Heineken Cup semi-final: Iain Morrison predicts a tough front-row clash

Published on Friday 29 April 2011 16:50

Northampton v Perpignan Today Sky Sports 2, 3pm

Of the four clubs in this weekend's Heineken Cup semi-finals, just one has failed to go on and win the tournament. Perpignan are one of the few remaining giants of European rugby to have failed at the business end of this competition, although they were the beaten finalists in 2003 against Toulouse.

Few pundits give them so much as a puncher's chance playing away, although hosts Northampton have opted to move from their home ground, too.

European rugby has been such a success that teams are switching big games to football stadiums to accommodate the surge in interest.

Perpignan played their quarter-final against Toulon in front of 55,000 spectators in Barcelona's magnificent Olympic Stadium and, similarly, Northampton have given up the advantage of playing at the 13,500-capacity Franklins Gardens and instead moved the game to the 32,000-seater stadium:mk in Milton Keynes, purely for financial reasons.

As the only unbeaten team left in the competition, Saints will start firm favourites with Scot Joe Ansbro covering the outside backs off the bench. But, for all the pace and guile of the quick men, much of Northampton's success this year has been based on the broad backs of giant props Soane Tonga'uiha and Brian Mujati who have bullied just about everyone they have come across at scrum time.

When the duo can't completely destroy the opposition, hooker Dylan Hartley pushes the scrum up and, provided that Saints are nudging forward, even if only by an inch, nine out of ten referees will award them the penalty. The Saints' skipper has already intimated that the first scrum is going to be "interesting" before adding that "physicality and confrontation is what we are all about".

Perpignan are no shrinking violets themselves with former England prop Perry Freshwater holding up one side of the scrum and club captain and French regular Nicolas Mas locking out the other.

"Just like ourselves, Northampton Saints are a very physical outfit, especially up front with their captain Dylan Hartley and other internationals in their powerful pack," said Mas in the run-up to this afternoon's match. "They have other English aces in their backs like Ben Foden and Chris Ashton, so we are in for a really tough contest.

"It will be a big challenge for us to go and play there but we will go armed with a huge appetite and strong ambitions because we want to do well, and you don't get involved in matches like this every day.

"The quarter-final in Barcelona was something that we had been waiting to do for such a long time. We had a lot of pressure on our shoulders, so to come out as winners was such an achievement and a delight for the players, coaches, club and the fans. Anything can happen now in the Heineken Cup and we will do our utmost to go all the way and have no regrets.

"If we can manage to qualify for the final by beating Northampton Saints I would quite fancy Toulouse to win their semi-final against Leinster so we can have an all-French final at the Millennium Stadium next month.

"However, there is still a lot of hard work to be done before then."

As if any extra incentive was needed, the club will want to send coach Jacques Brunel off on a high note. The former assistant to Bernard Laporte with France is Nick Mallett's replacement as Italian boss - as had been widely anticipated. Indeed, Brunel told his Perpignan players long before FIR President Giancarlo Dondi informed South African Mallett, who might have imagined his job was safe after recording a first-ever Six Nations victory over France.