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Newcastle overcome Bordeaux as Edinburgh make history in Moscow

By Rob Lancaster
Newcastle Falcons fly-half Toby Flood

Newcastle fought back to beat Bordeaux-Begles on the road while Edinburgh entered the record books in the second round of fixtures in this season’s European Challenge Cup.

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The Falcons trailed 17-7 at the break but rallied in the second half, grabbing a rare win on French soil thanks mainly to Toby Flood’s 11-point haul.

The fly-half scored a try and kicked three conversions to secure a 21-20 triumph that puts Newcastle ahead of their opponents.

The Dragons meanwhile defeated Enisei-STM 28-21 in Moscow to sit third in Pool 1.

Pau are the new leaders in Pool 3 after recovering from 30-7 down at half-time to defeat Zebre 38-33 in a thriller at the Stadio Lanfranchi, where the hosts had Eduardo Bello sent to the sin bin in the second half.

In Pool 4, Edinburgh secured a second successive bonus-point victory as Richard Cockerill’s side ran in 10 tries in a 73-14 hammering of Krasny Yar in Moscow.

Full-back Blair Kinghorn and replacement prop Murray McCallum both crossed twice as Edinburgh posted the biggest win in the club’s history.

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In the same group, Stade Francais are still searching for their first win of the competition after going down 44-7 to London Irish.

Topsy Ojo marked his record-breaking 281st appearance for the Exiles with two tries as the Aviva Premiership strugglers recorded just their second win of the campaign.

 

The battle of the two unbeaten teams in Pool 5 saw Connacht run out 15-8 victors over Worcester, although Jono Lance’s 74th-minute penalty secured a losing bonus point for the beaten Warriors.

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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