Monday’s rugby news rounds up the results from the weekend’s Super rugby matches, wraps up the Six Nations, the Crusaders mull over their name and turns out QLD is better than NSW.
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Super Rugby Round Five
— Hurricanes Rugby (@Hurricanesrugby) 15 March 2019
Round five of Super Rugby got underway in Waikato with the events of earlier in the day still looming. Following a wonderful tribute, both teams standing shoulder to shoulder to form an unbroken circle, the match got underway. After much toing and froing, the teams couldn’t be separated, the game ending in a 23-all draw.
To the capital and Brumbies got it done against a disappointing Waratahs, 19-13. The ‘Tahs must be wondering how many more Wallabies they need in their backline and the Brums are still trying to reverse the curse that’s been placed on Valentini after he suffered another injury. Check out Steve’s wrap of the match.
In Cape Town the Stormers crushed the Jaguares in a four-try romp 35-8.
After a stinging loss in the same fixture last year and chasing their first win for 2019 the Reds were looking to make amends. Their season was already on life support and at 21-5 to the Sunwolves at half-time things weren’t looking good. In good news for the Reds (and my liver) they turned it around (for the most part) in the second stanza piling on 29 points to eventually win, 34-31. Kate has kindly gone into the intricacies of the match for your perusal.
For reasons, the Highlanders vs Crusaders fixture was abandoned, the teams taking 2 competition points each.
The last match of the round was a “game of two halves” (aren’t they all?) as the Lions came back from a massive deficit to defeat the Rebels 36-33. A penalty after the siren proving the difference. Kevin pulled the late shift and penned his thoughts on the match.
In SuperW action, the Reds downed the Brumbies 12-0 and the Tahs remain undefeated after accounting for WA 31-0.
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Six Nations
Wales have done it.
For the first time since 2013 they are Six Nations champions. The Warren Gatland coached side also took out their first Grand Slam since 2012.
They had everything to play for against Ireland on Saturday at Principality Stadium, a win would ensure the trophy was theirs, a loss meant that England and Ireland both remained a hope of spoiling the party.
From outset, Wales set the tone. A converted try in the second minute and the unerring accuracy of Gareth Anscombe’s kicking saw them out to a 16-0 lead at the half. The second half saw both the rain and Ireland’s hopes tumbling down, another three penalties off the boot of GA saw Wales out to 25-0 when the time ticked over 80minutes, only a late flurry from Ireland saw them finally breach the Welsh line but it was far too little, far too late.
Earlier, Italy went down to France, 25-14 you can read Diego’s take on it for the full rundown. And with the championship out of England’s grasp they and Scotland decided to share the spoils at Twickenham 38-all in an 11-try festival.
It wasn’t all bad news for the Poms (unfortunately) as their women’s side crushed Scotland 80-0 to take home the title. With four wins from four they only needed not to lose to secure the title and it’s fair to say 80-0 is “not losing” with style.
The Welsh and Irish played a similar scoreline to the equivalent match played on Saturday with the home side ruining potato day celebrations for the visitors with a 24-5 win.
Italy waited until the last four minutes of their match against France to score their fourth, and bonus point securing try. The try, along with their 31-12 win saw them finish on 17 competition points, relegating their guests to third place overall.
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What’s in a name?
That’s one of many questions raised in response to Friday’s brutal attacks in Christchurch.
Ever since the inception of Super Rugby, the team from Canterbury has been the Crusaders but in light of recent events it’s been suggested that the name might need a revisit.
The story goes that the name was chosen as it “defined the crusading spirit of Canterbury rugby” and there’s no reason to doubt the veracity of that claim. In a statement issued Sunday they are standing by that but are open to changes in due course.
The statement read-
“For us, the Crusaders name is a reflection of the crusading spirit of this community. What we stand for is the opposite of what happened in Christchurch on Friday; our crusade is one for peace, unity, inclusiveness and community spirit.
“In our view, this is a conversation that we should have and we are taking on board all of the feedback that are receiving. However, we also believe that the time is not right now.”
It seems the Union will address these concerns at an appropriate time and after proper consultation with the concerned parties, Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge spoke over the weekend saying, “I would say we are in a state of shock. We will acknowledge the feedback that we have had. It is appropriate.”
“There’s a lot of emotion going around in terms of conversation at the moment. We’ve heard it, we’ve heard the feedback, and we do want to have a conversation about it.”
And I leave the last word on this to Mansbridge,
“Rugby, in the context of what has happened, it is pretty hard to elevate this conversation right at the moment”
Kia Kaha.
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Australian Club Championship
Amidst the highly-professional, international rugby over the weekend there was match on at Ballymore that didn’t draw the attention that it perhaps deserved.
Whilst over in mungo land the winners of the respective state comps play a curtain-raiser on grand final day no such opportunity exists in premier rugby. (Maybe before the Reds Tahs match like in 2007? Just not at the SCG huh)
Anyway, there were actually three matches played throughout the arvo/evening at Ballymore.
First up were the vanquished grand finalists, Warringah Rats and the University of Queensland Red Heavies. Both teams were no doubt looking to make amends after their losses in the big dance, even if there were only bragging rights on offer.
Sadly, unlike their bigger brother Reds who notched their first win on Saturday, the other Reds from QLD were no match, being blown away 55-14.
Next up was the critical clash between QLD and ACT, GAGR’s Denise previewed the matches for the weekend and this one lived up to its billing as 2nd vs 3rd. Of course, the mighty Reds took the win.
To the main event. It was GPS flying the flag for QLD and again they found themselves up against “the students”, this time they were from Sydney University.
The script seemed to be the same as Sunwolves/Reds, Lions/Rebels, England/Scotland as around half way through proceedings one team was up by a bunch (Uni 24-7) and then the others came storming back into contention.
Looking to upset the locals Uni got back in front with 10 minutes to go before a second try to GPS’ Mitch King and the assured kicking of DP de Lang stretched the final score to 37-31 to the home side and saw the Queenslanders crowned club champions for the first time since 2011.
To finish on a personal note, it was great to see this sort of match, especially Fox getting around it and broadcasting it live. Rugby needs to promote this sort of tribal match up that seems to be missing.
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