Who’s hot and who’s not: Sharks’ ‘deadly bite’, McNamara’s ‘jackpot win’, ‘something not quite right’ at Ulster and ‘messy’ Furlong fallout
Sharks players celebrate the successful end to their European tour at Munster (left), but there was no reason for Ulster to cheer in South Africa
It’s time for our Monday wrap on who has their name in lights and who is making headlines for all the wrong reasons after the weekend.
THEY’RE ON FIRE!
Sharks: The outlook was ghoulish for the Durban franchise 11 months ago, when they put the kibosh on project John Plumtree 2.0. They had a pile of stars on their roster but with nothing shining, the head coach leaving was the result. Now, with JP Pietersen at the helm, things look encouraging indeed. After picking off Lyon and Cardiff in recent weeks, Saturday’s win at Munster was their third on the bounce on their latest European tour; it’s in stark contrast to last April when they were beaten at Connacht, Ospreys and Edinburgh.
The streak has allowed them to keep tabs in fourth place in the United Rugby Championship, just behind South African rivals the Bulls and Stormers on the URC table. More importantly, it suggests Pietersen was the right man for the job. There’s no point in having multiple stars if they don’t deliver, but he has gotten a deadly shark bite response and packing off Bongi Mbonambi after a dispute was further confirmation that Pietersen means business.
Harlequins: When the Londoners skulked homewards after blowing a Prem Rugby lead at Sale on October 11, only a fanatic would have said they would rebound by winning their next three games but that is precisely what they have done, radically changing in the gloomy consensus surrounding the Jason Gilmore regime. Appointing from within after a supposed worldwide search for a head coach looked unsettling and the season started with last term’s hangover carrying on.
However, they have sobered up in recent weeks with Vannes, Saracens and now Exeter beaten. Of course, the return from injury of Marcus Smith and the emergence of his new 10/15 partnership with George Furbank has enlivened the attack, but kudos must also be given to their pack for muscling up, an improvement assisted by having prop Fin Baxter available after a 10-month absence. The concern now is the five-week international break might stall their momentum as their next proper game is December 5 at home to league leaders Leicester. That’s a good problem to have, though, considering where they worryingly were in early October.
Benetton: We were beginning to fear for Wayne Pivac as he had endured a terrible beginning to his time at the Italian franchise. They hadn’t been a million miles away – they had drawn with Dragons and were beaten by three, one, nine and four-point margins by Connacht, Scarlets, Castres and Glasgow. However, winless after five matches, there was considerable pressure to finally bag the W at the weekend before the international break.
The Treviso-based club did just that, comfortably picking off the table-topping Edinburgh despite a 20-minute red card for a horrible tackle from prop Matías Medrano. With Zebre Parma continuing to be an uncompetitive mess, the URC need Benetton to be decent to justify the Italian presence in the tournament. This one win lifted them to 11th, showing how quickly it is to rise up the table, but the big question now is whether they can keep their standards up.
Welsh URC: Good news about the game in Wales is a rarity. For example, look at how so much of the social media build-up to next weekend’s Nations Championship resumption has been about the number of unsold tickets for the Principality Stadium Test against Japan. However, several players will surely have gone into Steve Tandy’s camp with an enthusiastic pep in their step given their clubs’ credible start to the URC.
This was expected to be another campaign in the doldrums for all four sides, but as the table stands, two are in play-off positions. How they are faring compared to the Irish is always a good gauge and three clubs – Cardiff, Dragons and Ospreys – are ahead of Connacht and Munster, and even Scarlets are in front of winless Ulster. They have won just a single match, but the brand of attacking rugby has gained them plenty of admirers in recent weeks at the Stormers and Bulls.
Noel McNamara: Leinster going for a head coach rookie to replace Leo Cullen wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card, going by the calibre of high-profile candidates linked to the July 2027 vacancy. Felipe Contepomi, Scott Robertson and Jacques Nienaber, who is already at the Dublin-based club as a senior coach, were all headline names at the top of the queue, with Irish media also throwing Stuart Lancaster and Ronan O’Gara into the mix when the gun first went off.
However, it emerged over the weekend that the Bordeaux attack coach, whose only head coach experience in the adult game was at Leinster A before he embarked on roles with Ireland U20, North Harbour and Sharks ahead of moving to France in 2023, was the chosen candidate and would be officially unveiled in mid-November. His jackpot win signals a potentially exciting return to Leinster’s attacking DNA which has suffered in recent years with the defence-dominated philosophy espoused by Nienaber.
Pau: The Pyrenees-Atlantiques club are still considered unfashionable in the Top 14, but this is their 11th consecutive season in the top flight and they are making an entertaining fist of it. Their fans were left distraught by last season’s play-off crash at home to Stade Francais following a fourth-place finish, but hope is growing that this term can finally see them reach the last four for the first time since 2000.
Sunday’s 34-14 win over champions Toulouse, inspired by two-try No.8 Facundo Isa, has lifted them to third place on the ladder, just two behind Toulouse and one off second-place Bordeaux. It was their sixth victory in eight outings and they will now look to consolidate their lofty position next weekend against Perpignan at home before a break for the internationals.
