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United Rugby Championship

Stormers hold off Lions fightback to win South African derby

By PA
John Dobson/ PA

The Stormers survived a second-half Lions fightback to prevail 35-33 at Emirates Airline Park in their United Rugby Championship opener.

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After PJ Botha crossed early for the Lions, the Stormers moved 32-7 in front thanks to tries from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (2), Joseph Dweba and Herschel Jantjies. Clayton Blommetjies kicked three conversions and a penalty while Feinberg-Mngomezulu also landed a three-point.

But tries from Henco van Wyk, Ruan Venter, Morne van den Berg and Francke Horn, three of them converted, either side of a Feinberg-Mngomezulu penalty saw the Lions move to within two but they had to settle for two losing bonus points.

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Jacques Nienaber and Siya Kolisi preview the World Cup semifinal – South Africa versus England

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Jacques Nienaber and Siya Kolisi preview the World Cup semifinal – South Africa versus England

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Comments on RugbyPass

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Rugby 101 - Ed Pye 13 minutes ago
Kyren Taumoefolau All Blacks stance splits opinions on eligibility

Johnson ignores that Australian teams have had average NZers filling them out since the turn of the century and they still continue to get thrashed. That demoralization is one of the key factors killing the game in Australia and leading to a worse super rugby competition. If Super Rugby had more equitable selection policies and a draft - it would quickly become consistently competitive rather than occassionally competitive. That’s how Australia raises their overall performance

4 Go to comments
K
Kim Lisa 40 minutes ago
Wales player ratings vs England | 2025 Six Nations

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Juilana Amos 1 hour ago
'France may leave top players at home but will still be serious contenders in New Zealand'

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Juilana Amos 1 hour ago
'France may leave top players at home but will still be serious contenders in New Zealand'

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46 Go to comments
A
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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L
Lomax75 2 hours ago
Sky Sports commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks counterparts

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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C
CO 2 hours 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

27 Go to comments
Y
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 4 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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raymond bailly 4 hours ago
Waratahs snap losing streak against ill-disciplined Brumbies

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Michael Davenport 4 hours ago
Crusaders prepare for 'dangerous in all elements' Chiefs game-breaker

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BH 4 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.

27 Go to comments
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BH 4 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
Fijian Drua secure star flyhalf Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula on new deal

Given he’s from Christchurch, the Crusaders are probably kicking themselves a bit.

4 Go to comments
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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 5 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.

8 Go to comments
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TRENDING Sky Sports commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks counterparts Sky commentator on why Wallabies players are outplaying All Blacks
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