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Halfpenny stakes claim for Wales return in impressive showing against Munster

The Scarlets’ Leigh Halfpenny

Leigh Halfpenny impressed ahead of his potential Wales return as the full-back helped the Scarlets defeat Munster 10-6, with Glasgow Warriors beating Zebre to go top of Pro14 Conference A.

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Wales, who have won all three games in this year’s Six Nations, could recall Halfpenny for next weekend’s clash with Scotland at Murrayfield, and the 30-year-old came through 80 minutes in his latest appearance on his comeback from concussion.

The full-back scored five points, adding the extras to Ioan Nicholas’ 11th-minute try and then slotting over a second-half penalty against a Munster side whose only points came from two Bill Johnston penalties.

Munster also lost top spot in Conference A as Glasgow ran in six tries in a 42-10 thrashing of Zebre in Parma.

Five of their half a dozen tries occurred in the first half of their bonus-point victory, with Matt Fagerson crossing twice in that period and Chris Fusaro, Stafford McDowall and Ruaridh Jackson also going over prior to the interval.

Adam Hastings made each of those conversions and he remained perfect for the day, adding the extras to Tim Swinson’s second-half score.

Zebre, who had gone ahead through Carlo Canna’s penalty, scored a consolation try through Tommaso Castello, yet lost Canna to a 66th-minute red card.

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Third-placed Connacht also scored six tries, two of those coming from Kieran Marmion, as they hammered the Ospreys 46-5.

Thomas Farrell, Matt Healy and Tom McCartney also touched down for Connacht, who were awarded a penalty try too.

Like Connacht, Cardiff Blues have 47 points after 17 games, with Olly Robinson’s 62nd-minute try proving crucial in a 19-12 victory over Southern Kings.

In Conference B, Benetton Treviso strengthened their grip on second place while hindering Edinburgh’s play-off aspirations with an 18-10 victory.

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Antonio Rizzi scored 10 of Treviso’s points with a try, conversion and a penalty after Niccolo Cannone had earlier crossed.

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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