Since there’s nothing else worth watching this weekend (Ulster’s season having finished), Flair99 has some top tips on Top14 matches:
Three intriguing games in France this week-end.
Friday at 20:45: Racing vs Stade Français
The winner gets to the semi, the loser goes on vacation (about time). So Paris vs Paris, about 5kms separate their two stadia. Subplot, Fickou who played 90% of the season for Stade now plays for Racing. Probable winner: Racing.
Saturday 17:45: Biarritz vs Bayonne
Biarritz, ProD2 finalist, host Bayonne, who finished 13th in the T14. About 5kms between the two towns. Winner stays – or climbs – to the T14, loser goes down or remains in ProD2. The biggest game in the Basque country since Asterix. Winner? Who knows, probably Bayonne.
Saturday 20:45: Bordeaux vs Clermont. The other QF.
Probable winner, Bordeaux.
LaR and Toulouse lie in wait.
And so does Galthié who’ll fly to Australia without his skipper (Ollivon sidelined for about 6 months) and all the players involved in the T14 final (they may play only in the third test).
And Deebee7‘s take on the SA squad picked to play the Lions:
Actually in terms of Bok selection, I think Lizo Gqoboka should be in ahead of Coenie Oosthuizen who’s scrummaging technique has always been suspect. As one scribe here put it, he’s been off the Bok radar for so long he may need a visa to get into the camp. Of the newcomers in the Bok set up, I love Joseph Dweba’s all-action style of play, I believe Jasper Wiese has been in excellent form for Tiggers, Wandisile Simelane is a classy operator in an otherwise journeyman Lions outfit, Aphelele Fassi is fast and exciting, whilst Rosko Specman is electric with ball in hand and has great 7s experience. The ones I’m not sure about are Yaw Penxe from the Sharks who has oodles of pace, but little else (so did Mapimpi to be fair before Rassie got his positional play and defence up to scratch) and I have no idea about Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg from Montpellier as a lock.
The squad has been picked with not just the two Georgia and 3 BIL Tests in mind, but also the SA ‘A’ side that will face the Lions, so I think some of the selections are expressly with that in mind – have the players in the Bok bosom, up until the SA ‘A’ match, so that they’re part of the structures and plans should any of them be called upon because of injury in the main squad. My pick for that SA ‘A’ side would be something like this, with F Steyn covering 10, 12 and 15, and Damian Willemse covering 10 and 15 as well. Think I’ve gone 5-3 split which is probably not what Rassie and Nienaber will do, but hey ho. So you could probably drop one of F Steyn or Willemse from the backs and put Rynard Elstadt in as an auxiliary loose forward.
The Lions should deal with that combination fairly easily given that it’s a scratch side, but there are some exciting players who’ll be looking to make a mark for the future and potentially the last two Tests and the 4N after that.
Props:
Thomas du Toit (Cell C Sharks, 12 caps, 0 pts)
Vincent Koch (Saracens, 21 caps, 0 pts)
Ox Nché (Cell C Sharks, 1 cap, 0 pts)
Coenie Oosthuizen (Sale Sharks, 30 caps, 20 pts)
Hookers:
Joseph Dweba (Bordeaux-Bègles, uncapped)
Scarra Ntubeni (DHL Stormers, 1 cap, 0 pts)
Locks:
Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg (Montpellier, uncapped)
Marvin Orie (DHL Stormers, 3 caps, 0 pts)
Jean-Luc du Preez (Sale Sharks, 13 caps, 10 pts) – I believe he’s played largely at lock this season?
Loose forwards:
Dan du Preez (Sale Sharks, 4 caps, 0 pts)
Kwagga Smith (Yamaha Júbilo, 6 caps, 0 pts)
Marco van Staden (Bulls, 3 caps, 0 pts)
Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers, uncapped)
Scrumhalves:
Sanele Nohamba (Cell C Sharks, uncapped)
Cobus Reinach (Montpellier, 14 caps, 30 pts) (difficult choice between him and H Jantjies as to who is 3rd choice behind Faf at the moment)
Flyhalf:
Morne Steyn (Bulls, 66 caps, 736 pts)
Midfielders:
Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles, 46 caps, 60 pts) (Kriel to move to 12 or F Steyn to start there?)
