Who’s hot and who’s not!

Colin Newboult
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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 over the past week.

THEY’RE ON FIRE!

Challenge Cup quarter-finals: What a line-up we have in store for the last eight in Europe’s second tier club competition. Clermont take on Northampton Saints, Worcester Warriors face Harlequins, Sale Sharks tackle Connacht while La Rochelle meet Bristol Bears in the quarters in what should be four entertaining tussles in late March. It’s hard to pick the title winner at the moment as any of these can go all the way.

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Edinburgh: When the pools were announced it’s safe to say that few would have backed Edinburgh to come out on top ahead of big-spending Top 14 duo Montpellier and Toulon and also Newcastle Falcons, who finished fourth in the Premiership last season. Well, it happened as Richard Cockerill’s men won four straight pool games in the run-in to sit pretty, seven points clear of Montpol. They suffered just one loss, away to Montpellier in Round 2 where they took a losing bonus-point in what has been an impressive campaign thus far. Now, how far can they go?

Tadhg Beirne: He was mentioned in last week’s piece for his efforts in Munster‘s strong team performance and the lock was at it again on Saturday against Exeter Chiefs. It was an absorbing game at Thomond Park that was incredibly physical as two sides known for their power went toe-to-toe and left nothing in the tank. Beirne though was a cut above, especially at the breakdown, as he rightly won the man-of-the-match award.

Maro Itoje: There were several locks who did the business over the weekend, with Iain Henderson also standing out in Ulster colours. Itoje though was outstanding for Saracens and looks to be hitting top form at just the right time for England with a Six Nations looming large. His carrying, handling skills and unpredictability in possession made him a nightmare for Glasgow to deal with at Allianz Park on Saturday.

Irish provinces: All four made it through to the quarter-finals of their respective European competitions. Leinster, Munster and Ulster qualified for the Champions Cup knockout stages while Connacht will face Sale Sharks in the last eight of the Challenge Cup. It is an impressive achievement and shows that Irish rugby is going from strength to strength. Their system is thriving and has created a superb amount of depth in the country, helping the national team become genuine challengers to New Zealand‘s crown as world number one.

COLD AS ICE!

Pat Lambie’s enforced retirement: It’s always awful to see a professional rugby player’s career cut short so when former Springbok Lambie announced his retirement from the game on Saturday, the tributes poured in. Aged just 28 and with his most recent years being interrupted because of concussion issues, Lambie has taken the wise step to walk away from rugby and we wish him all the best with his future plans. He was a superb operator for the Sharks in the prime of his career and also starred for South Africa. A classy fly-half or full-back.

Montpellier: While Edinburgh were good it’s safe to say that it would have been a quiet flight home for Montpellier after Friday’s defeat. Boasting a wage bill dwarfing their opponent’s and a side full of former international players – the majority Springboks – Vern Cotter’s team were hugely disappointing at Murrayfield as they suffered a 19-10 defeat. With qualification for the Champions Cup quarter-finals on the line one expected a great deal more in terms of quality from them. They lacked direction, ideas and can have no complaints after the loss.

Welsh regions: While Cardiff Blues and Scarlets have shown flashes of quality there will be no hiding from the fact that come the quarter-finals of both the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup there will be no Welsh representation. The aforementioned two teams finished third in their respective group in the top tier competition while Ospreys were second and the Dragons third in the second tier. Not good reading.

Premiership Champions Cup teams: Another season, another disappointing performance by the English sides in the Champions Cup, with Saracens the only club to qualify for the quarter-finals of Europe’s top-tier competition. It makes particularly grim reading when you consider that four of the other six outfits finished bottom of their group, while Bath were only kept off the basement by a fellow Premiership team. Many theories have been bandied around but the simple fact remains that those in England have not adapted well enough, whether it be to the referees’ interpretations on the continent or the balance that needs to be made between the domestic and European tournaments.

Timisoara and Enisei: A safety aspect quite rightly comes up when onlookers suggest reigniting an English domestic cup competition, akin to the old Powergen Cup, which was disbanded and replaced by the Anglo-Welsh Cup. It saw teams from all levels go head-to-head before the final took place at Twickenham. It could be carnage if top modern day players came up against lower league semi-professionals and potentially very dangerous, and there is surely a concern with Timisoara Saracens and Enisei-STM shipping over 100 points to Northampton Saints and Bristol respectively in the Challenge Cup. It doesn’t do them any good and it certainly doesn’t add to the tournament. Krasny Yar, Enisei’s compatriots, did beat Stade Francais in 2017 but the Russians have not been that competitive since.

Challenge Cup