XV of the Finals

Any regular readers will know that I love to put together a combined XV, and after taking a little more interest in the latter stages of European competition this year for the first time in a while, the plan was to put together a combined XV from the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup finals. Unfortunately—or maybe not as it turned out—I was too busy that week, so with the Premiership and URC finals now also watched, I decided to hang on just a little longer to make it a European competitions’ finals’ XV by also accounting for the Top 14… and then because that wasn’t enough, I held off for 1 more week to also account for the Super Rugby Pacific final, as that meant that my XV would now account for the finals of all rugby’s top tier men’s club competitions. So for those who have missed some of the finals, what happened?

Sergio Parisse ended his career on the high of a Challenge Cup victory as Toulon overcame a number of injuries during the match to overpower Glasgow
Leinster came flying out the blocks with 3 early tries, only for La Rochelle to fight back and clinch victory in arguably one of the greatest Champions Cup finals in memory
A spirited Munster side ended the season with 6 away matches on the bounce and overcame an early intercept try as they defeated the Stormers to win the United Rugby Championship
Saracens’ championship experience saw them outlast a powerful Sale side for their first Premiership Rugby title since their relegation for breaching the salary cap
La Rochelle were denied the double (and their first Top 14 title) as Romain Ntamack’s late try saw Toulouse emerge victorious
The Crusaders said farewell to head coach Scott Robertson (who will be taking over as head coach of the All Blacks following the World Cup) as they overcame a powerful but ill-disciplined Chiefs side for yet another Super Rugby Pacific title

And so it is time to bid farewell to the club season by picking the 15 men who make my Team of the tournament. Let me know how my picks compare to yours!

So without further ado, the players who make up my Combined XV are:

1) Tamaiti Williams: The 22-year-old has just been called up for the All Black’s Super Rugby campaign and showed why with an impressive performance. With limited scrums, the young loosehead was able to focus on his play in the loose, where he carried hard and used his size to become an immovable object over the ruck while claiming a vital turnover.

2) Dan Sheehan: Firmly establishing himself as one of the best and most exciting hookers in world rugby. Very few hookers could have replicated his efforts for his 2 early tries, while he remained a dynamic and dangerous performer until finally being removed with 2 minutes left.

3) Uini Atonio: One of the behemoths that Ronan O’Gara uses to devastating effect. Scrums hard and carries even harder. Used his size to good effect to help batter both Leinster and Toulouse.

4 & 5) Scott Barrett & Will Skelton: The Crusaders skipper put in a huge second half performance. Carried hard as always, but also came up with a crucial lineout steal in his own 22 and used his dynamism to make a number of important tackles on the nimble and pacy backs in the Chiefs backfield. Meanwhile, Will Skelton was putting in performances that will have made it hard for Eddie Jones to ignore, using his size and power to carry the hard yards and having a huge impact entering breakdowns with force.

6) Levani Botia: Surprisingly given we’ve created this squad from 6 matches, nobody at blindside really stood out enough to secure a spot on this list, so Levani Botia takes the spot after just missing out on the shirt. Did give away a few penalties as he played on the edge, but carried hard in both of La Rochelle’s matches, while he forced Leinster to account for him at the breakdown, neutralising the impact of Josh van der Flier.

7) Charles Ollivon: Rightly saw his try disallowed for being offside at a lineout, but this showed his alertness as well as his handling skills. Carries hard but comes alive in a bit of space and uses his huge hands to get offloads away to his support men.

8) Grégory Alldritt: Arguably one of the hardest positions to pick. Parisse was instrumental in his swansong, Gavin Coombes was vital for putting Munster on the front foot, but Alldritt gets the vote here. Carries hard, is a constant threat at the breakdown but also does the most amazing job of presenting the ball back at every breakdown when tackled to allow quick ball.

9) Baptiste Serin: You always want your scrum half to be pulling the strings in a game, but such was Serin’s performance in his 40 minutes on the pitch that he gets the nod here. He didn’t just pull the strings for his team but was the ultimate puppet master. That France can have both Dupont and Serin feels almost unfair on other teams.