Wandisile Simelane (Emirates Lions, uncapped)
Frans Steyn (Toyota Cheetahs, 67 caps, 141 pts)
Outside Backs:
Aphelele Fassi (Cell C Sharks, uncapped)
Sbu Nkosi (Cell C Sharks, 11 caps, 40 pts)
Rosko Specman (Toyota Cheetahs, uncapped)
Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers, 6 caps, 5 pts)
Onna telly this week
Friday 11th June
| Brumbies v Highlanders | 10:45 | Rugbypass |
| Zebre v Munster | 18:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Racing 92 v Stade Français | 19:45 | FreeSports / Premier Sports 2 |
| Leinster v Dragons | 20:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
Saturday 12th June
| Rebels v Crusaders | 05:35 | Rugbypass |
| Bues v Western Force | 08:05 | Rugbypass |
| Waratahs v Chiefs | 10:45 | Rugbypass |
| Bath v Northampton | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Bristol v London Irish | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Exeter v Sale | 15:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Harlequins v Newcastle | 15:00 | BT Sport Extra |
| Wasps v Leicester | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
| Stormers v Lions | 15:00 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Sharks v Bulls | 17:15 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Bordeaux v Clermont | 19:45 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 13th June
| Scarlets v Edinburgh | 13:00 | Premier Sports 1 | ||
| Ealing Trailfinders v Saracens | 16:30 | Premier Sports 1 |
Ovally Balls 
The Stade 8 is following in illustrious footsteps, but he is up to it
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Bugger. Beautiful goal from Italy, but that blows my prediction.
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Johnnie Beattie is a good pundit, he knows the T14, him and Benjamin Kayser are quality
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Racing won that too easily, then they took their foot off the gas and let Stade back in
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@BB – Nicely taken, but a horrible mistake by the Turkish goalie to set it up.
Italy have never been a team I’ve liked, but I think it’s great that their striker is called Immobile so happy enough to see them do well for a bit. The game has been a bore though as a mismatch.
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“le frigo – that sounds right!”
Sounds a bit much to me, but there we are.
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Sounds like Spaffer Johnson.
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Don’t think it’s been that boring although Italy have been by far the better team. Italy are probably my second team so usually want them to do well.
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Turkey created a chance in injury time, but nothing at all before that (what was their best, a cross that the keeper pushed out in the first half?) so it doesn’t make for a good match. Italy’s style will probably be good to watch against better sides, but this has just been constant pressure from them without many shots.
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Didn’t know Jorginho was Italian, good player.
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He’s an Oriundo, CMW, but under the rules in rugby he’d probably be qualified by residence as well as by citizenship.
Mancini was against them a few years back.
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I see he went there when he was fifteen, presumably to a football club.
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Emerson, another lad at Chelsea, is also Brazilian-born but Italian citizen and national team player.
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There’s a long tradition of it, in polite terms. Big discussion of it in John Foot’s fantastic book about Italian football.
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Words Flair.
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Thought there was more of a tradition of exchange between Argentina and Italy (in football and rugby) than Brazil and Italy.
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Ticht – just watched that video. Can’t read music so a lot of what he said was over my head, but was interesting all the same. That guitar solo is just brilliant (and the song also shows what a damn good drummer Phil Collins was). Plus ‘Alpha Male’ Tony Banks’ piano playing…
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BB, that’s probably right. In the 1930s it was mostly Argentinian-born lads they brought in and it was part of a wider government policy. Nowadays I don’t think it works like that so much as it would be led by the clubs. Thiago Motta played a fair bit for Italy but came to Barcelona first in Europe.
But there are benefits to having EU (Italian) citizens in the club squads, that’s why Juventus lived up to their heritage by trying to cheat to get Saurez his Italian citizenship last year ( https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/dec/04/juventus-accused-of-accelerating-process-to-get-luis-suarez-italian-passport).
Other countries do it all the time with children and grandchildren of migrants, of course.
