Here are your rugby morning headlines for Monday, May 26.
Here are your rugby morning headlines for Monday, May 26.
Pollock will have target on back on Lions tour – Dawson
Former England scrum-half Matt Dawson has warned that there is now a target on Henry Pollock’s back ahead of the Lions tour, following his exploits in Cardiff. The Northampton Saints had two tries disallowed in the 28-20 Champions Cup final defeat to Bordeaux-Begles at the Principality Stadium, but ended up being involved in an on-field bust-up after the final whistle.
Clearly, the 20-year-old – who was called up by Andy Farrell to tour with the British and Irish Lions earlier this month – got under the skins of the French outfit. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.
After the match, Bordeaux continued to mock the England back-row.
However, former Lion Dawson believes Pollock has now put a target on his back.
“Imagine if you’re not a Northampton fan or an England fan, you think he is an absolute whatever you want to say at the end of that with asterisks,” he said from Cardiff on BBC Radio 5 Live.
“You will, because you’re like who do you think you are. There was conversations and stories coming out, that Luco or someone was sending pictures of Henry Pollock around to their own teammates to say ‘this is the guy we need to (target)’.
“He is going to be a marked man, we can’t lose sight of that, it’s not going to go change. Could you imagine what the Aussies and the Aussie press, the headlines in the papers, all the rest of it.
“I’m hoping in a weird kind of way, very quickly he’s realised that rugby’s pretty difficult and its not just about scoring two tries on my debut and running around people in the semi-finals.”
Bordeaux welcomed by 40,000 fans
Bordeaux-Begles’ Champions Cup-winning heroes were welcomed home by 40,000 fans on Sunday.
The players were welcomed by Mayor Pierre Hurmic before a parade through the city and a celebration on the Place des Quinconces.
A double-decker bus guided the champions around the French city upon their return from Cardiff, where they had sealed their first European title.
Their coach, Yannick Bru, thanked those who had made the trip to the Welsh capital, remarking: “We heard you more than the English.”
The French club, who have mocked Northampton Saints back-row Henry Pollock during their celebrations and on the flight back to France, couldn’t resist another dig at the England international.
On the bus, back-row Tevita Tatafu held up a sign that read: “Pollock Calma! Calma!”
Alex Mitchell confident English clubs can stop France’s Champions Cup dominance
By Andrew Baldock, PA Rugby Union Correspondent
Alex Mitchell believes Northampton have shown it is possible for English clubs to compete in the Champions Cup following their run to this season’s final.
French teams continued their stranglehold on the competition, with Bordeaux-Begles’ 28-20 victory over Northampton in Cardiff making it five successive years that a Top 14 side has won it.
Across the past 10 seasons, France have provided twice as many finalists as any other country, while Saracens and Exeter are the only English clubs to win the tournament since 2007.
Saints, though, led the way this term, beating Leinster, Bulls, Munster, Clermont Auvergne and Castres (twice) on route to the Principality Stadium.
“I think a lot of (Premiership) clubs can take a lot of confidence from it,” Northampton and England scrum-half Mitchell said.
“This competition has been tough for English clubs in the last few years in terms of budgets and what-not. It has been a struggle.
“But I think we’ve shown that, regardless of that, if you front-up playing against these best teams, these quality outfits, you can do a job.
“We showed that. We got to the final and we nearly won. It’s tough to take, but we can take a lot of credit from it.
“We have got a decent side and a lot of confidence in ourselves. That is what happened against Leinster (in the semi-finals) – we genuinely backed ourselves and had confidence that we could get a result, which we did.
“Regardless of all that (budgets and squad size), you need good coaching, which we’ve got, and the boys fronted-up.
“If we (English sides) do that and we are competitive about wanting to win, we can do good things.”
Despite losing backs George Furbank and James Ramm to injuries inside the first five minutes, Saints rallied and pushed this season’s dominant Champions Cup team to the limit.
They were level 20-20 at the interval in front of a 70,000 crowd, which was the largest Champions Cup final attendance for 13 years, before Bordeaux closed things out during a tense second period.
Mitchell’s Saints and England half-back partner Fin Smith added: “We are just a little team from a small town in England with a bunch of mates playing together.
“Bordeaux are a giant of European rugby with some absolute rock stars in their team and some unbelievable firepower.
“So, to have gone toe-to-toe with them for 80 minutes – or a large part of that – particularly with some of the adversity we had to face with injuries and yellow cards, is something we can look back on with pride.
“The main thing is to stay together as a group, because it is easy to splinter when you have had a knock like this. I need to dust myself off and try to switch off from that result.
“Ultimately, until you play in another big final and get the result you want, it is always going to sting and sit there in the back of your mind. That is just the way it is.”
