Challenge Cup, Round Two - Teams and Predictions
FRIDAY PREVIEW: The debutants from Georgia may not have gotten the win against Gloucester last weekend, but they pushed the English visitors close. The real challenge will be away fixtures like this one. Heading into uncharted territory, Black Lion are bound to come up short.
Both teams got off to winning starts last weekend, Gloucester beating hosts Black Lion 15-10 in a war of attrition and Clermont outgunning Edinburgh 31-18 at home. The Cherry and Whites fielded an understrength side against the Georgians, though, and their rested frontline players should eke out a win over the incoming French threat.
Gloucester Director of Rugby, George Skivington, says the squad are fully aware of the challenge they’re in for when they host Clermont at Kingsholm on Friday night.
Clermont sit at eight in the French Top 14 table and began their European season with a bonus point win over Edinburgh last weekend.
“Clermont are a quality team and they’re doing really well at the moment in their domestic league.
“We recognise they have threats all over the place. We’ve watched a lot of their footage and they’re a pretty well-rounded team at the moment.
“It’s a massive game for us and there’s a few boys who had a rest last week coming back into the fold for that. It’s a huge night.”
Skivington was forced into resting some players for the trip to Tbilisi last weekend, with a tight turnaround between travelling back from the Georgian capital and this weekend’s fixture against Clermont.
He’s excited to see them return to action.
🗣 “Our internationals have had an opportunity to have a break and come back fresh, so there’s lot of energy.”
George Skivington says returning internationals and injuries give Gloucester a boost ahead of Clermont fixture.
📰👉 https://t.co/I7VXZNQOgi#GLOvASM | 🍒🟡 pic.twitter.com/uZgXp10BMc
— Gloucester Rugby 🍒 (@gloucesterrugby) December 14, 2023
“The two weeks forced us to manage our squad anyway but there were a few lads who we wanted to give chance to have a refresh because they’ve played a lot of rugby.
“We’re starting to see injured players back on the pitch which is exciting and some of our internationals have had a break and come back in fresh so there’s lots of energy out there.”
Despite resting his World Cup players last week, the Skivington was pleased with the performance and result in Georgia.
“It was good to win, we needed it.
“It was a challenging game, we had to manage our squad over these two European games and a lot of us got the opportunity to go to Georgia which was a long travel, a different environment and it was a big day for Georgian rugby and the boys did a good job.
“There was a lot of Georgian internationals in that team and from the 48 hours we spent in Tbilisi before the game, it was very apparent how big this was for them, and I thought the boys respected that really well and really put their hands up.”
Skivington highlighted the game management of flyhalf, George Barton, and the set-piece, as two areas of the game in Tbilisi that he was proud of.
“George’s kicking was outstanding; our scrum was brilliant. It was tough conditions and the heavens opened just before kick-off, so the game was never going to be pretty, but the way “George managed the game and kicked was really good and the whole group represented themselves really well.”
The team were joined by an outstanding travelling army of Cherry & White fans in Tbilisi, despite the obstacles they faced travelling out.
*Scarlets will be looking to put last weekend’s disappointing defeat at Castres Olympique behind them on Friday, when they welcome EPCR Challenge Cup debutants Black Lion to Parc y Scarlets for the first time.
Without a string of senior players through injury at the Stade Pierre-Fabre, the Welsh region did well to restrict TOP 14 pacesetters Castres Olympique to a 34-16 margin in dreadful conditions in Round 1.
But they will hope to bounce back against the Georgian newcomers, who also lost their first game – 10-15 at home to Gloucester – although they did register the only try of the game via Luka Matkava.
The Georgian international scored all Black Lion’s points at the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium, so he will be one player for Scarlets to watch.
They will need all their creativity too to break down the Black Lion defence, which boasted the best tackle success rate in Round 1 of an impressive 91%.
However, Scarlets can parade an in-form flyhalf of their own in Ioan Lloyd, who chalked up all of their points in France via a second-half try, a conversion and three penalties.
Wales international Gareth Davies is one of five changes to the Scarlets side for Friday night’s EPCR Challenge Cup round two clash with Georgian side Black Lion at Parc y Scarlets.
Davies takes over the captain’s armband for the crucial Pool 3 tie having sat out last weekend’s loss out in France to Castres Olympique.
Behind the scrum, the back three of Tom Rogers, Steff Evans and Ryan Conbeer remains the same. In midfield, Eddie James has come through his return-to-play protocols and partners Johnny Williams, while Davies links up with Ioan Lloyd at scrumhalf.
