Saracens looked set to be agonisingly beaten by a single point following a Lam-ball home team performance illuminated by a Fitz Harding hat-trick and a linebreak count of 16-5 in favour of the hosts. However, McCall’s side demonstrated fantastic pluck...
They were due to fly to Penzance the following Thursday for Friday's PRC game versus the Cornish Pirates, but the journey never happened. Instead, they were told at dawn that the club was being liquidated and would not take its place in the 2023/24 Championship.
It was last March when the class of 2023/24 clinched the championship with a win away in France and they followed up that success by securing World Cup glory in July in South Africa.
England flew out of South Africa last Saturday evening to Heathrow as the rightful champions, the consistency of their potent scrum and manipulative defence helping them to a deserved first title since 2016.
Mark Mapletoft’s side demonstrated their ability to squeeze teams in that last four success, holding the Irish scoreless in the second half to win 31-20 after leading 22-20 at the interval.
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.
The reigning age-grade Six Nations champions completed their Pool C campaign with a gruelling 17-12 win over South Africa last Tuesday at Athlone.
The senior-level restriction hasn’t affected the 18-year Kpoku who has been popping across the Channel this winter from Paris to win his place in Mark Mapletoft’s age-grade starting line-up.
Here is how the Exeter players rated after they recovered from some early Lyon headaches to bounce back and win their Champions Cup tie.
28 Kiwis took part in the weekend's northern hemisphere action, including ten featuring for the Barbarians.