Who’s hot and who’s not: ‘Devalued’ Exeter fight back, the ‘old dog with plenty of life’ and ‘mic drop moment’ now haunting Shaun Edwards
Harvey Skinner's Exeter thrived at Leicester on Sunday but Shaun Edwards' defence coach run with France appears to be at an end
It’s time for our Monday wrap of who has their name in lights and who is making the headlines for all the wrong reasons after the weekend.
THEY’RE ON FIRE!
Exeter: Having been a consistent outfit over the winter, the Chiefs have become a yo-yo operation at the end of the season, great one week, brutal the next. After falling asleep at the wheel at Twickenham when 24-7 ahead against Harlequins on May 16 and losing, they arrived at Leicester on Sunday knowing that they had dropped out of the play-off spots due to Saracens’ victory over Quins the day before, but their devalued stock regained buoyancy in the PREM Rugby market with a superb 35-26 ambush of their Welford Road hosts.
They looked dead and buried after falling behind to a 70th-minute try, but they somehow found the energy to secure 73 per cent possession in the final 10 minutes and it was their Italian lock Andrea Zambonin who stood out most. His footwork for the lead-taking try was wondrous following Harvey Skinner’s splendid pass, and the second-row was also the player who drew the lineout penalty converted by Henry Slade at the death to deny Tigers a losing bonus point. Chiefs’ performance was fun to watch, but the onus is very much on them to put back-to-back displays together when Saracens – now three points behind in fifth place – visit on Saturday in the final round.
Kyle Steyn: Friday night’s United Rugby Championship quarter-final was a nervy fixture for the No.1 seeded Glasgow against Connacht, the league’s No.8. The Irish province had included Glasgow as one of their victims on their impressive surge from the lower reaches of the table into the knockouts, and tension was in the half-time air with the Scotstoun score deadlocked at 7-all. It was only seven weeks earlier when Glasgow previously fluffed their knockout lines, failing to cash in on the No.2 Investec Champions Cup seeding and getting bundled out of the competition in the quarter-finals at home by the No.7 Toulon.
However, the line breaking skipper Steyn helped to soothe the repeat jitters with two tries – including the crucial lead-taking score on 46 minutes – in a second half where they looked more themselves. They were deserving of their 33-21 win and the show now moves on to Edinburgh for a semi-final against the Bulls, with the incentive of a Murrayfield final if they win their way through.
James Lowe: The latest window for Rugby World Cup 2027 ticket applications shuts on Tuesday and by the time World Rugby next goes to the market, they will likely need to alter their marketing blurb given that it’s Lowe wearing the Ireland green in the promo featuring a half-dozen players, including South Africa’s Pieter-Steph du Toit, Australia’s Joseph Suaalii and New Zealand’s Ardie Savea. All the indications are that the Kiwi is on his way out of Leinster and a move overseas for club rugby would result in him no longer being eligible for Ireland selection.
It was last November when the IRFU reported a reduced operating deficit of €4.2million, down from €18.4m the previous year, and the expectation was for a breakeven outcome in their next set of results. This outlook makes it very odd that neither the Irish union nor Leinster have come up with a deal sufficient to keep the soon-to-be 34-year-old in the system for the next World Cup. Yes, he has had his issues recently with injury but his two tries on Saturday in the 59-10 win against the Lions in his 100th Leinster appearance secured Lowe the club’s all-time try record from Shane Horgan and showed there is plenty of life left in the old dog.
Fitz Harding’s Bristol: The only way was up for the Bears after their humiliating 94-point capitulation at Northampton, the sort of trouncing that should have resulted in Pat Lam getting handed his P45. Bristol’s director of rugby is still in situ and rather than give him plaudits for his team’s bounce back at home to defending PREM Rugby champions Bath, we’re inclined to look at the warriors who pitched up on the field and left everything out there.
