It’s time for our Monday wrap of who has their name in lights and who is making headlines for all the wrong reasons after the weekend.
THEY’RE ON FIRE!
All Blacks: What an incredible half of attacking rugby the New Zealanders produced in the opening 40 minutes of their Bledisloe Cup rematch with the Wallabies. Having blown their old rivals away with a 33-5, five tries to one second-half show in Auckland, this swagger continued in Sydney where the interval scoreline read 36-7 after a swashbuckling six tries to one effort. Join these two halves together and that makes it a 69-12, 11 tries to two scoreline. Impressive.
For Dave Rennie, it’s proof that his style of play is very easy on the eye compared to some of the sludge from the Scott Robertson era, but there is an element that he fortuitously struck gold these past two Saturdays. It was only because of injuries to Richie Mo’unga and Ruben Love that the decision was taken to shift Damian McKenzie from full-back to No.10, but the forced alteration has been a lightning rod in firing up an All Blacks attack that has also benefited from the renaissance of Beaduen Barrett at full-back. The resulting flow in creativity has been a treat to watch and the appetite is truly whetted for the November leg of the Nations Championship.
Lions: Deciding to play their Champions Cup match on Saturday turned out to be an amazing way to honour the legacy of Hyron Andrews, their fallen forward who tragically passed away at the team hotel in La Rochelle the previous day. It was initially thought the South African team would understandably give the match a miss, but they decided the best way to commemorate their friend was to suit up and give it socks – and they did!
But for a 73rd-minute try getting cancelled for a forward pass, they would have been within range of a famous win coming down the finishing straight, but ultimately it was an evening when the 31-14 result didn’t matter – what was important was that they did the memory of Andrews proud with their indomitable on-pitch commitment and the warm rapport they struck up with the French fans whose respect for the South African visitors was touching. In a devastating time, the rugby family united.
Hyron Andrews tributes pour in: ‘He had the ability to pull people closer together’
Gloucester: Some might say that George Skivington should have been ushered out the Kingsholm exit gates ages ago, so underwhelming have been nearly all of his seasons in charge at the Prem club. Despite another wretched campaign in 2025/26, they were gifted a last-day ticket to qualify for the Champions Cup as Newcastle, a team even worse than them, were swatted to allow them pip Harlequins to an eighth-place finish.
That resulted in a glittering opening night fixture at home to reigning back-to-back champions and Gloucester were transformed. They would surely have been hammered a year ago but with superb bang-for-buck signings Jac Morgan and Dewi Lake now leading the charge, they were immense in a thrilling 36-all draw. It added further fuel to the hunch from the opening rounds of the Prem that they are finally the real deal under Skivington. That is a welcome development.
The Irish: Wins for the provinces in the opening three rounds of the United Rugby Championship were scarce. Leinster, Munster and Connacht all managed a single victory, with Ulster winless – a deflating three wins from 12. Whatever the reason behind this collective slow start, there was surely no way they would fudge the opening round in Europe and they didn’t.
Leinster were unplayable in the second half at Clermont, Connacht an attacking joy at home to Saracens while Munster revelled in rolling up their sleeves to squeeze out Racing on the 10th anniversary of Anthony Foley’s tragic passing. Even Ulster shook off their frustrations to notch a Challenge Cup victory at Zebre. It was a timely gear shift with Andy Farrell set to name on Wednesday the Ireland squad for the Nations Championship.
George Hendy: Northampton’s Sunday evening clash with Cardiff was hard gruel, a low-frills contest in sharp contrast to the attacking explosiveness of the Prem in recent weeks and several other Champions Cup opening round matches. Yes, the wet weather was a real spoilsport for ambition, but thankfully the largely slow-mo exchanges were lifted by the illuminating contribution of the 24-year-old winger. Stubborn Steve Borthwick might not yet be convinced the rookie is ready for a Test-level call-up – the England boss, of course, selects in mysterious ways.
However, Hendy is a player who gets club fans out of their seats and his latest highlights reel left people salivating once more. It began with an aerial catch and acceleration to create the opening try; then came the peach of a four-minute second-half window where his juggling before grasping the ball to score was astounding followed by an incredible recovery sprint to mow down, of all people, Josh Adams and bundle him into touch. This boy can certainly play. So too can Cheswill Jooste, the Bulls’ 20-year-old rookie who announced himself with a foot-shuffling hat-trick in the demolition of Stade Francais.
Montpellier: Few gave the mid-table French outfit any hope of causing a Saturday night Champions Cup shock at Bath, but the 2026 Challenge Cup winners deservedly defeated the 2025 Challenge Cup winners, and the outcome will generate a bit of heat under Johann van Graan. Bad enough conceding 71 points and 11 tries at Northampton in the league the previous week, but it was worse their failure to score after 25 minutes in their 14-32 loss.
