Race hots up for euro glory
PA Sport's Andrew Baldock
April 3, 2008

"Now Perpignan might well boast Percy 'Pretty Boy' Montgomery as their star player and ace goalkicker, but everything else about the uncompromising French side is, how shall we put it, pug-ugly." PA Sport's Andrew Baldock writes

The Heineken Cup is not noted for producing away quarter-final victories.

It has only happened 11 times in 44 games, a 25 per cent success rate that makes you wonder whether it is merely a case of the home side just needing to turn up.

So what price this weekend of all four quarter-finals being won by teams on the road?

More chance of Dwain Chambers scoring the winning try in a Super League Grand Final, I hear you exclaim, but closer examination suggests it might not be too much of an off-the-wall theory - the Heineken Cup that is, not Chambers.

Three English clubs - London Irish, Gloucester and Saracens - have made the last eight, and all of them can look forward to home advantage. Would you bet against respective opponents Perpignan, Munster and the Ospreys marching on, though?

The weekend's opening bell - and boxing comparisons could be relevant here - will ring at the Madejski Stadium in Reading when first-time quarter-finalists Irish meet Perpignan.

Now Perpignan might well boast Percy 'Pretty Boy' Montgomery as their star player and ace goalkicker, but everything else about the uncompromising French side is, how shall we put it, pug-ugly.

As Exiles rugby director Brian Smith acknowledges: "Perpignan have made no secret in the last month that they have gone back to old school knock 'em down, drag 'em out tactics."

To say there is a little bit of history between the clubs is under-selling the clash, this is more about all-out hostility.

Perpignan left Reading last December - the teams were both drawn in Pool One - aggrieved at the refereeing of Scottish official Malcolm Changleng to such an extent they effectively blamed him for their 24-16 defeat.

Retribution took exactly a week.

Irish lost the return fixture 23-6 in Catalan country, but they also lost flanker Kieran Roche with a fractured cheekbone and eye socket following an incident that saw Perpignan captain Perry Freshwater receive a four-week ban.

If a game of rugby can rise above the simmering resentment on Saturday, then referee Alain Rolland would be a firm favourite for man-of-the-match honours.

But it is worth noting that Perpignan are unbeaten in their last six Top 14 games, a sequence that includes away wins against Stade Francais and Bourgoin.

Is there ever a good time to play Gloucester at Kingsholm, a ground where the local heroes lose as often as Cristiano Ronaldo misses open goals?

The answer is yes, and probably right now.

Gloucester might top the Guinness Premiership, yet they have not played well consistently since Christmas, as away defeats to Worcester, Sale Sharks, Harlequins, Leicester, Bristol and the Ospreys testify.

In contrast, the Munster mean machine rolls on, having rumbled into a 10th Heineken quarter-final after winning this season's so-called pool of death above fellow European heavyweights Wasps, Clermont Auvergne and Llanelli Scarlets.

Gloucester, unquestionably, possess the flair and panache to do some damage, yet the tough-as-teak temperaments of Munster men like Ronan O'Gara, Paul O'Connell and Denis Leamy could stifle it at source.

All known form guides, logic and everything else this side of Saturn point to the Ospreys grounding Saracens on Sunday.

The Ospreys, otherwise known as Wales, such is their enviable assembly of international talent, should win the tournament.

Having tipped them to do exactly that last November, I am keeping a close watch - and a rather smug one, it must be said - on their results.

Vicarage Road, Watford clearly isn't the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, and having smashed Saracens 30-3 when they visited the Welsh capital in EDF Energy Cup mode only 12 days ago, a trip to suburban Hertfordshire will hardly fill the Ospreys with dread.

Saracens' Cardiff capitulation also saw them lose the services of injured New Zealand lock Chris Jack - he won't play again this season - although the Ospreys are now without Wales' Grand Slam scrum-half Mike Phillips due to a serious knee problem.

But when you can call on former All Blacks number nine Justin Marshall as Phillips' replacement, it merely underlines the enviable riches at Ospreys coach Lyn Jones' disposal.

That leaves Cardiff Blues, perceived in many quarters as lambs to the slaughter for three-time European champions Toulouse in Sunday's encounter at the imaginatively-named Le Stadium.

Anyone keen to write off the Blues though, should remember a year ago and events at the Estadio Anoeta in San Sebastien when French giants Biarritz hosted Northampton.

Biarritz had Damien Traille, Dimitri Yachvili and Serge Betsen; Northampton had Paul Diggin, Robbie Kydd and Chris Budgen. Result? Biarritz 6 Northampton 7.

Yes, of course Toulouse could win by 30 points, but don't dismiss the Blues. Any team with Martyn Williams in it always has a chance.

Perpignan, Munster, Ospreys and Cardiff Blues in the quarter-finals? Remember, you read it here first.

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