Skipper Harding was one hero who led by deed and not idle chit-chat. The 27-year-old is someone whose dedication to his craft so often gets overlooked, but he was front and centre of Friday night’s West Country derby riposte, crucially scoring his team’s opening try at a first-half juncture where they had gone two tries down, and he finished an epic match as the leading ball carrier and leading tackler. That was ballsy, but Bristol being Bristol this season, the sickening twist arrived on Sunday with Exeter’s ambush of Leicester erasing the Bears from the play-off picture.
Chiefs: Saturday’s final round of the regular Super Rugby Pacific season was a situation where the Waikato franchise was supposed to be vulnerable to a heist in Hamilton. They had pulled their selection punches by making 10 changes, knowing they already had a home knockout match already booked, and they were up against a Blues team that knew a win would secure them homefield advantage in the knockouts.
What ensued was an initially feisty contest where the visitors led 10-0 early on and reached the interval trailing by just four points. However, what materialised in the second half was an electricity that showcased the depth in this current Chiefs squad as they blew away the Blues to win 59-34. First-time skipper Wallace Sititi was to the fore, opening the second half scoring from a quickly tapped penalty, and the demolition will have given the watching All Blacks selector Graham Henry plenty of food for thought five weeks out from the start of the Nations Championship.
Bulls: You would have got handsome odds betting the South Africa franchise to come good this season last January when they had to travel to Edinburgh with their URC record reading P8 W3 L5. By that stage, they had called in the Springbok backroom brains trust to lend a hand to Johan Ackermann, whose take-up of the reins from the Jake White side that reached last year’s final had flopped. The Bulls somehow turned around a 17-5 deficit at the break in Scotland at the top of the year, hitting back to win 19-17.
That was the ignition for a run of 10 wins in 11 league outings, propelling them into the semi-finals. They were far too good for Munster last Saturday in Pretoria, banking a 31-point quarter-final victory over the out-of-sorts 2023 champions. Players such as Cameron Hanekom, Elrigh Louw and Johan Grobbelaar mean they have the cattle up front capable of challenging Glasgow in Saturday’s semi, provided the journey north doesn’t prove too taxing.
Late, late Saracens: It would have been very uncharacteristic of the Londoners if Saturday’s derby showdown with Harlequins – Mark McCall’s last home match at the StoneX – ended with a thud, but they eventually came good in a fashion that reflected well on their long-serving boss. Two tries up after 24 minutes, the hosts seemed set to cruise to a bonus point win, but they instead clocked off amid the energy-sapping conditions and were in danger of not even getting the win when Quins closed to within five points with 17 minutes remaining.
McCall, though, had selected his bench astutely and this cover delivered, especially the sub half-back duo of Owen Farrell and Ivan van Zyl. Despite the clock ebbing away, time wasn’t an enemy as Saracens found the composure for Nick Tompkins to go over from a move featuring two brilliant offloads out of the contact, and then strike again with time up through their lineout maul and nail the 26-12 bonus win. That was a very McCall-like thing to happen, Saracens fighting until the final whistle and finishing with every reason to smile.
Worcester: The Champ in England is a bit of a pony from the perspective that there is currently no way its title winners can earn promotion to the top flight, but the second-tier competition still produced a thrilling climax to its season with the Warriors completing their phoenix return from financial oblivion to take the title with their 27-14 win in the final at Bedford. It’s an achievement that coach Matt Everard can take every plaudit for.
The player roster was totally empty last May when he was appointed to take charge at a club that hadn’t played since September 2022 and while their 26-match regular season was only good enough for 15 wins and a fourth place finish, they revelled in the play-offs, ambushing the table-topping Ealing with a last-gasp try despite finishing 40 points below them on the table and then picking off the Blues in Sunday’s second half. For players such as Matt Kvesic, the success was a massive vindication for the trust they have shown in the Sixways club’s rebirth.
