The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 73

The Observer 7 January 2001 European knees-up after a diet of stodge British clubs return to continental action next weekend in what promises to be a combative build-up to the start of the Six Nations ther club are in particularly good nick at the moment matters not a jot. If Gloucester win and it remains a bit of an iffy if they have only to win away in Rome to qualify. That leaves them as the second most likely English team to make the last eight. The defending champions Northampton are already out, with not a single point to their name. Winning the pot does seem to carry a knock-on effect.

A knock-out effect. Wasps and in Paris against the champions of France. Even if they first beat Wasps -whom they thumped at home a loss in France may leave them only as runners-up in the pool, thereby condemned to an away trip in the quarter-finals. They are not alone in their precari-ousness. At the end of October's first raft of Heineken Cup pool games just about every question was left unanswered.

After four rounds of six, quali- Which leaves Leicester. Their game against Pau carries all the weight of Newport-Munster and Gloucester-Llanelli, with an extra Pyrenean feel to it: beautiful city, dangerous part of the world. Leicester have previously won in Pau, which helps, and are indomitable in England. But they are, of course, without their suspended enforcer. Pau are unfathomable.

They can be unbelievably good, shockingly bad and wickedly sinful. One head-butt by their former scrum-half Frederic Torossian still sticks, as it were, in the mind. If Chris Wright thinks he is being tested at Wasps, it is nothing compared with the examination Irish referee Allan Lewis will be put through in the shadows of the Pyrenees. The winner will probably take all, although Pontypridd could well have a say since they play the French club at Sardis Road in the last round. That may be a fair test of the ref as well, come to think of it.

Now that we're thankfully past the mid-season break of stodge, we can all sit back, like Martin Johnson, count the collisions and wonder how we managed to work ourselves into such a tizz over a couple of broken ribs. Let the real knees-up begin. Castres, despite their irregularities of form and forms, are hardly likely to lie down and sulk. In the provincial rugby towns of France a heap of local pride comes into play. Or fear of being lynched.

Their home game with Bath is as important and likely to be as combative as the very final. MUNSTER REMAIN FAVOURITES to win the pool and Leinster to win pool one but before two Irish provinces go forward there are a few twists and turns to negotiate. Munster must go to Newport, Leinster to Biarritz. Bath and Newport may yet have everything to play for when they meet on the last weekend. Just as riveting is the clash at King-shohn on Saturday between Gloucester and Llanelli.

The Welsh club started sluggishly in October by losing at Stradey Park to Gloucester but immediately picked up with three wins, including an away one at Colomiers. Gloucester continued their good work with a big win against Roma, but then dropped a point at home to Colomiers. And then lost away in the suburbs of Toulouse. Gloucester against-Llanelli the Cherry and Whites against the Scarlets is going to be one of those no-frill sell-outs that we have been lusting after for five years. The fact that nei caveats.

Ulster beat them on the opening night of competition at Ravenhill. And although Cardiff may guarantee themselves a slot in the last eight, to guarantee an all-important home tie they will then have to win away in Toulouse, a prospect that can make even the most hirsute of cavemen gulp. Those trips to France for Swansea and Cardiff are in the last round. Before then there are even more compelling make-or-break ties for other clubs. Pool four, for instance, has taken over from Cardiff pool three as the group of death.

Out of Munster, Newport, Bath and Castres, only the French team cannot proceed any farther, partly because they have managed only one win, at home to Newport, and partly because they were docked a point for fielding New Zealan-der Norm Berryman in round one against Bath. Nobody would dispute that the mighty Norm is a tasty investment, but unfortunately he became another on the list, that includes Tim Horan at Saracens and Peter Rogers at Cardiff, of incorrectly registered players. Whenever the clubs rage against disciplinary systems or general inefficiencies within the governing body, they might bear in mind that they ain't been too efficient themselves when it comes to the paperwork. Eddie Butler HAVING BEEN WOUND up two-and-a-half months ago as tight as a shrunken jockstrap around the waist of a lard-arse loose-head, the pools of the European Cup are about to be released. After the wet, humdrum routines that have been the domestic Premiership norm since the end of the autumn Test series, continental rugby is about to be catapulted back into our sights.

