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This week's biggest matches to watch on Rugby Pass
Semis in France and the Aviva Premiership final, plus an all-South Africa Super Rugby showdown and England playing the Baa-Baas to round it all off. Not a bad weekend of rugby!
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Top 14: La Rochelle vs Toulon (Saturday, May 27, 3am HKT)
A fortnight off means regular season table-toppers La Rochelle are rested, fit and raring to go for the first semifinal at Marseille’s Stade Velodrome. Toulon, on the other hand, come into the game shorn of four key players – Bryan Habana, Ma’a Nonu, François Trinh-Duc and Laurent Delboulbès – after duking out a win over Castres in last Friday’s playoff quarterfinal. History, however, dictates that one of the two automatic semifinalists will lose, and this is La Rochelle’s first sortie into Top 14 knockout-phase territory. Toulon, of course, have been here before.
Aviva Premiership: Wasps vs Exeter Chiefs (Saturday, May 27, 7:30pm HKT)
Last week’s semifinals set the bar Everest-high. But, if any two sides in the English league can live up to impossible expectations, it’s these two. They finished the regular season in the top two spots – and scored a combined 175 tries while conceding a combined 116. So, turn on, tune in … and expect all-out attack from the outset.
Super Rugby: Sharks vs Stormers (Saturday, May 27, 11:15pm HKT)
The Sharks have their style of play well-and-truly locked-in at this stage and are becoming a tough old team to break down. The Sunwolves found that out in Singapore last week, and they’re even better at home, which is where they meet the Stormers this weekend. The visitors rebounded from their New Zealand nightmare with a (some might say lucky) win over the Blues in Cape Town last week, and they’ll want to keep it rolling towards the playoffs.
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Top 14: Clermont vs Racing 92 (Sunday, May 28, 12am HKT)
It’s win or bust for both sides in the second Top 14 semifinal in Marseille – and Clermont will be out for revenge against the defending champions. The two sides met at this stage last season, and played out an extra-time thriller that was ultimately decided by the odd point in 67. On that night in Rennes, Juan Imhoff’s outrageous 98th-minute runaway try gave Dan Carter a tricky shot from out wide to win the match. And big-game Dan didn’t disappoint. If this rerun is half as exciting, it will be worth the Velodrome entrance fee.
England vs Barbarians (Sunday, May 28, 10pm HKT)
Despite earlier hopes, there’s no Carter in the Baa-Baas line-up because of Racing 92’s ongoing Top 14 commitments. That’s a bit of a shame – but there’s no shortage of talent in the occasionals’ squad as they face Eddie Jones’s England at Twickenham. Everything about this match screams joyous rugby exhibition – the weather is set fair; the Barbarians have more star quality than the centre of the Milky Way, and England will want a win to send them on their way to Argentina.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 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
3 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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.
30 Go to comments