2nd Championship decided and Finalists for the 3rd are picked
In another busy weekend for northern hemisphere rugby, the URC Final took place and the 2 semi-finals for France’s Top 14 were held in Bordeaux, deciding the finalists for Europe’s last major trophy this season.
In the URC, the Glasgow Warriors, in 4th place at the end of the regular season traveled down south to Pretoria, South Africa to take on the Vodacom Bulls (#2) in front of 50,388 spectators. The teams only met once during the season, in S. Africa, with the Bulls running out winners 40-34 and, given the long trek down to Pretoria and the altitude of the Loftus Versfeld stadium (4,400’ above sea level) the Bulls were favored. However, despite a strong start by the home team with the Warriors conceding too many penalties , Glasgow managed to keep the Bulls in sight scoring a converted try just before halftime, down just 13-7. The Bulls slotted a penalty after 50 minutes to go 16-7 ahead but that was it for the home team. 2 more converted tries (and another disallowed) took Glasgow to a 16-21 lead with over 15 minutes to go and despite intense pressure from the Bulls and a man in the bin at the close, Glasgow held on to win. A decisive factor was the power and efficiency of Glasgow’s maul, driving 2 tries over the line after lineouts, a feature of their entire season and especially satisfying against a powerful South African pack.
Meanwhile in France, the 2 semi-finals of the Top 14 took place in Bordeaux; Stade Francais Paris vs. Union Bordeaux-Begles and Stade Toulousain vs. Stade Rochelais. In the first contest, the Parisian team, #2 in the regular season took on local favorite UB-B (#5) in a tight, nervy game that saw a lot of kicking and tries scored by the pack rather than the backs. Paris opened the scoring with a penalty but were down 3-10 after 16 minutes and never regained the lead. Union were up 10-17 at the half and scored another unconverted try at 55 minutes (10-22). Paris fought back hard scoring 2 unconverted tries to get to 20-22, the second at 80 + 4 minutes. The conversion would have tied the game and forced extra time but the kicker missed and the final whistle blew. A great finish to the match and Union Bordeaux-Begles go to the final after 3 consecutive defeats in the semi-finals!
The second semi-final pitted #1 team and Investec Champions Stade Toulousain vs. #5 finisher Stade Rochelais. This was star-studded affair with both teams fielding French Internationals and other luminaries- Toulouse with Dupont, Ntamack, Baille, Ramos, Scot Blair Kinghorn and English favorite Jack Willis; La Rochelle with Alldritt, Atonio, Danty, Thomas, Skelton and Jack Nowell, coached by Irish legend Ronan O’Gara - and for much of the 80 minutes, it lived up to its billing. In a busy 1H, both teams cored 2 tries but La Rochelle went into the break up 15-20 with one more penalty and both tries converted. La Rochelle were under pressure immediately in H2 when star prop Atonio was red-carded for a dangerous tackle and within 10 minutes Toulouse had scored 2 more tries to go ahead 29-20. As in the English Premiership Final, being a man down didn’t take La Rochelle out of the game completely until in the 60th minute a scuffle between two forwards led to a 2nd red card for La Rochelle (head-butting) and that was the ball game. Another penalty and another converted try saw Toulouse run out 39-23 winners. and off to their 23rd championship final.
England got off to a strong start of their summer international tour beating Japan in Tokyo by 52 - 17. After a slow start, England scored 8 tries, 6 of which were converted in a continuation of the latter stages of this year’s 6 Nations Tournament where their attacking skills were given free rein. Off to New Zealand for 2 Test matches on July 6 and July 13 which will no doubt provide a sterner test of England’s capabilities. England’s best advantage lies in the fact that the All Blacks are in a major transition phase with several of their long-term stars departing, including Aaron Smith, Brodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock, Richie Mo’unga and potentially Sam Cane at the end of the season. However, when has that made a difference? Streaming on FloRugby.