Kiwis in Europe - Aplenty in line for silverware
New Zealand coaches and players are in the thick of the action as the European season reaches silverware time.
Dave Rennie, in his second season with Glasgow, has guided the Warriors into the Guinness PRO 14 final in fine style, smacking Sean Reidy’s Ulster 50-20 in one semifinal over the weekend. Callum Gibbins, who worked with Rennie many moons ago at Manawatu, was on the openside flank for the victors.
One of Rennie’s former Chiefs players – wing James Lowe – scored a try as Leinster beat Alby Mathewson’s Munster 24-9 in the other semifinal. The decider will be played this weekend at Celtic Park in Glasgow.
Scarlets did not farewell coach Wayne Pivac in style, falling 21-10 to Ma’afu Fia’s Ospreys in the playoff for a Champions Cup berth in 2019-20. Pivac’s regional team fielded a Kiwi trio of Johnny McNicholl, Hadleigh Parkes and Blade Thomson.
The regular season of England’s Gallagher Premiership has wound up with Chris Boyd’s Northampton Saints scraping into fourth position despite a 40-21 defeat to Exeter, to whom they travel for this weekend’s semifinal.
Piers Francis scored a try for Saints, and alongside him were Ahsee Tuala, Ben Franks and Teimana Harrison.
Todd Blackadder’s Bath, with Kahn Fotuali’i as replacement halfback, sealed sixth and a Champions Cup berth with a last gasp 32-31 win at Leicester, despite a double to the Tigers’ Brendon O’Connor. Mike FitzGerald and Valentino Mapapalangi were also in the Tigers’ loose forwards.
Bristol’s clutch of New Zealanders or New Zealand origin players ended the season with a 19-12 win at Newcastle, but ninth place is below the Bears’ pre-season ambitions. Tusi Pisi, Jack Lam, Steven Luatua, Chris Vui, John Afoa, James Lay, Siale Piutau, Alapati Leiua and Charlie Piutau all featured, while Logovi’i Mulipola and Evan Olmstead played for the relegated Falcons.
A Denny Solomona try helped Sale edge semifinal-bound Gloucester 46-41, for whom Tom Marshall was used off the bench. Bryn Evans was a sub for the Sharks.
Alofa Alofa’s Harlequins were shut out of the semis due to a 27-25 reverse to Wasps, for whom Lima Sopoaga kicked five goals. Brad Shields and Nathan Hughes were in the loose.
A try to Michael Fatialofa helped Worcester to a tight 31-29 upset win over second-placed Saracens. Ben Te’o was in the Warriors’ midfield.
The French Top 14, as ever, still has one more round to play before the playoffs.
Toulouse is well clear at the top after a 43-36 win over Begles-Bordeaux which featured a try to former Auckland lock Joe Tekori. Jerome Kaino and Pita Ahki also turned out for the winners. George Tilsley scored a try for the home side, while Seta Tamanivalu scored a yellow card.
Aaron Cruden scored a try for Montpellier in the 42-25 defeat to Stade Francais.
Toulon gave its long-suffering Stade de Mayol faithful something to cheer about with a 32-11 shutout of high-flying Clermont. Malakai Fekitoa, Liam Messam and Brian Alainu’uese all enjoyed the victory, while Tim Nanai-Williams kicked two goals for the Yellows. Fritz Lee, Isaia Toeava and George Moala also fronted.
A Charlie Ngatai try helped Lyon to a 29-19 win over La Rochelle, which played Tawera Kerr-Barlow and Faifili Levave.
Castres fielded David Smith, Maama Vaipulu, Paea Fa’anunu and Alex Tulou in the 17-10 win over an Agen side which included Sam Vaka and Tom Murday.
Three Colin Slade goals helped Pau, which also included Benson Stanley, to a 22-0 blanking of Grenoble. Taleta Tupuola, Leva Fifita and Halani Aulika appeared for the latter.
Ben Tameifuna, Dominic Bird, Ole Avei and Ben Volavola enjoyed a 52-14 Racing-Metro win over relegation-bound Perpignan, which fielded Tima Faingaanuku and Shahn Eru.
The Academy with Leicester Tigers – Part 6:
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments