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Leinster seal home quarter-final, wins for Racing, Toulon and Castres
By Peter Thompson
Imperious Leinster sealed a home quarter-final with a 55-19 rout of Glasgow Warriors, while Racing 92, Toulon and Castres also claimed European Champions Cup wins on Sunday.
Three-time European champions Leinster became the first side to qualify for the last eight, running riot in the first half and scoring eight tries in a brutal demolition of the Warriors at the RDS Arena.
Leo Cullen's men were out of sight at half-time, Jordi Murphy, Isa Nacewa, Sean Cronin, Scott Fardy and Johnny Sexton going over, the Ireland fly-half also notching nine points from the tee before his bonus-point score.
Glasgow, bottom of Pool 3 and without a victory, were dominated at the set-piece and failed to cope with Leinster's cohesion and fluidity, captain Nacewa and Fardy helping themselves to doubles either side of a James Lowe five-pointer following the interval
Niko Matawalu scored a try in each half for a startled Glasgow side, Adam Ashe also dotting down as rampant Leinster made it five wins out of five.
Racing 92 reduced Munster's lead at the top of Pool 4 to just a point with 34-30 victory over the Pro14 side in the first European match at their plush new stadium.
Maxime Machenaud produced a magnificent kicking exhibition, scoring 19 points with the boot - including two late penalties in a gripping contest after one from Conor Murray had given Munster the lead six minutes from time.
Marc Andreu, Yannick Nyanga and Dimitri Szarzewski scored the Racing tries, with Jean Kleyn, Chris Farrell and Keith Earls crossing for Munster as they claimed a losing bonus point with a final pool match to come against Castres, who inflicted a 39-0 hammering on Leicester Tigers to stay in the hunt for a quarter-final spot.
Toulon took over at the summit in Pool 5, Josua Tuisova scoring two of five tries in a 36-0 thrashing of Benetton Treviso to set up a clash with the Scarlets next Saturday, when top spot will be on the line.
The victory was somewhat overshadowed by a late incident which saw Mathieu Bastareaud appear to direct a homophobic slur at Treviso's Sebastian Negri, which will be looked into by European Professional Club Rugby.
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Latest Comments
It's the same criticism of Dmac and Mo'unga as well. Sadly the way the game has been heading recently it's the only way to break down a defence, and a player of Lawrences nature would have a very limited chance at doing that because he's too one dimensional.
Noah Lolesio is your sort of player and that worked OK, but only because his team is far more creative than Englands for example. The highly organized Irish attack was also another that didn't require much from the 10, but that is now changing with Prendergast who is in that league mold like the most new age 10's.
So it is in fact your two which would require even more change to make the most of than Marcus Smith.
Go to commentsThe Stormers sloppiness show that they are a poorly coached side. Fortunately for them, so are the Sharks.
There are tougher opponents waiting and they will be punished heavily unless the coaching improves dramatically.
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