming Six Nations...
For all the domination that Wasps had in the first half, Clermont were equally as dangerous in the second. Classy tries from wingers Aurelien Rougerie and Vilimoni Delasau kept them in the game.
With tight, physical encounters such as this, the tension sometimes gets the better of the players, and a fight broke out when Canadian flanker Jamie Cudmore was cleared out and retaliated by throwing numerous punches on Wasps prop Tim Payne. Cudmore got yellow carded for his part, but the most startling part of the whole incident happened seconds after Cudmore's first punch had been thrown.
James Haskell went in to help teamate Payne, but somehow got involved in a scuffle with Clermont prop Martin Scelzo. This was close to the advertising boards and 62 year old Alan Black, an RFU Official and former Wasps captain, lost the plot and took it upon himself to get involved.
Black struck out at Scelzo with a rolled up match programme, purely out of instinct in seeing what was going on around him. From what I can tell he didn't even connect, actually hitting his own player ironically.
Likeable 'Blackie' as they call him, is the leisure manager at London Wasps, and has since been banned from the touchline for the remainder of the season. He's apologised profusely for his out of hand behaviour, stating he simply lost the plot and got caught up in the moment and has accepted his punishment for an act that, in perspective, was similar to an old lady swatting off a villain with an umbrella.
It's a good thing he wasn't holding a beer bottle at the time.
As requested, here is the sensational Vilimoni Delasau from the weekend's game between Clermont and Wasps.
With literally his first touch of the ball, Sevens star Delasau stepped through the traffic of two defenders, then stepped another defender one on one and put the foot down.
Paul Sackey gave chase and most people would put their money on speedster Sackey catching him, myself included, but the big Fijian with the jet shoes kept going to score the try of the tournament so far.
A cracking match, with World Cup sensation Delasau adding to the quality with the most scintillating of individual tries that will be remembered for a long, long time to come.
Phil Vickery has once again landed himself in hot water, this time, for stamping on an opponents leg. The incident occurred during Wasps' first Heineken Cup meeting with Clermont Auvergne in France when Vickery stepped on lock Thibaut Privat while making his way back to his side of the ruck.
Some will call it careless and possibly accidental, but I personally think he was as accurate as a gymnast on the balance beam and could easily have avoided Privat's leg if he wanted to.
Lawrence Dallaglio did his best to convince the ref otherwise, and despite the touchjudge clearly seeing the incident, Vickery was only penalised on the field with no yellow card being shown.
Foolish actions from English captain Vickery, who now faces a possible suspension of up to six weeks for his retaliation to something that neither the officials or any of us managed to pick up.
Vickery has only played two games for Wasps this season since returning from the World Cup, in which he also got suspended for a silly incident.
Is the World Cup finalist building a dirty reputation for himself, or are they isolated incidents and should be treated as such? As a captain of his country, surely he should be more disciplined though?
Then again, Johnson, Krige, Fitzpatrick - all captains and all known for being guys you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley, let alone at the bottom of a ruck.
But later in the game, the rain began to pour down on 30 freezing players and one sopping referee. The Kiwis will enjoy seeing Mr. Wayne Barnes shivering like that I'm sure.
As the hail got worsh, Barnes decided he'd had enough and tried to convince the players that it was time to leave the field. They clearly weren't interested though funnily enough. Ronan O'Gara made a comment which couldn't be heard unfortunately, but to me it looked like they were having fun out there, well, as much fun as you can have in the middle of a Tsunami anyway.
Ridiculously cold and miserable I'm sure, and I bet a few of our rugby friends from around the world will be able to associate with playing in those conditions. I've seen footage of guys happily playing in snow, with it coming down hard!
But for a top flight game to have to be played in that mess cannot be good for anyone. Play did continue moments later though as the rain eased up a little bit.
Tight passing and thorough ball control were key, as the pitch became a bit of a swimming pool in parts.
In a game that ended up looking more like a tropical monsoon, Munsters Lifeimi Mafi showed tremendous guts, determination, and most importantly immense speed, to chase down and catch Llanelli Scarlet Dwayne Peel.
Lets not forget that Dwayne Peel is regarded as being lightning fast by most. He outstripped Rua Tipoki who is no slouch, and looked to be home for the try.
