Champions Cup - Pool 3, Round 4 (Leicester, Toulon, Scarlets, Ulster)

[Big Ewis]

you give me one side of history, I'll give you another. 2013 was an all Top 14 final, and those were the two best sides in Europe by a mile, examples are everywhere. This isn't going anywhere and is in a strange spirit "French teams can't handle the best" ? ; the most ***led team is Toulouse but I'm not exactly a my dad's bigger than yours kind of person...

All I'm concerned with is we have a healthy pool of players and our league is truly competitive with entertaining play over the matches, which it is. We're probably the deepest nation in the world, along with England, and certain regions breathe Rugby. Big bucks have their downside, but inserting so many foreigners into our league has only upped the general level. Apart from a handful of useless mercenaries (which are on the way back home, God bless) the guys bring what they do best: Hosea Gear was a beast on the wing, Fijian wingers are owning it along with the David Smiths of the world, the Saffer forwards are carrying their respective teams and giving 100% as they would anywhere...our guys get to play with that and now that Toulon's hegemony is obvious and complete, they are the team to beat. Nobody wants to be second best and the standards are now that much higher.
And say what you want about Toulon's big names, whoever you are, what they showed yesterday was hunger, high intensity and superb team play. That takes coaches and an intelligent top man to achieve. If a big team fails, we call them chokers. If they win, we say they've got the big bucks and hate them
The passion in Mayol and the entire Var region for Toulon has always been the same, but Boudjellal just had the right idea at the right time.

Our league is competitive from no.1 all the way down to no.14. Relegation is Hell for teams, they lose all their players, tons of money and find themselves in Pro D2 which is as tough as Top 14 (for different reasons) say lots of interviewed players. Some say it's even tougher. We see superb tries scored week in week out, and whether the game has become more physicality-oriented, and players don't possess the skill they once did (especially in this country) is due to the new world order in this sport, the global reform it has been subjected to. It's the same everywhere (except Oceanian Rugby), and I don't see a Rémy Lamerat, a Wes Fofana, Huget, Dulin (okay, Mike Brown..), Sofiane Guitoune, Marvin O'Connor, Andreu, Teddy Thomas, Alex Dumoulin, Trinh-Duc, etc...etc....etc.....in those other leagues, and I don't see a league where bottom can beat top on the regular, and I don't see a Clermont or Toulon anywhere else atm. We don't play the 10-man Rugby I see elsewhere in Europe, btw. And I'm going easy here. So let's just keep our pants on, enjoy our respective leagues and everything should be alright.

 

[Tony Manx]

you give me one side of history, I'll give you another. 2013 was an all Top 14 final, and those were the two best sides in Europe by a mile, examples are everywhere. This isn't going anywhere and is in a strange spirit "French teams can't handle the best" ? ; the most ***led team is Toulouse but I'm not exactly a my dad's bigger than yours kind of person...

All I'm concerned with is we have a healthy pool of players and our league is truly competitive with entertaining play over the matches, which it is. We're probably the deepest nation in the world, along with England, and certain regions breathe Rugby. Big bucks have their downside, but inserting so many foreigners into our league has only upped the general level. Apart from a handful of useless mercenaries (which are on the way back home, God bless) the guys bring what they do best: Hosea Gear was a beast on the wing, Fijian wingers are owning it along with the David Smiths of the world, the Saffer forwards are carrying their respective teams and giving 100% as they would anywhere...our guys get to play with that and now that Toulon's hegemony is obvious and complete, they are the team to beat. Nobody wants to be second best and the standards are now that much higher.
And say what you want about Toulon's big names, whoever you are, what they showed yesterday was hunger, high intensity and superb team play. That takes coaches and an intelligent top man to achieve. If a big team fails, we call them chokers. If they win, we say they've got the big bucks and hate them
The passion in Mayol and the entire Var region for Toulon has always been the same, but Boudjellal just had the right idea at the right time.

