RugbyRebels

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS vs ASM CLERMONT AUVERGNE
Investec Champions Cup, Round of 16
Friday 4 April, 2025
cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens
Kick-off: 8pm

15 James Ramm
14 Tommy Freeman
13 Burger Odendaal
12 Fraser Dingwall (c)
11 George Hendy
10 Fin Smith
9 Alex Mitchell

1 Emmanuel Iyogun
2 Curtis Langdon
3 Trevor Davison
4 Temo Mayanavanua
5 Alex Coles
6 Josh Kemeny
7 Henry Pollock
8 Juarno Augustus

Replacements:
16 Henry Walker
17 Tom West
18 Luke Green
19 Tom Lockett
20 Angus Scott-Young
21 Tom Pearson
22 Tom James
23 Rory Hutchinson

Not available for selection:
Emeka Atuanya, George Furbank, Sam Graham, George Makepeace-Cubitt, Archie McParland, Toby Thame, Ollie Sleightholme, and Robbie Smith.

CLERMONT SIDE TO FACE SAINTS:
15 Alex Newsome, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Irae Simone, 12 George Moala, 11 Alivereti Raka, 10 Anthony Belleau, 9 Sebastien Bezy; 1 Giorgi Akhaladze, 2 Barnabe Massa, 3 Cristian Ojovan, 4 Rob Simmons, 5 Thomas Ceyte, 6 Pita Gus Sowakula, 7 Killian Tixeront, 8 Fritz Lee (c).
Replacements: 16 Folau Fainga'a, 17 Etienne Falgoux, 18 Michael Ala'alatoa, 19 Anthime Hemery, 20 Alexandre Fischer, 21 Jules Bousquet, 22 Ben Urdapilleta, 23 Pierre Fouyssac.

Referee: Andrew Brace (IRE)
Assistant referees: Andrew Cole and Padraic Reidy (both IRE)
No.4: James Clarke (ENG)
TMO: Marius Jonker (SA)

Good ding dong of a match so far

Jeez dallaglio is brutal on commentary

ASM are going to get rinsed from here

paddy no 11 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 04, 2025 8:31 pm Jeez dallaglio is brutal on commentary

He is fucking awful.

Saints are finding their flow and are able to play at pace. Clermont coughing up turnovers and giving away cheap penalties. Just can't do that against Saints.

Clermont dominated the first 10 mins and beat Saints up. They need to slow the game down a bit and bring back their power game otherwise Saints will rip them open and it'll be done by half time.

Henry Pollock is trying a lot of things, I think about two thirds have gone wrong so far. Perhaps needs to calm down a bit, he's made a couple of really nice turnovers.

Yellow card for Clermont for multiple offsides. Could get ugly now.

Uh oh

No way agustus scored that, embarrassing home town stuff from brace

The bezy yellow water ott too I'd say it was their 1st penalty after the previous yellow

paddy no 11 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 04, 2025 8:52 pm No way agustus scored that, embarrassing home town stuff from brace

Agreed, it was a lovely bit of play though

Felt like Saints needed that. Freeman is an absolute machine at the moment

Ah man that's terrible

I wound that back and I think the ref mic picked up the sound of that leg break, fritz lee must be one tough hombre because he didn't make a sound, I'd be screaming

Fun game that. Freeman's 3rd really put the wind back in Saints' sails when they had conceded 2 in a row

paddy no 11 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 04, 2025 8:31 pm Jeez dallaglio is brutal on commentary

He's been doing it so long I now genuinely don't hear him much of the time, it just blurs into the crowd noise.

Just caught the highlights. Nice turn from Freeman and some classy touches from Dingwall.

Mr Mwenda wrote: ↑Sat Apr 05, 2025 6:51 am

paddy no 11 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 04, 2025 8:31 pm Jeez dallaglio is brutal on commentary

He's been doing it so long I now genuinely don't hear him much of the time, it just blurs into the crowd noise.

Saw an AMA with him on Reddit the other day. He was generally very good humoured in the face of some pretty mocking questions, but he did note Jiffy as the best commentator going and an influence on his style.

Thought everyone here would enjoy that.

paddy no 11 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 04, 2025 9:36 pm I wound that back and I think the ref mic picked up the sound of that leg break, fritz lee must be one tough hombre because he didn't make a sound, I'd be screaming

My god the sound was horrific wasn’t it!