[DavenportSharky]

Stade Toulousain v Sale Sharks
Referee: Sam Grove-White (SCO)
ARs: David Sutherland (SCO) & Ru Campbell (SCO)
TMO: Mike Adamson (SCO)


Odds to win
Toulouse 1-20
Sale Sharks 22-1
Draw 80-1
Not the longest odds as Ulster are 25-1 to win at Bordeaux

[RinTin]

15. Luke James, 14. Tom Roebuck, 13. Rob du Preez ©, 12. Rekeiti Ma’asi-White, 11. Arron Reed, 10. George Ford 9. Gus Warr, 1. Si McIntyre, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. Asher Opoku-Fordjour 4. Ernst van Rhyn, 5. Jonny Hill, 6. Tom Curry, 7. Ben Curry ©, 8. JL du Preez.  

Replacements:  

16. Tadgh McElroy, 17. Ross Harrison, 18. WillGriff John, 19. Hyron Andrews, 20. Ben Bamber, 21. Sam Dugdale, 22. Nye Thomas, 23. Tom O’Flaherty.

Well I guess this is the best we have. No Carpenter or Rodd is very frustrating but injuries happen. Dam.

[DavenportSharky]

https://www.stadetoulousain.fr/match/17 ... omposition

[Lord Elpus]

Hopefully Asher comes through unscathed. If he gets injured no chance of a playoff place.

[Deron Swift]

Ulster gave a very good account of themselves against UBB. Fingers crossed, the lads will give it both barrels with no injuries and a lot of lessons they can put into practice in the Challenge Cup.

[DavenportSharky]

Just hope it’s not embarrassing. 4 in the TV studios who know more about Toulouse than Sale.

[RinTin]

What’s the reason for the delay? Just tuned in.

[DavenportSharky]

For those not watching, there was a pre match parachute display. One of the parachutists has caught his chute on the stand and is dangling in the air. The match is therefore delayed until they get him down!!

[brown bottle]

A parachutist has got his chute caught on the roof.

[DavenportSharky]

Aiming to start 3.30

[exileneal]

Ulster gave a very good account of themselves against UBB. Fingers crossed, the lads will give it both barrels with no injuries and a lot of lessons they can put into practice in the Challenge Cup.

Teams knocked out at this stage don’t end up in the Challenge Cup do they? So if we’re knocked out we’re just done with Europe for the year I thought.

[Deron Swift]

Ulster gave a very good account of themselves against UBB. Fingers crossed, the lads will give it both barrels with no injuries and a lot of lessons they can put into practice in the Challenge Cup.

Teams knocked out at this stage don’t end up in the Challenge Cup do they? So if we’re knocked out we’re just done with Europe for the year I thought.

It happened last season, although it was a pathetic performance against Ospreys that saw them out of Europe completely

[DavenportSharky]

Parachutist rescued by fire brigade.

[45jumper]

Really nice score by James.

[45jumper]

Quite like the mentality of the side. We're noticeably not over celebrating knock-ons etc, trying to stay composed.

[RinTin]

That was perfect counter attack position until ford just kicked it straight out…

[RinTin]

Currently having massive flashbacks to Racing away in 2022 - leading at half time there too.

[DavenportSharky]

10-15 HT and Roebuck robbed by a Cueto millimetre.

[Olyy]

Hell of a first half!

Scrum and maul very impressive

[exileneal]

Ulster gave a very good account of themselves against UBB. Fingers crossed, the lads will give it both barrels with no injuries and a lot of lessons they can put into practice in the Challenge Cup.

Teams knocked out at this stage don’t end up in the Challenge Cup do they? So if we’re knocked out we’re just done with Europe for the year I thought.

It happened last season, although it was a pathetic performance against Ospreys that saw them out of Europe completely

That was as we got knocked out at the group stage last season. Once you are into the knockouts of the Champions Cup there is no demotion to the Challenge Cup.

[Bennett2392]

How bad was Tom Curry injury?

[Olyy]

Some of these calls in the second half are killing me

How bad was Tom Curry injury?

Did something to his wrist early on, got strapped up and played on for another 10 mins or so but then went off
No idea how serious but it wasn't a broken arm/instant sub or anything so hopefully not bad

[RinTin]

Ross Harrison at fault for both the disallowed and allowed try. He obviously hasn’t been working on tackling while he’s been out.

[DavenportSharky]

For the 3rd T try the touch judge gave them an extra 5 metres for the lineout.
Don’t think we were rewarded at the scrum as much as we deserved. Not been humiliated. Some pretty tired legs at the end. Score slightly flatters Toulouse.

[RinTin]

Scoreline definitely flatters Toulouse. Some tough calls on us all the way through imo, although I do think we still would have come up short.

On today’s game I’d be taking Ben Curry on the Lions tour ahead of Jack Willis.

[Olyy]

Proud of that first 50,
Benches told in the end, along with a few momentum shifting ref calls and Toulouse remembering they're Toulouse and playing some fantastic rugby (in places)

Shame the scoreline ended up so lopsided as I don't think it tells the story of the full game

If we had Rodd and Carpenter available, didn't lose Tom after 20, who knows?

