It was a great European weekend for our Aviva Premiership
teams as six of the seven teams (Sale were up against Saracens) won their
games.
Pool One
Sale Sharks 15 – 19 Saracens
In this all English game, it was Sale who started the
brightest thanks to Magnus Lund touching down from a rolling maul.
It was a former Shark who helped get Saracens the lead as
Charlie Hodgson’s terrific brake opened the hosts defence to set up Owen
Farrell to score and then Billy Vunipola extended their lead with a try four
minutes into the second half making it 16 – 10.
The Sharks got back into the game as Andrei Ostrikov ran
through the Sarries defence to score and get the home side within a point.
After Farrell’s drop gave the visitors a four point lead
Sale applied a lot of pressure, but the Saracens defence held firm to clinch
the win.
Scorers
Sale
Sharks
Tries: Lund,
Ostrikov
Conversion:
Cipriani
Penalty:
Cipriani
Saracens
Tries:
Farrell, B. Vunipola
Penalties:
Hodgson, Farrell
Drop Goal:
Farrell
Pool Two
Castres
17 – 32 Wasps
Wasps scored
within five minutes of the match as Tom Varndell chipped the ball over the Castres defence
which was picked up by Rob Miller, who touched down for the first try of the match.
The French
side replied quickly through Mathieu Bonello but the sides weren’t level for long,
as Ashley Johnson and Alapati Leiua set up Nathan Hughes scored in the corner
to regain the visitors lead.
Just before
the break the host’s made things level again as they kept the pressure on their
opponents as Remi Lamerat finished off a rolling maul to score.
Nothing
could spilt these two teams throughout the second half until 70 minutes when
Varndell looked to have scored but Sitiveni Sivivatu’s tackle was deemed too
high and the New Zealand winger was sent to the sin bin and the referee awarded
Wasps a penalty try.
Then, with
six minutes to go and the hosts down to 14 men and tiring, Sailosi Tagicakibau
made sure the English side left France with the win and the bonus point as the Samoan
winger scored the visitors fourth try of the match.
Scorers
Castres
Tries:
Bonello, Lamerat
Conversions:
Kockott (2)
Penalty:
Dumora
Wasps
Tries: Miller,
Hughes, Penalty, Tagicakibau
Conversions:
Goode (3)
Penalties:
Goode (2)
Harlequins
24 – 18 Leinster
Full Match
Report - http://donttouchtheball.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/why-celebrate-christmas-when-weve-got.html
Pool
Three
Leicester
Tigers 25 – 21 Toulon
Leicester
started the better of the two teams with two Owen Williams penalties, then
Toulon got into bigger trouble as Drew Mitchell couldn’t get hold of the ball
which left Tom Youngs to dive on it and pop the ball to Brad Thorn and the veteran
All Black score the first try of the game.
However, a loose Williams
pass was easily picked up by Bryan Habana and the South African winger raced
from the halfway line to get the French side back into the game and with
Nicolas Sanchez adding the conversion both sides went into the break tied.
Nine minutes
into the second half and Mitchell made amends for his first half mistake to
score in the corner and give the visitors the lead.
Then for the
rest for the match Sanchez and Williams were exchanging kicks and with a minute
to go and a point ahead the Tigers fly half scored a 50 metre penalty to give
the home side a famous victory.
Scorers
Leicester
Tigers
Tries: Thorn
Conversion:
Williams
Penalties:
Williams (6)
Toulon
Tries:
Hahana, Mitchell
Conversion:
Sanchez
Penalties: Sanchez
(3)
Pool Four
Montpellier
5 – 30 Bath Rugby
Despite the huge
win in dreadful conditions Bath left France disappointed they didn’t get the
bonus point.
George Ford
got the scoreboard going for the visitors scoring a drop goal after 10 minutes
and the fly half added two penalties to extend the lead.
The first
try of the game came from Henry Thomas crashing over and then the West Country
side took advantage of some poor discipline from the French team as they scored
a penalty try before half time.
The away
side scored their third try within 50 minutes as some great teamwork set up Leroy
Houston to score and give Bath a 30 – 0 lead.
Montpellier
finally got some point on the board as a rolling maul was touched down by
number eight Alex Tulou. Annoyingly the bonus point never came for Bath so they’ll
hope to finish the job finished at The Rec this Friday.
Scorers
Bath Rugby
Tries:
Thomas, Penalty, Houston
Conversions:
Ford (3)
Penalties:
Ford
Drop Goal:
Ford
Montpellier
Tries: Tulou
Pool Five
Treviso
15 – 38 Northampton Saints
An Samu
Manoa and Alex Waller try gave Northampton a comfortable 12 – 3 lead at half
time.
In the
second half, the Saints showed their attacking flair with Ben Foden scoring in
the corner and then straight after the restart a brilliant offload from Tom
Stephenson to Jamie Elliott, who opened the hosts defence to pass to Calum
Clark whose quick hands set up Luther Burrell to score.
The Italians
did get a try of their own with Ludovico Nitoglia touching down, but it was cancelled
out by the referee awarding a penalty try to the Saints.
Then with
eight minutes to go Joe Carlisle intercepted a pass to race to score a second try
for Treviso. However, Northampton had the final say with George Pisi going over
for try number six.
Scorers
Treviso
Tries:
Nitoglia, Carlisle
Conversion:
Carlisle
Penalty:
Carlisle
Northampton Saints
Tries:
Manoa, Waller, Foden, Burrell, Penalty, G. Pisi
Conversions:
Myler (4)
No comments:
Post a Comment