It was the French who caught the eye in round one with six of their eight teams winning, including Stade Rochelais and Toulon away from home.
Portugal player ratings: Portugal’s second visit to Murrayfield ended in a 59-21 loss, with the Lobos conceding more than a wave of tries in the second half.
Simon Mannix’s Portugal will head to the Autumn Nations Series with a couple of new additions, as CA Brive’s and Pro D2’s top try scorer, Lucas da Silva is expected to make his debut for the Lobos.
The 2024/2025 season of the French Pro D2 is about to start, and the number of international players keeps growing with the likes of Courtney Lawes, George North, Chris Farrell, and Curwin Bosch having joined it.
Portugal player ratings: Portugal’s first-ever outing against the Springboks didn’t end in victory, but the Portuguese showed their fangs and produced more than a couple of spectacular moments.
It's semi-finals Sunday at the World Rugby U20 Championship and following last Tuesday’s weather-affected schedule, the hope will be that all six matches will be played to an 80-minute conclusion unlike on match day three when there were just four and a half matches completed due to the heavy rain making pitches unplayable.
Three matches are scheduled for Athlone: Ireland-Australia (2pm local time), France-Wales (4:30pm) and South Africa-England (7pm). Over in Stellenbosch, it’s Argentina-Fiji (2pm), Georgia-Italy (4:30pm) and New Zealand-Spain (7pm).
Three matches are scheduled for Stellenbosch: Ireland vs Georgia (kick-off 2pm local), France vs New Zealand (4:30pm) and South Africa vs Argentina (7pm). Over in Athlone, Wales vs Spain is the opening match (2pm) followed by England vs Fiji (4:30pm) and Australia vs Italy (7pm).
Here are all of week three's lineups in one place.