10) Owen Farrell: Special mention to Jack Crowley whose overcame his inexperience to direct Munster to victory in front of a partisan South African crowd, but Owen Farrell gets the nod after pulling the strings for Saracens. Appears to play with much more freedom and happiness compared to when in an England shirt, and that really does bring out the best in him.

11) Leicester Fainga’anuku: Gabin Villière was fantastic for Toulon but injury limited him to just 40 minutes which opened the door for Toulon’s newest wing Fainga’anuku. Carried hard and smart throughout to put the Crusaders attack on the front foot, while in defence he came up with a number of crucial turnovers,including the match-winner. It’s a shame that at just 23, the Rugby World Cup could be the last we see of him on the international stage (though he would become eligible for Tonga in time for the 2027 tournament).

12) Jonathan Danty: His yellow card towards the end of the Champions Cup final certainly made things closer than many would have liked, but beyond that he was so impressive. Can always be trusted to carry hard in attack and front up in defence, while proving a nightmare for the opposition at the breakdown. His try against Leinster helped turn the momentum in La Rochelle’s favour.

13) Santiago Chocobares: It’s been a couple of years since he was capped by the Pumas, but the 24-year-old is maturing as a player and must be close to a World Cup spot. Did a great job to front up against La Rochelle’s physical attack, and took his opportunity when it came to score the opening try against the run of play.

14) Emoni Narawa: Another year, another breakout talen added to the All Blacks’ ranks. Narawa was arguably one of the stars of the Super Rugby final and was desperately unlucky to be on the losing team. Took both his tries so well, even if one was chalked off for Damian McKenzie’s inability to stay back 10 metres at a lineout, and also showed up well on both sides of the kicking game.

15) Cheslin Kolbe: Shaun Stevenson almost stole this spot with a great performance for the Chiefs, but Kolbe’s performance stuck with me. Did his usual in attack, but what really stood out was his ferocious defence towards the end, with a pair of brilliant man-and-ball tackles on Kyle Steyn just 5 out from the Toulon try line.

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Branching Out: Lions on Tour

We are now just days away from the first match of the 2021 British and Irish Lions Tour of South Africa. Starting with a Test against Japan at Murrayfield, the Lions will then fly to South Africa, where they will face the 4 South African URC teams (Bulls, Stormers, Lions and Sharks) and South Africa A, along with a 3-Test series against the Springboks.

Taking place every 4 year, the Lions Tours cycle between the 3 nations who made up the old Tri-Nations: New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. But what if they looked to break this cycle and tour somewhere else? Honestly, I can’t see it happening anytime soon, but I thought it would be fun to look at some of the other potential tours.

France

Why travel all the way to the Southern Hemisphere when you have such a strong rugby nation just the other side of the channel. When you look at the usual matches you would find on a tour, France is one of the only other nations that can provide the same itinerary, with an established league full of world class talent.

The earl matches of the tour that would historically be against Super Rugby franchises could instead be against a selection of Top 14 teams, who like their touring counterparts will have just completed their domestic season. And of course France would certainly be able to provide a solid opposition in a 3-Test series. That in itself could be the tour, but it would also be easy enough to bring in Italy or Georgia as a one-off Test as part of the tour, perhaps the opener like this weekend’s match against Japan.

Japan

I mentioned that there was one other nation who currently has an established domestic league full of World Class talent, and that is Japan. While it may not get the level of attention as other competitions over here, the Top League certainly attracts its fair share of internationals and could provide sufficient opposition for midweek matches, with a 3-Test series against the Brave Blossoms. And if you wanted to throw in another slightly easier Test, well Hong Kong are currently ranked 22ⁿᵈ and could fill the spot.

The Americas

Now this is where things get interesting, and this would certainly be a tour, as the Lions look to travel to the Americas.

