The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 26

81 Sport The Guardian Monday November 10 1997 8 Wasps 18, Brive25 llalpin Champions draw Wasps sting Day I made my point to the All Blacks aSBSaSBBBBBBBBBBBBaOsS HmB. BHg' WSSUSBlmmmK wKKVmmBmimVM' BlHB.Bl2' aansBBlaaaiaBBHHal -HIBBk SfcJ B-' BBBBBB.rai CSBHK' iPW Kr BBBslBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBlaBB Robert Armstrong I RIVE displayed a 'repertoire worthy of European champions 'with a brilliantly-three-try victory at crafted Loftus Road yesterday. Six penalties by Wasps' Gareth Rees never looked like being sufficient to overcome a side of grace, style and power. The main side-effect of Wasps's defeat, their fourth in a row, was to hand Bath, the only surviving English club, a home draw for their semi-final against Pau on December 20. Toulouse, the 1996 champions, will be involved in an all French semi-final at home to Brive.

The final will be staged at a French venue on January 31. Brive were applauded off. the field by a spirited Wasps side that would probably admit in private that they were outclassed in vital decisionmaking areas. Each time Wasps edged in front the hold ers demonstrated a rare ability to raise their game and score further tries by Loic van der Linden and Jerome Carrat after a stunning early touchdown by Sebastian Carrat. "We showed passion and commitment but ultimately we were not able to finish off our attacking moves," said Lawrence Dallaglio.

the Wasps captain. "When we were leading 15-10 we attacked their 22 but we gave away a soft try of a type you should never concede at this level. "Brive took their chances and defended extremely well." Wasps were far from dead and buried in the closing stages as they showed with several swashbuckling sorties by their loose forwards, yet Brive always seemed able to dip into their box of surprises and pull out another inventive ploy with a telling back-row move or a shrewd change of direction in the midfield. Brive could not have shown a more lethal sense of timing, putting Wasps under pressure with converted tries at the start and finish of the first half. Dallaglio was left for dead when the Brive full-back Sebastian Viars made a blind-side break down the left Pau 35, Leicester 18 outside-half was surprising when one considers he is not as apt at the passing game as others.

I know that the coach Brian Ashton wants to transform Ireland from a kicking to a running side but, given the circumstances, I think they have done the right thing in choosing Eric. They have picked a backline that will tackle. There are three new caps behind the scrum. John McWeeney, the former second-row, is picked on the right wing; Kevin Nowlan comes in to the team at fullback, replacing the injured Conor O'Shea, and the Con-nacht player Conor McGuin-ness wins his first cap at scrum-half. All three play their club rugby at St Mary's in Dublin.

The three new boys, together with Eddie Halvey, are the only four on the team who play their rugby in Ireland. That sure is a sign of the times. I asked O'Kelly and Dawson about their expectations for the game. Both said they would be in dire straits if they were to listen to the doom and gloom forecasted by some pundits. When you are playing in situations against all the odds (God knows they're used to that when they play for London Irish) it is vital to lock out all the negatives.

Being negative is an easy option. We faced similar circumstances in the '95 World Cup, when many said we would lose by a margin of 50 or more points. These giant odds against helped us create a strong unity and sense of cause. DUBLIN will be the place to be next Saturday. Iam flying over with my wife that morning.

I have never been to Lansdowne Road on an international day without being in some way involved. I've got my hat, scarf, sheepskin gloves and hip flask; I'm all ready to go. I'll be staying with my old mate, the former Irish second-row Neil "The Ganch" Francis, so Saturday night should be good. As to a forecast, in true Irish fashion I am sitting on the fence. If the Irish pack can really get into the All Blacks' faces, particularly in open play, it could be a close contest that the All Blacks will win by a margin of 10 or less points.

But if our pack do not play well and the All Blacks win fast possession we could be roasted alive, alive-oh. THE arrival of the All Blacks has certainly reopened the book of embarrassing moments in my life. All week the kids at school have kept asking me: "Mr Halpin, why did you give the All Blacks the finger when you scored your try against them in the '95 World Cup?" It is always difficult to put a gentle edge on the story when explaining my misdemeanour to the young and innocent. I think my wife always puts it nicely when she says: "Never give the New Zealanders the finger in a rugby game especially when there are 57 minutes to play." New Zealand went on to win that game 42-17. It is a piece of advice I would definitely pass on to the new caps at London Irish, Malcolm O'Kelly and Kieron Dawson.

