Compiled by GAVIN CUMMISKEY
Weighty challenge: Connacht prop Buckley gave away more than six stone to Johnston
Plenty of coaches have already commented on the development of young Connacht loosehead prop Denis Buckley (far right) this season.
Saturday night’s scrummaging session against James Johnston is not one the 22-year-old Roscommon native will forget in a hurry.
The younger brother of Toulouse Goliath Census, Johnson weighs in at 138kg, while Eric Elwood informed us the young Buckley is a mere 100kg. That’s over six stone of a difference.
We asked Connacht captain and tighthead prop Nathan White to take us through a miserably unproductive night in the scrums.
“Johnson just turned in and slipped his bind. It’s pretty hard for Denis to push against him when there is nothing there. Denis is pretty talented for playing loosehead at this level with 100 kilos. He does bloody well.”
Surely White experienced a similar lesson during his early days back in Hawera, New Zealand. “Yeah, definitely. I guess it’s part of being young. You learn and your body grows into it.”
Buckley went a different way to 2009 Leinster Schools Cup winning Blackrock team-mates Jordi Murphy, Brendan Macken and Andrew Conway, who are all part of the Leinster squad, but his general work around the field on Saturday night had him looking the part.
Undone by an old friend: Contepomi's boot condemns Jackman's Grenoble to defeat
Bernard Jackman will have witnessed a familiar sight pitch-side at the Stade Océane as his old Leinster team-mate Felipe Contepomi landed a late penalty to ensure Stade Français overcame Grenoble, where Jackman is defence coach, 28-25. Former Connacht captain Andrew Farley led Grenoble from the secondrow.
Besides the provincial teams, Jackman wasn't the only other Irish man involved in European rugby over the weekend. The reality of the Heineken Cup was visited upon Tom Hayes and the Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park as despite four first-half penalties from Dungannon's Gareth Steenson keeping them in touch, the mighty Clermont Auvergne eventually tore them apart, running in six tries in a 46-12 result.
The match was refereed by former Munster player John Lacey.
Mark McCall's Saracens overcame Racing Metro 30-13, comfortably beating the eight-point handicap, at the King Baudouin Stadium, formerly the Heysel, in Brussels.
Elsewhere, the Northampton Saints' impressive start to the season was halted at the Stade Ernest Wallon as a full strength Castres won 21-16.
The Irish influence came via the officials, headed up by Alain Rolland, although the Leinster Academy did have two former graduates in action for the Saints, Russian international winger Vasily Artemyev and English prop Paul Doran-Jones.
Geordan Murphy is expected back from injury next week but his absence ensured another former Leinster player, Niall Morris, featured on the Leicester Tigers' right wing against the Ospreys yesterday.
Ian Humphreys and Tomás O'Leary, formerly of Ulster and Munster of course, featured at half back in London Irish's 69-26, 11-try demolition of Mont-de-Marsan in the Amlin Challenge Cup. Humphreys kicked four conversions and crossed for a try, while another Ulster product, Conor Gaston, arrived on the hour mark for Fijian winger Sailosi Tagicakibau.
Clip slip: Connacht send out wrong pre-match message
WITH THE week that was in it, blaring out an inspirational Nike underdogs advertisement just before Connacht took the field against Harlequins seemed a little, eh, miss-timed (what with their disassociation with Lance Armstrong and association with Rory McIlroy, who is hardly an underdog).
There was also a clip on the big screen of Connacht players celebrating on the pitch after last year's victory over Quins and the match day programme regurgitated that report.
Even the front cover was asking for trouble: "Anyone for Seconds?" Oh, dear.
We looked down at Chris Robshaw (right) with his pack of English dogs glancing up at the big screen and feared the worse.
Anyway, the video has some great lines, like: "What every long shot, come from behind underdog will tell ya is this: the other guy may in fact be favourite, the odds may be stacked against you. Fair enough. But what the odds don't know is, this isn't a maths test! This is a completely different kind of test. One where passion has a funny way of trumping logic".
All very entertaining but logic prevailed this time.
