England Expects

HEC S/F
By Chris Chaplin
April 21 2005

As the sole remaining participant outside of France Tigers carry the hopes of the Nation on their shoulders and as did Nelson’s famous address to England’s chosen men ring out at Trafalgar 200 years ago this Autumn, England’s expectations will be echoing in the ears of our own heroes.

After negotiating their way out of the hardest pool in this year’s HEC competition, containing as it did two other teams in peak form, and then overcoming the number one seeds in the quarter final, Tigers now meet up with Toulouse, who’ve had a rather easier passage.

The French side certainly had the simpler progression through to the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup, losing just one of their matches to Northampton Saints at Franklins Gardens back in the depths of the English winter. Saints aside, who curiously came out of their Premiership torpor to not only beat the classy French side when they visited Northampton but also run them pretty close when they, in their turn, travelled across the Channel shortly after.

Saints were the only participants in Pool Three to put up any meaningful resistance to last year’s finalists with Llanelli Scarlets well below par and Glasgow failing to trouble the scorers, save for the counting of their two losing bonus points.

Saints therefore progressed into the quarter finals together with Tigers, both scraping in to the knockout stages as “lucky losers”. Some luck!!! Saints got Toulouse on French soil and this time the English Premiership strugglers were comprehensively and unceremoniously despatched, the home side barely breaking sweat in the process while Tigers drew the top seeds at Lansdowne Road.

Tigers had suffered an ignominious, scruffy and undisciplined defeat up at Headingley the weekend before their trip to Dublin and I feared the worst but then Tigers at last burst out of the blocks where so often since Christmas they have conceded the opening score to their opponents before getting into their stride. As a consequence the men from Leinster really didn’t get any ball to play with throughout that sunny Irish Spring afternoon, Tigers blowing them away and not being flattered by the eventual score line due to a close run score by Horgan in the dying minutes of the fixture.

Since that momentous Saturday Tigers have put Sale Sharks to the sword at Welford Road but then fell at The Battle of Vicarage Road a week later when their 14 standing men bravely held their opponents to just a two point win but as we know that was not the really significant cost of that awful afternoon.

Toulouse clearly suffered something of a hangover as first up they went down away to French Top 16 League leaders Bourgoin 22 – 6 as the table toppers continued their unbeaten home run that stretches back to 11th April 2002! Toulouse were not alone though as both the other French HEC semi-finalists; Stade Francais and Tigers’ nemesis Biarritz, also came croppers, respectively losing to Clement Auvergne and Narbonne.

However in their own encounter with Clement Auvergne last Friday Toulouse managed a 28 -10 victory with some of the customary flair from their back division but with some difficulties in the lineout and against the rolling maul.

It would seem that Toulouse still rather prefer the environs of home turf although as Tigers know to their cost the adage that French teams don’t travel is less true these days.

All things considered the outing to Bourgoin was an expensive one for Toulouse as they not only lost Fabien Pelouse to knee ligament damage, which looks certain to rule him out of an appearance at the Walkers Stadium, but also Jean Bouilhou, who was an influential starter against Saints in the quarter-final.

Ellissalade has also been on the treatment table but made the last match against Clement Auvergne however Jeanjean and Garbajosa are both out action for the rest of the season.

The Toulouse front row made a bit of a mess of the Saints trio in the quarter final and with Romanian international Dragos Dima still recovering from a back operation eleven time capped French international Jean-Baptiste Poux looked likely to face Julian White however he too has now been injured and if he doesn’t recover it looks as if the front rower Argentinian Omar Hassan should again get the nod ahead of ex Gloucester prop Patrice Collazo pairing with perhaps young Julian Fiorini who has played on the international stage at U18., U19 and U21.

It’s when we get to hooker that the strength of the Toulouse set up begins to be evident with Manager Guy Noves having to decide whether to start with French international Yannick Bru, with his 18 caps for his country or perhaps give countryman William Servat a start, after all he’s just the eight caps to his name!

The Toulouse front row at full strength is a massively impressive scrummaging unit with plenty of mobility however the likely combatants on Sunday will be facing Rowntree, White and a bang in form George Chuter so I rather fancy that they could come off worse on this occasion and it is to be hoped that the usually excellent Alain Rolland manages the scrum effectively.

The tight five is of course all important when playing French sides, more perhaps than with any other nationality, given the welcome attitude of our Gallic friends to scrummaging actually being a competitive part of the game, not merely a means to get the game going again after a stoppage, as our country cousins down under seem to prefer.

