Peter Jackson: Munster's Alex Nankivell escaped full force of the law that crashed down on Azagoh
Elliott Francais Lucky: Stade Paris Munster's Pesenti Of ©inpho/nick With Pic: Baptiste Nankivell Alex
In a forlorn attempt to save the Parisian challenge from descending into a Champions’ Cup production of , their captain asked the referee a question about justice.
Ryan Chapuis listened with a mounting sense of foreboding as Luke Pearce explained why Stade Francais were about to be dealt a red card, then inquired of the English official: ‘’What about the one in the first half?’’
The same question would have been asked among the more objective factions of the Red Army at Thomond Park and the wider television audience alike half-an-hour earlier as to how Munster’s Alex Nankivell escaped the full force of the law which came crashing down on Pierre-Henri Azagoh.
Where Pearce gave the French lock the punishment his actions demanded, he gave Nankivell ten minutes in the bin despite the New Zealander’s actions leaving the impression of an open-and-shut case of a red card: a shoulder to the head of Lucas Peyresblanques which rendered the hooker hors de combat for fully 15 minutes.
‘’The one in the first half was a tackle,’’ Pearce told Chapuis. ‘’This one is a striking action. I did consider giving a yellow but this is too dangerous.’’
Peter O’Mahony will vouch for that, Azagoh’s howitzer of a swinging arm from behind having tested the grand old warrior’s enduring indestructibility. Chapuis, unimpressed by the explanation, clearly considered Nankivell’s hit on his hooker every bit as dangerous.
The argument that it was purely accidental counts for nothing in a law which considers intent, or lack of it, an irrelevance. Had Munster been a man down for the remaining two-thirds of the match, they would have taken it on the chin, so to speak.
Nobody sounded more surprised than one of their very own, Munster’s leading try-scorer in European competition, Simon Zebo. ‘’I think Luke’s got that wrong,’’ he told viewers watching Premier Sports exclusive coverage. ‘’I saw it as a red.’’
Stade played on as if demented by the age-old paranoia spinning through a few too many heads: ‘There you go again: one law for the English-speakers, a different one for us.’ Nobody seemed more infuriated than Baptiste Pesenti.
His reaction, picking Shane Daly up and dumping him head first to the ground like a sack of spuds, forced Pearce to renew his conversation with Chapuis: ‘’I suggest you speak to your team before I use any more cards.’’
Ironically, no referee has done more to eliminate the language barrier than Pearce but by then Stade, barely able to man the barricades with 15 men let alone 13, were too frazzled to listen, none more so than Chapuis.
With the ball nowhere in the vicinity, he aimed a shoulder at Daly’s head, an unprovoked attack which left the impression of a captain anxious to show solidarity with his departed pair of locks by striking a self-destructive blow on their behalf.
The only question was whether Pearce would use a third red card or a second yellow. He did neither despite Chapuis’ lame excuse. ‘’You didn’t see him?’’ Pearce said, smiling at such an implausible claim. ‘’You’ve had two red cards. Please don’t let me give any more.’’
And so he didn’t, leaving Chapuis to lead what was left of off at the end to a familiar refrain, not from the stage show but the timeless Thomond anthem .
Apologists for Castres’ perennial refusal to take the Champions’ Cup that seriously will point to the fact that, when all’s said and done, they have a record of sorts to preserve, albeit one too dubious for local consumption.
For more than 20 years since they last got as far as the knock-out stages of Europe’s premier club event, Castres have failed to win a single match in England or Ireland. Turning up at Northampton without at least ten first-choice players meant that they had effectively written off any realistic hope of toppling the English champions.
Regulars at Franklyn’s Gardens had seen it all before. In six visits, Castres have lost them all just as they have lost all six away ties against Munster and yet during that time the club created by the late cosmetics billionaire Pierre Fabre won two French Top 14 titles.
Munster, next up at Pierre’s place in the second round on Friday night, know only too well that Castres at home bear no resemblance to Castres on their travels.
The Brennan brothers complete a winning family double yesterday in the same competition on different continents, 21 years after their father Trevor left Dublin to start a Franco-Irish dynasty like no other.
