It’s time for our Monday wrap of who has their name in lights and who is making the headlines for all the wrong reasons after the weekend.

THEY’RE ON FIRE!

Premiership finalists: In a throwback to the 1990s the two main protagonists in English club rugby will collide in this weekend’s Premiership final. It’s congratulations to both Bath and Leicester Tigers after their semi-final victories over Bristol Bears and Sale Sharks respectively and it’s now just one game away from glory. Bath are looking to complete an incredible treble this season after they won both the Premiership Rugby Cup and Challenge Cup while Leicester would love to send Michael Cheika, Ben Youngs, Dan Cole and others off with a winner’s medal.

URC finalists: Four becomes two as the United Rugby Championship will have a new champion this weekend when Leinster host the Bulls at Croke Park. The pair overcame Glasgow Warriors and the Sharks respectively and were deserving of their triumphs. Can Leinster finally end their trophy drought or will the Bulls crash the party? An epic final awaits.

Super Rugby semi-finalists: Six becomes four, yes that’s right. Such is the Super Rugby Pacific play-off format that last weekend’s results mean that the Reds and Hurricanes drop out of the competition and we have a semi-final line-up of the Crusaders v Blues and Chiefs v Brumbies to come. The Blues were the biggest winners of the weekend after they beat table toppers the Chiefs to keep their season alive while the Crusaders and Brumbies overcame the Reds and ‘Canes.

Connacht’s coup: Out of nowhere Connacht announced that former England, Leinster and Racing 92 coach Stuart Lancaster would be taking over the reins at the United Rugby Championship outfit ahead of the new season. It’s quite the coaching coup from Connacht after what was a disappointing campaign and it will be interesting to see how they fare under Lancaster, who might feel he has a point to prove after a disappointing stint in France.

Montauban What a story. Montauban return to the French top flight for the first time since 2010 after they completed an incredible rise from narrowly avoiding relegation last season to finishing sixth this and then going on a stunning winning streak to promotion. They beat table toppers Grenoble 24-19 on Saturday, with this try worth of promotion alone.

Evan Roos: He can finally shed the label ‘snub’ as Roos was added to the Springboks squad on Sunday, this after Cameron Hanekom suffered what looked like a serious injury while in action for the Bulls on Saturday. Roos will be desperate to impress at training ahead of their Barbarians fixture, particularly after Rassie Erasmus left him out of such an enlarged squad.

Leinster v Glasgow: Five takeaways as Leo Cullen’s side still have a ‘mental block to overcome’ despite setting the record straight

Craig Casey: What a proud moment for the Munster scrum-half as he was named Ireland captain for their upcoming games against Portugal and Georgia. Casey will become the 112th player to skipper the men in green this summer, with the scrum-half one of the most experienced players within a fresh-faced squad that includes 11 uncapped players.

RG Snyman and Massimo Brunello: The latest United Rugby Championship awards were announced last week and they included the Players’ Player of the Season and Coach of the Season gongs. They went to Leinster lock Snyman and Zebre Parma boss Brunello after impressive campaigns. Snyman has hit the ground running at Leinster following his controversial switch from Munster while Brunello led his team to victories over Munster, Ospreys and Dragons at home, as well as away wins at Ulster and Edinburgh.

COLD AS ICE!

Zander Fagerson injury: It’s inevitable that player(s) have their Lions dreams shattered before the tour even begins and sadly for Fagerson he is the first of the class of 2025. The Glasgow Warriors and Scotland tighthead prop was officially ruled out on Monday morning and in his place Finlay Bealham is called up. What a shame for Fagerson and we wish him well in his recovery.

Rieko Ioane family abuse: Online abuse towards players is bad enough but to bring family and friends into it crosses the line even further. Ioane highlighted this had taken place following their Super Rugby Pacific win against the Chiefs via a post on Instagram where he began: “To all the ‘fans’ let’s keep family and friends out of my comments – I know the game I play, but that is for me not them.” Hear hear, Rieko.

Cameron Hanekom injury: The sight of the Bulls number eight on crutches after their semi-final win over the Sharks was tough to see, especially with a URC final and international season just around the corner. Hanekom was reportedly given morphine on the pitch to combat the pain he was in and we hope the injury is not as serious as it looked.

La Rochelle miss out: La Rochelle failed to reach the end-of-season play-offs in the Top 14 for the first time on Ronan O’Gara’s watch and he’s quickly blamed himself. Their 32-18 loss at Pau summed up a dismal campaign for the former European champions as they miss out on the domestic knockout stages in a rare occurrence. A rebuild has been mooted by O’Gara, who said: “A lot of things need to change”.

Super Rugby play-off format: Win or bust it was not for the Chiefs on Saturday as they came into their game against the Blues safe in the knowledge that a defeat would still mean they had a semi-final spot. Granted that is their reward for finishing atop the regular season standings but we’re struggling to get on board with this play-off format. Even more ridiculous was that they got a home semi-final. Talk about rewarding failure.

Sharks crash out: An error-ridden performance from the Durban outfit saw them knocked out of the URC by the Bulls. Lukhanyo Am had a game to forget but it was a collective lack of ruthlessness and sound decision-making that ultimately cost the Springbok-laden side. The Bulls had three players yellow carded – two at the same time for a period – and yet the Sharks couldn’t make this count.

Damian McKenzie: Billed as the battle of the All Blacks 10s it was Beauden Barrett who came out on top against McKenzie on Saturday. The Chiefs star wasn’t poor by any means but Barrett showed his class in getting the better of his Test rival and perhaps put himself in front in the race for the fly-half slot ahead of the France series.

READ MORE: British & Irish Lions: The 16 players who will miss the first training camp

Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/whos-hot-and-whos-not-finalists-confirmed-damian-mckenzie-loses-out-in-all-blacks-battle-while-lions-suffer-first-casualty-as-do-springboks