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Who’s hot and who’s not!

It’s time for our Monday wrap of who has their name in lights and who’s making the headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past week.

THEY’RE ON FIRE!

Richie Mo’unga: What a virtuoso performance from the Canterbury number 10 as he led his side to the Mitre 10 Cup title. His two-try shift had Tasman on the ropes at times in the 35-13 result while he added a further 15 points off the kicking tee to cap an impressive showing. We feel he’s pushing Lima Sopoaga hard as being Beauden Barrett’s back-up and with more performances like this, 2018 could be a big year.

Western Province: An excellent second-half from the visitors to Durban saw them win 33-21 over the Sharks. WP were under pressure for much of the first half but came back strongly as the match progressed and scored 18 unanswered points in the second-half to pick up the trophy. Another fly-half, Robert du Preez, put in a strong showing while Huw Jones signed off before heading to Glasgow with a brace to his name.

Chris Ashton: Two tries as well went the way of new Toulon signing Ashton, with one of those an outstanding individual score. He’s quickly becoming a favourite at Stade Mayol and we expect him to be in the mix for top try-scorer in the Top 14. If Toulon create, he will finish.

Uncapped squad call-ups: They know who they are and hats off to all of those around the globe who have earned their first Test squad nod. Whether it’s Sam Simmonds or Bundee Aki, few can doubt these players aren’t deserving of this next step in their career. Congratulations.

Richard Wigglesworth, Rory best and Will Welch: 250 Premiership appearances, 200 Ulster outings and 200 games for Newcastle respectively. Wigglesworth is now fourth on the all-time list in the English top flight and still going strong in Saracens colours. Congratulations to these three stalwarts and while we’re applauding landmarks, a mention for Northampton forward Courtney Lawes who hit 200 a fortnight ago.

COLD AS ICE!

Steve Diamond: Another prickly post match interview on BT Sport with the Sale boss, this time after his side lost 10-6 at home to Exeter. Diamond slammed referee Craig Maxwell-Keys for a late decision which he felt was “made up” but the match was not won or lost on one call. These public grilling of officials have become all too frequent. He said: “If you’ve got somebody that’s weak-minded occasionally, and it looked like that in the last two or three minutes, those people tend to give those decisions to what’s perceived to be the stronger team.”

Rohan Janse van Rensburg: It seems the Lions centre is out in the cold in terms of the Springboks. Even with Jan Serfontein being omitted from the touring squad due to his club commitments, powerful carrier Janse van Rensburg missed out on the 34-man squad announced on Sunday.

Ulster: That was a hugely disappointing showing from Ulster on home soil as they went down to Leinster 25-10 on Saturday. This following their 41-17 loss at La Rochelle, it’s been a poor couple of weeks for Ulster. They will hope a trip to the Kings turns around their form.

Brive: Really struggling in the Top 14 at the moment. They currently sit at the bottom of the table and most recently suffered a massive 41-24 loss to Toulon at the weekend. In this game in particular, their disciplinary record was shocking. They had an incredible four men yellow carded in that game at Stade Mayol. With one victory in their seven games, they are in serious need of inspiration from somewhere.

Southern Kings: With two match weeks’ break while their PRO14 opposition on Friday competed in the Champions Cup, it was disappointing to see the Kings so comprehensively beaten at Glasgow. Their 43-13 defeat to what has to be said was a second string Warriors line-up was the Kings’ seventh loss of the campaign. Credit to those Glasgow players of course but a stronger fight was expected of the Kings at Scotstoun.

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