2GS The Sunday Times April 10, 2022 21Kelly’s superb hands
and feet can force
those obsessed by
giants to think again
Stuart Barnes
professional. The beefing up of the
No 12 is one of the greatest
differences between the then and
the now.
In the other European fixture,
Wesley Fofana, of Clermont
Auvergne, and Dan Kelly, below, of
Leicester Tigers, are throwbacks to
another age. The Frenchman’s glory
days have come and gone. The
Englishman, I have heard it said,
will never add to his cap gained
against US last year because at 6ft
and 15st he is simply “too small”.
This afternoon is a chance to
make the doubters think again. He
has superb hands and an ability to
make the first step the right one
after taking a pass.
Kelly has been impressive all
season, working cleverly
alongside George Ford. He
may be too light for the
taste of some but he is
worth another look.
Where better than
the bearpit that is
the Stade Marcel-
Michelin?Harlequins? Oh yes, they are the
team that throw it around. Lovely to
watch. That England fly half plays
like Puck in his club colours.
Take a poll of fans and few
wouldn’t have the reigning English
and aspiring European champions
as anything other than England’s
foremost entertainers.
The poets of the Premiership
now come face to face with
Montpellier, top of the Top 14. You
don’t get to such a lofty position in
the ultra-competitive French league
without packing plenty of muscle.
We expect something more prosaic
that is underpinned by the
percussive power of their play.
Yet when you take a closer look,
things may not be as they seem.
Pretty as Harlequins can play this
game, the power of their inside
centre, South Africa’s André
Esterhuizen, is central to all the
fancy Dan stuff. Last week against
London Irish he picked a brutal late
running angle as the game was
coming towards its end. He handed
his opponent off to score with
dismissive contempt.
It summed up the depth of
England’s champions. Beyond the
glittering surface of their glorious
trickery at half back is a hardcore
commitment to the basics of the
game. Harlequins never play from
side to side. The Springbok is the
man who is their apex behind the
scrum. He’s the other side of
Marcus Smith.
He also happens to be 6ft 4in and
17st 11lb. He doesn’t perforate
gainlines so much as pound them
into the dust. To stop him from
providing front-foot possession and
offloading to Smith is to stop
England’s champions. Well,
almost.
It’s not only Esterhuizen who
replaces the poetry with prose. In
the back row, there is no better ball
carrier in England than Alex
Dombrandt. He has size, speed, an
innate rugby intelligence that puts
him on the same wavelength as
Smith and a determination to
ensure complete domination on the
front foot. Muscular poetry.
The tries are often exquisite but
the centrality of these massive ball
carriers is at the epicentre of just
about everything. There’s a
great deal of hard graft that
goes into making a team
look as pretty as
Harlequins but the
gainline is as
central to them as
it is to the most
antediluvian
crash, bang,
wallop sides around.
England’s most poetic
side are, in fact, playing
the game in the same way
it has always been played
by the best teams. When the
foundations are laid by the
likes of the inside centreand No 8, that’s when it gets
gloriously pyrotechnic.
In contrast, Montpellier do not
focus on the heart of the gainline
offensive. Geoffrey Doumayrou is a
comparative lightweight centre at
14st 7lb. He uses footwork to shift
opposing defenders into positions
where he can break through the
defender.
Even more contrasting is the
sight of the former Bath No 8, Zach
Mercer, coming up against the
hulking Harlequin. Capped early in
his career by Eddie Jones, it was
increasingly obvious that his lack of
ballast signalled the end of his
international aspirations.
The return of Manu Tuilagi to
start for Sale Sharks (6ft 1in and 17st
4lb) was one of the headlines going
into this weekend’s European
fixtures. The cult England hero
epitomises the prevailing belief that
to dominate the opposition, one
must smash a direct course through
the midfield defence.
To see a 17st inside centre on the
charge is becoming a common
sight. Props were rarely such a
weight when the game turned‘Tuilagi epitomises
the belief that to
dominate the game
one must smash
through the defence’ON TV TODAY
Montpellier v Harlequins
1pm BT Sport 3
Clermont v
Leicester Tigers
3.15pm BT Sport 3from which a heavy shower did little
to lift the spirits of a struggling game.
Bristol reacted by bringing their
counterattacking genius, Charles
Piutau, off the bench. Almost
immediately the full back shrugged
off a tackle to send Randall into space
but another terrible pass from
Sinckler brought any hint of West
Country continuity to an abrupt
ending. The England tight-head had a
poor afternoon. It was no surprise to
see him substituted after 49 minutes.
Tuilagi and De Klerk were both
replaced at the same time. Both
teams are shadows of the sides that
fought their way to last season’s
Premiership semi-finals. Racing 92 or
Stade Français will not be trembling
in their Parisian boots at the thought
of either of these teams travelling for
a quarter-final clash in Paris.
Even Randall, who made a sharp
little break from a scrum beneath his
own posts in the 64th minute, threw
the resultant pass into the turf.
Simon Hammersley, a specialist
full-back replacement, dropped the
most straightforward of kicks. From
this sow’s ear of a mistake, Bristol
finally flashed the silkiest of their
purses in the shape of the imposingSemi Radradra. Piers O’Conor drifted
across the field; the Fijian cut the
angle as only he can. He eased inside
two flailing tackles to score between
the posts. It was one of those
moments of magic; the only one at
the AJ Bell. Minutes later the Fijian
conceded a penalty and Du Preez
narrowed the margin to a point.