Or our cites, as Martin Johnson might say as he sits back to watch from the sidelines the action that is bound to produce its fair share of knees and nibbles. For every Bath-Newport, which will ooze mutual respect, there is a Stade Fran-cais-Swansea, a tie distinctly lacking in cordiality, but bristling instead with the menace of scores to be settled after the dismissal of Colin Charvis and the theatrics of Diego Dominguez in the clubs' first meeting at St Helen's. The situations of Swansea and Stade sum up how fraught these last two rounds will be. Swansea are the only side to remain unbeaten to the Cup. But they face two away games, in London against Pau can be unbelievably good or shockingly bad Saracens may claim a runners-up spot behind Cardiff, but a tally of eight points from six games carries no guarantees, as Bath may also discover.

Wasps will be going no farther, although they have improved of late in the Zurich Premiership. They went wonky in October just at the wrong time, a blip that must have tempted owner Chris Wright to give it all up as a song that will not sell. Running QPR and Wasps must sometimes strike him as a twin-peak test of his fortitude and chequebook. Kingsliy's the talk of he town Jon Henderson meets the voluble Gloucester captain ahead of his side's biggest game to date Saracens went wonky just at the wrong time fication for the quarter-finals remained a possibility for all bar seven of the 24 teams. Now, three staccato bursts before January is out will reduce those two dozen starters to just four semi-finalists.

There could be no better fanfare for the start of the Six Nations, which follows immediately in February. Just a few of the ties have a cut-and-dried appearance. Cardiff, for example, need only win at home against Ulster on Friday night to earn themselves a quarter-final spot. But 'only' carries a few to put my hand up to Graham Henry the not only that Fin still alive, but that I'm still playing and am still available to represent my country. You can get overlooked playing in England, where you don't get covered by the Welsh press.

The Llanelli game will be a chance to be Jones, with a compact build and playing style that have been likened to the All Black Josh Kronfeld, takes encouragement from the fact that the scrum-half Rupert Moon, who is older than him, regained his place in the Welsh team last year. 'Now the game's professional, players go on much longer and I feel I could be picked again on merit. Having said that, Colin Charvis is an outstanding player and if they persist with playing him at No 7 1 haven't really got an argument. But I would still like to be involved with the A team set-up. I eel I' ve got a lot of experience that I could pass on to other INDEED JONES IS one of rugby union's great communicators.

When I say to him, 'You've got a reputation for being someone who likes he chips in helpfully to complete the sentence, He then confesses: 'My teachers at school said that I talked too much, but it's been an asset for me. You need a lot of communication on a rugby field in defence and attack and a man who can talk for 80 minutes throughout a fast game of rugby offers his team an added He releases another of those smiles that flicker permanently just beneath the surfaceof his expression. It is a genetic gift. His father, Phil Kingsley Jones, a prop for Ebbw Vale, was a stand-up comedian and compere -he now lives in New Zealand where he manages Jonah Lomu and Jones himself has supplemented his income for some years with speaking engagements. Does he use any of his father's gags? 'Some.

He rings me up from New Zealand half cut and tells me a joke now and he says. 'Some are The consequence of being so voluble has been being cast as captain almost continuously since his schooldays he was put in charge of Cross Keys at the age of 22 and even when he is not officially leading a side he tends to do so anyway. An example of this was when the Gloucester coach, Philippe Saint- POOL 3 FINDING A QUIET comer in a rugby clubhouse is probably as discovering; a noisy one in a Trappist mbnastery. -The calm that accompanies my interview with the Gloucester captain, Kingsley Jones, lasts only as long as it takes the other players, having their lunch nearby, to notice us, at which point a mocking chant of 'Warrior' shatters the peace a reference to newspaper description of Jones ended, eventually, by the comment 'more like Welsh wanker' and raucous industrial laughter. These, of course, are the sounds of a club in rude health.

