Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Clermont hit the top, Perpignan finally win

Greig Laidlaw of Clermont Auvergne

Clermont Auvergne moved to the summit of Top14 by beating Bordeaux-Begles, while Perpignan won for the first time on Saturday.

ADVERTISEMENT

Clermont were a cut above Bordeaux in a 40-20 success, although the visitors’ hopes were hindered by a red card for Blair Connor in the 53rd minute.

Alexandre Fischer, Peceli Yato, Paul Jedrasiak and Alexandre Lapandry each scored tries and Greig Laidlaw was instrumental with the boot.

Toulouse can reclaim top spot by beating Racing 92 on Sunday.

It has been a miserable season for Perpignan but at the 16th time of asking they finally earned a Top14 win in a 28-10 triumph at Montpellier.

Jean Bernard Pujol scored the visitors’ only try, while Enzo Selponi kicked 23 points in an expert display off the tee to give Perpignan that rare winning feeling.

Rudi Wulf and Noa Nakaitaci both dotted down as Lyon ran out 24-13 winners at fellow top-six hopefuls Stade Francais.

ADVERTISEMENT

Toulon were narrow 33-30 winners over Stade Francais last time out in Top14, but it was another lacklustre outing in a 19-10 reverse at Agen this time around.

Tries from Antoine Miquel and Benito Masilevu coupled with nine points from Leo Berdeu’s boot had Agen 19-3 up and, despite Francois Trinh-Duc’s late consolation, Toulon failed to claw back the deficit, and they have now lost three of their last four league outings.

Rounding out the action, Castres earned a narrow 14-9 triumph at Pau.

ADVERTISEMENT

Boks Office | Episode 37 | Six Nations Round 4 Review

Cape Town | Leg 2 | Day 2 | HSBC Challenger Series 2025 | Full Day Replay

Gloucester-Hartpury vs Bristol Bears | PWR 2024/25 | Full Match Replay

Boks Office | Episode 36 | Six Nations Round 3 Review

Why did Scotland's Finn Russell take the crucial kick from the wrong place? | Whistle Watch

England A vs Ireland A | Full Match Replay

Kubota Spears vs Shizuoka BlueRevs | JRLO 2024/2025 | Full Match Replay

Watch now: Lomu - The Lost Tapes

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

R
RedWarriors 2 hours ago
'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

“….after hyping themselves up for about a year and a half”


You see, this is the disrespect I am talking about. NZ immediately started this character assasination on Irish rugby after the series win “about a year and a half” before the RWC. We win in NZ and suddenly we are arrogant. Do you consider this respectful?

And please substantiate Ireland talking themselves up comment: for every supposed instance of this there is surely 100x examples of NZ talking themselves up?

We were ranked 1, but that’s not talking ourselves up. We were playing good rugby.


Re the QF: that was a one score match: if you say we ‘choked’ you are really saying that Ireland were the better team but pressure got to them on the day? That is demeaning to your own team and another example of disrespect to Ireland.


New Zealand:

-NZ’s year long prep included a wall defence that Ireland had not seen until the match.

-Insights on all players strenghts and weaknesses. The scrum coach said that he had communicated several times with Barnes about Porter. He also noted when Barnes was looking at Porter he was NOT looking at the NZ front row.

-A favourable draw meaning NZ would play Ireland in a QF, where Ireland would not have a knock out win under their belt.

-A (another) favourable scheduling meant that NZ could focus on the QF literally after the France match and focus on Ireland after they beat SA in the pool.


Ireland:

-Unfavourable draw: have to play the triple world cup champions with players having multi RWC knock out match winning caps in the QF, when Ireland DONT want to play a top 4 team.

-Unfavourable schedule: Have to play world no 5 Scotland 6-7 days before the quarter. Have to prepare for this which compares unfavourably with NZs schedule (Uruguay 9 days before QF). Both wingers get injured with no time to recover.

-Match: went 13-0 down but came back. Try held up brilliantly by Barrett and last play of the match saw Ireland move from their own 10 metre line to 10 metres from the NZ line.

Jordan himself said that the NZ line was retreating and someone needed to do something which was Whitelock.


Ireland died with their boots on. You saw the reaction from NZ after the whistle. Claiming Ireland choked is disrespectful to NZ and to a great rugby match. It is also indicative of the disrespect shown by NZ and fans to Ireland since 2022. We saw it in some NZ players having a go at Irish players and supporters after the whistle. Is that respect?

50 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Famous club back in National Leagues after 5th promotion in 7 seasons Famous club back in National Leagues after winning promotion
Search