France faced a new type of test in the Six Nations, with their first game away from home in the championship. And one of the toughest atmospheres in World Rugby.
France still needed to prove the critics wrong, and this game has gone some way to show they really are a new force in Northern Hemisphere rugby.
An absolute nightmare to try and get hold of, Sinoti Sinoti was on it this weekend against Sale Sharks as he sent two defenders flying on a bursting run full of his trademark stepping prowess.
There is simply nobody like the Samoan in the game at the minute, completely unpredictable when trying to defend him with ball in hand.
His break was vital in the initial try for Toby Flood which brought Newcastle into the game at St. James Park.
The Falcons are now 3 on the bounce following the weekends win and very much in with a chance of survival. They now look set to battle it out with Leicester Tigers and Worcester Warriors in the relegation fight.
75 Minutes – Ireland are camped in
66 Minutes – Wales are still dominating and coping with the weather. Ireland just cannot go through phases and make anything meaningful happen.
57 Minutes – Wales get the scrum after a fight for turnover ball with Tipuric stealing, Ireland win it back but knock on.
55 Minutes – Ireland need to get going, they win a penalty and kick into the 22 for a lineout.
49 Minutes – Wales 19-0 Ireland another penalty for Anscombe.
46 Minutes – Ireland give away a debatable penalty, with the commentary team still struggling.
Wales well on the way to a win here, Ireland have nothing and the ref certainly isn’t helping them out.
43 Minutes – Ireland have a scrum on halfway. But they make no ground against a tough Welsh defence. Sexton then kicks it out on the full. He apologises to the team, just shows how off form they are at the minute.
41 Minutes – Anscombe takes Wales into a 16 point lead. Can they lose this now?
36 Minutes – Wales 13-0 Ireland another penalty after an offside from Wales. Anscombe looking settled with kicking duty.
30 Minutes – Ireland knock on after a scrappy lineout. Wales have a scrum to build on from halfway.
23 Minutes – Ireland in the Wales half and putting the pressure on, they win a penalty and are going for the corner. Ireland taking the game to Wales now.
20 Minutes – Offside penalty given away by Ireland, then some handbags after the whistle goes. Wales have the penalty reversed for jumping on the player whilst playing advantage.
18 Minutes – Decisions going for Wales, they get a penalty and are back into Ireland territory with a lineout. Rain is coming down though.
WALES 10-0 IRELAND
16 Minutes – Wales earn a penalty after swarming on Stockdale after taking a high kick. Arguably a penalty for Ireland but given in Wales favour. Anscombe puts
12 Minutes – Wales go through phase play, and are on the 5m when Ireland turnover the ball in the ruck.
9 Minutes – Big change here, Biggar on at 10 as they have a reshuffle due to North going off.
7 Minutes – Jacob Stockdale breaks away after a cross field kick from Sexton. Hadleigh Parkes sorts him out though and takes him into touch.
Wales 7-0 Ireland
1 Minutes – TRY TIME – Deft kick with advantage to Wales straight from the start and Hadleigh Parks is over for a try.
Anscombe adds the extras.
And we are a go, what a game this could be.
The new kit from Macron for the Italian squad has added some Italian style to he Italians building to next years Rugby World Cup in Japan.
The Italian flag colours on the underside of the sleeve is my favourite touch on this kit. A nice touch for the kit, considering they play in Blue it’s nice to get the national flag in there. It manages to achieve without being too tacky, a very nice little nod to the flag colours of the country. Those little touches of flair fit well with the country itself.
You can currently get hold of the new shirt for £70 at Lovell Rugby
The Citizen try of the season shortlist has this week been announced. With 8 to choose from throughout the season. This season you get the chance to vote for your favourite to be involved in the outcome.
To get involved, watch the video and download the Premiership Rugby App to cast your vote.
The eight shortlisted tries were selected due to being David Flatman’s Try of the Month winners, and the full Citizen Try of the Season shortlist is:
Round 4 – Billy Twelvetrees (Gloucester Rugby) v Worcester Warriors
Round 5 – Mikey Haywood (Northampton Saints) v Harlequins
Round 9 – Jack Singleton (Worcester Warriors) v Leicester Tigers
Round 11 – Will Chudley (Exeter Chiefs) v Northampton Saints
Round 13 – Sinoti Sinoti (Newcastle Falcons) v Exeter Chiefs
Round 14 – Henry Trinder (Gloucester Rugby) v Leicester Tigers
Round 18 – Faf de Klerk (Sale Sharks) v Worcester Warriors
Round 21 – Tom Homer (Bath Rugby) v Gloucester Rugby
Edinburgh beat their Scottish counterparts in a competitive Murrayfield battle, with the 1872 cup being awarded to them with a 24-19 win over the Glasgow Warriors.
