Connacht started and finished strongly to beat Benetton in a 38-30 bonus-point victory in a topsy-turvy BKT United Rugby Championship clash.
The visitors had three players – David McCann, Nick Timoney and Stewart Moore – yellow-carded in a damaging 20-minute spell, while they also saw a try disallowed following foul play by prop Tom O’Toole.
It’s been a year of transition for a lot of teams, as is often the case in the 12 months after a World Cup, which means new stars have emerged but my team of 2024 has a very familiar look to it.
The men’s Rugby World Cup expansion has pushed developing nations to pursue a semi-professionalisation of their club competitions, or, at least, arrange a deal for their top players to stay in the game for an extended period.
Almost every player will now return to their European clubs whilst Felipe Contepomi and his staff will take a well-deserved break after all the reports have been presented.
Julian Montoya offered a candid assessment of Argentina’s tough 37-23 loss to France in Paris on Friday evening.
France was extremely efficient and scored from every opportunity they created to close the Autumn Nations Series with a win.
Argentina have made one change to their starting XV to the side that narrowly lost to Ireland on Friday for their encounter with France in their final match of their Autumn Nations Series campaign.
Ireland continues to be the one place in the oval world that Argentina has not won in. All the other mayor countries have been defeated at home.