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60 minutes gone Toulon 26 Stade 26. 3 penalties and a 1st DG of the season from Wilkinson gave Toulon a 23-19 lead and it's Stade's discipline that's the problem this half. Wilko missed 2 other penalties. Stade's 1st visit to Toulon's half resulted in their 2nd try. For all the talk about...

Half time in the semi final Toulon 11 Stade 19. Toulon started really well with a try from Armitage in the first minute and threatened to add more in the first 5 minutes. But some great defence from Stade and their own mistakes kept Toulon out. Stade then started to take control and scored a...

Clermont v Leinster teams: Clermont Auvergne: Lee Byrne; Sitiveni Sivivatu, Aurelien Rougerie (capt), Wesley Fofana, Julien Malzieu; Brock James, Morgan Parra; Lionel Faure, Benjamin Kayser, Davit Zirakashvili; Jamie Cudmore, Nathan Hines; Julien Bonnaire, Alexandre Lapandry, Elvis Vermeulen...

Thanks Nusadan, guess I have a couple of late nights of fantastic rugby ahead of me this weekend now. Here are the teams for Ulster v Edinburgh: Ulster: Stefan Terblanche; Andrew Trimble, Darren Cave, Paddy Wallace, Craig Gilroy; Paddy Jackson, Ruan Pienaar; Tom Court, Rory Best, Declan...

I can't believe I'm going to miss both these games and the final. I'm in Tokyo atm and will be here for a while yet so wont get to see any of the games as my sky subscription doesn't let me sign in from outside Ireland & the UK. If Leinster were at home against Clermont I would see it as a...

I agree if an official has a bad game then there should be consequences just like for players who perform badly. But not every player who has a bad game is immediately dropped for next time out. Consistent bad performance should see refs drop down a level until they are ready to step back up to...

I agree with you Majorly. A lot of the time I'd just say these things happen in rugby to every team and they even themselves out. But for those blatant instances where the only people who seem to have missed a transgression in scoring a try are the ref and his touch judges then it should be...

It smacks of Queensland bending over backwards to keep link involved in the team by any means possible and as Bruce has already stated only one party was really calling the shots on this one and it wasn't QRU. As for Graham being put on gardening leave it was a smart move by the Force and...

This is yet another example of why the role of the TMO should be expanded to include the entire build up to a try when it's warranted. When the camera's can pick up a blatant knock on or forward pass and the TMO has access to the same footage it's silly that he is not allowed to review said...

Jake White has done really well for the Brumbies and it might benefit Aus Rugby more to have him stay with them as long as possible rather than turn his head and poach him for the national. If reading the comments on here are anything to go by there isn't much appetite for another foreign...

It would be hard to implement a HEC style system for S15. Even if the number of franchises were increased to 16 teams to give 4 pools of 4 teams. That would give the possibility of the top 2 from each pool going on to a quarter finals. But even if teams play each other home and away that's only...

The 30 man squad limit no longer makes sense. WaratahJesus raises a good point about why it was there to start with but now all 5 Aus S15 franchises have their base squads in place. So the 30 man limitation should be removed and instead there should be a budget for player related costs for each...

On a related note. Shane has been speaking out against the exodus of Welsh players to France and England:

He was an excellent player. I love documentaries like that and it's such a pity that the motivation to do them only comes about after a player has retired. I'd love if there was a regular 30-60 min show that just did these on a different player each week.

If there are going to be 8 teams then Aus should make sure they field 2 squads for the tournament, the main squad and an emerging squad so that as many players as possible get to be involved. If they're looking for the biggest revenue having as many of the games featuring an Aus team would bump...

Pretty sure whoever wrote that article missed out the word "best" otherwise that sentence can be applied to any flanker, playing at any level, around the globe lol. Pocock strikes me as a loyal, humble kind of guy. I would be surprised if he left. But if there's anyone in S15 who can sell...

Robbie Deans "You've gotta play what's in front of you..." "even if it's behind you". Our own coach DK is well known for being able to go through an entire interview without actually saying anything, even though he does give a full response to every question. But the things Robbie comes out...

It seems to be completely random and at the discression of the disciplinary panel. Dylan Hartley was able to get them to ignore his previous record including a 6 month ban for eye gouging. Rowntree gave a sob story to the panel about how he was a changed man etc. and there was similar testimony...

Agree with you. Having suffered Gaffney as Ireland backs coach for 3 years I was glad when he left the position. His back line moves are dated and he doesn't seem to be able to freshen it up. Even with quick reliable ball the talent in the Irish backline was wasted with him there. A lot of his...

Exeter have done really well in the last 2 years to go from peoples relegation tip to a top 4 finish and a HEC spot for next year. Next year will be a real test for them with the added challenge of the HEC. This will test their entire squad over the season. Some teams rise to that challenge and...