There was another isolated
outburst of excitement as Bristol’s
replacement scrum half, Andy Uren,
picked off an interception and
headed for the line, and not just a
win, but either five or seven more
points. Reed cut him down in the
second pulse-racing incident of this
first leg. It is advantage Bristol.Star man Semi Radradra.
Scorers: Sale: Pens R Du Preez (5 min, 10, 77).
Bristol: Try S Radradra 70. Con Sheedy 71. Pen
Sheedy 17.
Sale L James; J Metcalf (S Hammersley 66), S
James, M Tuilagi (R Janse van Rensburg 50); R Du
Preez, F de Klerk (R Quirke 50 (T Taylor 72)); B
Rodd (S McIntyre 64), A van der Merwe (E Ashman
64), N Schonert (C Oosthuizen 31), C Wiese, L de
Jager, JL du Preez, J Ross, D du Preez.
Bristol L Morahan; J Bates (C Piutau 41), P
O’Conor, S Bedlow (S Radradra 59), A Leiua; C
Sheedy, H Randall (A Uren 77); J Woolmore (Y
Thomas 64), B Byrne (H Thacker 49), K Sinckler (J
Afoa 49), D Attwood (S Luatua 49), J Joyce, C Vui,
S Jeffries, N Hughes (F Harding 59).
Referee M Raynal (Fr).TIM WILLIAMS/ACTION PLUS/SHUTTERSTOCK
They managed to drag themselves
back up the field and appeared to have
every chance of extending their five-
point lead but fell foul of the new law
by failing to prove they had grounded
the ball and conceding possession.
And even though it could all have
been so different, there was no doubt-
ing the courage of Munster. They had
very little punch in attack when both
teams were full in numbers but they
had an astonishingly good back row at
the breakdown, and that familiar
bloody-mindedness which has so
often carried them through against
teams that have more class.
They may not have made the finest
signings ever, they may now lack the
marquee players who took them to
their two European Cup triumphs — a
long time ago. But even in a denuded
state yesterday and under all kinds of
pressure, there was no sign whatso-
ever that their spirit would break.
Exeter scored a glorious one-phase
try to open their account when they
clearly targeted the defence of Chris
Farrell, they brought Tom O’Flaherty
into the line and Chris’s passing sent
Hogg over down the right. And they
did finally manage a trademark try
from close range when Jacques Ver-
meulen scored near half-time.
But Simmonds missed both conver-
sions, and the marvellous resistance
of Jack O’Donoghue and John Hodnett
in the back row and the composure of
Healy kept Munster motoring in some
kind of recognisable form.
The match turned in the sin-bin,
and yet everything is to play for in
Limerick next Saturday. Exeter will be
under pressure, but they live their
rugby lives under pressure, and they
have never done too badly.
And what could conceivably tip the
scales is that Munster could have
some key players back for the second
leg. But sometimes it is not the iden-
tity of individuals in the team which is
so important, it is the spirit of its elect-
ive and that is something of which
Munster have always traded, and yet
in their team they had two of the
greatest individuals the Champions
Cup have seen in Paul O’Connell and
Ronan O’Gara.
Perhaps you might now see theGEORGE TWEKESBURY/PPAUKUlster survived a late scare to
defeat Toulouse 26-20 at the
home of the reigning Champions
Cup winners.
Robert Baloucoune scored a
stunning hat-trick, but after
Romain Ntamack touched down
with a minute left, Toulouse’s full
back Thomas Ramos darted out
from his 22, chasing a winner.
Ulster scrapped to thwart the
hosts, finally forcing a knock on.
In the Challenge Cup, the
hooker Santi Socino scored a hat-
trick as Gloucester fought back
to beat Dragons 26-21. Cameron
Nordli-Kelemeti scored a try in the
final minute to guide Newcastle
Falcons past Zebre 25-22.ULSTER SURVIVE AFTER
BALOUCOUNE TREBLEsame impetus in the tournament
itself. As I say, it seems bedraggled
compared to its glory years, the
French bosses can do with being a
little more commercially successful
and a little less bossy, and there is no
point in pretending that the rewards
to the clubs are anything remotely
big enough. If Exeter cannot fill their
ground in an area of sporting pas-
sion, then it is not always the fault of
the absent spectators.
The fighting men of Exeter and
Munster move on to round two, and
it is unlikely that too many empty
seats will greet them when they
come out again to do sporting battle.
Scorers: Exeter: Tries Hogg (5min), Vermeulen
(37). Drop-goal Hogg (65). Munster: Try Daly
(67). Pen Healy (56).
Exeter S Hogg; O Woodburn (sin-bin 59-69), H
Slade, I Whitten (H Skinner 68), T O’Flaherty; J
Simmonds, S Maunder (J Maunder) 59; A
Hepburn (B Moon 55), J Yeandle (J Innard 68), H
Williams (P Schickerling 50, sin-bin 60-70), J
Gray, S Skinner, D Ewers (J Kirsten 56), J
Vermeulen (R Capstick 56), S Simmonds.
Munster M Hales; K Earls, C Farrell, D de
Allende, S Zebo; B Healy, C Murray (C Casey
62); J Loughman (J Wycherley 62), N Scannell, S
Archer, J Kleyn (T Ahern 63), F Wycherley, J
O’Donoghue, J Hodnett (J Jenkins 73), A
Klendellen (J O’Sullivan 28, sin-bin 36-46).
Referee Pierre Brousset (Fr).Friday
Bristol (10) v Sale (9),
8pmSaturday
Munster (8) v Exeter
Chiefs (13), 3pmSECOND
LEGS