Rupert Cox's Off Load: The Top 14, Leinster and Chris Hala'ufia all come under scrutiny
Monday 27 April 2015 15:52, UK
Rupert Cox shares his highlights from the week's rugby action in his round-up blog.
Joker has the last laugh
The Top 14 has flipped out of all control, and boy is it fun to watch. A week before the all-French Champions Cup Final at Twickenham, the top four sides all lost, and the teams in 9th through 13th places all won. With three rounds to go before the Barrage, the fight at either end of the table is as much of a lottery as it's been all season.
La Rochelle took another step towards safety in beating the champions. Despite three lovely La Rochelle scores, a second-string Toulon side managed a four-point lead with a couple of minutes left on the clock, thanks in no small part to the goal kicking of Freddie Michalak. Then, with the home team camped on the Toulon line and the flag-waving La Rochelle crowd going properly bonkers, Toulon forward Mamuka Gorgodze was sin-binned and the men in yellow and black had one last chance to steal it - and one of the unlikeliest players did the thieving. Australian medical joker Mali Hingano emerged from a driving maul on the final play to score the winner - and prompted scenes of delirium at the Stade Marcel Deflandre. Toulon remain top with a losing bonus point, but this day on the coast was all about La Rochelle.
Toulouse were the biggest movers. After a disastrous start to the season, the 19-time champs are now third overall - their highest place all campaign. Stade Francais had a shocker in Paris - centre Jonathan Danty lost his rag and belted Toulouse winger Vincent Clerc with a clean left hook. A red card was swiftly held up. Stade fly-half Jules Plisson went off with a serious shoulder injury, and Toulouse picked up the away win to make not only the play-offs but now the top two - a real chance. That looked impossible at the turn of the year.
George Smith's Lyon are as good as relegated, but the scrap to avoid the other drop spot will get very dirty indeed - just four points separate seventh from 13th. Even Montpellier, one place outside the top six, are not yet safe. Castres took another stride to safety in beating Clermont with a try bonus at the Pierre Antoine - the 2013 champs are hanging by their fingernails to 12th spot.
And just to add to the mayhem - Oyonnax have a six-point buffer in sixth spot!
Dark days for Dubliners
What a tough week for Leinster. After failing to nail their gilt-edged chance in the European semi-final, the Pro12 champions fell to Ulster on Friday night and are now out of the play-offs for the very first time. It's been a poor domestic season by Leinster's standards - having earned home semi-finals in each of the previous five seasons, reaching five finals and winning the last two. Missing out on the post-season entirely will be a deep low for Dublin. The best that team boss Matt O'Connor can hope for now is a top-six spot and guaranteed Champions Cup qualification for next season. Missing out on the big show in Europe really would be a disaster. Get Johnny Sexton back ASAP!
The top four are confirmed, but who will have a home semi? We don't yet know. In the penultimate round Ulster will host Munster, and then travel to Scotland to play the leaders Glasgow. With the final being held at Ravenhill, it could be a mad and mighty May in Belfast.
Hurricane hits Brisbane
The Canes are back on track after a bonus-point win over the Reds in Queensland - a record five straight away wins in a season. Big Reds centre Samu Kerevi powered over for two early tries, but the Hurricanes showed their class, responding with four excellent scores. Ma'a Nonu was once again brilliant, as was scrum-half TJ Perenara, who is now the team’s leading try scorer... and they've scored a few! He'll keep All Black incumbent Aaron Smith very honest this season in the build up to the World Cup.
Aussie leaders the Brumbies also bounced back from last week's loss by beating the Highlanders. David Pocock, looking very much like his old strongman self, scored a hat-trick of tries. But the Waratahs are still right in the race in Australia, after the champs won a hard-fought game against Melbourne at the Olympic Stadium. The Brumbies and Waratahs are four points apart and will meet on Friday.
In South Africa, the Lions continue to defy belief after they won an eight-try thriller against the Cheetahs at Ellis Park. That was the Lions' fifth straight win for a 6-from-10 record this campaign. Written off in February, they are in touching distance of the play-offs, and just four points off the top of the SA conference.
But it's the Stormers who lead the way, overtaking the Bulls after taking the North-South Derby in Cape Town. Bjorn Basson scored a brilliant long-range try, set up by Francois Hougaard, but Duane Vermeulen's Stormers secured a two-point win thanks to winning the tough forward battle, and five penalties from the boot of Demetri Catrakilis.
Brickbat
Since when is it the job of players to act as vigilante security? London Welsh forward Chris Hala'ufia's flying hit on a pitch invader - before being red carded for a separate incident against the Leicester Tigers - should not be glorified, as it predictably has been on social media, as some noble act of bravado. A streaker gets his lunchbox out on the pitch - that makes him an idiot. Halu'ufia's reaction was equally as idiotic - what does that make him? Besides which, tackling a naked, hairy muppet to the grass is the highlight of a security guard’s season, Chris - don’t deprive the lads in hi-vis.
Bouquet
Anzac Day commemorations. The 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings was impeccably observed at Super Rugby games all weekend. Having lived in both countries, it was moving to see Auckland-born Will Skelton singing the New Zealand AND Australian national anthems before the Waratahs played the Rebels.
We need no better show of Trans-Tasman unity than that.
