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Sunday, June 03, 2012

Vincent Clerc's incredible try saving tackle on Max Evans

Toulouse are through to the French Top 14 final after they beat Castres 24-15 in their semi final meeting last night. Shortly before half time Castres came close to crossing the whitewash, but were held up short by a fantastic try-saving tackle.

Toulouse were reduced to 13 men as they went into the halftime break having lost two to the sin bin. Florian Fritz was the first after a meaty high tackle on winger Marc Andreu.

A few minutes later Castres produced a flowing counter attack from deep within their own half which looked as though it was going to result in a brilliant try for Scotland back Max Evans, but he was denied by a fantastic chase and tackle from Vincent Clerc.

The try was prevented, but unfortunately for Toulouse wing Timoci Matanavou was yellow carded for a professional foul after he came in from the wrong side and picked up the ball.

He didn't have much option, and the look of bemusement was clear for all to see. The only guy more shocked by what happened would have been Evans, as a few inches were the only difference between a tryless night for his team, and a try of the season contender.

Second semi final

Earlier today Toulon booked their place in the final as a late Jonny Wilkinson penalty sunk Clermont 15-12. Toulouse and Toulon will clash in the final at the Stade de France on Saturday, 9 June.

It's been one of those action-packed weekends, so there are bound to be many requests for clips so please be patient as we do what we can to post the best stuff over the next few days. Thanks

Posted at 5:04 pm | 33 comments

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Viewing 33 comments

Ali June 03, 2012 8:25 pm

He would have scored that fine if 15 wasnt such a retard! He stops the grounding and fails to get into a position to recieve an offload.

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cafnc1 June 04, 2012 12:32 am

evans was the retard actually, if you see the way he passes the ball, it seems like he panics and just wants to get rid of it. he puts it behind teulet's legs, instead of in his hands or just holding to it.

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Ali June 03, 2012 8:27 pm

Great tackle though

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wes4 June 03, 2012 8:31 pm

first! what a tackle

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Eggman June 03, 2012 9:10 pm

Fantastic work by Clerk to hold him up like that. Bit of a fail by the full back though, he could've easily taken the ball from Evans and score.. But then again it did happen fairly quickly..

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themull June 03, 2012 9:50 pm

Can somebody clarify for me what the yellow card was for?

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iamaj8 June 03, 2012 10:34 pm

A ruck had been formed, the ball squirted out and was subsequently picked up by the Toulouse 11 coming in from the wrong side, thus giving away a penalty with the potential for a try to be scored by Castres. Therefore the yellow card

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Iced Bunn June 03, 2012 9:57 pm

The yellow was from entering the ruck from the wrong side. The ruck was formed and Manatavou came from an offside position and picked the ball up which may have prevented a try being scored. So a quite rightful yellow

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Fettsack June 03, 2012 11:06 pm

Great tackle! The Chicken proves he can also be a great player in defence. It would have been such a nice try from Evans. I think Toulouse didn't deserve to win this game but they surely deserved to get to the final after another superb season.
In the other semi, Toulon narrowly beat Clermont in a quite boring game.
I surely hope Toulouse will destroy Toulon and punish them for their disgraceful hairstyles.

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Reality June 03, 2012 11:29 pm

Is 'The Chicken' a term of affection or is it an insult? Because I don't see how he's a chicken (not the bad kind of chicken anyway).

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Kanpai June 03, 2012 11:34 pm

Vincent Clerc was called chicken (or headless chichen) by his teamates because when we was younger we was running like a headless chicken.
So you can say it's affectional ^^.

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moddeur June 04, 2012 1:45 am

Horrible 2nd semi, I was at the stadium, surrounded with many yellow shirts and a few red ones. Kick, failed dummy, kick, failed dummy, knock on, lost lineout, turn over ... rnnnn zzzzzz rnnnnn zzzzz

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ckei June 03, 2012 11:21 pm

Great defensive work.
Now, i won't deny the legitimacy of the yellow card, but i'm puzzled on the way the referee judged the counter-attack's start:

First, he signals an advantage for Toulouse, which is not well exploited by Poitrenaud. I believe he should have whistled for a Toulouse scrum.

Then, there is most probably a non-signaled forward pass (at 2:18).

I may be a little biased as a Toulouse fan, so i would like your opinion on the matter.

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Reality June 03, 2012 11:32 pm

Yeah, I was a bit confused as well as to how the referee considered a bad chip ahead as advantage over. That pass as well from Tekori looked very forward; even the commentators were convinced of it.

So you don't seem to be at all biased. At least not in this instance.

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cafnc1 June 04, 2012 12:28 am

when it's a knock on advantage, if u kick it, it's advantege over. but it was not the case I believe.

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Reality June 04, 2012 11:18 am

Actually, you're right, it was knock-on advantage.

