Leinster eased into a home quarter-final fixture in an odd sort of game against last year’s Top 14 runners-up, Montpellier. Saturday lunchtime at the RDS is better than Sunday brunch at Firhill, but not by much; Leinster have kicked off four of their six group games before 2pm, which doesn’t do much for the atmosphere. Coupled with the lack of big-name opposition – and to speak frankly, outright quality – in the group, it has been a relatively undistinguished qualification campaign compared to last season’s block-busting efforts against the best that the English and French could muster. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Mamuka Gorgodze
Montpellier 16 – 16 Leinster
Jonny Sexton nervelessly knocked over the last kick of the game amidst a racket of whistles and boos to grab a draw for Leinster against Montpellier, last season’s Top 14 runners-up. Continue reading
Montpellier Hérault Rugby
As draws go, the emergence of Bath, Glasgow and Montpellier to accompany Heineken Cup champions Leinster in Pool 3 seemed to the Mole, like the best of good fortune last summer. For sure, Leinster did not get an Italian minnow (the pleasure reserved for Biarritz it seems) but no Clermont, Racing or even Castres to send a shiver of nerves down the back, at the prospect of a tough away fixture in the frozen weeks before Christmas, seemed like the sort of Champions League start usually reserved for Man U and Barca. Continue reading
Romania v Georgia Preview
The All Blacks take on Portugal in 2007 with a 20 minute turnaround.
Mole has heard a few discussions about the fairness of World Cup schedule, the protracted nature of the tournament and the slim chances of any minnow beating a big fish. They’re all legitimate comments and Mole recognises that it’s not a fair world. Sometimes though it pays heed to listen to what isn’t being said.
Match Review: England vs Georgia
The Mole was in Bordeaux four years ago when the French neutrals got behind a Georgian team threatening to upset Ireland in the group stages. All you could hear in the velodrome that night was “Georgie! Georgie! Georgie!” Continue reading
Match Report: Scotland 15 – 6 Georgia
The Scots rolled the Georgians in an arm-wrestle of a game, taking it five kicks to two. Continue reading
Gorgodzilla vs Tekori Kong
Two of the Mole’s “One to Watch” candidates come face to face in the Top 14, Mamuka Gorgodze [Montpellier] and Joe Tekori [Castres Olympique]. If you have a rugby ball to hand, look at the size of it … now look at what it looks like in Tekori’s hand. What a pair of monsters.