Berets, Striped Shirts and Strings of Onions

HEC
By Chris Chaplin
October 27 2004

If this still is a stereotype Frenchman to some then an appropriate picture of French rugby should be the hard men of the Biarritz pack and their free flowing talented backs. This weekend they will meet up with another uncompromising set of English opponents but this time in their own backyard.

The match down at The Causeway Stadium last Sunday was a strange affair in many ways as for the first forty minutes it rather seemed that Wasps had decided that this was an encounter that they didn’t really need to win and so at the end of the first half they deservedly went to have their half time orange, which I sure Warren Gatland had been busily cutting into segments and displaying on doilies for his charges, with a deficit on the scoreboard.

After half time it appeared that the French team had decided that if those ‘orrible Englishmen were not going to play properly then neither were they – so there! As a consequence the visitors didn’t really take any further part in proceedings as far as attacking moves were concerned.

However as is so typical of Perfidious Albion the home team had a change of heart over their cups of Earl Grey and looked much more engaged after the break and while not playing at anywhere near their best, and due in no small part to the surreal and erroneous sin binning of Serge Betsen, during who’s absence Worsley took advantage of the extra space to crash over for the match’s only try, Wasps managed, in the end, to win the encounter 25-12 but only with that single try and therefore no bonus point for them or a losing one for Biarritz either.

While it was a damp but quite pleasant Autumn day down at High Wycombe up in the East Midlands it had, 24 hours earlier, been persistently pouring with rain (I’m sure they were building an Ark in the LRI car park) which predictably made it an attritional contest between Tigers and their visitors from Italy; Ghal Calvisano.

Calvisano, like Tigers, did not have all the players that would usually be considered first choice on parade with DiCarli and Griffen sat on the bench although the dread-locked Pasta-Kiwi did make an appearance in the second half.

Somewhat predictably Tigers pack, even sans Chuter, White and Corry, out-muscled their opponents having elected to play the game down in the Calvisano 22 – at least it gave all the damp spectators a chance to see the game either side of the break without the need of chiropractors to correct the cricks in their necks!

In spite of the Italian side’s obdurate defence in the first half I felt that Tigers could have scored a couple of tries had they been more patient when scrummaging or mauling as too often they chose to release the bar of soap masquerading as a rugby ball with ponderous effect only for the attack to falter and die in the awful conditions.

I commend to the forwards and the coaches a viewing of Stade Francais dismantling Gloucester with rolling mauls to see how patience is rewarded, even when the opposition is not already exhausted.

In the second half, with Calvisano worn down by the whole process, Tigers promptly gained the ascendancy and in the end came out the comfortable winners that I suppose was always on the cards.

So a nice warm up for the main event – Biarritz down in the balmy south-west of France.

The French side started last season’s campaign in a similar downbeat fashion as they have this going down 32-6 to Leinster in Ireland before ominously despatching Sale 31-3, when the English team ventured down to Biarritz’s home, the French side scoring four tries in the process, whereas the previous week they had managed just a penalty and a drop goal up at Edgeley Park.

The Biarritz side that faced Wasps showed some changes from that which appeared through pretty much the whole of their HEC campaign in 2003/4 with that front row of Avril, Gonzalez and Balan seeing just one change, Benoit August starting in preference to Gonzalez, who was on the bench. Romanian international Petru Balan is a real threat, the 37 time capped prop having scored 6 tries for his country he is an aggressive scrummager and very active in the loose, invariably to be found where the action is at it’s hottest.

The Biarritz front three are a good unit but I think that they missed the driving and power of David Couzinet last weekend with the influential lock, who started in every one of their HEC matches last season as they made their way to the semi-finals, missing injured.

Couzinet, who gained international recognition this year with a debut cap against the USA Eagles, is rumoured to be fit for Tigers’ visit so I think that we’ll see an even more aggressive performance from Biarritz at the set piece as he links up with nine time capped regular partner Jerome Thion in an all international second row.

The front row battle between White/Rowntree and Balan/Avril will see two established partnerships lock horns and if the Tigers duo can overcome these opponents on their own turf and in front of their own supporters it will stand them in good stead for the rest of the competition.

At hooker, with Chuter the latest recipient of the “Tigers’ Tarriff”, will surely be young James “Cabbage” Buckland, who put in a first class debut first team performance against Calvisano but will have it all to do against either August or more especially the 35 time capped Jean-Michel Gonzalez, my money being on Gonzalez as the one most likely to start with Balan and Denis Avril in a very impressive, proven and settled front row.

I do hope that Cockers makes another cameo appearance, even if it’s just for the last quarter as he looked in fine fettle last weekend with his vintage throwing to Johnno and his pumping legs at the back of the maul really needing to be watched through a sepia filter.

The situation at lock will be similarly competitive with two English World Cup winners facing up to two French internationals, the Biarritz locks are callow by comparison to the Tigers’ pairing who may well gain an edge at the line-out although without Corry at the back options will be less available to Tigers and I hope that route one will be the order of the day.

The competitiveness is no less in the back row where Lewis Moody and Neil Back will face up to Serge Betsen and perhaps the returning Marc Lievremont who while not capped since 1999 has lost none of his aggression and will join with Betsen and Anglophobe Imanol Harinordoquy, who has scored nine tries during his 27 appearances for his country, in a very high class loose trio.

