Montauban loss the start of a bad week for the French?

Friday 11 December 2009
Published By: Ben Welch
Top 14 > Stade Toulousain

Newcastle Falcons eased to a 17-6 victory against visiting Montauban at Kingston Park last night. The French side did well in the first half, heading into the break 6-3 up, but seemed to tire in the latter part of the game as the Falcons pushed on for the win.

The result may well be typical of the fortunes of the Top 14 teams competing in the Heineken Cup this weekend and indeed the tournament as a whole. Brive, Biarritz, Clermont, Toulouse and Stade Francais may all be favourites at the bookies to triumph in their upcoming matches - with the latter two first and third favourites to win the whole thing - but with the killer schedule that they face domestically, are the odds really that realistic?

Not so, suggests Ian Moriarty of Scrum.com. He claimed this week that it appears the French are "running out of steam" after making a good start to the competition, pointing to how Toulouse - who are 7/2 to win the tournament - have lost three from their last five back home, with coach Guy Noves "clearly" worried amid the international call-ups that have put further pressure on his squad.

Moriarty noted that while all the Heineken Cup contenders have had to cope with players leaving to play for their countries in recent weeks, the British sides don't have to contend with quite as tough a fixture list as the Top 14.

"It's now almost five years since a French club got their hands on [the] top prize but given the excesses of the Top 14 fixture schedule, it's looking less and less likely that we'll see one on the podium in Paris in May," he wrote.