Heineken Cup 2011: Round 1 recaps part 1- Rugby News
Heineken Cup 2011 kicked off on November 11, at Stade Yves Du Manoir with the opening clash of Cardiff Blues and Racing Metro. Cardiff Blues grabbed a fine victory in their inaugural battle by a handsome margin of 26-20. Dan Parks played a vital role in
his teams’ triumph with 16 individual points. Taufa’ao Filise and Alex Cuthbert scored one try each for Blues.
Racing Metro took an early lead in the match with the help of a couple of penalty goals within the first 10 minutes of the match. However, they could not maintain their superiority for the long time as Fillise managed to dance through their defence in the
12th minute.
The Blues led the clash by 17-14 at the end of first half which they later on expanded to 26-20 with 11 minutes remaining in the final whistle. Metro tried to bounce back into the match in the dying moments but failed to discover loop poles of motivated
Cardiff Blues.
The second clash of the tournament was played between Harlequins and Connacht on the same day at The Stoop. The sides were placed in Pool 6 and Harlequins became the table leaders with success in their very first outgoing. Harlequins tamed Cannacht by 25-17
in a confident manner.
Harlequins dominated the opposition from the start to the end with good offensive approach. They led the encounter by 19-10 at the half-time and then adopted a defensive approach in the last part of the match. They blocked a number of dangerous attacks by
the Connacht after the break and forced them back to the line.
Nick Evans delivered a Man of the Match performance for Harlequins with a tremendous show with his boots. He kicked six penalties and one conversion goal for his team under immense pressure. Karl Dickson was the only other scorer for winning side, he scored
only try of Harlequins.
On the other hand, fly-half Miah Nikora and reserve player Nial O’Connor remained impressive for Connacht.
Leicester Tigers rumbled the Aironi in the third fixture of Heineken Cup on November 12, at Viadana. Tigers thumped the rivals by a huge difference of 28-12 but failed to secure the bonus point in the match.
Toby Flood scored 13 points for his team to clinch an early victory in the event. Tigers also scored three tries in the match whereas the Aironi failed to score even one in the whole match which proved to be the major difference in the end.
Luciano Orquera was the only scorer for Aironi as he elevated his team with four penalty goals. They were trailing by 20-6 in the first half and added six more points to their total in the second half.
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