There's a lot of positives to take from that game


Thought Reed was excellent - only thing he did wrong was overrun that kick chase and not be able to compete with Capuozzo

[exileneal]

The team has done us proud today. Definitely some confidence to be taken into the rest of the league season that we can take on the best in Europe and compete!

[Evo]

IMO we should be proud of our effort, and slightly frustrated as well. Great first half, didn't get the rub in the second as much as because of the Toulouse bench.....it's defo a 23 man game these days.
Ben C, Hill and Si Mc, and Reed were excellent today. RdP had one to forget today....Hopefully no other injuries other than TC's wrist, rest recover and go done to Quins and do a number on them.

[dinogyro]

Although I hate saying it (because it sounds like letting a loss be okay), some positives to come out of that. Attack went well in the first half and had Ford made some of his kicks, I think things could of been different, or at least closer.

I thought I saw a few forward passes not picked up and generally didn't get the rub of referee decisions, but that wasn't the cause of the loss.

From my selfish point of view, we can concentrate on the Prem now.

[Bucks1861]

https://www.planetrugby.com/news/toulou ... ulon-await

[ledzepsfr]

Just hope it’s not embarrassing. 4 in the TV studios who know more about Toulouse than Sale.

"Just hope it’s not embarrassing"
It wasn't

[ledzepsfr]

Proud of that first 50,
Benches told in the end, along with a few momentum shifting ref calls and Toulouse remembering they're Toulouse and playing some fantastic rugby (in places)

Shame the scoreline ended up so lopsided as I don't think it tells the story of the full game

If we had Rodd and Carpenter available, didn't lose Tom after 20, who knows?

There's a lot of positives to take from that game


Thought Reed was excellent - only thing he did wrong was overrun that kick chase and not be able to compete with Capuozzo


"Benches told in the end"
Although I'm a long time advocate of if you're in the squad you're good enough, the bench killed us.

[FarnhamShark]

Great performance. Agree with the other comments. Toulouse are a class act, but we stayed with them nearly all the way. Their final 2 tries made the score pretty misleading. I'd also be worried about Ben - he was obviously struggling for a while before going off.

[Yareet]

One other downside to this weekend is that the only English clubs still involved in Europe are Bath, Saints and Gloucester. We've already played all three home and away so can't benefit from any distraction they suffer/the extra game they play this weekend.

By comparison, all the teams we are competing with for Top 4 have to play those matches. Sarries and Quins have to play Gloucester. Bristol, Sarries and Gloucester play Saints. Bristol, Tigers and Sarries play Bath.

It may be that playing against Quins and Sarries whilst thinking about Europe does for Gloucester but given the team who are closest to us in the league is Sarries, it would be ... frustrating if they get to play all three games against distracted/weakened oppo.

[SSR]

I have very mixed views about this match. We had the choice ( like Sarries ) to rest players
in order to compete in the league, or to compete against the best in Europe and risk
injury to our front line players. We competed and made a show but got some injuries.
We did not get close enough to think we could have won this competition, so what did we
get out of it ? Not being negative deliberately as I was hoping and wishing for an upset, but
dreading a last 20 fall off.
Now question marks about the Currys at least for the run in. Have we damaged our chances
as top four playoff candidates on a wish and a prayer ?

[RinTin]

I have very mixed views about this match. We had the choice ( like Sarries ) to rest players
in order to compete in the league, or to compete against the best in Europe and risk
injury to our front line players. We competed and made a show but got some injuries.
We did not get close enough to think we could have won this competition, so what did we
get out of it ? Not being negative deliberately as I was hoping and wishing for an upset, but
dreading a last 20 fall off.
Now question marks about the Currys at least for the run in. Have we damaged our chances
as top four playoff candidates on a wish and a prayer ?

I do not believe we can go into big matches resting players because they may get injured. We were right to play our best possible side here. We almost did it which will, imo, boost the frontline guys going into the final part of the season.

What if we had won the game but had injuries? That would arguably impact the prem more despite the overwhelming positive. What if we went full bore (Raff, DDP, Bevan and Carps back) yesterday and got thumped, but had no injuries at all?

There's so many different scenarios here. As it is we went, we almost conquered, we return. 4 first choice lads will be back shortly and I'm hoping that performance has given the lads a boost.

[SSR]

Whilst I agree with the general principle of trying to win a competition if we are in it,
but the league structure does not help that end.
Which were we most likely to achieve, a top four Prem finish or getting to a European
cup final? We simply do not have the squad depth to do both, I believe, at present.
We are looking at pretty much 5 must win games ahead and could hopefully achieve a
home semi in the play offs to get a chance at another Prem trophy.
If we had time to recover between European comps and Prem matches, then obviously
most fans would want to give it a good go. Are we really expecting our injured players to
be fit and match ready in time to achieve a pretty hard challenge ?
I am sure the players want to play and win, but they are not superhuman.
We are not the same as all other clubs in our league, a lot have much larger/stronger
squads .
We have to pick our battles to fight, that is a management decision.

