Who’s hot and who’s not: Springboks celebrate ‘first-ever’ Rugby Championship feat and Leinster in ‘unfamiliar territory’
The Springboks and Newcastle Red Bulls in Who's hot and Who's not image.
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!
Springboks: Rassie Erasmus’ troops came into Saturday’s Test against Argentina with a single goal which was to simply beat their opponents and, in doing so, it would mean that they have successfully defended their Rugby Championship title. They managed to do just that courtesy of a hard-fought 29-27 victory and that was a momentous achievement as it was the first-ever back-to-back title wins for the world champions in the prestigious Southern Hemisphere competition. Although the Boks‘ entire squad worked hard to achieve that goal, Malcolm Marx and Cobus Reinach deserve special praise as both crossed for a brace of tries apiece. The victory also consolidated the Boks’ position at the top of World Rugby’s rankings list.
Quinn Tupaea and All Blacks: Although the Springboks were sitting in the pound seats ahead of the final round of action in this year’s Rugby Championship, the All Blacks delivered an impressive display en route to a 28-14 victory over the Wallabies in Saturday’s early game in Perth. The men in black have endured a topsy-turvy campaign but delivered a fine all-round display and eventually secured a bonus-point triumph after outscoring their hosts four tries to one. Leading the way was Tupaea, who celebrated his return to the starting line-up with a superb attacking display. The 26-year-old was rewarded with a brace of tries for his efforts and it looks like he has cemented his spot in the All Blacks starting XV as their first choice number 13.
Saracens: The North London-based outfit have made impressive starts to their 2025/26 Premiership Rugby campaign, clinching back-to-back bonus-point victories from their first two matches of the season. After beating Newcastle Red Bulls in their opening game, Saracens made a statement of intent this past weekend as they cruised to a deserved 50-17 victory over Bristol Bears at the StoneX Stadium on Saturday. That superb result means Mark McCall’s troops are setting the pace atop the standings with a full house of 10 points after those two encounters, with the champions Bath hot on their heels in second place. Sarries are in pole position due to their superior points difference.
Zebre Parma: The Italian outfit finished last season in 15th position in the 16-club United Rugby Championship (URC) but have hit the ground running during the 2025/26 campaign as they are one of only four clubs left with unbeaten records in the competition, along with the table-topping Bulls, Stormers and Munster. The last three sides are amongst the URC’s heavyweights, with the latter two clubs both previous champions while the Bulls were beaten finalists on three occasions. However, Zebre are the tournament’s surprise package this season and are currently amongst the front-runners after pipping the Lions 22-20 in Parma on Sunday. This was after they kicked off their campaign with a another narrow win over Edinburgh in Round One.
Worcester Warriors: Following their suspension and administration in 2022, the former Premiership Rugby club made a successful return to professional rugby on Saturday when they faced Coventry in front of a packed Sixways stadium. After losing to defending PREM champions Bath in a friendly last month, Worcester’s head coach Matt Everard said his team’s main goal was to leave fans proud of their performance on the pitch against Coventry and they did just that as they clinched a 29-19 victory. The result was secured by a Will Reed penalty and a late converted Ashley Challenger try.
BROKEN THERMOSTAT
SANZAAR contemplating new time slot for Rugby Championship: This year’s Rugby Championship was arguably its best since its expansion to four nations in 2012 with Argentina joining Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, but the prestigious Southern Hemisphere tournament is set to undergo some major changes in the years ahead. The Rugby Championship will not be played in 2026 as the All Blacks are set to visit South Africa on their eight-match “Greatest Rivalry” tour, including three Tests against the Springboks. The future of the tournament for the years after 2026 is still undecided but one suggestion is moving it to February and March from 2029, which would mean it will be held at the same time as the Six Nations. The jury is still out on that option and it will be interesting to see whether SANZAAR officials go that down that route eventually.
COLD AS ICE!
Leinster: Although they delivered a much improved performance in Saturday’s 39-31 defeat to the Bulls in Pretoria after suffering a humiliating 35-0 defeat to the Stormers in their URC opener, the tournament’s defending champions are finding themselves in unfamiliar territory near the bottom of the standings. The Irish province are currently in 15th position with only Scarlets, who have a game in hand after their round two clash with Connacht in Galway was postponed because of Storm Amy, below them on the table. Leinster fans will be desperate to clinch their first win of the season next Saturday in Dublin versus the Sharks as their two losses suffered so far is the same number of defeats sustained during their entire 2024/25 campaign.
Newcastle Red Bulls: This past week was eventful for the Red Bulls. After finishing at the bottom of the Premiership Rugby table at the end of last season, and losing their opening match at home against Saracens, they opted to part ways with director of rugby Steve Diamond. Since then, Neil McIlroy has joined Newcastle‘s ranks as their sporting general manager along with John Fletcher and Jonny Petrie who are the club’s academy/pathways director and managing director respectively while Alan Dickens, who was fomerly the club’s senior coach, has taken over the reins as head coach. However, all those changes did not have the desired effect as Newcastle suffered a 38-15 away loss to Exeter Chiefs on Saturday which means they are firmly rooted to the bottom of the table with zero points after two matches.
Bristol: Pat Lam spent his week talking down his team’s PREM title chances after the triple whammy of operations for AJ MacGinty, Harry Randall and Gabriel Ibitoye. You could argue he was just being realistic, taking the heat out of the hype that should have accompanied the build-up to their trip to Saracens. However, that negative narrative had a damning consequence as the collision-shy Bears were blown away in the first half at the StoneX. Heading down the tunnel 0-31 down was an awful look for a club that had spent big and needs silverware to justify that investment. Their backers will point to the second-half hat-trick scored by Kieran Marmion, which would have produced a four-try bonus point had Harry Thacker not bungled the ball near the line at the death. But that sort of talk is cheap when the final result is a wounding 17-50. Adding to the pain was a further round of casualties with Louis Ress-Zammit (toe), Tom Jordan (ribs) and Joe Jenkins (hamstring) all hobbling off, adding to the impression that it’s going to be a season that will test the management nous of Lam – and the depth of the Bristol squad – like no other. It’s a soap opera that will be well worth watching.
Montauban: We reported two weeks ago on a day from hell for the new Top 14 club, as they conceded 71 points away at Champions Cup holder Bordeaux and also had their “beautiful symbol” Pro D2 trophy stolen while on display at an agricultural show. The trophy is seemingly still on the missing list, despite police launching an investigation, and also missing is the Pro D2 champions’ defence. You would think after the concession of 11 tries on the road, a team would redouble its effort to ensure that embarrassment was a one-off. In the case of Montauban, however, that away-day humiliation struck again when they visited Clermont on Saturday. The extent of the damage on this occasion was even worse, with 84 points and 12 tries conceded, and the 300km journey home was surely a sombre affair. The thing is, Montauban do have top-flight rugby in them. They drew 22-all at home last weekend with Montpellier and they also pegged Lyon to just a seven-point win in mid-September. However, it’s clear from their 0-3 away record (they lost 24-47 at Stade on opening day), they have sacked off being defensively committed on their travels and will look to try and stay in the Top 14 on the back of their home form where that draw last week has them two point clear of Perpignan, who occupy the automatic relegation spot.