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Glasgow have finished top of the charts in the four-match Six Nations block during the 2019 Six Nations. Their hammering of Zebre in Parma on Saturday left them with four wins from four and a points total of 19.
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The Warriors’ unbeaten run signals an excellent spring-time improvement under Dave Rennie and better management of their squad which remains the majority contributor to Gregor Townsend’s Scotland side. Glasgow had won just five of their 11 games in the three previous seasons at this time of the year, a 26-point haul that was inferior to the league’s most consistent outfit Leinster.
Leo Cullen’s squad had won 10 of their previous dozen matches in the Six Nations window for a 51-point total, despite Joe Schmidt’s heavy reliance on players from his old province for the Ireland national team. They continued in a similar vein this term, winning all four matches for an 18-point harvest that was only one behind Glasgow’s 19.
Most kudos, however, should go to Treviso due to their ongoing transformation with Kieran Crowley at the helm. That Italians had won just four of their dozen Six Nations block matches in 2016, 2017 and 2018, the club paying a price for a lack of squad depth.
However, despite still being the major supplier of players to Conor O’Shea’s Italy team, they have been tremendous in recent weeks, their unbeaten run coming within a whisker of four straight wins but for Ulster’s late equalising score to draw their match in Belfast.
Treviso beat Edinburgh 18-10 on Saturday to handsomely add to their respective 57-7 and 25-19 wins over Dragons and Scarlets following the block-starting 17-all draw at Champions Cup quarter-finalists Ulster.
The Italian franchise, unbeaten in the PRO14 since November, now have a fantastic opportunity of going on and qualifying for the end-of-season play-offs for the first time, as well as clinching automatic qualification for next season’s Champions Cup.
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? POST WIN VIBES ?????#BENvEDI pic.twitter.com/wlBiiApqv3
— Benetton Rugby ? (@BenettonRugby) March 3, 2019
New signing Ian Keatley, who will arrive next summer via a short stint at London Irish following nearly eight years at Munster, is delighted to be going to a club that has found its feet again under Crowley, the 1987 World Cup winner with the All Blacks.
“I was so excited when I heard (about moving to Treviso). I was keeping an eye on them and I was like, ‘wow, they are actually playing a really good brand of rugby’.
“You saw that last weekend against Dragons when they were missing 16 or 17 Italian internationals. You could even see it in the performance of Italy last weekend (against Ireland) and Conor O’Shea touched on that.
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“He said, ‘yeah we lost but we are definitely coming’. It’s exciting to go over to Italy at this time when they are progressing so well,’ said the out-half who will link up with fellow Dubliner Ian McKinley at the northern Italy club.
PRO14 SIX NATIONS WINDOW
P W D L BP PTS
Glasgow 4 4 0 0 3 19
Leinster 4 4 0 0 2 18
Ulster 4 3 1 0 2 16
Treviso 4 3 1 0 1 15
Munster 4 3 0 1 2 14
Cardiff 4 3 0 1 2 14
Scarlets 4 2 0 2 3 11
Cheetahs 5 2 0 3 2 10
Connacht 4 2 0 2 1 9
Edinburgh 4 1 0 3 3 7
Kings 5 1 0 4 2 6
Ospreys 4 0 0 4 2 2
Zebre 4 0 0 4 2 2
Dragons 4 0 0 4 0 0
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 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
4 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 comments