Northern Hemisphere/6N Rugby

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Getting pretty spicey in the Premiership too. Great final round of rugby for everyone coming up.

Bath already have top spot secured no matter what.

Leicester will get there with only 1 point needed from the hopeless Newcastle.

Sale play Exeter who are getting better and could spoil their party. if Gloucester and Sarries both win.

Bristol have the toughest game, win against Harlequins.

Gloucester will be playing hungover Northampton who ran their race, will be surprised if they put up a fight.

Then Sarries play perfect Bath, but with a home final already locked up, I assume they'll be playing Bath's u8s.

So I predict big wins for Gloucester and Sarries. Then huge pressure on Sale or Bristol not to drop the game. Should be elite.

 

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Boringly no one spoiled anyone's party and all the favoured teams got in. At least Sarries and Harlequins aren't there, it's an interesting quad of teams.

Semi finals this weekend are:
Bath v Bristol and Leicester v Sale.

No givens there but rare for an away team to win (6/41 for the Premiership in knock outs). Leicester looks the most susceptible for an upset. Doesn't look like Perese will be fit, he's been out for months with injury. It should be two games of running rugby at least.

 

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Top 14 have their final round. Top 6 go through to finals. 5 teams are in the hunt for the final 3 spots amazingly. Bayonne who have been safely 4th for most of the season could miss out. They're at home playing Toulon, who will be very keen to win and ensure they come 2nd to avoid playing in the QFs.

Bayonne v Toulon
Toulon need to win to finish 2nd and skip the QFs. Bayonne need to win to not miss out on finals completely, they're fourth but with a horrible PD, so if Clermont win (from 7th) they have a positive PD and will leap frog Bayonne.

Stade Francais v Castres
Castres win and they stay in the top 6, simples. SF need to win or they could either be automatically relegated or enter the relegation play offs.

Relegation
The other two teams battling to avoid relegation, Vannes and Perpignan are both playing big dogs, Toulouse and Bordeaux. Toulouse can't be shifted from top spot, so they'll send the rookies away to Perpignan, so real upset potential. Bordeaux need a win to skip the QFs, so they'll send a half decent side to wallop Vannes. Unfortunate for Vannes who've been really good this season but looks like they'll be auto relegated. Would be amazing to see SF go down.

 

[Italophile]

Top 14 have their final round. Top 6 go through to finals. 5 teams are in the hunt for the final 3 spots amazingly. Bayonne who have been safely 4th for most of the season could miss out. They're at home playing Toulon, who will be very keen to win and ensure they come 2nd to avoid playing in the QFs.

Bayonne v Toulon
Toulon need to win to finish 2nd and skip the QFs. Bayonne need to win to not miss out on finals completely, they're fourth but with a horrible PD, so if Clermont win (from 7th) they have a positive PD and will leap frog Bayonne.

Stade Francais v Castres
Castres win and they stay in the top 6, simples. SF need to win or they could either be automatically relegated or enter the relegation play offs.

Relegation
The other two teams battling to avoid relegation, Vannes and Perpignan are both playing big dogs, Toulouse and Bordeaux. Toulouse can't be shifted from top spot, so they'll send the rookies away to Perpignan, so real upset potential. Bordeaux need a win to skip the QFs, so they'll send a half decent side to wallop Vannes. Unfortunate for Vannes who've been really good this season but looks like they'll be auto relegated. Would be amazing to see SF go down.

It would be. Years of faffing around, sacking coaches, designer jerseys, and a sense of entitlement. I remember watching them tonk a good Munster outfit at Stade Jean Bouin in 2016. A very young Sekou Macalou looked like he could be anything. Turns out, sadly, it wasn't to be. Not many French will shed a tear if they do go down.

 

[Italophile]

Stade stay up. Ronan's LaR miss the play offs.

 

[Dctarget]

Pretty awesome round of rugby for all hemispheres.

The two Premiership games were absolute belters. Thought Bristol was going to run away with it but couldn't convert pressure into points and Bath's class and depth showed through, running away with it.