What an occasion for them, to win their first caps against the best team in the world today. Malcolm and Kieron have been inundated with well-wishers since the announcement of the teams last Sunday. Winning your first cap is one of the best feelings you will ever have as a rugby player and it is especially nice to win it on home soil. There are a number of new faces and surprises on the Irish side to face the All Blacks on Saturday. Given the 81-3 trouncing of Llanelli, it will be an extremely difficult game.

The Irish have a solid and mobile pack and much will be expected of the Lions contingent of Popplewell, Wood, Wallace and Miller. The Irish pack can mix it with the best if they create the right conditions. New Zealand's back row, whatever combination is chosen, is more than likely going to be the difference between the two packs. The Irish trio of Dawson, Miller and Halvey, each outstanding in his own right, simply do not have enough playing time to trouble the All Blacks. A major area of concern for Ireland will be the one-to-one battles from nine to 15.

When one looks at a possible All Black backline of Marshall, Mehrtens, Umanga, Bunce, Wilson, Lomu and Cullen, the outcome could be scary indeed. I spoke with the London Irish centre Mark McCall, who will mark Bunce. He's expecting to make many tackles. It would be unrealistic to think otherwise. Eric Elwood's selection at Road blocked Brive's French juggernaut Loic van der Linden is halted by Lawrence Dallaglio at Loftus Road yesterday photograph: alex livesey rome Carrat.

He picked up a hack the ball away from the edge of his 22 and in a twinkling the rangy flanker, van der Linden had crashed over. Between times Brive ran through the full gamut of infringements, forced and unforced, which gave the Wasps' goalkicker Rees the opportunity to slot home five first-half penalties. It was the French side's habit of standing offside that gifted Rees most of his points after half Crestfallen Tigers retreat with harsh words from Dwyer an hour Wasps led 15-7 yet Brive, a penalty by Lamaison for offside, still showed sufficient firepower to turn round two points in front. From the restart Wasps applied sustained pressure with Nick Greenstock getting within a whisker of the score. But all the English champions had to show for their efforts was another penalty by Rees after the Brive pack dropped a scrum.

Soon after de Hameau, notably in a series of line-outs on the Pau line which finally yielded a 35th-minute try for Neil Back, but rarely summoned inspiration behind the scrum. The eyeballing at the early scrums was of international class, with Martin Johnson receiving a stern warning for elbowing in a line-out, but the same could not be said about the rugby. The lock Thierry Cleda was driven over for the opening try after five minutes and Pau had a 12-point cushion by the end of the first quarter thanks to local knowl Robert Kitson LEICESTER have climbed a few French peaks over the past year but yesterday, within sight of the snow-capped Pyrenees, they were unable to negotiate the treacherous path through Pau's backyard. If the French Cup champions are nothing like as formidable as Toulouse or Brive, they had enough pride and endurance to push the Tigers over the edge in a simmering encounter of variable quality. Premiership One: Sale 76, Bristol 0 Bristol spent by Sale frenzy Toulouse 51 Harlequins 1 0 Carling in awe as Toulouse turn up the turbo-charger collide leaving nervous Rec wards Simon Mitchell, the Wasps' hooker, was spotted by the referee raising a knee in a scrum and Lamaison hammered over a superb 45-metre penalty from near the right touchline.

Brive appeared to draw fresh inspiration from that score, bringing extra pace to their game and it came as no surprise to see them plunder a third try in the 56th minute through their right wing Je edge. Frederic Leloir's kick-and-chase effort would have been impossible on most grounds but Pau's in-goal areas could easily accommodate half a dozen tennis courts each. A slender home half-time lead of 12-8 was ultimately transformed by a superb try from the wing Philippe Bernat-Salles, cutting inside to take a scoring pass from the galloping Brusque, plus a kicking haul of 15 points from the fly-half David Aucagne. Despite Waisale Serevi's alert tap-penalty score, Pau would have been heading on the charge FRANK BARON "excellent which he suggested was strong enough overall to earn them the European crown. The Cardiff coach highlighted the American No.

8 Dan Lyle and the England fly-half Mike Catt as the critical influences in a turbulent game. Evans might have added Phil de Glanville, who was dynamic in defence and attack. It will be intriguing to see what role England's coach Clive Woodward allocates to Catt when he announces his team for Saturday's Test against Australia. On this occasion Catt teased and stretched the Cardiff defence with carefully judged tactical kicking. It was a metronomic performance reminiscent of Rob Andrew in his pomp.

Bath also owed a heavy debt to their goalkicker Callard, who landed a conversion and five penalties. In the first touchline before off-loading to Sebastian Carrat. The left wing had time to cruise towards the posts and make a simple conversion kick for Lamaison. On the stroke of half-time an error by the Wasps' scrum-half Martyn Wood, who lost the ball in midfield, allowed Olivier Magne and Philippe Carbonneau to set up an old-fashioned foot-rush down the left. Shane Roiser failed to Pau will scarcely mind being cast as the outsiders in the semi-finals, even if their best rugby is rarely exported outside the deep South-west of France.

They scored four tries, had another disallowed and sidestepped the suspended half of the 20,000 fine they incurred for their part in the infamous encounter with Llanelli that generated violence on and off the pitch. Yet their approach was not enough to prevent the Leicester director of rugby Bob Dwyer firing barbs at the home side's diversionary tactics and stand-in World Cup," said the former England captain. "That was one of the great performances by a club team. They were hugely impressive. I can't see anyone beating them if they play like that again." Carling and Laurent Ca-bannes were the only Quins to emerge with reputations completely unscathed as Toulouse exploded any cosy optimism in English rugby as effectively as a pre-match flare or firecracker.

Connoisseurs of front-row scrummaging will have to go a long way to find a better club trio than Christian Cali-fano, Soula and Franck Tournaire. There were also power, pace and precision aplenty among the backs from the moment the fit-again Emile Nta-mack glided on to Stephane Ougier's grub-kick to open the scoring. Clever chips also produced tries for Philippe Lapoutge and Pierre Bon-douy, and Ougier's five penalties kept up the remorseless pressure. "The only people who can beat us are ourselves," mused the captain Jerome Cazalbou later. No one was inclined to disagree.

SCORERSi Toulousei Trlasi Ntamack, Lapoutge, Bondouy 2, Dispagne, Lacroix. Convaralonsi Delaigue 2, Ouglor. Penalties! Ougler 5. Hariequlnai Tryi Lacroix. Convereloni Lacroix.

Penalty! Lacroix. Toulousei Ougler: Ntamack (Marlalng, 57mln), Palllat, Bondouy, Lapoutge; Dolalguo, Cazalbou (capt); Callfono, Soula (Boguo, 6B), Tournalro (Jordana 61), Miorln (Belot, 57), Polous, Lacroix, Labll, Dlspagno. Harlequins! Williams: O'Leary (Keyter, 77), Carling, Ngauamo, Tollell; Lacroix, Harries (Walshe, 55); Ozdemlr (Rowse, 52), Wood (capt), Leonard, Llewellyn, Gross, Jenkins, Cabannes, Davison. Relereai 0 Bevan (Walos). low trundling pass from Car bonneau before crashing over at the flag.

SCORERS! Waepsi Penalties! Rees 6. Brlvei Trias: Carrat, van der Linden, Carrat. Convereionai Lamaison 2 Penalties! Lamaison 2. Waepai Rees; Roiser, Greenstock Henderson. Loaan: Kinq, Wood: Molloy, Mitchell, Green, Cronin, Reed, Dallaglio (capt), volley, Sheasby.

Brivai Vlars; Carrat, Lamaison, Venditti, Carrat: Carbonneau (capt). Bonnet, Casadei, Travers, brespy. Allegret, Manhes, van den Linden, Magne Duboisset. Refaraei Mulr (Scotland). for the sunlit uplands much earlier had Davies not dis allowed a Pau try for a for ward pass from Leloir to the wing Martin, a huge relief for Joel Stransky whose fumble in midfield had caused the problem.

SCORERSi Paul Trlaii Cleda, Lololr, Bernat-Salles, Brusque. Conversions! Aucagne 3. Penalties! Aucagne 3 Leieastari Trlasi Back, Serevl Conversion! Stransky. Panaltieei Stransky 2. Paul Brusaue: Bernat-Salles, Dantlacq, Lololr, Martin: Aucagne, Torosslan: Trlep- Capdevllle (Bria.

ezmm). Hey, Gonzalez. Mentieres (Lagouarde. 6S), Cleda, Keith (vlgnolo, 52). Bacquo.

Holies. Leieastari Horak; Healey, Greenwood, Potter. Llovd: Stransky, Serevl; Rownlree, Cockorill, Garforth, Johnson (capt). Richards (Wells, 62), corry. Back.

Miller. Referee! 0 Davies (Wales) half the Cardiff centre Leigh Davies scored the first of two excellent tries after taking a snappy pass by Rob Howley from the base of the scrum. Yet the Welsh side seemed more preoccupied with destroying Bath's momentum than creating further scores. Cardiff, who trailed 12-11 at the break, received two fatal blows early in the second half. First de Glanville plundered Bath's first try, then Callard kicked his fifth penalty goal for offside to establish a 20-11 lead.

The prospects of Cardiff recovering a two-score deficit looked increasingly remote as the super-confident Lyle rampaged all over the pitch, setting up the kind of creative links the Bath threequarters revel in. Still, Cardiff were hanging on by their fingertips until Victor Ubogu, in a suspiciously offside position, gathered up a chip kick by Andy Nicol and powered past two defenders to score at the flag. Davies's second try at the posts rewarded massive pressure by the Cardiff pack but it came too late to shake Bath out of their rhythm and they hammered home the final nail with an opportunist try by Lyle in injury time. It was a thunderous finale. SCORIRSi Bathi Trlasi do Glanville, Ubogu, Lyle.

Conversloni Callard. Penaltleai Callard 5. Cardiff! Trlaa: Davlos 2. Conversion! Jarvls. Penaftleai Jarvis Bathi Callard; Evans, de Glanville, Perry, Adobayo; Call, Nicol (capt); Yates, Long, Ubogu, Llones, Redman, Thomas, Peters (Webster, 62mln), Lyle.

Cardiff! Thomas: Walker, Davies, Hall, Morgan; Jarvls. Howley; Lewis, Humphreys (capt), Young (Musloe, 70), Tail, Jones, Kacala, Jones, Williams. Referee! Mene (France). Welsh referee David Da-vies's failure to police them more effectively. "There is no doubt they were the better team but the game was not under anybody's control," rasped Dwyer.

"At times I didn't know who was in charge." Dwyer's argument was not enhanced by a penalty count of 17-13 in the Tigers' favourand indeed last season's finalists were beaten long before home full-back Nicolas Brusque strode over for the final injury-time converted score. They had their moments at the intimate Stade Municipal Bath 32, Cardiff 21 Coaches Robert Armstrong sees a gripping game end in controversy A SERIES of angry recriminations cast a long shadow over Bath's ground-breaking achievement in reaching the semi-finals of this tournament for the first time. Their coach Andy Robinson accused Cardiff of persistent and deliberate foul play while his Australian counterpart Alex Evans countered that Bath had taken Derwyn Jones out of the line-out illegally each time a try looked imminent. Evans, upset by what he deemed to be official bias, complained that Cardiff had found themselves playing the French referee Didier Mene in addition to the Bath team. Mene, who awarded 19 penalties against the Welsh side, 17 of them in the first half, was manhandled by Cardiff supporters at the end.

Bath's Jonathan Callard came to the official's rescue and shepherded him from the pitch. The darker side of professionalism took some of the gloss off a marvellous contest between two proud clubs who met at the same stage of the competition last year. Afterwards Robinson got his retaliation in first with a bitter complaint about "some of the most cynical professional fouls I've seen in a very long He elaborated: "We should have scored tries Rees said: "We played magnificently and there were some great moves by the backs. So far this season I would say it is the most convincing display we have produced." The omens for Bristol looked bleak from early on. In the seventh minute their fullback Ian Jones lost the ball on the Sale 22 and was made to pay when the resulting move ended, three rucks later, with Rees scoring after collecting an inside pass from the centre Shane Howarth.