The ritual of merciless joshing in this instance of a popular: leader, who is himself a legendary mickey-taker is as important an indicator of well-being as the sheen on the coat of a thoroughbred. If the approach of a big match brings on an even more virulent strain of ribbing, so much the better. For Gloucester, the biggest match of the season 'One of the biggest in the club's says manager John Brain takes place at their Kingsholm ground next Saturday when they play the return fixture in the Heineken European Cup against Llanelli, who are the pool five leaders but by only one point from the French side Colomiers and Gloucester. It is a bigger match still for the 30-year-old Jones, a flank forward who comes from Nantyglo, a village near the top of the valley that runs down to Newport, where they regard those from west Wales with even more suspicion than they do the English. 'To be honest with he says, 'I'd like the Welsh clubs to do very well in Europe, but even if I was playing for Ebbw Vale one of three senior Welsh clubs he has played for I'd badly want to beat Llanelli.

How can 1 say it I've never been a Llanelli At which point, he smiles and stops trying to explain a rivalry that he seems to judge is too Welsh for an Englishman ever to understand properly. Quite apart from the issue of club loyalty, though, Jones sees the game as a chance to resurrect a 12-match international career that stalled after he captained Wales against South Africa in Pretoria in June 1998. 'We got he says. In fact, it was worse than that. They lost 96-13.

'I've been really, really looking forward to the Llanelli game since the draw was he says. 'It's a chance for me All the details P00L1 POOL 2 Teachers said I talked too much but it's been an asset' but unfortunately we're making too many errors and letting the opposition But Gloucester have the psychological advantage of already having beaten Llanelli 27-20 on the opening day of the competition last October. THEIR PERFO RMANCE THAT day reinforced the point that the appointment of a former French wing three-quarter as their coach has done nothing to diminish Gloucester's reputation as a competitive side, who still take pride in their forward strength. As Saint-Andre says of rugby: 'It's a war, and it's for So, they're all warriors really. and decided to give me the captaincy Jones's main concern for the match against Llanelli is that Gloucester will make the fundamental errors that have blighted some of their recent performances in the Zurich Premiership, where he considers the general standard of play across most teams, even since the start of this season, to have risen closer to international level than he has ever known it.

'You make a mistake now and the other side punishes you for it, and we're making too many of them. We're playing all the rugby and having all the control, Andre, handed over the club captaincy to the All Black lock Ian Jones at the start of this season. Kingsley Jones says he saw the sense in exploiting such an experienced player's great knowledge of the game by making him captain during his short stay with the club and thought it would be a change for him not to have to do it anymore. 'But it was totally he says, 'and basically I carried on exactly the same. On the field, if there's a decision to be made and you're the sort of person who says what should be done whether you're captain or not, you'll say it.

I think Philippe and John Brain saw that Eat my shorts: Gloucester captain Kingsley Jones is targeting Llanelli and regaining his place in the Welsh team. Photograph by Richard Saker WHAT IF? A Pt 95 6 76 6 Should teams finish level on points, their positions will be determined by their results against one another. Should that prove inconclusive, points difference in matches between the teams is the next criterion, followed by the number of tries scored. If a winner is still not forthcoming, the focus shifts to the number of tries scored in all pool matches and, if that fails to yield a victor, points difference in all pool matches is next. Any teams still level will then be judged by the number of players sent off in all pool matches.