Our league is competitive from no.1 all the way down to no.14. Relegation is Hell for teams, they lose all their players, tons of money and find themselves in Pro D2 which is as tough as Top 14 (for different reasons) say lots of interviewed players. Some say it's even tougher. We see superb tries scored week in week out, and whether the game has become more physicality-oriented, and players don't possess the skill they once did (especially in this country) is due to the new world order in this sport, the global reform it has been subjected to. It's the same everywhere (except Oceanian Rugby), and I don't see a Rémy Lamerat, a Wes Fofana, Huget, Dulin (okay, Mike Brown..), Sofiane Guitoune, Marvin O'Connor, Andreu, Teddy Thomas, Alex Dumoulin, Trinh-Duc, etc...etc....etc.....in those other leagues, and I don't see a league where bottom can beat top on the regular, and I don't see a Clermont or Toulon anywhere else atm. We don't play the 10-man Rugby I see elsewhere in Europe, btw. And I'm going easy here. So let's just keep our pants on, enjoy our respective leagues and everything should be alright.

Not bad for a loquacious, French insomniac..............could not have put it better myself............even had I wanted to!!!!!!

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

you give me one side of history, I'll give you another. 2013 was an all Top 14 final, and those were the two best sides in Europe by a mile, examples are everywhere. This isn't going anywhere and is in a strange spirit "French teams can't handle the best" ? ; the most ***led team is Toulouse but I'm not exactly a my dad's bigger than yours kind of person...

All I'm concerned with is we have a healthy pool of players and our league is truly competitive with entertaining play over the matches, which it is. We're probably the deepest nation in the world, along with England, and certain regions breathe Rugby. Big bucks have their downside, but inserting so many foreigners into our league has only upped the general level. Apart from a handful of useless mercenaries (which are on the way back home, God bless) the guys bring what they do best: Hosea Gear was a beast on the wing, Fijian wingers are owning it along with the David Smiths of the world, the Saffer forwards are carrying their respective teams and giving 100% as they would anywhere...our guys get to play with that and now that Toulon's hegemony is obvious and complete, they are the team to beat. Nobody wants to be second best and the standards are now that much higher.
And say what you want about Toulon's big names, whoever you are, what they showed yesterday was hunger, high intensity and superb team play. That takes coaches and an intelligent top man to achieve. If a big team fails, we call them chokers. If they win, we say they've got the big bucks and hate them
The passion in Mayol and the entire Var region for Toulon has always been the same, but Boudjellal just had the right idea at the right time.

Our league is competitive from no.1 all the way down to no.14. Relegation is Hell for teams, they lose all their players, tons of money and find themselves in Pro D2 which is as tough as Top 14 (for different reasons) say lots of interviewed players. Some say it's even tougher. We see superb tries scored week in week out, and whether the game has become more physicality-oriented, and players don't possess the skill they once did (especially in this country) is due to the new world order in this sport, the global reform it has been subjected to. It's the same everywhere (except Oceanian Rugby), and I don't see a Rémy Lamerat, a Wes Fofana, Huget, Dulin (okay, Mike Brown..), Sofiane Guitoune, Marvin O'Connor, Andreu, Teddy Thomas, Alex Dumoulin, Trinh-Duc, etc...etc....etc.....in those other leagues, and I don't see a league where bottom can beat top on the regular, and I don't see a Clermont or Toulon anywhere else atm. We don't play the 10-man Rugby I see elsewhere in Europe, btw. And I'm going easy here. So let's just keep our pants on, enjoy our respective leagues and everything should be alright.