Two minutes later Beim stepped round Kevin Maggs after play had been switched from left to right. And on the 12th minute the ball was worked wide and Rees again benefited. By half-time Bristol were 40 points adrift. The try procession continued through the second half. For Sale there was plenty to get excited about: the try-scoring instincts of the wings Beim and Rees; the strong running of Mallinder; the nous of Howarth, so often a linchpin in the side's attacking moves.

SCORERSi Sale! Tries! Beim 4. Rees 3. Wlnstanley 2, Sanderson. Ellis, Mallinder. Conversions! Howarth 6.

Salai Mallinder (capt): Bees (Tetlow, 75mln), Howarth, Hadloy, Beim. Mannlx. Ellis: Wlnstanley. Diamond (Dawe. 69), Drlvor (Williamson.

76), Raiwalul. Baldwin, Ersklne (Murphy, 75), Vyvyan (O'Culnn-oagaln, 72). Sandorson (Smith, 79). Bristol! I Jonos; Tluoti, Hull, MagQS, Jones; Burke, Jonos (capt); Collins, Dunn (Dlckln, 45), Pullman, Adams, Brownrlgg, Poarco, Rollllt (Corkory, 45), Short. Referee! Pearson (Durham).

Newcastle Agen and the tournament favourites Stade Francais, 53-22 victors over Gloucester, won their quarter-finals on Saturday. Agen's 40-27 defeat of Connacht featured a 13-man line-out by the Irishmen which propelled their prop John Maher over the line. Michael Prestage SALE are no New Zealand, but then again Bristol would struggle against Llanelli. Nevertheless the home side did produce a crushing performance of powerful running rugby that would have done any south ern-hemisphere side proud. Sale set a league scoring re cord and were able to exorcise the double defeat by Bristol last season.

After their success in beating Wasps last weekend the club fortunes are clearly on the up. It is a different story tor Bristol whose record league defeat came at a time when the club has a deficit of nearly 500,000 and hopes of a finan cial backer are still a pipe dream. After a 12-try drub bing like this second-division rugby will be a merciful release. They had no answer to Sale's pace and power. Three tries within the tirst 12 minutes and four tries within one 10-minute period of the second half reflected Sale's superiority.

In truth, Bristol never had a genuine scoring chance in the game. The Sale winger David Rees, hoping to clinch an England place against Australia next Saturday, could not have asked for more helpful opposition. He took full advantage with a hat-trick of tries. His fellow winger Tom Beim scored four. Andrew inspires ROB ANDREW scored 24 points, including a try.

as Newcastle overwhelmed Castres yesterday to pre vent a French monopoly ot the semi-finals of the European Conference. Newcastle won 44-0 while Colo-miers defeated Montferrand 23-13. Robert Kitson IT HAD gone one o'clock in the morning by the time Quins' captain Keith Wood and some of his team-mates stumbled on the packed city-centre bar owned by the Toulouse hooker Patrick Soula. Within seconds Wood had located his opposite number behind the counter and headed straight for him. After the one-sided events of Saturday afternoon Ireland's skipper clearly felt it was time to make amends.

Reaching for the nearest glass, he banished any fleeting comparisons with Pontypridd's infamous night in Brive's Bar Le Toulzac into the smoke-filled air as he good-humouredly volunteered to help Soula serve his thirsty patrons. It was a healing moment for rugby's image, in much the same way as Toulouse's magnificent performance had been earlier in the day. No one who watched the demolition of Quins in the appropriate setting of a half-rebuilt football stadium will bet many francs on Toulouse not being crowned European champions at the end of January for the second time in the tournament's three-year history- Their admirers included Will Carling, for whom the match reawakened memories of English rugby's most harrowing episode. "I haven't been on the receiving end of anything like that since the AU BlacKs game in the semi-finals of the Verve centre De Glanville in the first half when we had four- or five-man overlaps but they Cardiff were standing in our line offside every time. Sure, the referee was pretty strict but sometimes penalties simply slow the game down, which was what Cardiff seemed to want." Evans said he did not intend to indulge in a slanging match with Robinson and then promptly did just that.

"As an inexperienced coach he Robinson is a bit wet behind the ears to be criticising other teams. I think those remarks are in pretty poor taste. We shouldn't have to play the referee and Bath. We were penalised out of the match but it was our guy Derwyn Jones who got dumped out of the line-out on three occasions at least when seven points were in the offing." Nevertheless Evans did pay generous tribute to Bath's.