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Dan Biggar's Toulon brush aside Bath, mixed results for Welsh regions
By PA
Dan Biggar impressed for Toulon as they handed Bath a heavy defeat in the European Challenge Cup.
Biggar, who joined the French side at the beginning of November, kicked a penalty and three conversions and was involved in two of Toulon’s tries in a 29-7 victory.
Jiuta Wainiqolo, Maelan Rabut and Bruce Devaux crossed in the first half and Gervais Cordin in the second, with Tom Doughty finally getting Bath on the board after Baptiste Serin had been shown a yellow card.
Bath have now lost both their matches but Cardiff added their second big win of the competition, claiming a 47-10 victory at Newcastle.
The Welsh side secured the bonus point in the first half with tries from Josh Adams, Rhys Priestland, Owen Lane and Rhys Carre, with Adams adding a second in the second half along with a penalty try.
Priestland converted five of the tries while Newcastle’s only try came from Sam Stuart.
In Pool B, Dragons were pipped by Pau in a 27-21 defeat.
It was nip and tuck throughout, with Dragons going into the break one point ahead and keeping their noses in front thanks to two tries from Bradley Roberts.
But an Eoghan Barrett try saw Pau take the lead for the first time in the closing stages and Dragons were denied a late reply when Max Clark was adjudged not to have crossed the line.
Scarlets have two wins from two matches after an impressive 45-26 victory against the Cheetahs in Parma.
In a 10-try encounter, Scarlets made a strong start and led 38-7 at the break thanks to two tries from Steff Evans and one each from Ryan Conbeer, Johnny McNicholl and Sam Lousi.
Cheetahs responded well in the second half but Kemsley Mathias sealed Scarlets’ victory late on.
Benetton were thumping 45-7 winners over Bayonne, running in seven tries, with two each for Rhyno Smith, Lorenzo Cannone and Onisi Ratave.
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Latest Comments
Yes that’s what WR needs to look at. Football had the same problem with european powerhouses getting all the latin talent then you’re gaurenteed to get the odd late bloomer (21/22 etc, all the best footballers can play for the country much younger to get locked) star changing his allegiance.
They used youth rep selection for locking national elifibilty at one point etc. Then later only counted residency after the age of 18 (make clubs/nations like in this case wait even longer).
That’s what I’m talking about, not changing allegiance in rugby (were it can only be captured by the senior side), where it is still the senior side. Oh yeah, good point about CJ, so in most cases we probably want kids to be able to switch allegiance, were say someone like Lemoto could rep Tonga (if he wasn’t so good) but still play for Australia’s seniors, while in someone like Kite’s (the last aussie kid to go to France) case he’ll be French qualified via 5 years residency at the age of 21, so France to lock him up before Aussie even get a chance to select him. But if we use footballs regulations, who I’m suggesting WR need to get their a into g replicating, he would only start his 5 years once he turns 18 or whatever, meaning 23 yo is as soon as anyone can switch, and when if they’re good enough teams like NZ and Aus can select them (France don’t give a f, they select anybody just to lock them).
Go to commentsThe only benefit of the draft idea is league competitiveness. There would be absolutely no commercial value in a draft with rugby’s current interest levels.
I wonder what came first in america? I’m assuming it’s commercial aspect just built overtime and was a side effect essentially.
But the idea is not without merit as a goal. The first step towards being able to implement a draft being be creating it’s source of draftees. Where would you have the players come from? NFL uses college, and players of an age around 22 are generally able to step straight into the NFL. Baseball uses School and kids (obviously nowhere near pro level being 3/4 years younger) are sent to minor league clubs for a few years, the equivalent of the Super Rugby academies. I don’t think the latter is possible legally, and probably the most unethical and pointless, so do we create a University scene that builds on and up from the School scene? There is a lot of merit in that and it would tie in much better with our future partners in Japan and America.
Can we used the club scene and dispose of the Super Rugby academies? The benefit of this is that players have no association to their Super side, ie theyre not being drafted elshwere after spending time as a Blues or Chiefs player etc, it removes the negative of investing in a player just to benefit another club. The disadvantage of course is that now the players have nowhere near the quality of coaching and each countries U20s results will suffer (supposedly).
Or are we just doing something really dirty and making a rule that the only players under the age of 22 (that can sign a pro contract..) that a Super side can contract are those that come from the draft? Any player wanting to upgrade from an academy to full contract has to opt into the draft?
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