[RinTin]

Whilst I agree with the general principle of trying to win a competition if we are in it,
but the league structure does not help that end.
Which were we most likely to achieve, a top four Prem finish or getting to a European
cup final? We simply do not have the squad depth to do both, I believe, at present.
We are looking at pretty much 5 must win games ahead and could hopefully achieve a
home semi in the play offs to get a chance at another Prem trophy.
If we had time to recover between European comps and Prem matches, then obviously
most fans would want to give it a good go. Are we really expecting our injured players to
be fit and match ready in time to achieve a pretty hard challenge ?
I am sure the players want to play and win, but they are not superhuman.
We are not the same as all other clubs in our league, a lot have much larger/stronger
squads .
We have to pick our battles to fight, that is a management decision.

There's additional revenue generated by getting through to latter rounds of the cup, as well as the prestige it can bring the club. The mental boost of getting through would have been huge as well.

Overall I would have been disappointed if we didn't field our strongest possible team. It makes a mockery of the competition not to do so. I note Pau and The Sharks fielded second/ third choice teams in the challenge cup and were duly dispatched. I felt embarrassed for them. I understand this may be more personal preference than what they absolutely should do.

A lot of our players from yesterday had played maybe 2 matches in the last 6 weeks, a lot have only played 1. The premiership is structured well for these knockout games as I see it, with us now having a week off before a 5 match stretch.

6 weeks off, 2 matches, 12 days off then 5 matches in 5 weeks does not sound unreasonable. Curry's and LCD are the only exceptions.

[Yareet]

Whilst I agree with the general principle of trying to win a competition if we are in it,
but the league structure does not help that end.
Which were we most likely to achieve, a top four Prem finish or getting to a European
cup final? We simply do not have the squad depth to do both, I believe, at present.
We are looking at pretty much 5 must win games ahead and could hopefully achieve a
home semi in the play offs to get a chance at another Prem trophy.
If we had time to recover between European comps and Prem matches, then obviously
most fans would want to give it a good go. Are we really expecting our injured players to
be fit and match ready in time to achieve a pretty hard challenge ?
I am sure the players want to play and win, but they are not superhuman.
We are not the same as all other clubs in our league, a lot have much larger/stronger
squads .
We have to pick our battles to fight, that is a management decision.

I'm not sure that many do. Some may have larger squads but I think ours is pretty strong.

With the exception of Bath, I'm not sure I can think of many teams that have a markedly stronger squad than ours.

[Beardedshark]

The other leagues have a much larger salary cap (T14 twice as high) and consequently larger stronger squads. Very difficult for Prem teams to compete in Europe

[Deron Swift]

The other leagues have a much larger salary cap (T14 twice as high) and consequently larger stronger squads. Very difficult for Prem teams to compete in Europe

On the other hand, there's no reason why the English teams should not be dominating the Challenge Cup. Many less successful URC teams and Top 14 clubs play in it with varying commitment.

[Olyy]

English clubs in the 7 of the last 10 finals is a decent return tbf - especially when you look at the winners (Toulon, Clermont, Sharks)

[Deron Swift]

Appropriate article from the BBC today

"There is a 'gulf in quality' between Premiership clubs and Europe's elite that may only be solved by boosted salary caps or a changed season format, former England internationals have suggested."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/a ... 82yjz0g2ko

[RinTin]

To link to another issue - keeping the best English players in England is key to competing at the top level of Europe. We don't have the cap to bring in lots of foreign big names, so need to rely on our home grown lads. This supports the current position on only picking guys playing in England.

[Olyy]

I do find it interesting that it's only the Premiership that spawns all these think pieces and frothing-at-the-mouth (and relentlessly piss taking) fans
The last time a non-Leinster URC made the champions cup semis was 2019, since then there have been 4 different Prem sides with two different Prem sides winning it since the last time a URC side did

Pretty decent record IMO, especially considering it's the French clubs that are dominating Europe atm and they're the ones with the money and the galactico sides (plus the Sharks winning the Challenge cup last year, and they're basically the Springboks minus a few)

[ledzepsfr]

To link to another issue - keeping the best English players in England is key to competing at the top level of Europe. We don't have the cap to bring in lots of foreign big names, so need to rely on our home grown lads. This supports the current position on only picking guys playing in England.

I don't have an issue with the cap, if only to keep the prem sides on level ground. But I do think that England qualified players should be selected to represent England wherever their day job is. But that's another thread.

[RinTin]

To link to another issue - keeping the best English players in England is key to competing at the top level of Europe. We don't have the cap to bring in lots of foreign big names, so need to rely on our home grown lads. This supports the current position on only picking guys playing in England.

I don't have an issue with the cap, if only to keep the prem sides on level ground. But I do think that England qualified players should be selected to represent England wherever their day job is. But that's another thread.

My point directly links to the Prem sides being able to compete in Europe.