Within 24 hours of Daniel Brennan propping Toulon’s scrum during their priceless win over the Stormers in Cape Town, younger brother Joshua came off the bench at Toulouse after the holders had stopped Ulster an embarrassingly long way inside the distance.
The similarity doesn’t end there. The brothers, who have both captained France at under-age level, appeared as second half substitutes for French internationals, Daniel in the 59th minute for Dany Priso, Joshua one minute later and one row back in the scrum for Emanuel Meafou.
When it comes to Ulster in Toulouse, the Brennan family had a bit of previous before yesterday’s no-contest. During a pool match 18 seasons ago, Brennan, senior, jumped into the crowd and attacked an Ulster supporter for which he was given a life-ban reduced on appeal to five years.
The cast for the weekend’s opening round of both European competitions featured a whole host of sons whose fathers played Test rugby. Bath led the way with three (Tom de Glanville, Cameron Redpath, Max Ojomoh), not that La Rochelle were overly bothered.
Others could be found on duty for a variety of clubs: Damian Penaud for Bordeaux, Louis Lynagh for Benetton, Alexandre Roumat for Toulouse, Ollie Sleightholme for Northampton and Leicester tighthead James Whitcombe whose Welsh grandfather belonged to Great Britain’s Rugby League ‘invicibles’ in Australia almost 80 years ago.
Ulster went close to bringing the Champions’ Cup into disrepute for a reason that had nothing to do with conceding a point-a-minute for the first 40. And yet, despite the sheer scale of their beating, they might have sneaked away with, what you believe it, a bonus point.
For what? Conceding nine tries and 61 points? Scoring three tries in a long lost cause left the Ulstermen one short of securing a small reward when they deserved none. A difficult exercise had been made a whole lot more so by the decision to put five Ireland forwards (Rob Herring, Tom O’Toole, Iain Henderson, Cormac Izuchukwu and Nick Timoney) on the bench.
How much longer will it take the organisers to change the four-try bonus rule when conceding more than twice as many? In the Top 14 no losing team can claim such a bonus and the winning team only provided they score at least three more tries than their opponent.
After all the noise from their broadcast cheerleaders, the English Premiership found the hype too much to bear. When push came to shove, the top three all lost: Bath at home to La Rochelle, Bristol to Leinster, Leicester at Bordeaux. Three other English clubs – Exeter, Harlequins, Sale – also lost, leaving Northampton and Saracens as the only winners.
French 6-2
Irish 2-1
Scottish 1-0
South African 1-2
English 2-6
Italia 0-1.
Why do referees persist in warning those teams whom they have found guilty of repeated law-breaking that the next offender will end up in the bin.
Chris Busby awarded a flurry of late penalties against Racing under siege from Harlequins and still let the Parisians off, telling them in the 78th minute: ‘’Next one goes to the bin.’’
As Racing kept offending, the Ulster referee kept his word. Josua Tuisova went in the 79th minute, back row forward Ibrahim Diallo in the 80th before Quins’ ran out of time in search of a losing bonus point.
Glasgow’s George Horne, third-choice in Scotland’s scrum-half pecking order behind Ali Price and Ben White, sending Sale off down the Clyde with a hat-trick of tries.
Jordie Barrett, emerging from the bench to rescue Leinster from a troubled first half at Ashton Gate, making one Leinster try, then scoring another to turn a tricky tie into a cruise.
Chay Mullins, Ireland’s sevens specialist delivering a hat-trick on debut for Connacht against Zebre in the second-tier Challenge Cup.
Storm Darragh, Ian Tempest
Louis Bielle-Biarrey (Bordeaux)
Ange Capuozzo (Toulouse)
Pierre-Louis Barassi (Toulouse)
Jordie Barrett (Leinster)
Thaakir Abrahams (Munster)
Sam Prendergast (Leinster)
George Horne (Glasgow)
James Cronin (Leicester)
Peato Mauvaka (Toulouse)
Zander Fagerson (Glasgow)
Will Skelton (La Rochelle)
Nick Isiekwe (Saracens)
Peter O’Mahony (Munster)
Henry Pollock (Northampton)
Gavin Coombes (Munster).