Can the Tigers make it three or is it Leinster's turn?

Greg Lansdowne Road has hosted two HC finals, in 1999 and 2003. It has been out of commission for the last two seasons while it is being rebuilt and will certainly host a final again. Paris has also been the venue on at least one occasion and if you go back far enough, to the days when the English clubs couldn't make up their minds whether they wanted to play in this competition or not, it was hosted by a minor venue in the south of France. So in truth, all the major countries get their fair share of finals.

I'm a big fan of Kruger. Good hands, athletic and fiery. He's like a much more talented Schofield. Ian, there are a lot of young players with big futures. That was conveniently forgotten during the Autumn drubbings by the dreary English media: JTH, Lawes, Simpson, Waldouck, Wilson, Thompstone, Corbisiero, Mullan, Webber, Kitchener, Guest, Robshaw etc. Further, these players are all getting regular game time for their respective clubs. The long-term future of English rugby is definitely sound.

Lawes is 20 and what a future exciting prospect of Lawes and Kennedy the locks for England. Johnstone knows his locks and hopefully he bring him into the EPS. Looking at last seasons U20's Lawes, Turner-Hall, Simpson and Corbersio, the young prop at London Irish seem the most likely to make the up step to the full England team.

Kruger? I don't rate the chap at all. He looks awfully soft. Watching him get beasted by the Bourgoin full-back was enough to tell me that the fellow should never ever get near an England shirt.

I agree about Vesty. However we shouldn't forget that Mauger has been absent, and as much as Hipkiss is reliable and physical he is not a creative influence. In the two biggest games of the season Vesty has had to shoulder the entire backline load. Dupuy didn't necessarily ease that load either. It's also worth noting that the inside centres selected by Johnson for the coming tests aren't the most creative of players. Lawes is a good prospect. He's tall (6'7), angry, athletic and not afraid to put himself about. He needs to define his position as 6 or at lock. Northampton have the makings of a very good pack. If Bradley Barritt can sneak into an England team I would hope that Juandre Kruger could follow him.

Courtney Lawes is a very interesting prospect. He certainly seems to have the necessary toughness - he won't face many packs in his entire career as brutal and aggressive as those beasts from Bourgoin. He also seems to be a pretty impressive athlete and reasonably skilled, so I'll watch his progress with interest. England desperately need an enforcer at 4 - that much is obvious. Leicester should have won the game today. They had Leinster on the rack for a good 15 minutes during the second half but Vesty lacked the killer instinct. I think his limitations have been exposed during the last two games. But yes, Hipkiss was super and must be worth considering if any more Lions centres get injured.

You should have put a few clams on the result, James. Ian, wished I had gone to the Stoop last night. I saw a few Quins jerseys smattered around the ground. What a stunning end to the game. Unbelievable. On the plus side Lawes put in some awesome tackles and the Bourgoin hooker looked a good young prospect - great body angles. Hipkiss's recent performances make a mockery of Hook's selection for the Lions.

Yes the final next year is at Stade de France. Just watched the HC final which was sold out. Great contest between two evenly matched sides which could have gone either way. Frankly, I was surprised that Elsom got man of the match, my pick would have been Sexton the young Leinster fly half, with Hipkiss of Leicester if they had won. Last night I was at the Stoop to watch Northampton Saints v Bourgoin, no trys but an exciting full on game of rugby. The intensity of the battle led to a little French indiscipline and what a great atmosphere created by both sets of supporters.After this fabulous weekend of European club rugby can't wait to next season.. Picking up on KO's post being a Quins STH I am very biased towards Robshaw who picked up the GP player of the year award plus one of Spiro's favourites, Jordan Turner-Hall who picked up the young player of the year award. Both picked for the England squad to play the Baa-baas and Argentina

Mr. Russell, the two teams that have underachieved the most this season, perhaps in the whole of Europe, are (drum roll...) London Wasps and Wales. London Wasps and Wales are (drum roll...) coached by Ian McGeechan, Shaun Edwards and Warren Gatland. Both teams have been tactically unaware, unoriginal, inflexible and as Mr. Zavos would say plain dumb. I think this is worrying, but only a handful of my rugby friends agree with me. We shall have to wait and see. The one factor that could redress the balance is PdV. Anyhow, I'm off to watch the Super semi-final and undertake an honorary SA/UK braii (or whatever it is called).