Tigers will have Back and Moody to oppose the all international Biarritz loose forwards who, if Malonga is replaced by Lievremont, will be a very different proposition to that which Wasps kept well in check when the French trio looked off the pace for much of the time, their unit being disrupted by their captain’s absence.

Tigers will undoubtedly miss the ball carrying of Martin Corry and I while I expect that Will Johnson will start at #8 and do all the hard graft in that unassuming way to which we’ve become accustomed, much as does Richard Hill, I wonder if the missing aggression of Corry will tip the scales in favour of the home team and whether Henry Tuilagi will make an appearance sooner rather than later.

Although the contest in the tight five will be close I think that the Tigers may shade it and deny the Biarritz back row the quality of supply that they need so a very marginal advantage to Tigers in the pack.

Against Wasps it was behind the pack that Biarritz looked so hapless with ex Gloucester player, Brive born international Dimitri Yachvilli, looking very uncomfortable as his pack wobbled about and he received close and unwelcome attention from the newly be-whiskered Matt Dawson, who had a superb game. In the end it all became too much for the little Frenchman and he looked down, took aim and stamped on Greening’s head – I’m still waiting for the second phase of disciplinary action to be announced but I won’t hold my breath!

Interestingly Dawson, for the most part, circumnavigated Harinordoquy’s protective and balletic leg to get at Yachvilli and I trust that Harry Ellis has taken a note of Dawson’s technique. I think that Ellis will similarly aggravate Yachvilli and that this will be a good hunting ground for Tigers.

The half back pairing of Yachvilli and Julien Peyrelongue was that which started every HEC match last term to good effect yet the fly half did not show any of the form that saw him win his maiden cap against Italy in last year’s Six Nations. He certainly didn’t welcome the attention of the excellent O’Connor and his service was poor as result with his kicking even worse.

Hopefully Andy Goode’s early departure against Calvisano did not have any worrying significance for I think that in partnership with Ellis the Tigers’ pairing will be able to gain good advantage against the Biarritz duo unless the latter improve by 200% over last week’s performance.

There was often a yawning gap in the Biarritz defence down the 10/12 channel with Argentinian Aramburu likely to give way to compatriot, the excellent Martin Gaitain if he is fit and who has scored a try in each of his eight appearances for his country.

With Daryl Gibson restored this is another area where Tigers could expose the French team with Gibson’s combination of power and subtlety being used in cutting in on the fragile looking Peyrelongue.

New signing and current French centre, Damien Traille just oozes class with the ball in hand or on his boot and he tried hard to get into the game at The Causeway Stadium showing flashes of just how dangerous he can be. He will hopefully be meeting with Tigers’ try machine Seru Rabeni, who must be Boots’ best customer if the amount of strapping he wears is any indicator. Rabeni will need to be technically sound in his defence against the talented French international if there is not to be trouble but if the Fijian powerhouse gets going then I think Traille will have his hands very full indeed.

Out on the flanks, newly capped against Canada in the Summer, will be winger Phillipe Bidabe who again joins with his partner for the majority of last season’s HEC campaign, Jimmy Marlu. Both look to be quick with Marlu more direct than the more sinewy Bidabe. Both the Biarritz wingers have good kicking abilities and on paper the home team are singularly blessed in this department.

With Austin Healey only making a cameo appearance for the first forty minutes against Calvisano and looking thoroughly fed up I wondered if he’s really fit or whether the combination of the monsoon conditions and inactivity just didn’t suit him.

In any event Alex Tuilagi looked to be bristling with aggression when he replaced the Welford Road favourite and I hope that whether Healey or Tuilagi starts in tandem with the ever improving John Holtby that Geordan Murphy starts in the #15 shirt and actually plays at full back where his creativity can be given the full rein which I think will trouble the sometimes statuesque defence of the Biarritz backs.

For Biarritz, and in spite of an awful display against Wasps, it seems pretty certain that the hugely talented Nicolas Brusque will continue his run of starts at full back in the HEC.

The lanky French international looked shaky all round last Sunday as he played to a negative game-plan that saw his tactical kicking fail to achieve its objective instead giving Wasps copious amounts of possession which they ran back to good effect.

Watching a clearly unhappy Brusque it was hard to believe what a potent force he is in attack but one only needs to consider that he scored five tries in last year’s HEC, with braces against first Leinster and then Llanelli in Biarritz’s quarter final victory over the Scarlets, as well as the fact that he has crossed the whitewash at international level on six occasions from his 21 appearances, to appreciate what a threat he is.

This match would be tough at Welford Road but down in France it will be doubly so and while Tigers have had some famous victories in France, can they do it again?

Whether Tigers can disrupt the Biarritz set piece as did Wasps if Gonzalez, Couzinet and Marc Lievremont start must be open to question for this is a fine international pack.

However the Tigers’ pack is also bristling with class and Tigers are currently going rather better than are Biarritz so I think that this will be a very close contest with maybe Tigers just shading it.

The Tigers back division has been revitalised this term in spite of a seemingly endless run of injuries to key players but from last week’s performance I rather think that the Tigers’ half back pairing could get the better of things and in the centre that Gibson and Rabeni may well be able to make the most of some transient defensive frailties to get away over the gain line.

Tight though, very tight indeed, with the result perhaps being decided in the end by the respective boots of Andy Goode and Dimitri Yachvilli.

Let’s be optimistic though – Tigers by five points.