JACKSON COLUMN: Dragons chasing famous French double

Their opponents, then in their new regional guise as the Newport Gwent Dragons, gave the Parisians a welcome they would not forget in a hurry.

A resounding home win ensured that the best team in France joined some elite company, most notably alongside Sir Wilson Whineray's 1963 All Blacks who also found Newport at Rodney Parade too hard to handle.

Stade will be back there this Saturday for the first time since for what ought to be the Dragons' biggest European occasion of all. Lyn Jones' team are not only top of their pool but already through to the last eight of the Challenge Cup as standard-bearers for the GUINNESS PRO12.

Having got there in some style, by way of six tries against the Newcastle Falcons on Tyneside last weekend, the Dragons will settle for nothing less than a winning finale to their six-match pool campaign.

If Stade took them a trifle lightly in the opening round at their Jean Bouin stadium last October, then they will at least have a clearer idea of the task awaiting them in the return. After their four-try, five-point, 38-22 win in Paris, the Dragons are on the verge of a notable double.

Their five matches in the tournament have produced a flood of 30 tries. They scored five before half-time at Kingston Park in avenging a narrow home defeat by the Falcons last October.

In the end they settled for six, from Hallam Amos (2), Tyler Morgan, Andrew Coombs, Ryand Landman and a penalty try. Five Tom Prydie conversions ensured the match stayed out of the Falcons' reach during their second-half recovery.

Two other PRO12 teams are in line to join the Dragons in the quarter-finals. Edinburgh, still heading Pool 4 despite their four-match winning streak ending in a narrow defeat at Lyon, know that a home win over Begles-Bordeaux will carry them through.

Bordeaux have won just once on their travels in the Top 14 this season but last week's double over London Welsh keeps them in contention for the last eight.

Edinburgh, semi-finalists in the Heineken Cup three years ago when they lost 22-19 to Ulster at the Aviva Stadium, have the psychological advantage of a 15-13 win in Bordeaux three months ago.

After running up a proverbial cricket score against Rovigo at BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park last weekend, the Cardiff Blues travel to Grenoble in a position to qualify as the best of the three runners-up.

But another win is unlikely to be enough to earn them a home quarter-final ahead of London Irish, not with the Exiles finishing up at Rovigo. Irish ran up 70 points against them at the Madejski Stadium last October.

The Blues, who, critically, lost their back-to-back matches against the English club on aggregate by a single point, 48 to 47, broke records galore last Friday with 16 tries adding up to their first century in European competition - 104-12.

Top ten record wins in Europe:

Saracens 151, Dinamo Bucharest 0 (Season 2002-3)
Cetransa El Salvador 3, Brive 116 (Season 2010-1)
Saracens 113, Bologna 3 (Season 2001-2)
Saracens 113, Dinamo Bucharest 3 (Season 2001-2)
Toulouse 108, Ebbw Vale 16 (Season 1998-9)
Gloucester 106, Dinamo Bucharest 3 (Season 2005-6)
Cardiff Blues 104, Rovigo 12 (Season 2014-5)
Gloucester 98, Caerphilly 14 (Season 2001-2)
Montferrand 97, Aberavon 13 (Season 1998-9)
Dax 94, L'Aquila 19 (Season 2001-2)

Leinster will be playing for a home tie in the Champions Cup when they put their leadership of Pool 2 on the line at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry on Saturday. The former triple champions of Europe have not lost to English opposition in the competition since they last met Wasps, at High Wycombe six seasons ago.

And they responded to the defeat by sweeping all before them in the knock-out stage, beating Harlequins in London, Munster at Croke Park and Leicester at BT Murrayfield in the final to win the European Cup for the first time.

Despite losing at the RDS in the opening round when two Darragh Fanning tries enabled Leinster to come from nine points behind and win 25-20, Wasps have played themselves into a position where one more win will put them through.

Leinster warmed up in style, overwhelming Castres 50-8, their biggest victory in Europe since beating Bourgoin 53-7 nine years ago. As Wasps prepare for a bumper crowd at their new home in Coventry, the GUINNESS PRO12 champions may be about to welcome back Cian Healy and Sean O'Brien.

Both have been out for months, Healy with a torn hamstring, O'Brien following a shoulder reconstruction. With the RBS 6 Nations around the corner, their imminent return will strengthen Ireland's squad for the defence of their title starting against Italy in Rome on February 7.

And Glasgow Warriors kept their hunt for a quarter-final berth alive on Sunday as DTH van der Merwe ran in a hat-trick in their 21-10 victory over Montpellier at Scotstoun.

Their task is by no means an easy one, travelling to the Rec to face an in-form Bath side, fresh from their eye-catching triumph in Toulouse.

Only a win will do, with the GUINNESS PRO12 high-flyers lying third in the pool, but no doubt Gregor Townsend's charges will travel south confident of causing a stir.

For the record:
Newport Gwent Dragons 20, Stade Francais 12 at Rodney Parade, Heineken Cup, January 10, 2004. How they lined up:

Dragons - P Montomgery; N Brew, H Luscombe, A Marinos, B Breeze; L Jarvis, G Baber; A Black, P Young, C Anthony; I Gough, M Owen; J Ringer, J Forster, R Beattie.
Tries - Luscombe, Marinos. Conversions-Montgomery 2. Penalty-Montomgery. Drop-Jarvis

Stade Francais: I Corleto; T Lombard, S Glas, B Liebenberg, Mirco Bergamasco; D Dominguez, A Pichot; P Lemoine, B August, P de Villiers; D Auradou, A Marchois; C Moni, R Martin, P Tabacco

Penalties-Dominguez 4

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