Now that the dust has settled on an Investec Champions Cup quarter-final weekend that saw Bath, Toulon, Leinster and Bordeaux-Begles progress, here\u2019s our Team of the Week.<\/p>\n
Investec Champions Cup Team of the Week<\/p>\n
15 Hugo Keenan (Leinster<\/a>): Imperious. Sale built their entire game plan around the high ball, and Keenan treated every spiral bomb, cross-field kick and grubber like a personal insult, claiming the lot with the composure of a man collecting the morning post. Scored a try, made 14 carries and 54 metres. Joint-highest rated player of the weekend alongside Juan Ignacio Brex, Dan Sheehan and Jack Willis. Thomas Ramos was outstanding in defeat at Chaban-Delmas, producing a 50\/22 of devastating nonchalance and filling in at scrum-half during Antoine Dupont\u2019s yellow card with the insouciance of a man who considers positional labels a minor administrative inconvenience.<\/p>\n 14 Ga\u00ebl Drean (Toulon): Two excellent tries at Scotstoun as the rising French star announced himself on the European stage. Only one Six Nations cap to his name but he was a threat every time the ball found his hands. Toulon\u2019s 22-19 upset of Glasgow<\/a> was built on individual brilliance and Drean provided two of the best moments. Tommy Freeman set the tone for Northampton\u2019s extraordinary first-half blitz despite not crossing the whitewash. Tommy O\u2019Brien was clinical for Leinster with a well-taken try and a superb early turnover.<\/p>\n 13 Nacho Brex (Toulon): Our Player of the Weekend. The Azzurri vice-captain mixed powerful carrying with deft distribution before scoring the match-winning try, beating Josh McKay one-on-one and powering all the way to the line. His tackle in the dying moments as Glasgow threatened almost demolished the west stand. The commentary team at Scotstoun spent their afternoon cheerleading for Glasgow to the point where they entirely missed the scale of what was happening: 100 metres made, 15 tackles, 12 carries and the try of the weekend, a demolition of McKay that deserved to be narrated in real time rather than noticed in hindsight. Stafford McDowall was Glasgow\u2019s best player in defeat, with 14 carries and 12 tackles, and vindicated his selection.<\/p>\n 12 Fraser Dingwall (Northampton Saints): Has responded well to being dropped by England, finishing a scintillating team move for his try after Freeman\u2019s assist and Archie McParland\u2019s delightful one-handed pass under pressure. That Northampton<\/a> lost despite five first-half tries and a backline operating at this level tells you everything about the cruelty of knockout rugby. Santiago Chocobares carried hard for Toulouse<\/a> in defeat, while Rekeiti Ma\u2019asi-White was arguably Sale\u2019s most potent attacking threat at the Aviva Stadium.<\/p>\n Investec Champions Cup semi-finals: Dates, venues, kick-off times and TV coverage confirmed<\/a><\/p>\n 11 Henry Arundell (Bath): Box office whenever given space, taking a lovely line off Finn Russell\u2019s shoulder for his try. Maybe on another weekend, Rieko Ioane would be in after scoring a try and looking more comfortable in Leinster\u2019s system than at any previous point, but Arundell\u2019s contribution to one of the great European comebacks edges it. Louis Bielle-Biarrey produced one explosive burst that reminded everyone why every under-10 in Bordeaux now wears a red headguard, whilst Saints\u2019 Ollie Sleightholme scored a fine try for Northampton in a losing cause.<\/p>\n 10 Finn Russell (Bath): Some of his early decisions were abysmal, mixed with moments of brilliance, including his own try and the sumptuous double-pump dummy that sent Arundell through. But the second-half was a different man entirely: Russell<\/a> dictated proceedings and went from the ridiculous to the sublime in a performance that dragged his side home from 21 points down. Matthieu Jalibert produced 25 minutes of second-half influence that turned the UBB-Toulouse match, chipping and regathering for his own try before freezing the Toulouse blitz with devastating pump passes, but it was Russell\u2019s arc from chaos to control that produced the most dramatic outcome. Harry Byrne was excellent for Leinster, his cut-out pass for Keenan\u2019s try a thing of beauty.