European Challenge Cup - Round One Preview
09
October 2008
 The
European Challenge Cup, the Heineken Cup’s little brother,
kicks off tonight (Thursday) with Toulon hosting Northampton
Saints at the Stade Felix Mayol.
Tana Umaga’s under-achieving Top 14 side will
be looking for a moral-boosting victory against their
Guinness Premiership opponents, although Toulon are expected
to field a much changed line-up from the one which lost
37-12 at Perpignan on Saturday.
Northampton coach Jim Mallender said he was
aware of Toulon’s travails so far this season but refused to
underestimate his Top 14 opponents.
“It will be a massive occasion, so the
challenge for us is to keep calm, stick to our game plan and
put in plenty of hard work throughout the 80 minutes,” he
said.
The Saints, who are currently ninth in the
Guinness Premiership, will have to make do without the
services of back row Neil Best after he was suspended for a
massive 18 weeks.
The Irish international was cited for
eye-gouging following Northampton’s game with Wasps and will
miss all six ECC group matches.
Seven Top 14 sides are represented in this
year’s ECC, a competition that has been dominated by English
teams of late with Clermont’s 2007 triumph the only French
victory in the past seven years.
Montpellier, Dax and Bayonne all have home
games on Saturday – against Bristol, Connacht and Viadana
respectively – with Brive, Mont-de-Marsan and Bourgoin all
playing away games on Sunday – against Overmach RP, Saracens
and Bucuresti Oaks.
Montpellier, who are in the same group as
Toulon and Northampton, will definitely be without centre
Grant Rees for the visit of Bristol after the South African
was ruled out for two months due to a broken finger.
They might have been thrashed 46-3 by
Biarritz at the weekend but they should be confident of
beating a Bristol side currently propping up the Guinness
Premiership after losing all five of their league matches so
far this season.
Mont-de-Marsan, the Top 14’s bottom club,
return to the ECC for the first time since 2002 when they
travel to Vicarage Road to play Saracens on Sunday.
It’s a tough reintroduction to European
competition for Les Montois with Saracens fifth in the
Guinness Premiership and losing semi-finalists in last
year’s Heineken Cup.
Mont’s director of rugby Eric Lamarque is
expecting a clash of styles.
“Saracens are a very physical side and we
know they like to work the ball hard in the forwards. In
terms of our own game, we have stuck to our roots and like
to play expansive, attacking rugby – so our game couldn’t be
much further away from that of our opposition,” he said.
Bayonne, who are in the same group as
Mont-de-Marsan, entertain Italian club Viadana buoyed by
early season form that has seen them climb to fifth in Top
14. They will be looking to bounce back from their surprise
weekend defeat at Dax and should be too strong for their
visitors.
The winners of the five pools will
automatically progress to the quarter-final stages, together
with the three best runners-up.
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