Red Bulls win in Lyon

I thought there was a chance of this looking at the teams and for once I got it right!

Red Bulls got a deserved win in Lyon last night to get their European campaign off to a winning start. As I said in my preview yesterday, any win in France has to be earned. Lyon despite their league position are still a decent outfit. I'll keep the below brief as I haven't seen the game.

New competition, fresh focus

This win can give Red Bulls fans something to be excited about on the pitch in the second half of the season. Last night saw Red Bulls take a 13-7 lead at half time and in the second half they weathered a Lyon storm surviving being down to fourteen men and took away a 14-23 victory.

Tries from Harrison Obatoyinbo, Tom Christie and Oli Spencer saw Red Bulls no doubt enjoy a night in Lyon. Tom Christie took the man of the match award, he's already turning into a really shrewd signing. With winter setting in here in Newcastle he's not the type of person you want to see as an opposition player on a cold, wet Kingston Park night!

Favourable fixtures

On the face of it, a Lions team at home who have announced their touring squad this morning with a lot of changes for next weekend. This should be another win for Red Bulls. After Christmas they have Perpignan at home who again I think will rotate and Dragons away who pushed Leinster all the way the other week. The aim has to be to aim to finish top and get as high a ranking as possible in the last sixteen. That then gives you a home last sixteen and you go from there. The drawback to this competition is four Champions Cup teams come in at the last sixteen stage.

Lions next

As I've said next weekend sees Red Bulls host the Lions at 17:30 on Saturday night. This'll be the first home game I've missed this season as I'll be in Cork watching Gloucester take on Munster. The organisers haven't taken me into consideration and put both games on at the same time! I do expect a Red Bulls win probably quite comfortably before a big pre-Christmas clash with Bath the week after.