Ulsters failure to get a bonus point win against Munster meant Edinburgh’s fate was already decided before kick-off at the national stadium. Edinburgh though were able to maintain the intensity to keep bragging rights from Glasgow. Edinburgh have won 2 of the 3 clashes against Warriors this season, taking the top dog awards from Glasgow, though the Warriors are in with a chance of winning the competition this year still.
| 23/12/17: Edinburgh 18-17 Glasgow |
| 30/12/17: Glasgow 17-0 Edinburgh |
| 28/4/18: Edinburgh 24-19 Glasgow Warriors |
Both teams made plenty of changes ahead of kick-off, with Glasgow losing Tommy Seymour, Sam Johnson and Jonny Gray from their published lists before that start.
| Edinburgh (21) 24 |
| Tries: Johnstone, Lay, Van der Merwe Cons: Hidalgo-Clyne 3 Pen: Weir |
| Glasgow Warriors (14) 19 |
| Tries: Van der Merwe 2, Gibbins Cons: Russell 2 |
Edinburgh: D Fife, J Harries, J Johnstone, S Rasolea, D van der Merwe, J van der Walt, S Hidalgo-Clyne; J Lay, S McInally (capt), S Berghan, B Toolis, G Gilchrist, M Bradbury, J Ritchie, V Mata.
Replacements: N Cochrane, A Dell, WP Nel, L Carmichael, C du Preez, N Fowles, D Weir, M Bennett.
Glasgow Warriors: S Hogg; L Jones, N Grigg, A Dunbar, DTH van der Merwe; F Russell, G Horne; A Allan, F Brown, Z Fagerson; T Swinson, S Cummings; M Fagerson, C Gibbins, R Wilson (capt).
Replacements: G Turner, J Bhatti, S Halanukonuka, R Harley, C Fusaro, H Pyrgos, A Hastings, R Jackson.
After a miserable season for the number 8 things could be looking up, with a potential return for Saracens on the cards this weekend. Billy Vunipola has been out since January when he fractured his arm after only briefly returning from a previous lay-off.
The England back rower has had to sit on the sidelines and watch England suffer there worst Six Nations in years and see Saracens fall in the knockout stages of the Champions Cup. He is now in a fight to be fit to be involved in the Play-Off’s in the Aviva Premiership which Sarries secured qualification for a few weeks ago.
Sarcens face London Irish on Sunday and this could see Billy return in some capacity to get some game time. Mark McCall said “We’ll make a decision on Friday as to whether he’s involved this weekend or whether we give him until next weekend,”
“He’s close but hasn’t had a lot of field sessions and (Wednesday) was probably his toughest session so we’ll see how he reacts and make a decision on Friday.
“It’s been almost 16 weeks that he’s been out and we just need to be careful to put him into a rugby match without playing much rugby; although he’s been out for that long, he was out there for quite a long time with his previous injury and he doesn’t really have a bank of games behind him this year. I think he’s only played three full matches.
“It would be useful for him to have a couple of games before the semi-final for him to get back to somewhere near his best. The more game time he can get the better for Billy.”
As Mark McCall has said his lack of game time will be a worry for Saracens and England, he will undoubtedly take a while to get back up to speed with such a lengthy spell out. Whether he’s picked for Sunday will come down to the physicality and intensity of the training he’s been involved in over the last few weeks to get him to this stage. If he is included you would think it would be from the bench potentially, with on paper a fairly easy game for the squad to deal with. This is rugby though and anything can happen. We just look forward to seeing him back on the pitch.
Leinster and Racing Metro 92 are through to the finals of the Champions Cup in what turned out to be two semi-finals that were both fairly one sided. For the average supporter they lacked a lot of excitement, with both games being over in all seriousness before half time.
3 tries in the first half for Racing meant they had a comfortable ride through the second half, with Teddy Thomas the star of the show, he even graciously handed a try to Maxine Machenaud instead of bagging his own hatrick.
Simon Zebo came off the bench for Munster to score a try in his last European game for the Irish team, he’ll be joining Racing Metro next year but this was all that Munster were able to really add to the game. Two more tries from Andrew Conway and Rhys Marshall made the scoreline look a lot healthier for Munster but in reality the French team never looked in danger.
Chiefs hosted the Northampton Saints during the Six Nations weekend. On paper this has an Exeter Chiefs Win all over it. But what happened was anything from easy for the home side.
The South African utility back Johan Goosen is set to come out of retirement this year and sign for Montpellier.
The former Springbok announced his retirement at just 24 whilst at Racing Metro 92 back in 2016, he then moved to South Africa to take on a job as Commercial Director. But know it is reported that he will be bought out of the existing contract with Racing Metro for €1.4 million.
John has 13 caps for South Africa, having last represented his home nation in 2016 shortly before retiring.
