7 matches in October

Blues 20-12 Ospreys. 24 Oct. 2009
After the two previous games with no tries this was a welcome fairly open game. The home side pack were too good for a below strength Ospreys team.

London Irish 18-12 Leicester. 24 Oct. 2009
No tries. Little excitement. Lewis Moody confortably won his battle against Stefan Armitage.

Scarlets 18-3 Dragons. 23 Oct. 2009
Rainy conditions. Lots of errors. No tries. Little to remember.

Ospreys 25-24 Clermont Auvergne. 18 Oct. 2009
Ospreys were classy in the first half then nearly let it slip in the second. Thankfully they held on for a vital win.

Harlequins 19-23 Toulouse. 17 Oct. 2009
A second half comeback from a spirited Toulouse side bodes well for their chances in this year's Heineken Cup.

Toulon 31-23 Saracens. 15 Oct. 2009
Jonny Wilkinson was in a good form.

Leicester 32-32 Ospreys. 11 Oct. 2009
In which the Ospreys built up a big 18 point lead only for the Tigers to stage a remarkable comeback. Leicester centre Billy Twelvetrees announced himself on the National stage with a man of the match performance and instantly became a cult hero. With a name like that what else do you expect? Top notch entertainment. For Ospreys fans it was painful viewing in the second half and you could argue they were lucky to come away with a draw.

Blues 20-6 Harlequins. 10th Oct. 2009

Went down to watch this game. As usual the day started with a hearty breakfast at Servinis. This was my first visit to the new Cardiff City Stadium in Leckwith. It was an early kick off so we headed straight for the pubs in Canton before heading to the stadium. It's only a ten minute walk from Cardiff Castle to Canton and then another ten minutes from Canton to the stadium, which is not as long as I thought it would be.

It was a bright sunny day and at kick off I was disappointed with the attendence; only 11,000. The first half was not full of high quality rugby. From a Blues perspective it wil be remembered for one thing, the injuries. Four Cardiff players went off injured, Bradley Davies, Gareth Thomas, John Yapp and most worryingly captain Paul Tito. After the break the Blues scored the first try with some tidy counter attack play that saw Leigh Halfpenny cross the line. Harlequins then started to dominate large parts of the second half. They were without their England stars Easter, Monye and Care but still caused the home side alot of problems. The balance of the game looked to have switched to Quins in the last ten minutes as they put heavy pressure on the Blues line. A certain try was on, only for Quins full back Mike Brown to knock-on yards from the line. This turned out to be the truning point of the game and the Blues pushed on to grab another try after Deniol Jones' kick forward was chased and converted by a sharp Halfpenny.
It was an average game that could have gone either way.

My man of the match. Halfpenny

Leinster 9-12 London Irish. 9th Oct. 2009

Ospreys 31-10 Edinburgh. 4th Oct. 2009