Weekend Round-up: Nick Evans takes his bow at the Stoop

Catch up on the best end-of-season thrillers in the Premiership, Pro 12 and Top 14 – and a fearsome display of attack in Super Rugby.

Aviva Premiership: Exeter Chiefs vs Northampton Saints
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A respected English rugby journalist at Sandy Park at the weekend was moved to tweet: “Jeez, @ExeterChiefs are good.” Another, heading home from the same venue after seeing the Chiefs record their seventh Premiership bonus-point victory in a row, added: “A merry Exeter fan just got on the shuttle bus and loudly proclaimed: ‘Bloody hell we are a good side!’ Hard to argue.” There’s no more to add about an eight-try match in which the visitors had both the first and last word, but in which the hosts held court for the rest of the game.

Super Rugby: Highlanders vs Stormers
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Speaking of visitors scoring first and last but getting wiped off the park in between… Most expected the Stormers to bounce back from their crushing loss to the Crusaders last week, and when they crossed for the opening try it was game on. For about the next 15 minutes at least. Once the Highlanders seized control of the game they didn’t give the visitors a look in, running in spectacular tries like it was no big deal. We should all be very afraid of the Highlanders down Super Rugby’s home stretch.

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Pro12: Leinster vs Glasgow Warriors
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The lights went out on Leinster’s RDS ground  – literally – for 20 minutes as the clock ticked into the final 120 seconds of a blistering encounter. The game had already seen the Pro 12 leaders roar into an 23-6 half-time lead before the visitors hauled them back to set up an edge-of-the-seat finish. The tension mounted in the blackout, before the teams returned to play the final two minutes, with Warriors hunting down their fourth try to keep their slim hopes of a top four place alive.

Top 14: Pau vs Brive
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The Top 14 weekend kicked off with three playoff places up for grabs. To be fair, one of those places was Toulon’s to lose – and they dutifully didn’t with a routine win at Bordeaux. But the French championship is so close that when this match kicked off seven teams were still effectively fighting for two still-open slots in the postseason. Two of the more unlikely challengers for a top-six berth met at Pau’s Stade du Hameau and played out a hard-hitting – and occasionally sickening -–thriller (Benjamin Petre’s injury was nearly Ieuan Evans-level gruesome) that was decided only by the odd try in seven, and remained in the balance until the final whistle.

Aviva Premiership: Harlequins vs Wasps
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Forget the playoffs. Forget European Champions Cup places. Usually these things take top priority as the end of the season looms – but not here, not this week. This match turned into something more, as ex-All Black-turned-Harlequins legend Nick Evans bade a glorious farewell to a rapturous crowd. Evans is due to retire at the end of the season, after nine years at the London club. And with Quins away at Northampton next weekend, this was his Stoop swansong. He nailed it.

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