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Kolbe recalled to start as Toulon and Lyon name cup final teams
World Cup winner Cheslin Kolbe has recovered from a broken thumb to take his place in the Toulon team for Friday’s European Challenge Cup final versus Lyon in Marseille. The Springboks winger suffered the injury in last month’s round of 16 win over Benetton on April 16.
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He was operated on the following Wednesday and is now back in the Toulon line-up five weeks later for an all-French European final against an opposition they trounced 43-10 at Lyon in early April in the Top 14. Kolbe was one of the Toulon try-scorers that day and he now takes his place in an XV showing two changes from the recent semi-final win over Saracens.
Kolbe comes in on the right wing for Jiuta Naqoli Wainiqolo, the scorer of that crucial, late solo try which eliminated the Londoners in the last round, while Julien Heriteau is at outside centre in place of Mathieu Smaili. Both Wainiqolo and Smaili are named on a bench where Raphael Lakafia and Anthony Belleau lose out from the last day.
Lyon, meanwhile, have made just a single change to a starting XV that includes Joel Kpoku following their semi-final win over Wasps. Ex-Leicester back-rower Jordan Taufua is back to skipper the team from No8, an inclusion that sees Patrick Sobela move to openside and Beka Saginadze dropping out. On the bench, Mickael Ivaldi and Hamza Kaabeche and Colby Fainga’a are all included at the expense of Yanis Charcosset, Jerome Rey, Temo Mayanavanua.
TOULON: 15. Aymeric Luc; 14. Cheslin Kolbe, 13. Julien Heriteau, 12. Duncan Paia’aua, 11. Gabin Villiere; 10. Louis Carbonel, 9. Baptiste Serin; 1. Jean Baptiste Gros, 2. Christopher Tolofua, 3. Beka Gigashvili, 4. Eben Etzebeth, 5. Brian Alainu’uese, 6. Cornell du Preez, 7. Charles Ollivon (capt), 8. Sergio Parisse. Reps: 16. Anthony Etrillard, 17. Bruce Devaux, 18. Emerick Setiano, 19. Swan Rebbadj, 20. Mathieu Smaili, 21. Julien Blanc, 22. Jiuta Naqoli Wainiqolo, 23. Facundo Isa.
LYON: 15. Toby Arnold; 14. Josua Tuisova, 13. Pierre-Louis Barassi, 12. Charlie Ngatai, 11. Davit Niniashvili; 10. Leo Berdeu, 9. Baptiste Couilloud; 1. Sebastien Taofifenua, 2. Guillaume Marchand, 3. Demba Bamba, 4. Joel Kpoku, 5. Romain Taofifenua, 6. Dylan Cretin, 7. Patrick Sobela, 8. Jordan Taufua (capt). Reps: 16. Mickael Ivaldi, 17. Hamza Kaabeche, 18. Francisco Gomez Kodela, 19. Felix Lambey, 20. Loann Goujon, 21. Jean-Marc Doussain, 22. Colby Fainga’a, 23. Xavier Mignot.
Comments on RugbyPass
late 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
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 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.
24 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.
24 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?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments