Trio on the brink after weekend of surprises – Andy Goode

With just one round to go the Champions Cup quarter-final line-up should have been really starting to take shape but seven spots are still up for grabs after a weekend of missed opportunities.

It’s been the most topsy-turvy season I can remember in the Premiership and Europe and Round 5 of the Champions Cup epitomised that with Bath, Saracens and Wasps all starting the weekend in control of their own destinies but ending it needing big favours from elsewhere if they are to progress.

Wasps won the game twice against Quins before finding a way to lose it, Marcus Smith continuing his rise by coming on and making a difference. You always knew that there’d be some heat in that game because of the rivalry between the two teams but Wasps really shot themselves in the foot.

It was the same old story for Saracens. They gave five penalties away at the scrum and that is their weakness at the moment. I’ve got no doubt they’ll beat Northampton on Saturday and think they’ll get the bonus point but they’ll be watching on Sunday with everyone else hoping desperately for a few results to go their way or the champions from the last two seasons will have been dumped out.

It was a bit of a surprise that Ospreys kicked the ball out and didn’t go for the win when they had the chance to at the very end, given that they’ve got to travel to the Stade Marcel Michelin now, but if there was ever a time to win away at Clermont it’s now with the number of injuries they’ve got and the horrific form they’re in.

They still had a lot of internationals on show at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday and they just didn’t perform when they knew they had the chance to seal qualification. Having said that, it was great to see the Northampton boys put some pride back in the shirt with back-to-back home wins after a catastrophic run of 11 straight defeats in the Premiership and Champions Cup.

It was great to see teams like Harlequins and Saints, with nothing to play for in terms of qualification, fighting hard and a string of teams will be keeping their fingers crossed that we see more of the same this weekend with Leicester, in particular, capable of playing a pivotal role at home to Racing.

The Tigers are in a bad place at the minute as a club. They did beat London Irish to end their worst run since 1965 but they’ve now been nilled by a French team for the first time in their history. It was a second team but it was another dreadful result for the club.

I think they’ll defend their home turf a bit harder this week and a few more of their stars will play at Welford Road but the likes of Wasps, Saracens and a few others sorely need Tigers to do them a favour by winning and the squad isn’t in a great place at the moment, so you wouldn’t be wanting to rely on them.

Everyone will be expecting Exeter to see off winless Glasgow at Scotstoun and make it through to the quarter-finals but the Warriors are formidable opponents if they choose to put their first team out and they could do a few teams a favour as well.

I still think two teams will come out of the pool involving Scarlets, Toulon and Bath, with Exeter and Racing looking best placed to get the other two best runners-up spots but anything can happen this weekend.

Leinster scored eight tries against a Glasgow side with some of their stars included and they still very much look like tournament favourites to me after becoming the only team to qualify with a round to spare and having pretty much sewn up the number one seeding as well. They can send the kids over to Montpellier if they want and watch everyone else scramble for places.

You’ve got to credit the coaches there. They have got a lot of top international players but so have Toulon and they’re not looking anywhere near as good. Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster are doing an excellent job and coaching can be the difference in the knockout stages.

The performance of the weekend for me was from the Scarlets, though. Bath were disappointing in front of their own fans but the Welshmen had the try bonus point wrapped up with half an hour to spare and some of their attacking rugby was a joy to watch and shows what a good job Stephen Jones is doing too.

It was generally a compelling weekend for all the right reasons but a sour taste was definitely left in the mouth at the end of it with Mathieu Bastareaud heard allegedly directing a homophobic slur at Sebastien Negri.

He’s been cited, with the hearing set for Wednesday in London, and the low entry point in terms of punishment for an offence like that if found guilty is six weeks but I think they should make an example of him.

There is no place in the game for homophobia and I think they should throw the book at him.

Joe Marler was banned for a couple of weeks for his comments towards Samson Lee and Dylan Hartley was handed an 11-week ban for calling Wayne Barnes a cheat in a couple of relatively recent high-profile examples of verbal abuse but I think this is worse.

If the sanction EPCR impose is too lenient, they’re sending out the wrong message and saying it isn’t that bad. It’s a family game and an inclusive sport and what he said is disgusting. There’s no excuse and I hope a lengthy ban is forthcoming.

The final round of the Champions Cup pool stage is always one of the highlights of the rugby season and this year it’s as wide open as I can remember it being for a long time at this stage, with as many as 15 teams technically still in the hunt.

A whole load more twists and turns are guaranteed this weekend. It’d be even better if we were able to play every single game in the last round at the same time so the teams playing on Sunday didn’t have the advantage of knowing what they have to do but then we wouldn’t be able to watch every single bit of the drama unfold.