James, The majority of fans would agree that Leicester thoroughly outplayed Cardiff during the 80 minutes, so in a manner of speaking justice was done. Elsom was very good in the Munster semi-final but so were the Leinster tight five, an oft maligned unit. The Cook Islander, Stan Wright, and Leo Cullen were equally excellent. Personally, I think that Elsom is currently the media darling in Britain. He has undoubtedly been an excellent purchase but people are praising him having paid no attention to his season in the Magners League. It is unfortunate that the British media is made up of such insecure journalists who aren't strong enough to avoid running toward the latest cool toy in the playground. In the HC quarter final Elsom was matched by the young English flanker, Chris Robshaw. Robshaw received little praise from the media, Elsom won man of the match and now Robshaw has been selected for the England series against Argentina. Having read another poor article by Stephen Jones in a UK rugby magazine this morning I find myself reading exactly the same sort of thing, for he is definitely the worst offender and it really does rile me. If you want to be a journalist, James, try and avoid the pitfalls of following the pack.

Thanks KO, very interesting. The truly great coaches can coach more than one type of game. Robbie Deans should take on board the lesson from Meyer at Leicester. Australian rugby is like NZ rugby in many ways, but it is also different in some ways. So Deans cannot just use his Crusaders blueprint verbatim with the Wallabies. I think he gets this, but I'm not sure if the message has fully got through at this stage. Your article on the Lions squad for South Africa (encouragement!) should ponder whether McGeechan is too wedded to his tactics of the past or whether he has adapted sufficiently for the present. What worked in 1997 won't work this time, because the Boks have more athleticism and skill from 4-15 than they did in 1997.

'Finally, you write that Leicester’s season turned around with the departure of H Meyer, and you imply a connection. This interests me, because I really rate him for the work he did at the Bulls, and I tend to think of him as the best South African coach. Is he really not such a top coach, or did something just not work out for him at Leicester? Or was it just that his mind was on his family problems back home?' I can answer this, Mr. Russell. In short, Meyer's tenure at the Tigers was a disaster that never quite happened. I cannot fault Meyer as a man, indeed having seen him up close he seemed a very decent and likeable fellow. However, his philosophy of rugby was glaringly outdated. He purchased Hougaard - who turned out to be one of the worst Guinness Premiership signings ever - and demanded that he kick and the Leicester pack follow, very much in the manner of Brigadier Buurman van Zyl. Leicester have often unfairly been labelled as being forward-orientated to the point of obsession, despite having some very insightful backs but even Meyer's stance was too much for the majority of fans. They were achieving comparatively consistent results but that was to be expected with such a broad and generally talented squad. Some of the games they took part in were truly horrific. The greatest irony is that Leicester's new supremo, Richard Cockerill, was a great advocate of the bludgeon. In a bizarre twist he has managed to unlock the creativity in the team, much like Pat Howard did and now seems a picture of serenity. Interestingly, Cockerill has dropped the majority of Meyer's boys and changed the position of a handful of players, and the team hasn't looked back since.

I think the final is Paris next year Is this years final sold out?

James, you spend no time discussing that Murrayfield is the venue for the final. Indeed, it was only after checking Wikipedia that I realised you did actually mention Murrayfield. Is it perceived as a truly neutral venue? Certainly one would imagine that it will be much easier for Leicester fans to get there than for Leinster fans. I have a strong memory of seas of (Munster) red at last year's final in Cardiff, suggesting it was more like a home game for them than it was for Toulouse. From further searching of Wikipedia, I learned that the HC final seems to be held on a rotating basis at Twickers, Millennium and Murrayfield. What do European people think of this? How do the Irish and French feel about missing out given their strong records in this competition in recent times (cf. the Welsh and Scots, who nevertheless get to host finals). Finally, you write that Leicester's season turned around with the departure of H Meyer, and you imply a connection. This interests me, because I really rate him for the work he did at the Bulls, and I tend to think of him as the best South African coach. Is he really not such a top coach, or did something just not work out for him at Leicester? Or was it just that his mind was on his family problems back home?