Who’s hot and who’s not: Ronan O’Gara a ‘no-show’ after Leinster loss and a ‘memorable weekend’ for Scottish clubs in Champions Cup
Who's hot and who's not: Harri Morris and Magnus Bradbury of Edinburgh, and La Rochelle's Ronan O'Gara.
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!
Scottish clubs: It was a memorable weekend for Scotland’s two clubs in the Investec Champions Cup as both Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors registered important victories. On Friday night, Edinburgh made a slow start in their clash against Gloucester at the Hive Stadium, and after the PREM Rugby outfit raced into an 18-5 half-time lead, the home side launched a superb second-half comeback to seal a hard-fought 26-24 victory. Meanwhile, Glasgow faced Clermont Auvergne at Stade Marcel Michelin, but Franco Smith’s troops delivered a superb all-round performance en route to a deserved 33-21 triumph. With that victory, the Warriors consolidated their position at the top of the table in Pool One and also booked their spot in the Champions Cup’s round-of-16. Meanwhile, Edinburgh are currently in second place in Pool Two and will hope to advance to the play-offs, but face a tricky assignment away at Bath on Friday.
Saracens: The North London-based PREM Rugby club took a giant step towards securing their place in the Champions Cup’s round-of-16 when they clinched a deserved 20-14 triumph over the tournament’s most successful side, Toulouse, at the StoneX Stadium on Sunday. After Glasgow Warriors and Sale Sharks secured their play-off spots with victories in earlier matches, Sarries could ill-afford a defeat against Les Rouge et Noir. Mark McCall’s charges produced a superb display in wet and windy conditions and eventually outscored the six-time European champions by three tries to two before clinching a valuable victory.
Bordeaux-Begles: The Champions Cup’s defending champions showed that they mean business again this season as they delivered an outstanding all-round performance, sealing an emphatic 50-28 victory over Northampton Saints at Stade Chaban-Delmas on Sunday. There was plenty of fanfare in the build-up to this encounter as it was a repeat of last season’s final, and once again, Bordeaux had too much class for their English opponents as they outscored their opponents by eight tries to four. Salesi Rayasi and Cameron Woki led the way with a hat-trick of tries apiece, but the champions’ forwards deserve special praise as their set-piece dominance laid the groundwork to their emphatic win.
Leinster: The Irish heavyweights had to dig deep to clinch a narrow 25-24 victory over La Rochelle at the Aviva Stadium and, in doing so, they notched their third successive victory in the tournament after previous triumphs against Harlequins and Leicester Tigers. It was a case of sweet revenge for United Rugby Championship champions over La Rochelle as the Top 14 outfit got the better of Leinster in back-to-back Champions Cup finals in 2022 and 2023. Leinster’s hero in Saturday’s nail-biting clash was replacement fly-half Harry Byrne, who came off the bench and slotted the match-winning penalty with the final act of the match.
COLD AS ICE!
South African clubs: It was a weekend to forget for South African teams in the Investec Champions Cup as the Bulls, Sharks and Stormers were all on the receiving end of defeats in their respective fixtures. In Pretoria, despite having 10 Springboks in their starting line-up, the Bulls had a tough day at the office and conceded nine tries en route to a humiliating 61-49 defeat against Bristol Bears on Saturday. Later that day, at the CorpAcq Stadium in Salford, the Sharks faced their namesakes, Sale Sharks, but despite holding their own during the opening half, the second-string visitors lost their way after half-time before suffering a 26-10 defeat. And finally, on Sunday, a Stormers side, who also opted to rest their first choice players, were like lambs to the slaughter in their clash with Harlequins, who cruised to a 61-10 triumph at Twickenham Stoop.
Sharks owner eats his words: That battle of the Sharks at the CorpAcq Stadium had an extra edge to it as the Durban-based outfit’s owner, Marco Masotti, raised the stakes by, on several occasions in recent years, urging the English outfit to rebrand as ‘Sale Tuna’. Masotti’s most recent jibe came on New Year’s Eve as he revealed his hopes for 2026 on X, formerly Twitter, with one of those being: “May @SaleSharksRugby finally rebrand as the Sale Tuna. A tuna is a fierce fish. Let us unite behind the Tuna!” Unsurprisingly, Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson used those social media posts from Masotti as motivation ahead of the grudge match, and with Sale eventually emerging as winners, the men from Durban Sharks’ owner was left to eat his words.
Toulouse: Sunday’s defeat against Saracens was a bitter pill to swallow for the French heavyweights, as it leaves them in a precarious position in the Champions Cup standings. Although Toulouse can still qualify for the round of 16, they have to beat Sale Sharks in their next match at Stade Ernest Wallon on Saturday. Ugo Mola’s side started their Champions League campaign with an impressive home victory over the Sharks, but have now suffered back-to-back defeats after Glasgow Warriors also beat them in Round Two. Talismanic skipper and scrum-half Antoine Dupont, who recently returned from a lengthy injury lay-off, was on the field for the full 80 minutes against Sarries but could not produce his customary moment of magic to help his side clinch the much-needed win.
La Rochelle and Ronan O’Gara: Although Leinster were deserved winners at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday, La Rochelle have only themselves to blame for finishing on the losing side. After Leinster raced into a 12-0 lead, the French club fought back bravely to move 17-12 clear early in the second half after tries from Davit Niniashvili and Ihaia West. However, Leinster struck back via tries from Josh van der Flier and Robbie Henshaw before West crossed for another converted try. It wasn’t to be, however, as Byrne had the last laugh with the match-winning penalty in the 83rd minute. The result proved too hard to take for O’Gara, who was a no-show at the post-match interview, with one of his assistants left to front the media after the thrilling clash.
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