The effort by Mafi was great to see. Raw pace is a vital component to any rugby players armoury, and in Lifeimi Mafi, Munster have got themselves a gem. He saved the try, but unfortunately got yellow carded by Wayne Barnes for smothering the ball before getting back to his feet. The correct call, and it was a pity to see him go, but saving the try was well worth it and one of the best try saving chases and tackles I've seen in a while.
The Munster fire is alive and well. After a close defeat to the Wasps, they redeemed themselves with a five-try killing spree of Clermont Auvergne.
Veteran full-back Shaun Payne and centre Rua Tipoki both touched down for the second week running, while second half tries from winger Brian Carney, flanker Alan Quinlan and prop Marcus Horan sealed the result.
The focus of this video though is Dennis Leamy's unique way of controlling the ball at the back of the scrum when trying to score a pushover try. Sure, some players often make mistakes when trying to drag it with their feet towards the line, normally kicking it back into the scrum and losing the ball.
But this new method begs the question, is he really contributing the eight man shove? Another thing, is it legal? According to some it's not.
Apparently earlier in the season Anthony Foley did the same thing and was blown up for it. It does have it's merits though, simply because you're in control of the ball at all times, even if you're completely off balance and get pumped as soon as you break away from the scrum.
Luckily for Leamy he had Rua Tipoki to offload to when it happened to him.
The two number tens added spark to this eventful Heineken Cup match played in France between Ulster and Bourgoin.
There's a smashing hit put in by Bourgoin just before Ulster's excellent try.
Ulster recovered from the hit though and Paddy Wallace linked up beautifully with flying Tommy Bowe on the inside who skipped through a few despairing attempted ankle-taps before putting his open-side flanker Kieron Dawson over for the try.
Later in the game Benjamin Boyet made a brilliant break to burst through a gap and then throw a precision long pass to the open man out wide. Excellent vision to see the winger Jean-François Coux awaiting the try-scoring pass. The result - 5 points in the corner for Bourgoin.
Yet another high quality Heineken Cup match. Coming from a devout Super 14 fan, I'm really enjoying the action I've seen so far. European rugby is looking good again.
In case you missed it, here is a big hit by Ugo Monye on Ben Blair in the game between the Harlequins and the Cardiff Blues from Saturday.
Great tackle by the big winger on a flying Blair. Lifts him up and drives him down. Great technique.
The game was exciting, but ended 13-13 in the end. The silence in the crowd explained it all. Highly disappointing to play 80 mins of rugby and come up with a draw as the result.
Tackles like this are great to see though either way, especially when the attacking player is flying. I bet he regrets that little inside step though.
NOTE: We're aware that this video isn't available and are in the process of trying to get it back up. Please bare with us. Thanks.
With Wasps pounding away at the line, Munster come back with a brilliant countershove, driving Paul Sackey back and dislodging the ball.
Substitute front rower Tony Buckley picks up and sets off. Big English lock Simon Shaw has a go at him but Buckley says 'Sorry mate, the bus is full' and delivers a massive hand off that sends Shaw to the turf.
Buckley then has the audacity to fling a great pass out which creates a counter-attacking opportunity for Munster.
Great to see front rowers doing more than just the dog work in the scrums.
Crowd favourite Alesana Tuilagi absolutely smashes Gordon Darcy as he gets a ball-and-all pass from Argentinian star Felipe Contepomi. The powerhouse Samoan wing times the tackle perfectly, hitting Darcy hard and driving him to the floor.
Even more more sensational than that though was a bit of defensive brilliance from big Leinster winger Shane Horgan. After a loose ball is picked up by Irish international Geordan Murphy, Leicester looked sure to score a spectacular break away try. Shane Horgan chased hard though, and miraculously caught Murphy, who most people would have backed to go all the way. Horgan then made another try saving tackle, this time on Tuilagi. He then got into the ruck and helped to win the ball for his team. Brilliant speed and commitment shown by the big guy. I wonder though, was it more Horgan's sheer speed or Murphy's lack of gas?
Alex Tuilagi's tackle was fun to watch, but it was the only moment in the game where he really stood out. Shane Horgan, and indeed the entire Leinster squad, fired the entire 80 minutes in their defensive work. Big and desperate tackles were in abundance and in the end it paid off with them coming out tops.
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