Heineken Cup: Three things to watch

It's a huge weekend for Connacht, a big opportunity for Ulster, while Munster need to get over their recently acquired travel sickness in the Heineken Cup.

By Conor Heneghan

Munster need to buck up on the road

Munster are incredibly proud of their record at home in Europe and rightly so. Thanks to the ‘Thomond factor’, many a team were beaten even before they arrived in Limerick and as they showed yet again last weekend, there’s an indefinable quality about the men in red on their own patch. Simply put, they don’t know when they’re beaten.

Losing their last two games away from home in the Rabo12 shouldn’t be a source of too much concern, but losing every single Heineken Cup game on the road last year will have stuck in the neck of Tony McGahan and his players and it was what caused their failure to qualify from the pool for the first time in 12 years.

They managed to take losing bonus points from two games, but that’s not good enough in such an ultra competitive tournament as the Heineken Cup. At least one away win and probably two will be required this season, preferably before Christmas and before they have to take on Northampton away in January.

Castres are third in the Top 14, but Munster can take them and perhaps need to if a repeat of last season is to be avoided.

Big opportunity for Ulster

Not many expected Ulster to overcome Clermont last weekend and judging by the bookies’ 12-point handicap, the majority of their followers will travel in hope rather than expectation this weekend. Following this game are back to back clashes with Aironi and although it would be dismissive to simply, eh, dismiss, the Italian outfit, if Ulster don’t win both of those games, they won’t come out of the pool, end of story.

If they could even take a losing bonus point from this weekend, they could potentially be looking at a 14 or 15 point haul before the last two games, a very strong position to be in indeed.

They’ll need to get in Leicester’s faces, but might not want to go over the top with the physical stuff. After all, nobody wants to be on the receiving end of the sort of treatment meted out to Chris Ashton by Manu Tuilagi in the video below.

Never gets old, does it?

The West awakes

The Sportsground in Galway has enjoyed plenty of memorable nights over the years, but occasions don’t come much bigger than when the best team ever to grace the Heineken Cup rattles up in your backyard and it’s fitting that it marks Connacht’s 100th game in Europe. Connacht have had their troubles over the years and have often been unfairly looked on by the IRFU, but this is a sign that they have truly arrived.

The province are probably sick to death of being damned with faint praise and associated with phrases like ‘valiant’ and ‘heroic in defeat’ as was the case in the aftermath of their loss to Harlequins last weekend, so Saturday evening’s game represents a massive test for Eric Elwood’s side. If they can put in a big performance, they can justifiably claim to belong with the European elite. If they’re not up to scratch, Toulouse will mercilessly expose their weaknesses.

It should be fascinating to watch.