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Ospreys hammer Stade Francais in Challenge Cup

Allen Clarke

The Ospreys romped to a thumping 51-20 victory over Stade Francais in Swansea to top European Challenge Cup Pool Two on Saturday.

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Worcester Warriors’ defeat to Pau on Friday opened the door for the Welsh region to reach the summit and they ran in six tries to do so in style, with Cory Allen and Luke Morgan among the scorers.

The bonus-point victory sends the Ospreys two points clear of Worcester at the summit, while Stade remain rooted to the bottom with one point from three matches.

Sale Sharks’ perfect record is intact following a third consecutive bonus-point win in this season’s competition, thrashing Bordeaux Begles 50-24.

The English club have a maximum 15 points to show from their pool matches and sit seven points clear of Connacht, who were 22-10 victors over Perpignan earlier in the day.

Two-time Challenge Cup winners Clermont Auvergne picked up a routine 47-14 win at Timisoara Saracens to stay top of Pool One, although Northampton Saints are still in hot pursuit.

The Premiership side were 48-14 winners against the Dragons and stay five points adrift of the current table toppers after back-to-back victories.

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Benetton’s 26-21 win against Harlequins sees them reach the midway point in Pool Five with a two-point advantage over closest challengers Grenoble who beat Agen on Friday.

La Rochelle have a six-point lead at the top of Pool Four after their 35-22 victory at Bristol Bears, with second-placed Zebre winning 31-14 at Enisei on Saturday.

In other news:

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J
JW 1 hour 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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