And 2012 was All Irish... It's a forever changing landscape, the Top 14 are in the ascendency at the moment but that could all change if Northampton win in Europe this year and every league has their stand out players that other leagues don't the AP boast the likes of George North, Chris Robshaw, Nick Evans, James Haskell, the invincible berry, Danny Care, Mike Brown and a whole league of 15s who'd do a great job internationally, Dan Cole, Corbisiero, Manu Tuilagi etc... The Pro 12 then has the likes of O'Connell, O'Mahoney, Stander, Murray, Heaslip, Healy, O'Brien, Madigan, Kearney, Liam Williams, Biggar, Wyn Jones, Bowe, Pienaar, Olding, Jackson, Maitland, Denton etc... so that point is pretty redundant. My point simply was that the whole "My league is better than yours" argument is BS and the way the French on these boards love to start these arguments or, in this case, flock to it as soon as the chance arises shows a serious case of small willy syndrome.

Every league is competitive right now, the Top 14 in the same way it's always been but that's helped by the fact that teams care little for some of their away matches, and then in both the AP and Pro 12 teams that were the best in the last few seasons are struggling, Quins, Leicester and Leinster while other sides are showing huge improvements like Connacht and Exeter but these leagues still struggle with useless teams at the bottom, although if Europe is anything to go by Castres would struggle with the likes of Treviso. Each league has it's strengths and weaknesses, none can claim to be a "better" league than the others, Top 14 could claim to have the best teams but Northampton would want their say in that because since their round 1 blip they've looked unplayable and even if they do have the best teams it won't last. Leinster get Johnny Sexton back next year, some young players with experience of this year and most likely a new coach and they're dangerous again all of a sudden, Munster could get a matured JJ Hanrahan and a fit Keith Earls and they have a dangerous backline to go along with their very good pack, Leicester have less trouble with injuries and they're contenders again. I'm not in the business of a dick swing contest here but to say the Top 14 is the best league in Europe or the AP is or the Pro 12 is...

 

[Big Ewis]

My point simply was that the whole "My league is better than yours" argument is BS and the way the French on these boards love to start these arguments or, in this case, flock to it as soon as the chance arises shows a serious case of small willy syndrome.

mmm see that's just wrong. I certainly never swing my dick, Tony is always fair, gaston is a converted Frenchman so he's obviously over-zealous but always accurate with his posts nonetheless, and the other guys who come here don't flaunt it around...FrenchFan is without reserve and fans here in France never talk about how much "better" the Top 14 is or how it's the best league in the world or anything, so you see you're just plain wrong and you don't know it but there's prejudice (complex, maybe ??) in the back of your mind dictating your thoughts because there's certainly not nearly as much to it as you imply; and seeing how everybody was talking crap about Toulon here (even an English poster literally spelling out Clancy receiving money from Toulon :lol: ) all by themselves I do think the small willy syndrome symptoms were on the other side in this particular thread. Nobody supporting TLN were getting excited, and only ppl against TLN were throwing in venom.
And I only reacted up there because I am the regular French poster here and this BS about other leagues being better and all that was funny and I had to make a few things clear.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

mmm see that's just wrong. I certainly never swing my dick, Tony is always fair, gaston is a converted Frenchman so he's obviously over-zealous but always accurate with his posts nonetheless, and the other guys who come here don't flaunt it around...FrenchFan is without reserve and fans here in France never talk about how much "better" the Top 14 is or how it's the best league in the world or anything, so you see you're just plain wrong and you don't know it but there's prejudice (complex, maybe ??) in the back of your mind dictating your thoughts because there's certainly not nearly as much to it as you imply;

That's all subjective really and I'm not getting into judging posters but my reasoning is due to the fact that whenever there is the smallest slight against the Top 14 on these boards it's met with a barrage of French posters attacking whomever was unlucky enough to make the post with irrelevant ramblings and a lot of attacks on English culture usually. Honestly I'm pretty fed up of it because it clogs the boards up with pointless, non-constructive rubbish and that's where the prejudice comes from, I find many an interesting topic ruined by these arguments. Maybe it's a difference in culture but if the same thing was happening every time someone criticised a club it would definitely point towards a syndrome of some sort to me.

and seeing how everybody was talking crap about Toulon here (even an English poster literally spelling out Clancy receiving money from Toulon :lol: ) all by themselves I do think the small willy syndrome symptoms were on the other side in this particular thread. Nobody supporting TLN were getting excited, and only ppl against TLN were throwing in venom.
And I only reacted up there because I am the regular French poster here and this BS about other leagues being better and all that was funny and I had to make a few things clear.

