Weekend Round-up: Aaron Mauger's incredible send-off

With the Six Nations in the bag for another year, the Aviva Premiership and Top 14 stepped up to the plate and delivered some pure belters over the weekend.

Top 14: Racing 92 vs Clermont
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An explosive and shocking start. A runaway halftime lead. A dramatic comeback – and a grandstand finish. What more could you ask from a game of rugby? From Leone Nakarawa’s opening try with just 42 seconds on the clock, to Alivereti Raka’s touchdown with just less than five minutes remaining, there was little time for respite in a breathtaking encounter that did the square root of no harm to Top 14 rugby’s reputation in northern outpost Lille, a corner of France where the round ball game is king.

Aviva Premiership: Northampton Saints vs Leicester Tigers
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Anything Racing and Clermont can do, Northampton and Leicester can do just as well. It took the home side’s centre Nafi Tuitavake a little longer to crash the Leicester try line – all of 67 seconds – but that was just the opening action-packed set-piece of an epic drama at Franklin’s Gardens. Twenty-one points were scored in the opening 10 minutes, and the game did not slow down one iota in the remaining 70. History, in its cruel, careless way, may not remember that this was Aaron Mauger’s last match in charge of the Tigers – but it should. It was a fitting, thrilling send-off.

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Super Rugby: Sunwolves vs Stormers
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If ever there was a game to win a Northern Hemisphere rugby fan over to the charms of Super Rugby… it was certainly not this one. If you want to see a game with almost as many tries as made tackles, on the other hand, this is definitely the one. Widely expected to rout the Sunwolves in Singapore, the Stormers got the fright of their lives when the come side came out and tore them to pieces with three tries in the first half. But the Sunwolves are in many ways the anti-Crusaders – no lead is too big for them to blow in the second half, and there was a crushing inevitability about the Stormers second half comeback.

Aviva Premiership: Exeter Chiefs vs Sale Sharks
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On paper, this match looked to be a walk in Sandy Park for the hosts. They started the day second in the league, with five wins and two draws in their seven previous Premiership outings since the turn of the year. Their opponents, meanwhile, were 10th, with just two wins to their name over the same seven-match period. But this game is not played on paper, with cold, hard statistics. It’s played on a rugby pitch, with fight and passion and bravery. And Sale were about to give their high-flying hosts a scare.

Top 14: Brive vs Montpellier
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Speaking of grandstand finishes… This uninspiring-sounding clash at Stade Amédée Domenech – previewed as a kicking battle between Gaetan Germain and François Steyn – served up a rare treat. Germain’s near-faultless display with the boot kept Brive in the game, but the visitors had the win, and a try-scoring bonus, in the bag when Bismark Du Plessis touched down with five minutes left on the clock. Or so it seemed.