<\/p>\n 9 Maxime Lucu (Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles): Player of the Match in the headline fixture. Lucu outshone Dupont. That sentence requires a moment to absorb. His 52-metre penalty stretched UBB\u2019s lead to seven and drew the life from Toulouse\u2019s comeback. Ben White had a combative display for Toulon, with Baptiste Serin adding momentum from the bench. Ben Spencer captained Bath superbly in the second half, while Archie McParland\u2018s first-half display for Northampton, anchored by that one-handed pass for the Dingwall try, confirmed his emergence as one of the most exciting young nines in England.<\/p>\n The forwards<\/p>\n 8 Alfie Barbeary (Bath): The Bath barrel. Player of the Match as his side came from 21 points down to beat Northampton 43-41. Barbeary was the catalyst for Bath\u2019s transformation, a game-changer off the bench whose carrying, physicality and bloody-mindedness dragged his side back from the dead. England boss Steve Borthwick has so far snubbed him, which, on this evidence, looks like an act of self-harm. Henry Pollock was brilliant for Northampton before a controversial late yellow card from Andrew Brace, smashing through three defenders for the opening try and competing ferociously throughout. Ted Hill scored the match-winning try, while Mikheili Shioshvili, Toulon\u2019s 19-year-old Georgian, put in 12 carries, 18 tackles and two turnovers at Scotstoun.<\/p>\n 7 Jack Willis (Toulouse): Maybe the individual performance of the weekend, and arguably the finest single display of the entire Champions Cup<\/a> campaign, came in a losing cause. Willis<\/a>\u2018s first intervention set the tone when he melted Salesi Rayasi with a try-saving hit on the five-metre line after a 90-metre counter-attack. He held up Arthur Reti\u00e8re with Toulouse down to 13. He tracked back from a maul break to make a covering tackle that single-handedly kept Toulouse in the competition. He did all of this in a match featuring Dupont, Ramos, Jalibert, Romain Ntamack, Bielle-Biarrey and Lucu, and he was the most influential player on the pitch. England\u2019s continued failure to find a place for Willis looks more baffling with every performance of this calibre. Rory Darge was excellent for Glasgow in defeat, while Sam Underhill\u2019s first-half was curtailed by an HIA.<\/p>\n 6 Charles Ollivon (Toulon): Le Grand Charles, back to his very best, was the heartbeat of the biggest upset of the round. 21 tackles against Glasgow, relentless with and without the ball, and the last-gasp defensive play that secured Toulon\u2019s passage. Conceded three penalties and missed six tackles, which on any other afternoon would be damaging, but his influence at the critical moments overrode the blemishes. Guy Pepper was a big reason for Bath\u2019s turnaround, hugely physical around the contact area as the West Country side got their opponents going into reverse. Cameron Woki was immense for UBB, holding up a Toulouse try and drawing the Dupont yellow card with a powerful maul break. Ryan Baird scored a fine try for Leinster and showed great composure to set up Keenan\u2019s score.<\/p>\n Leinster v Sale: Five takeaways as \u2018lion king\u2019 roars again during \u2018ugly duckling\u2019 of a quarter-final<\/a><\/p>\n 5 David Ribbans (Toulon): Oh, how England miss this man. The Toulon captain produced a rumbling display at Scotstoun that was central to a famous away victory, with big contacts on both sides of the ball driving the upset of the number two seeds. Emmanuel Meafou ran hard for Toulouse with 10 carries and deft offloading but faded as Bordeaux found their rhythm. Tom Lockett put in a massive shift for Northampton before Bath\u2019s bench turned the tide.<\/p>\n 4 Adam Coleman (Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles): Quietly excellent as UBB took the fight to Toulouse\u2019s fearsome pack and won. Coleman\u2019s work in the tight, at the lineout and in the carrying game provided the platform from which Jefferson Poirot, Woki and Ben Tameifuna could produce their headline moments. The kind of performance that rarely makes the highlights reel but is fundamental to everything around it. Joe McCarthy was busy for Leinster, using those long legs to beat four defenders.<\/p>\n