Champions Cup Quarter Final - Clermont vs Northampton

[ratsapprentice]

He'd be much more worth in the 23 than Twelvetrees.

That said: He's playing in France so shouldn't be considered for an England spot, and rightly isn't.

Too right.

 

[Patchey]

Plus he has an awesome name, Abendanon. Him and Auterac should be in the squad for that reason. They sound like characters out of LOTR.

Imagine some slick team try featuring as many awesomely named England players as possible:

'Wigglesworth, to Cipriani, gives a flat pass to Twelvetrees. Twelvetrees breaks the line! Offloads to Auterac, deft pass on to Rokodonguni, will he make it? Draws the last man, little flicked pass to Abendanon, what a score! If the greatest writer of the written word had penned those names, you wouldn't have believed it'

 

[Tony Manx]

Love the way in which Abendanon is being attacked for defensive frailties when he prevented a certain try by completley stiffing a Clermont second rower by lifting him off the ground and then later easily, and with premeditation, stole the ball from Burrell (?) and streaked away for a try when Saints looked likely to score for only the second time in the whole match!!

Not sure whether he would be selected over Brown (never mind if he ir is not better) but shows how silly the non english playing ban is!!!

I also think that Saints prop should be cited and banned for his attack after scoring the try. If he had connected with his fist, North's problems would have faded in comparison and there was certainly intent in that which was missing in North's latest encounter with lala land!! He threw the punch and then used his forearm to the throat and face.........I have regularly posted about the need to stamp out late hits on a try scorer and this was one of those although not one of the most "badly timed" hits but there is no excuse for such brutish response from the Saints player who was smirking when it was apparent he was not even to be penalised!!

Well done Clermont, a superb performance to make sens of modern bish bash rugby and why one should continue to watch what can be a wonderful game when played properly and not at the behest of the negative league coaches!!!!

 

[91jmay]

12trees isn't worth his place no, but few others before both him and Abendanon.

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Love the way in which Abendanon is being attacked for defensive frailties when he prevented a certain try by completley stiffing a Clermont second rower by lifting him off the ground and then later easily, and with premeditation, stole the ball from Burrell (?) and streaked away for a try when Saints looked likely to score for only the second time in the whole match!!

Almost like one game isn't fully representative of a career.

 

[Tony Manx]

Merely an example of what he does....and how silly it is to generalize!!!

 

[Bluemoon]

Didn't get chance to comment on the game yesterday so I'd just thought I'd say, wow, what a performance from Clermont. A champions performance on this occasion against a strong Northampton side. They look like a strong team with a great togetherness. I'd love to see them go the whole way this year.

Fofana is like a different player for Clermont, it's really bizarre. He's a lot happier with the extra space found in club rugby and he seems much more comfortable with a decent set of halfbacks feeding him! For me Fritz Lee made some outstanding carries. I was on the edge of my seat every time he had the ball.

Amazing game of rugby.

 

[FrenchFan]

Hell of a performance from Clermont. How can France be so bad when they have Fofana?

Good question. It's good for the players to go back with their club and actually play which is not something they have been able to do while away on duty for the nation. Fofana said after the game he could barely remember how good it felt and thought he had lost the very feeling of it: passing. Thank god for Clermont, it does come back quickly. In the Toulon Wasps game Bastareaud was reported offloading ... such a rare sight, reports are still unconfirmed.