France 3 Ireland 0 Heineken Cup Amlin Challenge Cup Super 14 Sunday 2nd of May

Heineken Cup


France 2 Ireland 0

Home advantage and superior scrum power told this weekend as both Leinster and Munster fell by the wayside. A lot of the fizz went out of the competition compared to the barnstorming quarter finals as the teams played edgy percentage rugby. Leinster looked competitive for a long time against but the French had another gear to slip into and a far superior bench to fall back on. Leinster would have looked a lot better with Sexton playing as well. And how brave was that camera man? Munster meanwhile seemed to be struggling to get a team on the pitch, and you still felt like they could have snuck home but at the end of the day both French sides were the better team and deserved to win.

Amlin Cup

And yes it’s those bloody French again, beating the Irish as Toulon’s glittering league of nations downed Connacht. The rugby gods don’t do fairy tale endings do they? A couple of Connacht players stood, Gavin Duffy, Sean Cronin and Frank Murphy, for Toulon Juan Martine Fernandez Lobbe was in a class of his own. See what Philippe Saint Andre has done with Toulon, a decent coach should be the first signing for any team. Wasps came a cropper against Cardiff Blues, nothing is going right for them at the moment. I’m not surprised the Cardiff Blues won though, they looked a lot more dynamic and looked like they wanted it so much more.

Super 14

The top of the league is starting to take shape now. The Bulls turned over a spirited Sharks outfit while the Stormers put one foot in the semis as they hammered the Crusaders. The Tahs slipped up badly by going down to the Highlanders, while the big result of the weekend was the Reds being comprehensively outplayed by the Brumbies. The Chiefs put their poor fans through the wringer again, looking good against the Canes before slipping up again. The Reds and Crusaders are clinging on to 3rd and 4th by their finger nails with really tough matches to come.