Weekend Round-up: Nick Evans takes his bow at the Stoop
Catch up on the best end-of-season thrillers in the Premiership, Pro 12 and Top 14 – and a fearsome display of attack in Super Rugby.
Aviva Premiership: Exeter Chiefs vs Northampton Saints
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A respected English rugby journalist at Sandy Park at the weekend was moved to tweet: “Jeez, @ExeterChiefs are good.” Another, heading home from the same venue after seeing the Chiefs record their seventh Premiership bonus-point victory in a row, added: “A merry Exeter fan just got on the shuttle bus and loudly proclaimed: ‘Bloody hell we are a good side!’ Hard to argue.” There’s no more to add about an eight-try match in which the visitors had both the first and last word, but in which the hosts held court for the rest of the game.
Super Rugby: Highlanders vs Stormers
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Speaking of visitors scoring first and last but getting wiped off the park in between… Most expected the Stormers to bounce back from their crushing loss to the Crusaders last week, and when they crossed for the opening try it was game on. For about the next 15 minutes at least. Once the Highlanders seized control of the game they didn’t give the visitors a look in, running in spectacular tries like it was no big deal. We should all be very afraid of the Highlanders down Super Rugby’s home stretch.
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Pro12: Leinster vs Glasgow Warriors
Full Game | Condensed
The lights went out on Leinster’s RDS ground – literally – for 20 minutes as the clock ticked into the final 120 seconds of a blistering encounter. The game had already seen the Pro 12 leaders roar into an 23-6 half-time lead before the visitors hauled them back to set up an edge-of-the-seat finish. The tension mounted in the blackout, before the teams returned to play the final two minutes, with Warriors hunting down their fourth try to keep their slim hopes of a top four place alive.
Top 14: Pau vs Brive
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The Top 14 weekend kicked off with three playoff places up for grabs. To be fair, one of those places was Toulon’s to lose – and they dutifully didn’t with a routine win at Bordeaux. But the French championship is so close that when this match kicked off seven teams were still effectively fighting for two still-open slots in the postseason. Two of the more unlikely challengers for a top-six berth met at Pau’s Stade du Hameau and played out a hard-hitting – and occasionally sickening -–thriller (Benjamin Petre’s injury was nearly Ieuan Evans-level gruesome) that was decided only by the odd try in seven, and remained in the balance until the final whistle.
Aviva Premiership: Harlequins vs Wasps
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Forget the playoffs. Forget European Champions Cup places. Usually these things take top priority as the end of the season looms – but not here, not this week. This match turned into something more, as ex-All Black-turned-Harlequins legend Nick Evans bade a glorious farewell to a rapturous crowd. Evans is due to retire at the end of the season, after nine years at the London club. And with Quins away at Northampton next weekend, this was his Stoop swansong. He nailed it.
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Comments on RugbyPass
We’re building a bridge but can't agree where the river is.
2 Go to commentsfirst no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
1 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to comments