There are three changes to the pack.
Shaun Evans comes in at hooker to replace Ryan Elias and packs down in between Steff Thomas and Joe Jones.
Alex Craig has recovered from injury to reunite with Jac Price in the second row, while Tongan international Vaea Fifita is back at No. 8, coming in for the injured Carwyn Tuipulotu. Ben Williams and Teddy Leatherbarrow make up the rest of the back row.
On the bench, new signing Eduan Swart is named in the squad for the first time. Second row Ed Scragg is also set for his competitive home debut.
Head coach Dwayne Peel said: “Black Lion had 10 Georgian internationals in the squad last week and we saw how tough Wales found it against Georgia at the World Cup so it is going to be a big challenge. They are going to be physical and they take pride in their defence, we are going to have to work hard and need to move the ball around and keep them guessing.”
Gloucester v Clermont
(Kingsholm, Gloucester – Kick-off 22.00, 20.00 GMT)
Prediction:
@Rugby365: Gloucester by five points
Teams:
Gloucester: 15 Louis Rees-Zammit, 14 Jonny May, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Max Llewellyn, 11 Ollie Thorley, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Steve Varney, 8 Zach Mercer, 7 Lewis Ludlow, 6 Jack Clement, 5 Matias Alemanno, 4 Freddie Clarke, 3 Fraser Balmain, 2 Santiago Socino, 1 Harry Elrington
Replacements: 16 George McGuigan, 17 Jamal Ford-Robinson, 18 Kirill Gotovtsev, 19 Cameron Jordan, 20 Ben Donnell, 21 Charlie Chapman, 22 Seb Atkinson, 23 Lloyd Evans\
Clermont: 15 Alex Newsome, 14 Bautista Delguy, 13 Pierre Fouyssac, 12 Léon Darricarrere, 11 Thomas Roziere, 10 Jules Plisson, 9 Baptiste Jauneau, 8 Fritz Lee, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pita-Gus Sowakula, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Thibault Lanen, 3 Rabah Slimani, 2 Yohan Beheregaray, 1 Daniel Bibi Biziwu
Replacements: 16 Etienne Fourcade, 17 Etienne Falgoux, 18 Henzo Kiteau, 19 Rob Simmons, 20 Killian Tixeront, 21 Sebastien Bezy, 22 Anthony Belleau, 23 George Moala
Referee: Hollie Davidson
Assistant Referees: Ian Kenny, Ru Campbell
TMO: David Sutherland
Scarlets v Black Lion
( Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli – Kick-off 22.00, 20.00 GMT)
Prediction:
@Rugby365: Scarlets by 15 points
Teams:
Scarlets: 15 Tom Rogers, 14 Steff Evans, 13 Johnny Williams, 12 Eddie James, 11 Ryan Conbeer, 10 Ioan Lloyd, 9 Gareth Davies (captain), 8 Vaea Fifita, 7 Teddy Leatherbarrow, 6 Ben Williams, 5 Jac Price, 4 Alex Craig, 3 Joe Jones, 2 Shaun Evans, 1 Steff Thomas
Replacements: 16 Eduan Swart, 17 Sam O’Connor, 18 Harri O’Connor, 19 Ed Scragg, 20 Morgan Jones, 21 Archie Hughes, 22 Charlie Titcombe, 23 Ioan Nicholas
Black Lion: 15 Miriani Modebadze, 14 Akaki Tabutsadze, 13 Tornike Kakhoidze, 12 Merab Sharikadze, 11 Otar Lashkhi, 10 Luka Matkava, 9 Tengiz Peranidze, 8 Luka Ivanishvili, 7 Sandro Mamamtavrishvili, 6 Giorgi Kervalishvili, 5 Grigor Kerdikoshvili, 4 Nodar Cheishvili, 3 Giorgi Chkhartishvili, 2 Beka Mamrikashvili, 1 Dato Abdushelishvili
Replacements: 16 Gela Makharashvili, 17 Aliko Shamilishvili, 18 Bachuki Tchumbadze, 19 Demuri Epremidze, 20 Saba Kurtanidze, 21 Giorgi Margalitadze, 22 Giorgi Jobava, 23 Luka Tsirekidze
Referee: Jeremy Rozier (France)
Assistant Referees: Vivien Praderie, Thomas Chereque
TMO: Patrick Dellac
Additional source @EPCR