Am a big fan of this punt by the Football Association of Ireland:
https://www.the42.ie/holman-mccormick-ireland-5446477-May2021/
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Crusaders scored 14 points in the opening five minutes in Melbourne, but since then the Rebels have gone toe toe with them on the scoreboard. 26-38 with about 12 to go.
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26-45 and the Rebels down a man. No idea what for. Crusaders steal the 5m lineout and a skip pass sees Brsydon Ennor under the sticks. 26-52 now. Still 8 minutes left. Rebels boot the restart out on the full for the second time.
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Final score. Sevu Reece warming up nicely for the Test season with a hattrick. And after the five rounds of rugby, the Kiwi sides fill the top five spots. Blues can pip the Crusaders to a final spot if they manage to beat the Force in a few minutes.
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The Bristol match had been cancelled. LIR have had positive covid tests.
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@Refit
– this is the only way that Bristol would get enough points to finish top!
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Watching Exeter-Sale. Pretty tough stuff thus far. Connie Oosthuizen illustrating why he shouldn’t be in a Bok squad. Been monstered twice already. Akker van der Merwe off with an ankle problem. Rest of the Bok and Lions contingents healthy so far. AJ McGinty the form 10 in the British Isles on this showing. I’m sure ‘Pro would agree.
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Connie? Coenie. Although he’s scrumming like my granny so far.
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The way Exeter are playing, I don’t think Bristol would be worried.
And being down to 14 isn’t going to help at all.
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Ewers is lucky that’s only a yellow. I think Dickson talked himself down to a yellow.
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Yeah, looked like he was determined to find mitigation.
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Vermeulen has become so important for Exeter – they really miss him
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Fine team try from Sale. Good forward busts to get them over the advantage line and then some nice hands and grubber through for Reed to dot down in the corner.
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Dickson doesn’t manage to talk himself out of it this time and now it is a red card for Sam Skinner. Tackle on Faf this time.
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reediculus!!
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Sam Skinner a bit unlucky to be tackling a bloke half his size there. Question now with that red is how much Sale will win by.
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he was pretty much standing still
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And then again, what do I know?
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England now doing their best to lose the test match by an innings.
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Root and Bracey are the last chance. Bracey already has two more than anyone could reasonably expect so hopefully he can kick on.
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MIGHTY!
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I hope McGinty is ok – seems a diamond in that team…..
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Horrible scenes in Denmark – Christian Eriksen of Denmark collapsed just on the pitch and is getting CPR on the pitch. The Danish team all in tears, as are a lot of the crowd. Don’t see how they can complete the game no matter what happens.
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Extraordinary finish in Biarritz.
6/6 after extra time.
Penalty kicks will determine which team will play in T14 next year.
Poor game, but fascinatingly crazy.
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Eriksen taken to hospital and is recovering. Apparently players want to continue the game once they found out that he was OK. Hmmmm. Just hope there wasn’t any pressure put on them by Uefa.
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Biarritz promoted to T14, as Steffon Armitage ( England’s loss) kicks the 6th winning ball over the crossbar.
What a game!
Hope the Danish player will be OK.
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McGinty was excellent for Sale in the first half…………………………………….and yet…………………..it was his error (kick off out on the full) in the 2nd half that was (for me) the turning point. Exeter never looked back after that and all Sale’s self-confidence seemed to evaporate in the face of Exeter’s bench-refreshed 14 men.
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@Flair
I saw French TV dwell on Delon in the crowd at one of the recent Heini games……………..
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Townsend is the ideal replacement #9 coming on in the second half.
He clearly believes he should be starting 9 for the World xv and his affront spurs him to extraordinary things.
A controlling force he is not – a blast of adrenalin and fury he is.
A manager’s curse/joy/nightmare rolled into one.
Currently, Maunder senior starts because he is calmer, controlling but slower; Townsend follows on and Sam H-C has (temporarily?) disappeared. Maunder junior hovers in the wings, as it were.
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How long do Clermont under-achieve before it’s not under-achievement, it’s their level?
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I love this photo,
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hrmm, you don’t see Rory Sutherland properly until you go on to twitter an open it
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BB will like the shirts.
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