After that, all that remains is the toss of a coin. That always works. 75 4 163 0 xy, POOL 6 PWDL A Pt Pau 4 0 1120 Leicester 4 3 0 1 117 3 0 1 126 54 2 nzu a 2 11 72 85 1" Pontypridd 4 2 0 2 86 Glasgow 4 0 0 4 86 0 0 4 38153 PWDL A ft PW PL A Pt PWDL A Pt Leinster 4 3 0 1 110 77 6 Swansea 4 4 0 0 215 53 8 Cardiff 4 3 0 1 105 8b63 Biarritz 4 3 0 1 110 110 6 StdFrancais 4 3 0 179 63 6 Saracens 4 2 0 2 124 105 4 Edinburgh 4 2 0 2 97107 4 Wasps 4 1 0 3105135 2 Ulster 4 112 117142 3 Northampton 4 0 0 4 93 112 0 L'Aquila 4 0 0 4 26 201 0 Toulouse 4 112 103 118 3 00L4 POOL 5 A Pt Munster 4 3 0 1 94 74 6 Llanelli 4 Newport 4 2 0 2 88106 4 Gloucester 4 Bath 4 2 0 2 69 77 4 Colomiers 4 Castres 4 1 0 3 105 99 1 Roma 4 0ne point deducted. Results: Munster 26 Newport 18, Bath 25 Castres 13, Newport 28 Bath 17, Castres 29 Munster 32, Munster 31 Bath 9, Newport 21 Castres 20, Bath 18 Munster 5, Castres 43 Newport 21. Results: Llanelli Roma 5 Llanelli 19, Llanelli 46 Colomiers 22, Colomiers 30 Results: Pontypridd 40 Glasgow 25, Leicester 46 Pau 18, Pau 12 Pontypridd 9, Glasgow 21 Leicester 33, Pontypridd 18 Leicester 11, Glasgow 24 Pau 46, Leicester 27 Pontypridd 19, Pau 44 Glasgow 16.

20 Gloucester 27, Colomiers 14, Colomiers 6 Gloucester 52 Roma 12, Roma 0, Gloucester 22 Roma 21 Llanelli 41, Gloucester 19. Results: Ulster 32 Cardiff 23, Toulouse 22 Saracens 32, Cardiff 26 Toulouse 17, Saracens 55-25 Ulster 25, Saracens 23 Cardiff 32, Toulouse 35 Ulster 35, Ulster 25 Toulouse 29, Cardiff 24 Saracens 14. Results: Stade Francais 92 L'Aquila 7, Swansea 54 Wasps 28, Swansea 18 Stade Francais 16, L'Aquila 10 Wasps 39, Stade Francais 40 Wasps 6 Swansea 70, Swansea 73 L'Aquila 3, Wasps 28 Stade Francais 31. i1 Results: Edinburgh 29 Leinster 21, Biarritz 37 Northampton 32, Leinster 35 Biarritz 9, Northampton 22 Edinburgh 23, Biarritz 29 Edinburgh 18, Northampton 8 Leinster 14, Edinburgh 27 Biarritz 35, Leinster 40 Northampton 31. Fixtures: 12 Jan: Leinster Edinburgh (7pm) 13 Jan: Northampton Biarritz (3pm) 19 Jan: Edinburgh Northampton (7pm) 20 Jan: Biarritz Leinster (6.30pm) Fixtures: 13 Leicester (3.15pm) 14 Jan: Glasgow Pontypridd (3pm) 20 Jan: Leicester Glasgow (3pm), Pontypridd Pau (2.30pm).

27-28 Jan: Quarter-finals; 21-22 Apr: Semi-finals; 19 May: Final. Fixtures: 13 Jan: Gloucester Llanelli (3pm), Colomiers Roma (6pm). 20 Jan: Roma Gloucester (2.30pm), Llanelli Colomiers (2.30pm). Futures: 13 Jan: L'Aquila Stade Francais (tbc) 14 Jan: Wasps Swansea (3pm) 21 Jan: Wasps L'Aquila (3pm), Stade Francais Swansea (tbc). Fixtures: 12 Jan: Cardiff Ulster (7.05pm) 14 Jan: Saracens Toulouse (2.15pm) 19 Jan: Ulster Saracens (7.30pm) 20 Jan: Toulouse Cardiff (2.30pm) Top performer: Cardiff's Neil Jenkins Fixtures: 13 Jan: Newport Munster (5.35pm), Castres Bath (7.30pm).

20 Jan: Bath Newport (tbc), Munster Castres (3.30pm)..