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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!

Barbarians: It was a try feast at Twickenham on Sunday as the Baa-baas saw off England, winning an incredible game 63-45. The Barbarians ran in nine tries with Chris Ashton claiming three of those while Semi Radrada was named man-of-the-match. The team stayed true to the values of Barbarian rugby in an impressive display that had England on the ropes at numerous stages of the game. They’re sure to have celebrated this win.

Jaguares: The men from Buenos Aires’ superb run of form shows now sign of abating after they put the Sharks to the sword. Head coach Mario Ledesma must be bursting with pride as his troops have now won six consecutive matches and their eighth from 13 matches so far this season. That’s already one more than they amassed during their entire 2017 season. They are on course to reaching the play-offs for the first time.

Saracens and Leinster: Hats off to both Saracens and Leinster as they won the Premiership and PRO14 titles on Saturday. For Saracens this was a remarkable turnaround from a mid-season slump as they looked back to their devastating best in recent weeks, with Exeter unable to retain the title at Twickenham. Leinster, meanwhile, wrapped up the double as they beat Scarlets in Dublin, capping a hugely impressive campaign.

Crusaders: The defending Super Rugby champions took a giant step towards booking their play-off berth when they dished out a lesson in how to play in rainy conditions to the Hurricanes before securing a deserved 24-13 victory. The result means the eight-time champions have now won their last nine matches in a row and puts them five points clear of the men from Wellington at the top of the New Zealand Conference.

Top 14 finalists: Montpellier and Castres will face off in this week’s Top 14 final after seeing off Lyon and Racing 92 respectively over the weekend. Montpellier cruised past their semi-final opponents on Friday in a 40-14 victory while Castres’ incredible knockout run lives for another week after they won 19-14 against a fancied Racing. Could this Castres side, who finished sixth in the league, go all the way?

COLD AS ICE!

England: Defensively it was a shambles from start to finish from England. Yes, it was a side missing Saracens and Exeter players but that is no excuse for missing 36 tackles. Players such as Chris Robshaw won’t enjoy the review of the loss as the Barbarians cut through with ease far too often. Leaking 63 points on home soil is far from ideal preparation for England ahead of their Test series with South Africa.

Folau Fainga’a and Raymond Rhule: Both these players received red cards over the weekend and while the Brumbies hooker’s offence did not affect the result against the Bulls’ at Loftus Versfeld, the Stormers wing’s certainly did against the Lions at Newlands. Fainga’a’s head-butt on Bulls debutant replacement Matthys Basson was a moment of madness and while Rhule’s shoulder charge on Ruan Combrinck was not as bad as Fainga’a’s offence, it certainly cost his team in the end as the Stormers were leading 17-7 when he left the field and eventually lost 26-23.

Bulls: The score was 25-24 in the Bulls’ favour when Brumbies hooker Fainga’a got red carded in the 62nd minute. But instead of kicking on to clinch the result, the men from Pretoria lost the plot and eventually suffered a 38-28 defeat to the 14-man Canberra outfit who totally dominated the final quarter of their clash in the Bulls’ backyard. It’s safe to say that John Mitchell will be reading the riot act to his troops who are now languishing at the bottom of the South African Conference. This was the Bulls’ eighth defeat from 13 games this campaign.

Aussie woes: It’s been another bad week in Australia after news broke that Wallaby prop James Slipper had been banned for two months after twice testing positive for cocaine. He received the minimum punishment of a two-month stand down and a AUS$27,500 fine. Rugby Australia (Rugby AU) CEO Raelene Castle said a series of ‘significant personal issues’ had been taken into account when the tribunal made its decision. Slipper did release a statement saying he had been suffering from depression and we hope he is now receiving the proper support to get back to full health. Credit to Rugby AU too as they have since stated that they will review their illicit drugs policy so clubs are better aware of any player issues.

Poor commentary: It wasn’t the best evening for South African commentator Hugh Bladen in front of the microphone last Friday. Covering the Jaguares vs Sharks game, first he referred to referee Paul Williams as the Samoan international who had a spell with Stade Francais (wrong Paul) on more than one occasion. Later in the game he thought the Jaguares should “run down the clock” despite needing one try to claim a bonus-point, with his co-commentator having to correct him shortly after, and to cap it off Bladen signed off with an incorrect scoreline.

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