Gloucester dogged by inconsistency, Edinburgh and Glasgow head for the last eight and Leinster have look of championsThe pool of champions has polarised. Leinster, for all Toulouse’s attempts to recapture past glories, are the team in control, even if they trail the French club by two points. Their victory over Bath was imperious, and Toulouse, who rode their luck anyway in round one in Bath, must travel to Dublin next. Leinster’s trip to Wasps in the final round does not look the challenge it might once have been. For two of England’s greatest clubs to be mathematically out of it after only four rounds is a sobering reflection on the Premiership, which looks worryingly short of the sort of teams...
Old glories on the rise with Dan Cole reviving Leicester forward power and Toulouse finding European title hunger once more Related: Six Nations set to unveil HSBC as championship’s new title sponsor Related: Owen Farrell is an England certainty. But where he plays is less clear Team of the weekend Continue reading...
Toulon’s nightmare speaks to French woes, Saracens are miles ahead of the pack and Freddie Burns had a weekend to forgetIt seemed as if all talking points would have to revolve around the 52-3 destruction on Friday night of the former multiple champions Wasps by Leinster – or the Ireland team plus James Lowe, which means the Ireland team in a couple of years’ time. But then Freddie Burns came along. Immediately all talking points became other examples of the flagrant squandering of tries. There are plenty but it is hard to think of any at such a crucial juncture of a game, to cost a team a match and coming so soon after the same player had missed a...
Of the five Champions Cup groups, Pool 5 looks like going down to the final weekend – with one point separating the top three: Bath, Toulon and ScarletsTake nothing away from Wasps’ hugely impressive victory against La Rochelle but the absence of Victor Vito, Levani Botia, Pierre Aguillon and Jason Eaton from the starting XV must be taken into consideration. Wasps certainly learnt from their mistakes of seven days previous however, were far more physical in the collisions and had Danny Cipriani in fine fettle at fly-half. It is not so long ago that Wasps were in somewhat of a crisis, languishing down towards the foot of the Premiership table amid a terrible run of injuries. Elliot Daly may yet...
Semi Radradra and Josua Tuisova at Toulon, Clermont’s Alivereti Raka and Levani Botia of La Rochelle are among an exhilarating cast set to take centre stageWith the 2017‑18 European rugby season about to start, here is one for you: how many of France’s formidably wealthy, massively well-stocked clubs have lifted the continent’s grandest prize this century? The answer, remarkably, is just two: Toulouse and Toulon. The heavy mob of Clermont Auvergne, Racing 92, Montpellier and co are all still waiting to crack the code.Even a side like Castres, who consistently punch above their weight in the Top 14, contrive to underperform year in year out in Europe, reaching the knockout stages once in 13 attempts and failing to win any...