‘When there’s hope, there’s a way’ – Tana Umaga staying ‘positive’ about Moana Pasifika rescue plan
Moana Pasifika: It would have been understandable if the Super Rugby franchise bailed on their final round match in Canberra, given that it was likely to be the club’s last outing now that its financial backing has been pulled. Their project has endured a disastrous 12 months since making the play-offs with Savea on board as their star calling card, but they had played miserably all this season, winning just one of their 13 matches and getting tailed off in last spot before Saturday’s farewell in Australia.
Having already qualified for the play-offs, the Brumbies were very much caught napping, but that circumstance can’t detract from the spirit summoned up by Moana. With midfielder Faletoi Peni copping a red card after receiving his second yellow, it seemed as if there was no way back from a 19-14 deficit, but the magic of Melani Matavao’s 75th-minute converted try for the 21-19 win was a stunning way for the club to bow out.
Newcastle: Mention of stunning comebacks, Planet Rugby must also doff its cap to the spectacular second half produced by the beleaguered Red Bull franchise. The energy drink’s association with the English club has very much been a project where repeated blows have been sustained in a dreadful first year, with a view to being a million miles better with a player roster and coaching overhaul for year two (a whopping 26 players are leaving). But what they produced at Kingston Park on Saturday was remarkable.
Sale looked home and hosed, having turned around at the break 35-10 up, but something brilliant ignited in the second half, and it culminated in the stunning clock-in-the-red move from inside Newcastle’s own 22, which ended with Alex Hearle getting the ball on halfway and sprinting all the way to the line to seal an unbelievable 45-42 victory. That was Hearle’s hat-trick try and while he will remain at the club until at least 2028, his run for victory allowed those exiting a cherished moment to celebrate.
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COLD AS ICE!
Shaun Edwards: The Wiganer couldn’t resist a mic drop moment when interviewed post-game by ITV following France’s successful Six Nations title defence last March. “That’s my seventh one that, by the way,” he interjected as the pitch side interview finished up at Stade de France. No one can deny the defence coach specialist is a serial winner and being involved in four title triumphs with Wales and three with the French is no mean Six Nations feat.
However, it appears that this record of unbridled achievement won’t save him from the guillotine. Scratch the surface of what unfolded a few months ago and damaging figures emerge. The French conceded 96 points and 14 tries in their final two Six Nations matches, losing to Scotland 50-40 and then needing a last-gasp Thomas Ramos kick to wrench the title from Ireland with a 48-46 win over England. In other words, Edwards’ rearguard leaked like a sieve, leaving the assistant on the brink despite being contracted until 2028. Of course, his coaching style will be in demand elsewhere but the French have seemingly had enough of the Englishman after seven championships.
France axe Shaun Edwards and highly regarded South African coach – report
Bath and Leicester: Neither club will look back at PREM Rugby round 17 with any level of satisfaction as both succumbed to frustrating losses that set up an intriguing round 18 ‘quarter-final’ next Saturday. With the teams running two and three on the English ladder, they are set to face each other in a June 13 semi-final, but the big question is where that match will take place. A win for Leicester at The Rec will see the semi booked in at Welford Road, but anything less will see the teams reconvene back at The Rec.
Both coughed up winning positions over the weekend. Bath were 19-7 up at the Ashton Gate interval and endured a scoreless second half to lose by two points. Meanwhile, Tigers produced a horrible closing 10 minutes after wresting the lead from Exeter, ‘losing’ the denouement 10-0 and the match by nine points. That’s not title-winning form, and the intrigue is how they will now go about selection for Saturday’s position-deciding head-to-head. All in or punches pulled? It’s over to you, Johann van Graan and Geoff Parling.
Waratahs: Dan McKellar’s arrival at the Sydney-based Super Rugby franchise was supposed to upgrade the club and have them challenging for a title they have only won once (2014). However, the former Brumbies boss, who endured a pitstop to forget at Leicester before returning to the Australian rugby scene, has failed to deliver. His eighth-place effort in 2025 was excused on the basis that it was his first year at the helm and the chance to overhaul the player roster would lead to better things in year two.
