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United Rugby Championship

Leinster's 18-cap tighthead set to join Top 14 giants - report

Michael Ala'alatoa, left, and Andrew Porter of Leinster during the Heineken Champions Cup Pool A Round 2 match between Leinster and Gloucester at the RDS Arena in Dublin. (Photo By Seb Daly/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Samoa captain Michael Ala’alatoa is set to join Top 14 outfit ASM Clermont-Auvergne at the end of the season, according to French publication L’Equipe.

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The Leinster tighthead has agreed a two-year deal with the two-time French champions and will move to the Stade Marcel-Michelin at the end of the current campaign with the Irish province.

The 32-year-old arrived at Leinster in 2021, and has featured from the bench in the last two Heineken Champions Cup finals (receiving a red card in this year’s installment). He started in his first game of the season at the weekend, a United Rugby Championship win over the Sharks, having returned from Samoa’s World Cup campaign where he featured in all four of their matches.

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    WATCH as two-time World Cup-winning Springbok captain Siya Kolisi gives an emotional farewell speech to departing coacj Jacques Nienaber

    Ala’alatoa came within one point of leading Samoa to their first ever victory over England in their final pool match of the World Cup. After the 18-17 loss he said: “Really disappointed. Lost for words really around the way the result went but that’s the game we were looking for this whole World Cup. We’ve shown in glimpses what we can do and tonight we put in an 80-minute performance that we can be proud of. Immensely proud of my boys, we left it all out there and we did everything we could to win that game. Some of the England players said themselves that it’s the toughest game they’ve had so far. It’s good to know that as well.”

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    Andrew Nichols 1 hour ago
    Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

    Taylah Johnson doubling down on her strange assertion that the Aussie test players were outperforming NZs using the risible example of Rieko Ioane, follows up with opposing a kiwi born kid being eligible for the ABs and who wants to be an AB. Mmm Time to consider a new job?

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    Lomax75 1 hour ago
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    More rubbish from incompetent commentators…destroying super rugby for N.Z rugby fans…does she think heartland N.Z don’t know or understand rugby ?

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    CO 1 hour ago
    Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

    Kyren Taumoefolau is born and bred in New Zealand, of course he should be eligible for the Allblacks. Technically he was poached by Tonga.

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    BA 2 hours ago
    Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

    Play for whoever give all the pathways for young players to succeed rugby community help Tonga Samoa sort out there unions and get their players in a position where they can play and get rid of eligibility stand down

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    YeowNotEven 2 hours ago
    'There's a lot of rugby knowledge': David Havili's reasoning behind in-form backline

    Cullen grace seems to me like an old leathery veteran and he’s barely in his mid 20s

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    YeowNotEven 2 hours ago
    Antoine Dupont undergoes surgery on injured knee ahead of long absence

    Sux DuPont got hurt but it was a normal rugby incident. It’s a contact sport, accidents will happen, people get hurt.

    We don’t need to go all Jan 6th with outrage every time someone breaks something or gets their head bumped.

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    PT 3 hours ago
    Antoine Dupont undergoes surgery on injured knee ahead of long absence

    The truth can sometimes sting a bit, so I fully understand your delusional take on it. Also, I'm sure you'd be aware of the list of opposition players Irish players have injured with this? To be clear, I don't believe the Irish players are trying to intentionally injure opposition players, certainly not. But they are reckless in a lot of their ‘clearing out’ maneuvers and tactics, therefore causing injuries to opposition players. I suppose they don't do it at training so they don't injure each other, but it really does appear to be repetitive aspect of their play.


    So, why don't you get some batteries for your noddy train & go play for a while.

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    BH 3 hours ago
    'There's a lot of rugby knowledge': David Havili's reasoning behind in-form backline

    Your hatred for ALB is borderline trolling at this point. He’s proven himself at test level for years.


    Ennor is done and dusted. Too injury prone for years and years. Proctor is a better choice.

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    BH 3 hours ago
    'There's a lot of rugby knowledge': David Havili's reasoning behind in-form backline

    Tele’a scored some wonderful tries on the end of year tour against England and Italy and played well against Ireland.


    Reece is the liability at test level - he was shown up big time against France.

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    PS 4 hours ago
    Antoine Dupont undergoes surgery on injured knee ahead of long absence

    What you're asking for is an explanation for why the officials and citing officials don't make the same judgements on specific incidents as you do. What explanation can be given other than something along the lines of “the incident wasn't judged to have met the criteria for an illegal tackle”? What other explanation do you expect? Refs now give explanations for why an incident is judged to be illegal and why an illegal action may result in a card. If a card, or a penalty is not awarded. The only explanation possible is that there's no evidence of foul play. A coaching team can (and often do) seek clarity from the officials and WR on specific incidents in a game and they are free to share the outcome of such questions with fans. You should turn to the French coaching team for answers. The French coaching team should have raised any concerns in the appropriate channels instead of publicly accusing players of intentionally trying to injure another player. This incident has left a very sour taste and created a lot of bad blod

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    JH 4 hours ago
    Sky Sports commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks counterparts

    ““Rieko Ioane has struggled to find form in Super Rugby. We know what he can do at Test level, on the wing I’ll add that”


    Exactly, and that was years ago now. Rieko is a liability with a seriously limited skillset, especially for a 13. Frankly, every opponent is outplaying him. He’ll still make the ABs though, every player over 50 caps will, because we don’t drop ‘leadership group’ players apparently.

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    PS 4 hours ago
    Antoine Dupont undergoes surgery on injured knee ahead of long absence

    I agree with your last sentence. In addition, I would like to add that I also wish you a speedy recovery from whatever made you write the first two sentences.

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    Poorfour 5 hours ago
    Antoine Dupont undergoes surgery on injured knee ahead of long absence

    I’m not looking for special treatment for anybody. If anything, I’m looking to dispel the perception that some teams are treated more leniently than others.


    For instance, compare the tackle that ultimately earned Owen Farrell from the RWC warm ups with the one that only earned Eben Etzebeth a YC from head contact with Atonio in the QF. I have yet to see any reasonable justification for why two near-identical incidents (with Farrell’s if anything having the greater mitigation) produced totally different judgements.


    Rugby has a long and inglorious history of dismissing these incidents without providing any explanation - remember the spear tackle on BOD on the 2005 Lions tour?


    If Beirne wasn’t reckless, then he and Ireland should have nothing to fear, but the game benefits from having a clear explanation of why.

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    Chiefs Mana 5 hours ago
    Sky Sports commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks counterparts

    She’s talking more about individuals, i couldn’t agree more with you though from a team perspective.


    Aussies also have the motivation of a Lions series to fuel them through and a lot of wide open spaces in the WB team.

    8 Go to comments
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