Leicester are such a joy to watch, whatever you think of him, Cheika is a good coach. It is helped by having players like Montoya who might almost be my favourite foreign player, Pollard, Radwan, Hassel-Collins, Freddie Steward etc. And Solomone Kata over there is making some players look like absolute children with his bump offs. But Cheika has got their defence humming, 2nd best in the league and their attack is fairly simple but beautiful. Bash it up with bigger men than yours than spin it to the wings with faster men than yours.

Izzie Perese also had a good return to game after a long injury layoff, first touch was a marvelous line to score.

I don't think they have the depth to challenge Finn Russell's Bath next week though.

 

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Stade stay up. Ronan's LaR miss the play offs.

Top14 (and ProD2) producing the goods. Maddocks was good in Pau's defeat of La Rochelle.

But the story of the weekend has to be Montauban.

Last season they came 2nd last in the ProD2, meaning they had to play in the relegation (access) match against Narbonne from France's 3rd division. They won that by 1 point, literally 1 point off being relegated to the 3rd div.

This season, they scrapped into the top 6, after tying with the team that came in 7th. They went away to 3rd placed Colomiers for the quarter finals, beating them with a drop goal in the 80th.

For the Semi finals, they played away to 2nd placed Brive, who has twice the budget and Courtney Lawes. No worries, smashed them 13-29.

Grand final against Grenoble, who beat them by 20 points earlier in the season. Massive budget difference but they did it again (though Grenoble were without talismanic Dickie Hardwick who's on a 5 week ban for a nasty tip tackle the week before). Montauban won 19-24.

So, in 12 months they've gone from being 1 point away from being in the 3rd division, to automatic promotion to the 1st division. Amazing efforts.

They're going to get absolutely destroyed next season in the Top 14.

 

[Strewthcobber]

The Cheika conundrum continues.

What a record he has

 

[Tomthumb]

The Cheika conundrum continues.

What a record he has

Absolute world class coach

 

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If he wins next weekend I'm not sure what he does next. Wallabies don't want him, maybe T14 side? Another international team like Scotland or Italy?

Roosters?

Start another fashion label?

 

[Tomthumb]

If he wins next weekend I'm not sure what he does next. Wallabies don't want him, maybe T14 side? Another international team like Scotland or Italy?

Roosters?

Start another fashion label?

I think his hope right now is an NRL side, failing that probably just keep taking short term contracts in Europe

Such a shame he's not involved in Aussie rugby

 

[Italophile]

Top14 (and ProD2) producing the goods. Maddocks was good in Pau's defeat of La Rochelle.

But the story of the weekend has to be Montauban.

Last season they came 2nd last in the ProD2, meaning they had to play in the relegation (access) match against Narbonne from France's 3rd division. They won that by 1 point, literally 1 point off being relegated to the 3rd div.

This season, they scrapped into the top 6, after tying with the team that came in 7th. They went away to 3rd placed Colomiers for the quarter finals, beating them with a drop goal in the 80th.

For the Semi finals, they played away to 2nd placed Brive, who has twice the budget and Courtney Lawes. No worries, smashed them 13-29.

Grand final against Grenoble, who beat them by 20 points earlier in the season. Massive budget difference but they did it again (though Grenoble were without talismanic Dickie Hardwick who's on a 5 week ban for a nasty tip tackle the week before). Montauban won 19-24.

So, in 12 months they've gone from being 1 point away from being in the 3rd division, to automatic promotion to the 1st division. Amazing efforts.

They're going to get absolutely destroyed next season in the Top 14.

They deserve a season in the sun. Fans must be dancing. Good on 'em.

 

[Rob42]

I think his hope right now is an NRL side, failing that probably just keep taking short term contracts in Europe

Such a shame he's not involved in Aussie rugby

He’s in the paper saying he could never coach the Reds, couldn’t coach against the Tahs like that, so I assume he’s angling for the Reds job.