Argentina would be the opposition in the 3-Test series, but the tour would start in the North, with matches against the USA and Canada, and potentially even an “MLR All Stars” team, before travelling South and facing nations like Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.

From a perspective of growing the game, I can’t help feel that a tour like this has some legitimate merit, which is why it will likely never happen in a sport where money comes first.

Pacific Islands

Finally we come to one that would recognise the oft-ignored nations who have historically given us such great rugby moments, as we send the Lions to the Pacific Islands.

For the Test series, I wouldn’t look to lift any one nation above the others, but instead have 3 Tests against a Pacific Island equivalent, made up of all the best players from the Pacific Islands. These players would also be away from their respective clubs and national teams (if also involved in the tour) in order to give them maximum time to gel together. And as for the midweek matches? Well we are about to see the formation of 2 Pacific Island Super Rugby franchises—Moana Pasifika and Fijian Drua—so they would be in, while the other matches would be against Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, just minus the players called up to the combined Pacific Island team.

Would we see some of the most attractive and physical rugby ever on show, with crowds of fans who adore the game? Yes. Will the money-hungry executives let this happen? I doubt it.

Do any of these tours sound interesting to you? Are there any other’s you would suggest?

Keep an eye out on here for my thoughts from each of the Lions matches on this year’s tour. I’m not 100% sure yet exactly what format this will be in, while I also can’t guarantee exactly how quickly they will be up due to the myriad other sport on that I will be trying to fit around my job. But it was the last tour that really saw me start writing on here with some regularity and saw the first growth of this site, so I intend to cover the tour as thoroughly as possible.

A Prize Worth Fighting For

There were crazy scenes in France over the weekend as Steffon Armitage slotted the kick that won Biarritz a penalty shoot-out against Bayonne to earn the final spot in next season’s Top14. Biarritz had finished 3ʳᵈ in Pro D2, but made it through the playoffs (which include the top 6 teams, with the top 2 getting byes in the first round) to the final, where they lost to table-topping Perpignan.

Meanwhile over in England, RFU Championship table-toppers Ealing Trailfinders were hammered 0-60 at home in the home leg of the final against Premiership cheaters Saracens, who were fielding a team chock-full of internationals. Saracens are now just 80 minutes away from being welcomed back into the Premiership, despite rules on promotion stating that a team needs to be able to show proof that they have been within the salary cap for the past 2 seasons (which they haven’t) in order to be promoted. Get ready for a season of BT peddling the “revenge tour” or “redemption tour” narratives for all of their matches.

The final was just a formality anyway, as Ealing had just found out that Premiership Rugby had denied them the opportunity to be promoted as they failed to provide proof before a set deadline that they had a home ground that met requirements. Of course, it’s never that simple though, as Ealing knew their home ground wasn’t sufficient so arranged a ground share for a suitable stadium, but were awaiting confirmation from Premiership Rugby as to the finding they would receive as a non-shareholder in the Premiership. In a league where the majority of teams are being forced to go semi-pro due to the lack of funding from the RFU, it is already hard enough for a team to rise up and challenge the relegated Premiership team (who get a parachute payment to help them) for a spot in the top flight without all the extra red tape and efforts against them from Premiership Rugby.

This is not sustainable in the long term, and it is a clear ploy to introduce a long-term ringfencing of the Premiership sooner rather than later (this is already happening this season due to the impact of COVID-19 on the table). Meanwhile, talent continues to leave these shores to go to France, where both the Top14 an Pro D2 are fully professional and a third tier of professional rugby is soon to come into effect. Only with such a model can a top-flight team have any realistic chance of holding onto its top players when being relegated, while the depth in the quality of player base grows as teams face tougher tests on a weekly basis.

The Premiership may be one of the best rugby leagues in the world, but by the RFU letting them have their own way and not sufficiently supporting the other leagues, the chance of another fairytale story like that of Exeter looks like nothing more than a work of fiction…

Eyes on the Ball

Thoughts from the world of sport

Tag: Top 14