Leicester v Toulouse is no small beer in the Heineken Cup

Heineken Cup / Geoffrey Riddle / 07 December 2007 / Leave a Comment

The Racing Post's Geoffrey Riddle previews Leicester v Toulouse plus the best of the rest in the Heineken Cup

It's show time. The Heineken Cup moves in to the double-header stage where some of the most titanic tussles in this competition play themselves out. Leicester's epic struggle with Wasps in 2004 was one of the most intense club rugby head-to-heads ever seen, and by a similar token, Toulouse's double defeat to Llanelli this time last year was stuff of dreams for the Welsh.

Leicester and Toulouse clash over the next two weekends, with the first stanza of this mini-epic taking place at Welford Road, where the likes of Stade Francais and Biarritz have made successful smash-and-grab raids over the last three years.

These two sides have won the European Cup five times between them and it's easy to see this as the glamour tie of not only the weekend, but of the whole Pool stage.
The match market in its infancy sees the Tigers trade at 1.51 with the French raiders available at an early 2.52.

Toulouse sit top of the league in France having gained 18 points from their four matches. And it is not as if those points were gifted to them either. Toulouse thrashed Top 14 champions Stade Francais 28-9 at the beginning of November, before going across to Biarritz and winning a typically low-scoring encounter there 15-10.

That road victory speaks volumes for the determination showed by Toulouse, and they were actually the best performing side away from home in the French league last year, winning just over half of their games. If any French side is going to perform away from home, it is Les Toulousains.

Leicester have slipped to two defeats this season in the Premiership, both of which were to the in-form sides in the League. Gloucester beat them hollow at Welford Road at the beginning of October and that was only the second home defeat for the Tigers in 40 matches there. Saracens took advantage of that shell-shock and put 26 points past them at Vicarage Road a week later.

The Tigers were weak when thrashed by Leinster in Dublin in the opening round of the Heineken Cup, but there were signs that they were hitting their straps when rinsing Edinburgh 39-0 in round two. Edinburgh made Toulouse work extremely hard to beat them in Murrayfield when they met in round one, but this contest will stir the passions of the French like no other, and I'd be looking to side with the raiders on any handicap of over 2.5 points in their favour as that has been enough in five of their last six trips across the Channel.

The first really big contest of the weekend sees Ulster [5.4] try and get their season back on track with a trip to the Liberty Stadium to face the Ospreys. The Ulstermen have been a standing dish in this tournament ever since they won it in 1999, and for as long as I can remember they have been appalling on the road. A search through the records reveals that they have won just six of their 36 matches away from home in this tournament and two of those were against Italian minnows Treviso.

I thought that under caretaker coach Steve Williams they had turned a corner when demolishing Connacht 30-13 at the Sportsground at the end of last month. However, a 14-20 defeat to Edinburgh at home is not the form you want to take into a clash with the high-flying Ospreys [ 1.14], and Lyn Jones's men could run riot.

Despite the Ospreys' big wins at the Liberty Stadium in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, they have often struggled to break down teams in this tournament however. Their biggest winning margin in Swansea has been 17 points, but if you look at Ulster's 27 road defeats in this competition, they average a 33-13 beating in these games. With a handicap in the mid teens looking about right, only in-running punters should get any change from this market.

Saturday sees a host of big match-ups which includes European Champions Wasps [2.42] go to European Challenge Cup winners Clermont [1.6] and Llanelli [ 1.98] try and defend Stradey Park from Munster's [1.72] travelling hordes.

Sunday's best fixture pits the Stade Francais [1.2] glamour pusses against Cardiff's [3.25] more prosaic merits. The Blues had travelled to France 11 times and failed to win prior to last year's tournament when Bourgoin gifted them a 13-5 victory at the Stade Pierre Rajon.

The Blues' average scoreline in their 12 visits is 34-18, and with no Welsh side escaping anything less than a double-figure defeat in Paris in this completion, Max Guazzini's Pink Brigade could be value on any handicap under 20.