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Article: De Villiers relishes tough English beef ; HEINEKEN CUP. Restaurateur and wine merchant ready for vintage battle
- Article from:
- The Independent on Sunday (London, England)
- Article date:
- April 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2007 The Independent on Sunday. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Stade Francais may appear to have everything their Heineken Cup
quarter-final opponents Leicester lack - league crowds of 80,000 in
Paris, garish pink jerseys or blue ones decorated with lilies, that
kind of thing. But Pieter de Villiers is not fooled. The long-
serving France prop sums up his seven career appearances against the
Tigers to date in simple terms: "We lost the most important one,
which was the Heineken Cup final in 2001."
That sunny May day six years ago remains vivid in De Villiers'
memory as, together with the final defeat by Toulouse in 2005, it
represents the stickiest charge of underachievement against the big-
spending Stade, for all their four French titles in the open ...