The improvement, though, hasn’t happened and Saturday’s loss in the Perth rain meant another eighth-place finish, except this one was with just five wins in 14 compared to six in 2025. All the more wounding was that the victory for the Western Force lifted them above their Aussie rivals into seventh, an outcome that could potentially sound the death knell for the McKellar project. The coaching on his watch simply hasn’t gotten the best out of some very talented players and a major rethink is needed.
‘My head was spinning’ – Jordie Barrett reveals nervy All Blacks call after being kicked out the MCG
Clermont: This Planet Rugby writer had a tour of the famed Stade Marcel-Michelin some weeks ago and even caught the tail end of a busy first-team training session taking place on the pitch at the back of one of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes stand. The tour guide couldn’t say enough about the proudly intimidating atmosphere generated by the home team’s fans when roaring their team on, but Sunday night was essentially a damning capitulation by Christophe Urios and his players that could have employment consequences in the summer.
With Bordeaux beaten at Toulon earlier in the day, Clermont knew that a victory over fellow play-off hopefuls Racing would lift them into the sixth and final knockout spot with one round of matches remaining. Instead, it was the Parisians who grabbed firm hold of the occasion, jumping into a 26-13 interval lead and then going on to win 41-13 to move into fifth place. It meant Clermont were held scoreless for a whopping 64 minutes, and the loss now has them in eighth and facing the daunting task of traveling to sixth-place Bordeaux in the final round.
NZ Rugby set to bear brunt of France selection again despite policy change
Munster: Frustrated fans of the Irish province should have a listen to Donncha O’Callaghan’s musings about Clayton McMillan’s team. His frustrations were laid bare on The Offload, the podcast he does with fellow former Ireland teammate Tommy Bowe. Recorded before the weekend’s quarter-final at the Bulls, he let loose how fed up he was with the situation at a club where the same old faces were getting picked and failing rather than proper trust being placed in a new wave of players coming through their system.
His point was vindicated with Brian Gleeson and Evan O’Connell included in the forwards in Pretoria, the number eight enjoying a double-figure total of carries and the second-row leading his team’s tackle count. There is something rotten at the Munster core for some time, though, and the onus is on McMillian getting to the source of this in the off-season and remedying it for his second year or else getting out of dodge. He really needs to start showing he can improve players on an individual basis, otherwise the sobering hit of losing a play-off match by 36 points, after getting held scoreless for 47 minutes, will continue to happen.
Sale: 13 defeats in 17 PREM Rugby outings is a derisory downturn this term for a club that last year finished third with 12 wins in 18. Worse, they are finding new ways to lose. In recent weeks, they had endured the annihilation of 85 points put on them by Saracens and also the daft boast that if they had another 10 minutes versus Leicester, they could have overcome a 14-point deficit in a match where they had been a distant second best until desperation kicked in following Tigers’ seventh try.
On Saturday, the Sharks somehow contrived to surrender a 25-point interval lead at Newcastle. This finally forced in-denial boss Alex Sanderson to admit that “there is something clearly missing”. This was clearly evident months ago, but Sale simply blundered on without taking that hard look in the mirror. They are in a mess and the pre-season reset can’t come quickly enough.
SVNS: Apparently the latest season ended this weekend in Spain, with Australia bagging both the men’s and women’s titles, but the lack of interest in the finale was further evidence that World Rugby remain a basket case when it comes to the business of running sevens. Their latest reimagining of the silly reimagined concept they came up with a few years ago has again failed to hit the mark, and the sooner the circuit is taken out of their hands the better.
Of course, they will sugar coat this season’s outcome and claim it to be a success but they did the same a few years ago after burning through a ton of money, bad budgeting that ultimately culminated in a reduction of teams allowed to play on the main circuit and seeing a pile of World Rugby staffers, who had nothing to do with business of sevens, getting made redundant in a panicked attempt to balance the books. A brutal example of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
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