The final day of group matches in the 2012-13 Heineken Cup sees a top of the table clash between two giants of European rugby – the Leicester Tigers from England and French team Toulouse.
The two teams, who have won 6 Heineken Cup’s, 28 league titles, 10 domestic cups and boast 48 full international players between them, will meet at Leicester’s Welford Road on the 20th January 2013. By this time, five of the teams’ six Pool 2 matches will have been played with Leicester visiting Ospreys and Toulouse hosting Benneton Treviso the week before on the 13th January 2013, leaving the two sides to battle it out on the field in their final game of the Pool stage. The two sides’ last meeting in October 2012 saw four-time Heineken Cup winners Toulouse secure a 23-9 win over the Tigers. The game only involved a single try, coming from Fickou of Toulouse, with the remainder of the points being accumulated as a result of nine penalties.
Both squads hold a host of talented international Rugby Union players who will be key to either side’s success in the match. The Leicester Tigers boast three England internationals in Toby Flood, Ben Youngs and Manu Tuilagi. Fly-Half Flood is the Tigers’ main kicker and secured all 9 points in the defeat to Toulouse in October, proving how crucial he is. Scrum Half Ben Youngs is a youthful but intelligent player who is able to create try-scoring moves with his great vision whilst Samoan-born Centre Manu Tuilagi is devastatingly powerful and can break down attacks as well as create and finish them. Toulouse’s key player comes in the form of Flanker and Captain Thierry Dusautoir. He is a strong ball carrier with great pace and strength whilst Fly-Half Luke McAllister, who scored six penalties in the teams’ previous encounter, is also a very important player for Toulouse.
Rugby Union fans will have to wait for this highly anticipated game which will settle the three-way qualification fight between Leicester, Toulouse and Ospreys for a quarter final spot and then, just maybe an eventual place in the Final on the 18th May 2013 at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
