Ospreys and Edinburgh book places in Challenge Cup last eight
Ospreys roared into the quarter-finals of the European Challenge Cup with a gritty 23-15 victory over Sale Sharks.
Tries from Morgan Morris, Keelan Giles and Reuben Morgan-Williams were enough to send the hosts through, with Owen Williams kicking a conversion and two penalties.
Sale responded with second-half tries by Tom O’Flaherty and Ben Curry as well as the boot of Robert du Preez, who landed a conversion and a penalty.
But Ospreys held on to book a last-eight showdown with Gloucester at Kingsholm on Friday.
Edinburgh joined them in the quarter-finals with a 33-15 win against Bayonne at Murrayfield.
The French side struck first through Tom Spring’s converted try before Edinburgh hit back when Hamish Watson crossed the whitewash to leave the hosts trailing by two at half-time.
Matt Currie edged Edinburgh ahead but Spring hit back with another to keep Bayonne in the tie.
But Ben Vellacott crossed twice and a further try from Duhan van der Merwe completed the scoring for the Scots, who will play Sharks or Zebre next.
ASM Clermont Auvergne held off a fightback from the Cheetahs to win 27-22.
Tries from Joris Jurand, Bautista Delguy, Etienne Fourcade and Baptiste Jauneau put the hosts 27-3 up but a Sibabalo Qoma brace and a solo effort from Tapiwa Mafura set up a tense finish.
Benetton are also through after beating the Lions 27-17 in Treviso.
Thomas Gallo, Onisi Ratave and Bautista Bernasconi scored the tries, all of which were converted by Jacob Umaga.
Latest Comments
was I right to infer that you assumed a 1:1 correspondence between points and places?
If so why were you so evasive about admitting that?
I've typed out a reply regarding the pool format but I won't send it if you don't answer my question.
Go to commentsFoster should never have been appointed, and I never liked him as a coach, but the hysteria over his coaching and Sam Cane as a player was grounded in prejudice rather than fact.
The New Zealand Rugby public were blinded by their dislike of Foster to the point of idiocy.
Anything the All Blacks did that was good was attributed to Ryan and Schmidt and Fozzie had nothing to do with it.
Any losses were solely blamed on Foster and Cane.
Foster did develop new talent and kept all the main trophies except the World Cup.
His successor kept the core of his team as well as picking Cane despite him leaving for overseas because he saw the irreplaceable value in him.
Razor will take the ABs to the next level, I have full confidence in that.
He should have been appointed in 2020.
But he wasn’t. And the guy who was has never been treated fairly.