Stuart Barnes: Form teams make the finals and a bad day at the office for Nigel Owens
Tuesday 3 May 2016 14:28, UK
In this week's column Stuart Barnes talks about the form teams making European finals and an unusually bad day for referee Nigel Owens...
1. Saracens and Racing 92 will contest the European Champions Cup final. It is the right final. These two sides have been the outstanding ones in this season's tournament and between them produced if not the most exciting, then certainly the most complete rugby on the road to the final.
It is the right final but that is not to say it will be a thing of beauty. These teams have a similar approach to the game with power and organisation edging it over aesthetics. A beautiful game, I doubt it; a compelling one, for certain.
2. Last season these teams met in the quarter-final at Racing's home ground in Colombes. The French team were the better team for the majority of the game but failed to handle the pressure in the final few minutes.
A poorly-executed keep-ball strategy in the last minute cost Racing a penalty and with it the match. The mere presence of 'you know who' at fly-half guarantees they will not panic under similar pressure in Lyon.
3. If Racing are a less flawed team this time around the same goes for Saracens. Four semi-finals in four years and a second final, they have the experience.
I suspect Leicester would have been Saracens' preferred opponent but they will be confident that French power in the contact and breakdown will not be their undoing as it has in previous years.
The only reservation about their current game is that their backline seems to have lost some of its early-season sharpness and accuracy.
4. The tournament needed an Anglo-French final. There have been too many empty seats this season. It was noticeable again in both semi-finals.
An all-English final in France would have caused the organisers some concern. The more borders crossed as far as European rugby goes, the better. The weak performance of the PRO12 teams has taken some of the shine off this year's tournament.
5. To the Challenge Cup... if there is a similarity of styles in the main competition we have a complete contrast in the Challenge Cup. Montpellier like it tight. They kick a lot in their hybrid French/South African style.
As broadcasters and officials we would have been all over the forward pass, in New Zealand they didn't give a hoot. It was a great try, what's the problem? Well there is a problem. The rules cannot be bent for the sake of entertainment.
Harlequins love a loose game in which their offloading instincts - honed hard in practice, we are not talking Barbarians rugby here - have the best chance to benefit them. The final will be fascinating and the better for the fact that this year's tournament has been a hard-fought one.
6. Harlequins were seen in a darker light after the Grenoble game with Conor O' Shea, a serial defender of his players, accused in some quarters of suggesting there could be such a thing as a different degree of kick - in relation to Joe Marler. Well, I will take O' Shea's side. He is right.
A similar contentious incident occurred at Reading where Simon McIntyre caught the head of Maro Itoje. The Saracens lock was illegally hanging onto the Wasps prop's left boot.
McIntyre was needed in defence. Irritated, he flicked his foot harmlessly at the cynical Saracens star. Are we not mature enough to be able to differentiate between an irritated flick of the foot and serious intent to do damage?
7. Romain Poite certainly had the courage to make the right but harder decision. Sending off was the easier decision, it was technically the only decision but the law can be an ass and it can be plain wrong.
The Frenchman looked at the evidence and decided yellow would suffice. Had he yellow-carded Itoje as well it would have been the best piece of refereeing of the season.
8. The normally magnificent Nigel Owens didn't have his finest game in Nottingham. He blew his whistle for an imagined French knock-on. In fact there hadn't been a Racing hand near the ball as they swooped onto the loose ball for what would have been the deciding score.
The Welshman apologised, what else could he do? Racing could have had a fit of histrionics; instead there was scant evidence of any dissent. Classy stuff from Racing.
9. In the build-up to the semi-final, Richard Cockerill gave an honest assessment of Leicester's prospects. They hadn't met a form team in Europe until the semi-final. That was the accurate gist of his comments - we would know more about Leicester after Sunday.
We do; they are a team rebuilding, a team who will one day be challengers in Europe but for the moment the development is at too early a stage. The Tigers did not play well but there is no discredit to them, they can hold up their heads whatever happens this season.
10. Super Rugby gave us another mini classic on Saturday morning when the Chiefs sneaked it against the Hurricanes. The Chiefs scored one classic from their own 22, full of angles, offloads, support lines, the lot.
The only problem was the key pass on their 22 was a mile forward. My old mate, Justin Marshall didn't even mention the fact. Craig Joubert and his officiating team were blissfully ignorant.
I wondered whether it was maybe a trick on the part of my own eyes until Michael Lynagh matter of fact said that it was a clear forward pass.
As broadcasters and officials we would have been all over the forward pass, in New Zealand they didn't give a hoot. It was a great try, what's the problem? Well there is a problem. The rules cannot be bent for the sake of entertainment.
Maybe we in the northern hemisphere are too plodding in our interpretations. In the south the culture of freewheeling rugby exposes them to a laxness that occasionally veers too far from the law book. What do you think?
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