With the exception of Racing 92’s exit at the hands of the magnificent Matthieu Jalibert, this weekend bore few surprises in the Heineken Champions Cup. The French clubs dominated once again, Jalibert sparkled for Bordeaux-Bègles once again, and perhaps least surprisingly, Exeter were eliminated by Leinster.
It is of course stated now, with the confidence the luxury of hindsight provides, but the Chiefs’ 34-22 loss at Sandy Park should have been expected. Last year they played with ruthless pick-and-go efficiency, physical breakdown dominance and a mercilessly well-oiled set piece. The ill discipline, poor decision-making and unforced errors that have plagued them so often this season were never going to cut it in the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup.
Exeter did show glimpses of last season’s European and domestic double-winning credentials. Dave Ewers scored at the back of a powerful rolling maul, Jonny Hill and Jonny Gray showed their usual defensive resilience, and Tom O’Flaherty demonstrated his lethal eye for a break with his two tries.
But where Exeter wore down opposition last season by building pressure through quick and continuous phases, too often was their distribution slow and repeatedly to the open side. It was impossible to create space out wide against a well-drilled Leinster defence when the ball was so often in the middle of the pitch.
Then there was their decision-making. When presented with a penalty immediately after Ewers crossed so dominantly from a lineout, they opted to take three points; when presented with a penalty under Leinster’s posts with only a few minutes remaining, they opted for a tap and go when they could have brought themselves within one score with a successful kick at goal.
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“When you are in that desperation mode to win games, mentally you can just go off track,” Rob Baxter said. “We almost needed another break with 20 minutes to go. Those moments added up today whether it was our defending on the edge, which let us down a couple of times, [or] breakdown penalties, missed lineouts. Normally we would like to say we are the team that creates that pressure in most areas of the game but today it added up for Leinster.”
Baxter believes this season has been extra challenging for Exeter given the long absences of Henry Slade, Stuart Hogg and the team’s other internationals from the squad. The delayed start to the season means those players have had little time to re-gel with their team-mates, but with international rugby done for the foreseeable, Baxter’s side now need to focus on rekindling last season’s momentum in time for the Gallagher Premiership semi-finals.
“On the whole there are big chunks of our squad who you have not seen for nearly the whole season, that has created more of a challenge,” said Baxter. “I think we are now going to accelerate through the season. That’s the plan anyway. I am sure we can do it physically, but the key is whether we can do it mentally.”
James Lowe and Jordan Larmour (two) scored for Leinster, who will face La Rochelle in the semi finals after the French side’s impressive 45-21 win against Sale.
La Rochelle raced ahead in the first half through Gregory Alldritt, after a pinpoint Ihaia West cross-field kick, and Dillyn Leyds, after an uncharacteristically slack Faf de Klerk pass; but Sale went into half-time just two points down following a wonderfully worked Sam James try.
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The floodgates opened after the break, though, with Raymond Rhule and Geoffrey Doumayrou both touching down twice. Though Tom Curry and Byron McGuigan were omnipresent founts of energy and determination, like Gloucester last week, Sale could not cope with Ronan O’Gara’s side’s free-flowing “KBA — Keep Ball Alive” attack.
“I thought we were at the races after an extremely competitive first half in which we gave them some relatively soft tries,” said Alex Sanderson, the Sale head coach. “But we weren’t in the second half and we have to be better if we want to come to places like this in the future and win.”
De Klerk, whose pass was ruled to be knocked backwards by Leyds before the La Rochelle wing ran half the pitch in the first half, meanwhile said: “La Rochelle are a good team and they played a great brand of rugby. They scored two quick tries in the second half that put us on the back foot but we weren’t sure about the slap-down try in the first half.”
Bordeaux-Bègles, who beat Racing 92 24-21, will travel to Toulouse in the semi-final, who won 21-12 away against Clermont-Auvergne.
Player of the week
Matthieu Jalibert (Bordeaux-Bègles)
Jalibert or Ntamack? Which one will Fabien Galthié select as France’s starting fly half going forward?
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That question would be verging on the moronic six months ago. Ntamack had just finished the 2020 Six Nations as one of the players of the tournament and as one of the pre-eminent future stars in world rugby.
Jalibert, meanwhile, had just a handful of caps and only one start to his name — his international debut in 2018, in which he tore a knee ligament after just half an hour — and he had further consigned himself to second fiddle with his poor performance in France’s 28-17 loss to Scotland earlier in the year.
Following Ntamack’s long absence following a double jaw fracture, and Jalibert’s sensational performances in the Autumn Nations Cup and recent Six Nations when deputising him, the picture is entirely different now.
The 22-year-old shone in Bordeaux’s 24-21 win, kicking all 24 points, including a 55m penalty in the 83rd minute. He kicked with pinpoint accuracy from hand and had the Racing defence scrambling to cover his darting runs at gaps in their defence. His work on his alignment now gives him an ability to take the ball right up to the defensive line before passing deep, offloading to a support runner, or squeezing through a gap himself.
Galthié will no doubt be scratching his head now, particularly after Ntamack followed Jalibert by kicking 21 points of his own in Toulouse’s 21-12 win against Clermont Auvergne later yesterday afternoon.
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Jalibert v Racing 92: Carries 14 Metres gained 66 Passes 13 Offloads 4 Points 21