With Fabien Pelous discounted then presumably David Gerard will get the starting berth, a good club man is Gerard making the thick end of 100 appearances for his team and on his last picking up a Yellow Card for dangerous play. He’s only been rewarded with a solitary cap though and at just shy of 6’6” he’s not the biggest of locks and was likely to be partnered by young 22 year old Romain Millo-Chusky but here too there is some doubt that the youngster is fit and if this is the case then utility forwards Lamboley or Brennan could get a start in the second row

These combinations will bring some dynamic play in broken field positions and I would expect them to target the Tigers 10/12 channel to some effect.

Tigers will, thanks to the timing of his disciplinary hearing, have Johnno’s size, skill, leadership and experience to call upon and it’s against this and the other self same areas of expertise that Fabien Pelous also possesses that the Toulouse skipper will be sorely missed.

Whether Ben Kay starts it will, I think, make a difference from the open play perspective where Kay’s presence would doubtless be an advantage to the “home” team and if he’s back on full song his combination with Johnno is of course a world beating one.

I feel that even without Corry, who should be a available for the Final if Tigers emerge victorious on Sunday, the Tigers tight five should edge the contest at the set pieces however they will have to be very aware of the Toulouse quintet’s abilities around the tackle area and in the loose and at almost all costs not let the Toulouse rolling maul get underway.

If Bouilhou doesn’t make the game then it’s likely that Irish international Trevor Brennan will be in the #6 shirt although he too has been excused training until the latter part of this week as he’s nursing a sore knee which he picked up last Friday although it rather sounds like Toulouse Medical Director Albert Sadacca is just being careful.

Brennan, a thirteen time wearer of the Shamrock emblem, is a real handful and not adverse to engaging in a bit of the rough stuff, so I see referee Roland having his hands full if the Irish flanker unduly gets in the faces of the Tigers’ pack, which after their being niggled into retaliatory measures by Sarries, could well also form part of the Toulouse game plan by they too using some inflammatory tactics. Excellent at the breakdown Brennan’s presence brings some more real grit to the French back row and the confrontation could be seismic if not tightly controlled by the officials .

With Lewis Moody fully living up to his MadEye sobriquet lately here again, in tandem with Johnno, the restarts cold prove a happy hunting ground for Tigers although with Corry’s absence his special skills in this area may reduce what could have been a real area of overwhelming advantage.

On the open side ex Auckland player, Tongan Finu Maka, will likely match himself against the newly recruited British Lion Neil Back.

Backy is generally at the top of his game although I thought he had quiet time against Sarries and while the folically exuberant Maka may be a bit pacier around the park I reckon he’ll struggle against the Englishman in most other departments.

Should Lamboley or Brennan be dragooned into the second row it looks as if Christian Labit could start in their stead and while the absence of Lamboley or Brennan will surely be a loss to the back row cause it needs to be recognised that in Labit Toulouse can call upon another very experienced strong running ball carrier with his own tally of 17 caps for Les Bleus.

I rather suspect Will Johnson will get a start and grafter that he is I think that I’d go with Henry Tuilagi from the start and make a statement of intent from the outset as he brings a Corryesque ability to carry the ball up and it is that which will be needed from the kick off against the French side to put them firmly on the back foot.

It’s true to say that in their earlier pool encounters Saints gave the Toulouse pack a real run for their money, so much so that they blatantly targeted Andrew Blowers and took him out of the quarter final early on, thus blunting the Saints attack in this area.

All in all I see that Tigers could gradually dominate much of the forward play, certainly in the tight and if Tuilagi is used in the loose as well, as indeed they must if they are to dust off their kilts but to do so they must keep their heads and maintain their discipline.

It was behind the pack that I thought Toulouse were so breathtaking against Saints and indeed whenever I have seen them this year but of course they need the ball just as did Leinster.

I must confess that scrum half Ellissalade is not a player that has me turning cartwheels and as Harry Ellis will benefit from a firm platform he should get the better of this particular confrontation but he must keep his cool as the French will have targeted him as did Wasps in the Pool One fixtures.

Fly half should be very interesting indeed. Andy Goode, the form #10 from the Premiership, against the sometimes flaky and sometimes brilliant Frederic Michalak.

Stand in skipper Michalak, who is currently resting a sore calf, is to my mind, and on his day, one of the great fly-halves at the moment with superb vision, but these golden days can be rare as a poussins’ molars, which is why French national coach Laporte seemingly uses the hugely talented youngster only in extremis and increasingly as a last throw of the dice, his international appearances thus having been limited to just 22 and often as a replacement.

Andy Goode does not yet have Michalak’s mercurial flair but nevertheless he is a talented and improving yeoman of England with a golden boot so it is to be hoped that he will be at his best and that the Tigers back row can unsettle Michalak, as a few pieces of close scrutiny from the loose forwards early on can often unhinge him.

My only real concern here is that Goode’s penchant for kicking to the opposition back three as we saw against Saracens, with the result they had plenty of opportunities to run at the Tigers, this is not a strategy to employ against Toulouse and Goode must unerringly find his touch if there is not to be trouble with aimless or speculative kicking surely not being the order of the day.

With Garbajosa now thinking about next season the centre pairing for Toulouse comes down to Florian Fritz, the now recovered Benoit Baby and Yannick Jauzion.

Without doubt Baby is the enfant terrible but he has strong competition from young Florian Fritz for the #12 shirt however they will have to face the robust and hugely talented Daryl Gibson and precocious as they undoubtedly are they may lack the experience to cope with Leicester’s favourite Kiwi be it in attack or defence.

I think that all things being equal and provided that he is fit, as he too is not currently training having also picked up a knock, it’s unlikely that anybody will oust the superb Yannick Jauzion from the outside centre slot where Ollie Smith, Tigers’ own bundle of talent, will face the impressive French international. It is against such players that Ollie Smith will need to prove himself to literally force his way into the eye line of the obdurate England coach and this will be a real test for him.

As we saw against the much vaunted centres of Leinster the Gibson/Smith axis is one to be reckoned with and the French side could yet find this out but there need be no slip ups by the Tigers’ duo for if the Toulouse pair get loose there’ll be hell to pay!

Indeed if the visitors do get the ball wide then there will be all sorts of mayhem with the superb Cedric Heymans and Vincent Clerc just waiting for ball and space.

Heymans has probably lost a smidgeon of the pace that won him his nine caps but he now has experience, rather like our own Austin Healey, and Tigers will need to take him out with accuracy and expedition when he gets the ball.

Similarly in Vincent Clerc Toulouse have that great combination of skill and pace, although I have sometimes been struck by a degree of vulnerability under the high ball or when made to turn, so doubtless Tigers will be examining the video evidence carefully.

Completing the Toulouse back three is pretty much certain to be the stunning Clement Poitrenaud, another World Cup participant and already capped 16 times before reaching his 23rd birthday. The youngster was pilloried after allowing Rob Howley to touch down and steal the European cup literally from under his nose last year but to be fair it seems that the only ones to not see that the ball had already touched the side line were, critically, the match officials.

Possessed of a great boot and terrific line breaking pace his ability to play in the centre makes him a very complete full back indeed and while Gareth Thomas is now fit and in full training and is an admirably strong player himself I prefer the more silky skills of the Frenchman.

I suppose that it’s the back three that looks the least certain for Tigers, aside that is for the presence of Geordan Murphy, who I trust will return to Full Back to keep the French defence honest as he mixes the lines of attack, for when on the wing he gets too little ball and is invariably closed down. Vesty is sound and secure but for me the attack is all the more threatening when Murphy is allowed to roam

With Leon Lloyd looking very much the part on the wide outside, having had a good season now that the foolishness of playing him as a first choice centre has seemingly passed, he could well ask the French back three some searching questions.

More problematic, for me at least, is who to play on the other wing.

Varndell has the pace but I worry about his defensive frailty when facing the likes of the Toulouse backs and Alex Tuilagi, while doubtless capable of frightening the French defenders out of their pantaloons, does have his moments in defence with his typically Tuilagi excrement or bust tackling style and after spending much of last Sunday falling over I suggest that before he takes to another soccer pitch he has a look at his choice of footwear

If he’s fit then I’d still be very tempted to start Austin Healey. He is THE archetypal big match player and loves the HEC stage on which to strut his stuff and he is still the joint top try scorer for Tigers in the Premiership this term.

So with the Walkers en fete and looking like a spruced up Welford Road (well I can dream can’t I??) and full to the rafters with the baying 30000 Tigers’ faithful will our expectations and those of England be met by our own Jolly Jack Tars?

Well in truth and in spite of the significant loss of Corry after his stupidity I only have one major concern and that is on the wings so I hope and believe that when I take my seat at Murrayfield on 22nd May I shall be seeing a rerun of the 2001 final with Tigers facing their old adversaries Stade Francais.

Now that will be a tasty dish.