England: Despite the irritating inconsistency of the Steve Borthwick era, the ability of the English to talk themselves up is again emerging ahead of next Sunday’s clash with the Wallabies. As an example, ex-skipper Lawrence Dallaglio has declared himself “cautiously optimistic” that a good November will unfold and a fellow retired back-rower, James Haskell, has insisted that Borthwick remains the right man for the job and that his team encouragingly creates a lot of opportunities.
We’ve heard this type of giddy talk before. Look at how England were touted as a favourite to win the 2026 Six Nations only to flop and finish a woeful fifth. They are currently third on the Nations Championship Northern table, with points difference placing them higher than Ireland, and could potentially be fighting it out for top spot going into their third match against the All Blacks. But first things first, Australia must be beaten or all this pre-November hype that they supposedly have the cattle will evaporate at the first hurdle.
Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for world-class coverage you can trust.
BROKEN THERMOSTAT!
Kurtley Beale: Les Kiss has sharpened up the Wallabies since taking charge from Joe Schmidt. Some rookies and tactical gambits have paid dividends, suggesting they are on an upward trajectory despite the sobering Bledisloe Cup series loss to the All Blacks. However, giving a call-up to a 37-year-old who won the last of his 95 caps in 2021 is quite the gamble.
Beale is historically a divisive figure who has seen out recent seasons away from the limelight at the Force in Perth, but he has now been suddenly thrust back into the glare and it will be fascinating to see what effect it has on the Wallabies. His selection has been criticised by several high-profile pundits as a backward step, but time will tell, starting next weekend in London.
Tadhg Furlong citing: It was Thursday night when it was learned that the long-serving Ireland tighthead was free to play in the Nations Championship after his URC citing for foul play under law 9.27 was dismissed by a committee of three. It’s an outcome that has divided the sport and with no full written verdict yet available four days later, it has left the matter to play out in the court of social media. That has not been nice.
Ireland and Leinster fans are, of course, delighted that their player was exonerated, but Munster and South African fans had a very different perspective, with the latter vehemently claiming the outcome was at odds with what was decided a year ago when Jan Hendrik-Wessels was initially banned for nine weeks. Amidst it all, the complaint-making Gavin Coombes has had his character questioned. It’s been a messy episode for everyone, and the sooner URC gets a move on and releases the full reason behind its independent committee’s decision, the better. The vacuum it has created has been unhelpful.
COLD AS ICE!
Ulster: Getting something from a South African tour featuring assignments at the Bulls and Stormers was always a tall order, but questions do need to be asked of the Irish province after its latest setback in Cape Town. Of the 40 clubs across the URC, Top 14 and Prem, just two have yet to register a single league win this term – the hapless Zebre and Richie Murphy’s Ulster. That’s an awkward statistic made all the more uncomfortable when their desperate conclusion to last season is factored in.
All told, they are winless in their last nine league matches. Yes, there are three draws in that sequence, but the absence of a W suggests there is something not quite right in the way they are doing their business. Some of their players have still blossomed, which is reflected in the latest Ireland squad, but this troubling run of results must be ended. Their next game at Cardiff on December 5 will be significant.
Exeter: Another club struggling with the business of winning is Rob Baxter’s Chiefs. They came into this season off the back of a run to last term’s Prem final, but they would have gone into this November break bottom of the English table but for Olly Woodburn’s late score securing two bonus points in their latest loss at home to Harlequins.
Their situation – one win in five league outings – is of course rectifiable as it is still early in the season, but they must quickly learn how to better close out matches or the disappointments will continue. For Baxter, it’s a curious predicament. Last year’s revival was felt to have made a success of his rebuild, but it’s obvious there is still some way yet to go in terms of his team’s reliability.
Connacht: Last Friday’s Irish derby outcome in Galway was humiliating for Stuart Lancaster, highlighting how there are questions about the depth of his season two squad. There is no denying the positive Lancaster effect – getting eight players named in the Irish November squad was no mean feat – but the 5-50 home loss inflicted by a Leinster squad that had 17 Ireland picks unavailable was difficult to stomach.
Usually, bad weather buffeting in for the Atlantic is worth a generous few points for the Galway-based club, but the repeatedly clean-breaking Leinster adapted way better to the conditions and were deserving seven tries to one winners. There is an acceptable way to lose big matches, but this wasn’t it for Lancaster and Co.
Racing 92: We mentioned in last week’s column how the weekend’s clash between fallen French giants Clermont and Racing was a battle to keep tabs on. So it proved, a 37-30 contest going the way of the hosts at Stade Marcel Michelin. The outcome lifted Clermont to 10th on the table and left the Parisians struggling in 13th, occupying the relegation play-off spot after only two wins in eight league games.
It was their third Top 14 defeat in succession and coach Patrice Collazo didn’t sugarcoat the latest loss, admitting that Racing “are in a dark tunnel”. A trip to Castres, another struggling side, is next up on Saturday and another setback would surely have ugly repercussions for a club with expectations of being at the top end of the league.