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Ben June 04, 2012 2:00 am

was the ruck formed? the ball squirted out before the first toulouse player arrived at the ruck (as neither Evans or Clerc were part of the ruck) so the ruck wasn't formed meaning you can come in from any side....

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Eggman June 04, 2012 12:09 pm

Maybe the ref judged that a ruck had formed after the fullback was tackled? I'm not entierly sure whether that counts as a ruck already, but at least the ball was grounded there with one player of each team involved..

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Guy June 04, 2012 12:58 pm

I guess things happen to fast to be judged by the ref.

Player gets tackled. Supporting player (which he should have passed to on the inside!!!!) joins in, rips and looses the ball but at more or less the same time gets cleared out by the Toulouse nr 12. In real time it looks like a ruck and imho thats how the ref judged it.

Personally I can't really blame him because things are just happening so fast at that moment.

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Carlos June 04, 2012 7:12 am

Ben is spot on, no ruck was formed, no reason to penalise, let alone a yellow card. For a ruck there is a need for a ball on the ground, which never happened, otherwise would have been a try. Plus, a ruck cannot happen if the ball is in-goal, as per the Law. Very bad piece of refereeing – simply not understandable at this level.

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Ithilsul June 04, 2012 7:43 am

As I was in a noisy bar, I didn't hear the conversation between the referee and the video referee. But when the field referee asks "try or not?" did the video ref only answers this question, or is he the one who points out Matanavou's offside? As far as I know, he can only answer the question he is asked, and only the field ref can then decide the consequences.

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moddeur June 04, 2012 8:16 am

Actually in the Top14 the video ref can comment on anything happening 5m from the try line.

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Jomaho June 04, 2012 10:52 am

Can a guy who has been held up over the line play the ball back? I thought if someone was held up over the line, play stops and a scrum is called.

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Smiling Death June 04, 2012 11:24 am

If it's a penalty/yellow card, then given there are four attackers in shot, and no sign of a defender, then why is it not a penalty try?

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AndreaG June 04, 2012 12:21 pm

I agree with the Death: if a ruck was formed (hence the penalty for picking up the ball from the wrong side), why would that not be a penalty try? three attackers are on the spot a split second after Matanavou picks up the ball.

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MattyP June 04, 2012 1:40 pm

My French is crap but I do a bit of refereeing. I believe this is not a ruck penalty - as has been pointed out, clearly the conditions for a ruck didn't exist - but rather that the penalty was for incorrect entry to the tackle area. White 15 plays the ball, Red 12 tackles him and he spills the ball backwards but it lands next to him, hence it's still in the tackle area. Red 11 is then required to come "through the gate" to play the ball as he was not the tackler. He did not, hence the penalty, which prevented a possible try, put not sufficiently certain to give a penalty try, hence the yellow. Superb refereeing.

For your edification, 15.6(d): "At a tackle or near to a tackle, other players who play the ball must do so from behind the ball and from directly behind the tackled player or the tackler closest to those players’ goal line."

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ckei June 04, 2012 5:12 pm

The ref does clearly says "This was a ruck, you don't go around to get back to the tackling area". Which is a mix up of what you are saying.

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carlos June 05, 2012 1:40 am

MattyP, sorry mate but the tackle Law does not apply in-goal. So there are not requirements what so ever. This takes care of what happened between red 14 and white 13.
Between red 12 and white there is no tackle, because red 12 did not bring white 15 to ground while he was on possession of the ball – you can see that when white 15 hits the ground he is neither being held nor he has the ball. Does not matter in this case, but near or around the tackle, by law, means 1 meter, so red 11 was on his rights to play that ball.
The ref took the easy path: it looks wrong so I am going to guess it is a penalty. This is guessing mate, the first thing a ref should never do. This is wrong and unfair. And yes, the ref says there was a ruck. Wrong again.

It is a pity that a brilliant piece of defence gets spoiled like this.

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kevin July 16, 2012 8:38 pm

here stop being so technical!
2 players were involved in a tackle. then one extra player from each team enter the "ruck". 4 players involved
Any ref in the world would give that a yellow without hesitation. don't be so pedantic!
Red 11 knew exactly what he was doing!
we've all played the game, and we all know when we're trying to pull a fast one!

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Colombes June 06, 2012 9:40 am

Great piece of defense from Clerc
On the yellow card, it's totally justified as matanavou came back from an offside position. he should have make the 2 necessary steps back behind the ruck and contest the ball.
O'driscoll received the same sanction for the same offense during a leinster-toulouse semifinal

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Carlos June 07, 2012 3:45 am

Also, great Law knowledge and interpretation from Matanavou. Why do you say there was a ruck?

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kadova June 11, 2012 12:01 am

The referee said this was a ruck when he explained the yellow card to the Toulouse player.

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