Kiwis in Europe: Lyon's Kiwi influence felt against Stade
The Kiwi influence at Lyon is still palpable as that club makes its way up the French Top 14 table.
In Lyon’s 41-6 defeat of Stade Francais, second five Charlie Ngatai scored an intercept try to go with another five-pointer by former Bay of Plenty wing Toby Arnold. Former All Black Rudi Wulf was at centre. One of the replacement props was South African-born Albertus Buckle, who played for Wairarapa-Bush at the dawn of the Heartland Championship.
Lyon is now up to fourth on the log, while Stade remains third. Tony Ensor and Ziggy Fisi’ihoi turned out for the Parisians.
Toulouse, with Joe Tekori, Charlie Faumuina and Carl Axtens in the ranks, blanked Bordeaux-Begles 40-0. Former All Blacks Sevens and Manawatu wing George Tilsley was yellow-carded for the visitors.
Racing-Metro upset Montpellier 27-13 in the south of France. Aaron Cruden kicked a penalty goal for the home side, but it was Census Johnston, Dominic Bird, Ole Avei and Ben Tameifuna who tasted a sweet away victory.
Grenoble and Clermont drew 27-all. Alaska Taufa scored a try for the former, while Leva Fifita, Steven Setephano and Taiasina Tuifua all featured for Grenoble. The visitors fielded Tim Nanai-Williams, Fritz Lee, George Moala and Isaia Toeava.
A try to Alex Tulou helped Castres to a 37-10 win over Pau. David Smith came off the pine for Castres. Benson Stanley was in the unfamiliar No 10 position for Pau, while Daniel Ramsay and Peter Saili also played.
Six goals to Ihaia West helped La Rochelle to a 33-29 win over Agen. Hikairo Forbes and Victor Vito started in the pack. Agen fielded Sam Vaka, Tom Murday and hooker Paula Ngauamo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtNCVsXjFrM
Playing at second five, Julian Savea broke his try drought as Toulon won a crucial 26-16 victory over Perpignan. Malakai Fekitoa, Brian Alainu’uese and Liam Messam were alongside him. Genesis Mamea and Shahn Eru both played for the Catalans.
In the Guinness PRO14, two conversions by Simon Hickey, who was also binned, helped Edinburgh to a 31-21 win over Scarlets, for whom Johnny McNicholl scored a try. Kieron Fonotia and Blade Thomson also started for the Welsh region.
Callum Gibbins’ Glasgow beat Ma’afu Fia’s Ospreys 29-20. Tom McCartney scored a brace as Connacht defeated Dragons 33-12.
Sean Reidy scored an important try for Ulster in the 15-10 victory at Benetton Treviso, for whom hooker Hame Faiva scored a try. Jayden Hayward, Iliesa Ratuva Tavuyara and Dean Budd all featured for the Italian club.
A double to Rey Lee-Lo and a single to Nick Williams highlighted Cardiff Blues’ 37-0 shutout of Zebre.
Former NZ Under 20s captain Tyler Bleyendaal is back from a long injury layoff, turning out at No 12 for Munster in the 30-26 win over the Cheetahs. Alby Mathewson was at halfback for the Irish province.
Jamison Gibson-Park scored a try as Leinster beat the Southern Kings 38-31. The second round of England’s Premership Rugby Cup saw a Bryce Heem double carry Worcester to a 31-12 defeat of Valentino Mapapalangi’s Leicester.
Exeter Chiefs beat Bath 25-18. Former NZ Schools loose forward Onehunga Havili came off the bench for the Chiefs, while wing Jack Wilson scored twice for the vanquished.
Anthony Perenise and Kahn Fotuali’i were both replacements for Bath. Johnny Leota’s Sale drew 15-15 with Saracens. Ben Franks’ Northampton Saints edged Ambrose Curtis’ Wasps 15-14. Newcastle, with former North Harbour openside Connor Collett in the starting line-up, tipped over Francis Saili’s Harlequins 23-21.
Charlie Piutau finally made his debut for Bristol in the 21-13 win over west country rivals Gloucester. Flanker Jake Heenan scored a try off the bench for Pat Lam’s side.
The French Top 14 and Guinness PRO14 break for two weekends of the November internationals. The Gallagher Premiership resumes on November 17.
In other news:
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 …
27 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!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 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.
27 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.
27 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