Ref Hollie Davidson
La Rochelle sent there 3rds and beat Newcastle by 8 points. If we have the form we had on the first half the season, I would be confident that we will win. Still think we will, depending on injures, Loose head being the main worry. Bell was off on a HIA, which i guess he failed, he got a nice shiner
Crean went off, not sure what it was, and ToT did not look great at the end of the game.
The injury update (tomorrow, tuesday?) will shed a better light were we are.
Rob Herring (calf) and Nathan Doak (ankle) picked up injuries in Saturday’s EPCR Challenge Cup victory over Ospreys and are injury doubts for this week’s Quarter Final.
Longer term injured players who are unavailable for selection are:
Stewart Moore (knee), Rory McGuire (shoulder), James McNabney (knee), Michael Lowry (groin), Robert Baloucoune (elbow).
No word on Bell, TOT or Crean which is good.
Doak is a loss, but McKee has been decent.
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Angus Bell (12)
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Tom Stewart (70)
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Tom O’Toole (137)
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Iain Henderson (Capt) (174)
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Cormac Izuchukwu (49)
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David McCann (86)
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Nick Timoney (179)
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Juarno Augustus (12)
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Nathan Doak (104)
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Jack Murphy (29)
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Zac Ward (24)
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Stuart McCloskey (214)
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James Hume (115)
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Werner Kok (30)
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Jacob Stockdale (146)
Replacements:
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James McCormick (14)
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Sam Crean (15)
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Scott Wilson (52)
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Harry Sheridan (56)
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Bryn Ward (14)
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Conor McKee (17)
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Jake Flannery (34)
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Jude Postlethwaite (42)
La Rochelle only made 3 changes from the team that played Newcastle last week.
Good to Jude back and Doak fit to play.
Strongest team we could have fielded ( not far off our strongest team), if we can’t win this then doesn’t bode well for the URC run in.
La Rochelle are sending their bin juice. A bit surprised, but if a win/wee jolly to Bilbao is what we want, it’s good news on that front. The only name on their team sheet I recognise is Ellisalde, and that’s purely beause he has a famous dad, doing some cursory searching of their team sheet they also seem to have an academy prop starting at lock.
We won’t get a better opportunity to make a Euro semi. Hopefully we can start fast and put these boys to bed. Massive to have our 1st choice half backs fit.
Professional performance. A home semi would be lovely both for finances and chances of making final.
Some good rugby there in what looked to be desperate conditions for it. Hope for Exeter to win in Italy tomorrow to give us the home semi (though Exeter would be a tough opponent).
Decent win in bad conditions, but still not playing as good as the start of the season. Need to ramp it up a gear against leinster.
I think it will be Exeter and that would be better to get the home game, maybe better weather and a decent opposition will sell more tickets.
Professional performance. A home semi would be lovely both for finances and chances of making final.
Would Ulster get the money from a ‘home’ semi? I had a notion in my head that ticket sales from the semi finals and final all went to European Rugby. They’ll need a few quid for their rent in Geneva anyway.
I think the result was a ‘par’ performance, given the teams selected it was about what would be expected. We didn’t obliterate them like we did to Racing’s reserves early in the season, but comfortably put them away. Had a quick look at the la Rochelle forum and the general consensus was that their performance was as good as could be expected given the team they’d picked. Anyway, I need to go and book some refundable accomodation for somewhere in the Treviso area.