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!
Investec Champions Cup pool toppers: A massive congratulations to Bordeaux-Begles, Leinster, Northampton Saints and Toulon who topped their respective pools after four rounds of action. They’ve been rewarded with home runs in the play-offs and all rightly so. A special mention must also go to Toulouse who join Bordeaux and Leinster as being the only sides to get through the pools with four wins from four.
Damian Penaud: Six of the best! The French flyer outscored the Sharks by himself on Sunday, running in six crossings in a mind-blowing individual performance. Bordeaux went 12-0 down early in the match but responded in emphatic fashion, scoring 10 unanswered tries, more than half of which came from the ludicrous talent out wide. Six Nations rivals beware, Penaud is back and firing and looks better than ever.
Toulouse masterclass: Antoine Dupont and co. one-upped their fellow Top 14 heavyweights in the very next Champions Cup fixture as they scored a point a minute to thump Leicester Tigers 80-12 at Stade Ernest-Wallon. The scoring was more split amongst the star-studded squad with the defending champions laying down an emphatic marker with 12 tries in total. Can anyone stop Les Rouge et Noir this year?
Damian de Allende and the Wild Knights: Just one team remains unbeaten in the Japan Rugby League One after five rounds, Robbie Deans’ Wild Knights. Front and centre of their efforts has been Springboks star De Allende who was chief destroyer this past weekend again scoring twice and setting up another try in their 38-22 victory over the Sir Steve Hansen-led Toyota Verblitz. He’s certainly enjoying Japan.
Captain Maro: It’s finally happened. The big news from England’s Six Nations squad announcement was not that of Tom Willis’ recall or two uncapped players but the man who will lead Steve Borthwick’s team, Maro Itoje. It was always a matter of when not if the inspirational second-rower would lead his country at the highest level and the time is now. Itoje will take over the reins from long-time club-mate Jamie George as England look to turn their 2024 fortunes around starting with their leadership and frankly, there is no candidate more deserving.
Champions Cup underdogs: There were some ugly results in the EPCR’s top competition this weekend, more on that later, but there was much to celebrate too with two notable shock victories. That is of course Benetton’s 32-25 triumph against double champions La Rochelle on Saturday and second-string Castres side’s 32-24 victory over three-time winners Saracens. These two underdog successes this weekend came with the added bonus of securing a place in the Champions Cup knockouts and in both cases, richly deserved. The pair face off in the last-16.
Michael Hooper returns!: The Wallabies legend’s retirement always felt premature but this week Hooper announced his shock return to rugby as he will lace up his boots in the Japan Rugby League One. The tireless openside flanker will link up with the Toyota Verblitz as injury cover for Springboks star Pieter-Steph du Toit and we cannot wait to see the Wallabies great back in action. What a statement signing it is.
COLD AS ICE!
Sione Tuipulotu headlines Six Nations injuries: For northern hemisphere stars this is perhaps the worst time to pick up any niggles or injuries with the Six Nations only a few weeks away. Gregor Townsend and Scotland have today been handed a huge blow after Tuipulotu was ruled out of the Championship while lock Scott Cummings is also sidelined. Meanwhile, France were dealt a double setback with second-row Romain Taofifénua and flying winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey withdrawing from Les Bleus’ training squad. Such a cruel blow for all involved.
One-sided results: This past weekend was certainly an eyesore for the Champions Cup with just one away win, good on yeah Castres, and absolute hammerings littered across the round. Stade Francais were the first to receive a hiding going down 48-7 to the Bulls while Leinster’s 47-21 victory was a far bigger margin than many predicted. Bordeaux’s 66-12 hiding of the Sharks was paired with Penaud’s aforementioned brilliance while Toulouse scored at a point a minute to demolish Leicester Tigers 80-12. Furthermore, Sale Sharks put Toulon to the sword in the second half for a 33-7 win on Sunday evening. These are hardly the kind of results one wants to see in club rugby’s premier competition.
Exeter, Champions Cup whipping boys: The Chief whipping boys however were Rob Baxter’s Exeter outfit, who finished their EPCR involvement for this season with a -141 points differential. They were the only team to finish on negative triple digits with the Sharks coming closest after their heavy loss to Bordeaux finishing with -87. It’s been a nightmare season for Exeter on both fronts as they lick their wounds.
South African teams bow out: Speaking of the Sharks, they, the Bulls and the Stormers all failed to progress past the pool stages of the tournament with the former pair now in the running for the Challenge Cup. Meanwhile, the Stormers will shift all their focus to the United Rugby Championship after finishing bottom of the table. While the South African teams impressed in their debut season in the Champions Cup, year two has been far trickier and no representation in the last-16 only increases criticism of the issues surrounding their involvement.
Thrashed Tigers: Michael Cheika has certainly impressed during his brief stint at Leicester Tigers but Sunday’s encounter was certainly forgettable as they were slayed in emphatic fashion. They felt the wrath of Toulouse who crossed for 12 superb tries with the gulf in quality painfully obvious. At least they still progress to the round of 16 in April and can now look to bounce back in the Premiership this weekend.
Wallace Sititi sidelined: The All Blacks youngster, who rose to the top of the game in 2024, is set to miss at least part of the Super Rugby Pacific season due to surgery on a knee injury. Sititi suffered a knee issue on their northern hemisphere tour, which has required him to go under the knife and rules him out of a part of the upcoming season. Hopefully, he makes a full recovery and we see him back playing soon.
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/whos-hot-and-whos-not-mind-blowing-damian-penaud-stars-in-mixed-finale-to-champions-cup-pools-while-sione-tuipulotu-headlines-six-nations-injury-concerns