I agree with all of this but my focus was on the recent history of this forum! Toulon will get hate because of their success, it's pretty natural that every neutral will want them to lose, the exact same happened with Leinster a few years ago, go to the 2012 HEC 1/2 final thread to it in reverse.

 

[Big Ewis]

OK.

- - - Updated - - -

you'll make a great lawyer btw

 

[FrenchFan]

a barrage of 2 posters oh man :huh:.... it's a SIEGE :lol:

we are surrounding them Big E, they should abandon all Hopes

where is the cavalary?...........

 

[Big Ewis]

a barrage of 2 posters oh man :huh:.... it's a SIEGE :lol:

we are surrounding them Big E, they should abandon all Hopes

where is the cavalary?...........

drop it, there's no debate here the BS (about Top 14, Toulon..) was answered and that's that, moving on.

 

[FrenchFan]

drop it, there's no debate here the BS (about Top 14, Toulon..) was answered and that's that, moving on.

Oui mon chéri... I like when u talk to me like that..

 

[Big Ewis]

Oui mon chéri... I like when u talk to me like that..

:lol: stop it stop it, they'll say we've sabotaged or hijacked the thread with our arrogance or wtvr, caused world war 3 because we disagree that other European leagues are any better than Top 14. Or something like that...can't really remember what the actual discussion was.

 

[ruggabee]

Let's go Ulster! I'm keen to see how Marshall gets on. I like that he's capable of mixing his game between a bosher and a 2nd five-eighth.
Don't know much about Clive Ross.

 

[Every Time Ref]

Let's go Ulster! I'm keen to see how Marshall gets on. I like that he's capable of mixing his game between a bosher and a 2nd five-eighth.

Exactly what I think - a nice hybrid of the two types of twelve, gives you options to vary your game. Where was he over the autumn, I would've expected to see him involved with Ireland, no? Has he been injured?

Two co0nsecutive very good kicks from Priestland. I don't like him much as a player but I'm rooting for him after the poor guy got booed at the Millennium. Classy from those fans.

EDIT: If we're talking twelves, classy break from Williams, and well-timed pass. Shame about the next pass ...

 

[ruggabee]

Exactly what I think - a nice hybrid of the two types of twelve, gives you options to vary your game. Where was he over the autumn, I would've expected to see him involved with Ireland, no? Has he been injured?

Two co0nsecutive very good kicks from Priestland. I don't like him much as a player but I'm rooting for him after the poor guy got booed at the Millennium. Classy from those fans.

He was injured. Been injured for quite a while. This is his first game back I believe.

 

[Every Time Ref]

He was injured. Been injured for quite a while. This is his first game back I believe.

I see. Maybe shouldn't expect too much then

 

[FrenchFan]

:lol: stop it stop it, they'll say we've sabotaged or hijacked the thread with our arrogance or wtvr, caused world war 3 because we disagree that other European leagues are any better than Top 14. Or something like that...can't really remember what the actual discussion was.

ya know I'll drop everything 4 ya big eejit

 

[ruggabee]

Ulster discipline has been atrocious. Ridiculously easy penalties to be giving away.

Very boring half. Felt like nothing happened but kicks and mistakes.

 

[Every Time Ref]

I didn't actually switch off but kind of mentally. It was horribly dull. Scarlets' pack / Priestland / to some degree Williams looking pretty effective, little else to mention really.

 

[UlsterRugby2012]

Missed the first half, but by the looks of things I'm glad I did. What a **** performance, we should be putting this team away.

Although as I type that Cave has just scored.

 

[Every Time Ref]

Hello, that should liven things up a bit though, fingers crossed...

 

[ruggabee]

Yeap nice linkage from Marshall to Cave. Let's keep this up please.