Win the Cup? Win the Group? Just Win A Game!
By apb
October 21 2005
The Heineken Cup is - as everybody knows - the pinacle of club (or regional) rugby in the Northern Hemisphere. The chance to be crowned "Best Team In Europe" has to be the prize that every club or region, large or small, rich or poor, strives to achieve.
Pool two, containing Leeds, Cardiff, Calvisano and Perpignan is widely regarded as the "easiest" group among the rugby cognescenti, and therefore at the start of the season Leeds and their fans were eagerly anticipating the start of their second season in the top-flight event. A good chance to progress to the quarter-finals, we thought, and from there in a knock-out format, who knows? This was the year that Leeds could make a mark on the european game.
Nowadays, of course, we're not really thinking of winning a match, let alone a trophy of this magnitude. Last time I looked, Leeds were something like 1000-1 against winning this trophy, and I have to say that for the discerning punter, those odds are far too stingy to waste a fiver. Leeds' dreadful season to date has had us all crying into our virtual beer, some calling for the head of Phil Davies, some for that of Daryl Powell, and some, just for the head of anyone so long as something in the team play changes.
We wallow in self-pity at our peril. We need to continue to look on the bright side of life, in the words of Eric Idle's most famous song. We as fans need to help the team to bring themselves out of this torpor and regain the self-respect and high quality play that we know they can. We need to cheer.
We meet Cardiff Blues this weekend, another new time for kick-off - Saturday at 1:00pm. The Sky TV people will be screening this one live, so those of us who have neither the money nor the time to make the long journey down south can at least get a glimpse of how the lads are doing, and hopefully in living rooms, pubs and clubs throughout the Broad Acres there will be cheering a-plenty (and none of it in a Welsh accent - apart perhaps from Siani's!).
Cardiff Blues have been having a similarly bad time of it in their domestic competitions. A number of the more electronically vociferous Cardiff Blues fans (must remember to add the qualifying colour - there is still a Cardiff RFC as well) have been baying for head-coach blood themselves. Dai Young (or "David" as the official club communiques appear to be insisting) is under just as much pressure to deliver the goods as our own Phil Davies; perhaps more so, given the traditional passion for the game that is held down there.
Team Line-Ups
The Leeds selection contains few surprises, given the announcements surrounding injuries. Stimpson is in at full-back for Balshaw, and one would hope he can make use of his howitzer style boot when kicking under pressure. I personally would have preferred the more attack-minded Doherty in that position. Gordon Ross gets a start at fly, and Rawly gets a start at the expense of Gordon Bulloch who drops to the bench. Other than that the team more or less picks itself. When I received an early copy of what I thought was the team-sheet, I was intrigued: Jordan Crane, having played all his first team appearances at no. 8 was named in the open-side jersey, with Richard Parks taking the tail-end-charlie role. This would've been an interesting experiment, but today's information has Crane back in his more familiar role at eight.
I also note that Andre Snyman is once again named in his preferred position of out-and-out winger, rather than the inside-centre that he's been pretty much forced to play for most of his Leeds career.
The Cardiff Blues team is, I'm afraid, a difficult one to assess. I've never been much of a follower of Welsh rugby, even when I was living right on their doorstep in Bristol; I guess the mix of Jones', Thomas', Powells and WIlliams' makes it even more complicated than it should be (sorry, cheap shot there!). And in the more modern era, the insular nature of rugby TV coverage in this country conspires against any real knowledge of the Celtic nations regional set-ups, unless you're a multi-channel, multi-provider, multi-pound subscriber, so I bow to the knowledge of other people on some of the unfamilar names mentioned in the Cardiff line-up. One name Leeds fans will remember though, is the Cardiff bench-man Tristan Davies. Tris was a fine servant of Leeds during the first years out of the lower leagues, and for his sake I hope he gets to play some part in the game on Saturday. All I can say for certain about the rest of the team is that the Blues fans who've posted on our messageboard have pooh-poohed this line-up as a weak team, and should be easy meat for a well organised, even slightly talented team.
Ay, there's the rub....
Teams
| Cardiff Blues | Leeds Tykes | |
| John Yapp | 1 | Gavin Kerr |
| Gareth Williams | 2 | Rob Rawlinson |
| Martin Jones | 3 | Rayno Gerber |
| Craig Quinnell | 4 | Scott Morgan |
| Robert Sidoli | 5 | Tom Palmer |
| Robin Sowden Taylor | 6 | Nathan Thomas |
| Martyn Williams | 7 | Richard Parks |
| Andy Powell | 8 | Jordan Crane |
| Mike Phillips | 9 | Justin Marshall (c) |
| Nick Robinson | 10 | Gordon Ross |
| Craig Morgan | 11 | Tom Biggs |
| Marc Sterchbina | 12 | Chris Jones |
| Jamie Robinson | 13 | Rob Vickerman |
| Chris Czekaj | 14 | Andre Snyman |
| Rhys Williams (c) | 15 | Tim Stimpson |
| Ben Evans | 16 | James Isaacson |
| Rhys Thomas | 17 | Gordon Bulloch |
| Deioniol Jones | 18 | Chris Murphy |
| Kort Schubert | 19 | Dan Hyde |
| Ryan Powell | 20 | Danny Care |
| Tristan Davies | 21 | Roland de Marigny |
| Lee Thomas | 22 | David Doherty |