It was a weekend when events in Paris made rugby and most things in life pale into insignificance, and our thought have to be with the whole of France.
Well I took my son to the Leinster match, probably with fairly modest expectations – no Rob Kearney, no Isa, no Ben Te’o, no Like Fitzgerald. I did have a few more realistic expectations about our ability to throw, catch and kick the ball, and have a decent line out. But, it was not to be. Scrum penalizes and free kicks were frequent, the first in the opening two minutes. Line outs? Well, we butchered a good few of those. Kicking and passing? Kick offs fluffed, penalties kicked dead, balls fumbled, passed forward. And this is no red hot Aviva Premiership team either, they’re 8th, and really had very little to do – a bit of defending in the first half, and after that, the safest place for the ball was with Leinster. It’s definitely the easiest game we have in the pool, and we got thumped! I’m readjusting my expectations for the rest of the season. So much work to do, we need some energy and we need it fast! It’s going to take a minor miracle for Leinster to get of this pool now.
Munster made heavy weather of beating Treviso in the first half, then pulled away convincingly in the second. And Ulster’s match was postponed, while Connacht at least got a win.
Leicester Tigers 33 - 20 Stade Français Paris
Saturday, November 14
Oyonnax 0 - 0 Ulster
Racing Metro 0 - 0 Glasgow Warriors
Munster 32 - 7 Benetton Treviso
Saracens 32 - 7 Stade Toulousain
Northampton Saints 15 - 11 Scarlets
Sunday, November 15
Leinster 6 - 33 Wasps
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