French teams travelling in Europe are all too often accused of sacking the trip off and being beaten before the plane lands, but Montpellier’s Scottish contingent ensured a very different attitude. Adam Hastings certainly relished his head-to-head battle with Finn Russell, and Ali Price and Stuart Hogg were no slouches either in helping to secure the upset result.
Canada: No one can say they didn’t see the end coming for England women’s incredible unbeaten run. The 2025 Rugby World Cup winners were last month held to a draw by the Canadians at Exeter and then needed a last-gasp intercept try the following weekend at Twickenham to defeat New Zealand.
Those results suggested that the gap between them and the rest had closed since last year and now we have this: a 24-21 win for Canada in Toronto courtesy of a late try that surely can only be good for the game’s health. Yes, England will be hurt at surrendering their 41-match unbeaten run, but increased competitiveness is no bad thing for the sport in the long run and it will be intriguing how John Mitchell and his charges respond in next weekend’s Ottawa rematch.
Bonus-point change: European rugby officials have tweaked the pool stage format this year by adopting the French Top 14 bonus-point criteria. Whereas teams previously had to score four tries to secure a bonus point, they must now be three tries or more ahead on the try count to bank the bonus. It has already made a difference on the tables.
Under the old rule, 16 of the 24 teams would have been awarded a round one try bonus, but the new requirement ensured only six teams – Glasgow, Leinster, La Rochelle, Stormers, Bulls and Pau – benefited at the weekend with Gloucester, Bordeaux, Sale, Connacht, Saracens, Munster, Montpellier, Toulouse, Exeter and Northampton all missing out. We won’t know the significance of this change until the pools are completed in January, but the different dynamic has certainly piqued interest.
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COLD AS ICE!
Les Kiss: We always felt it was a big gamble for the Wallabies to appoint the defence specialist as their head coach. His time in charge at Ulster was forgettable, and it can’t be claimed that he was lighting up the Reds when he was chosen last year as successor to Joe Schmidt when the Kiwi exited in July. No one can deny there was a new man bounce when he arrived, but that introductory five-match unbeaten streak is now gone from sight in the rear-view mirror, and he is instead dealing with the reputational damage of back-to-back capitulations against the All Blacks.
Blown away in the second half in Auckland, he beefed up his bench by holding back a player as good as Angus Bell as a sub rather than as a starter. You could say that gambit worked: Australia ‘won’ the second half in Sydney 14-7 after ‘losing’ it 5-33 the previous weekend. The trouble was, of course, that by the time Bell was summoned from the pine, the Wallabies were wobbling, down by 29 points and already battered. It was a chastening ordeal for Kiss, igniting fears that he might not be the best man to be running the show.
Rodrigue Neti: The Toulouse prop’s 16th-minute tackle on Exeter’s Ross Vintcent was nasty. The Chiefs were attacking off first-phase lineout ball when Antoine Dupont went in low on the ball carrier before Neti’s illegal assist then brought play to a swift halt. It was a horrible shoulder-to-head collision, and it left the front-rower tarred as this weekend’s on-pitch villain.
However, there was an upright. Rather than fudge the decision by either brandishing a yellow card and sending the incident to the foul play bunker for red card review, or showing a 20-minute red card on the spot, referee Hollie Davidson instead gave a full, permanent red card because of the high degree of danger. Fair play to her. Nasty foul play should always be treated as nasty foul play, and the sport needs to start getting away from this southern hemisphere-influenced 20-minute red card nonsense, which allowed the sent-off player to eventually be replaced.
The Prem: After all the hollering about what an entertaining, attacking league the English Prem is, following its record-breaking opening three rounds, the defensive holes that escaped scrutiny left its teams exposed across the weekend’s Champions Cup. Not until the final match, won by a sluggish Northampton against Cardiff, did any of the eight Prem clubs in the top-tier European tournament record a W.
It must be acknowledged that Gloucester were excellent in their draw against Bordeaux and Exeter mightily unlucky in a loss at Toulouse, confirmed by Henry Slade’s last-gasp penalty miss, but there can be no hiding the fact that the English clubs collectively fare the poorest of the three leagues involved in the Champions Cup as the inter-league results read: Top 14 3.5-1.5 v Prem, Top 14 1-3 v URC, Prem 1-3 v URC. Usually, there would be an immediate chance to hit back the following weekend as rounds are played back-to-back, but the scheduling has changed this season and round two isn’t happening until December, leaving the English licking their wounds for eight weeks.
Totoa Auvaa: The Saracens academy rookie generated headlines for all the wrong reasons last June when a London nightclub altercation sparked a major English cricket controversy. He was only given a wrap on the knuckles by his rugby club on that occasion, but the 21-year-old has now had his contract terminated following another bust-up, this time following a street fight in St Albans.
It’s dour business seeing an up-and-coming player losing his deal because of repeated off-field misdemeanours, but problematic actions must have consequences and a club struggling for some positive PR cut its losses before its bad week got even worse with its on-pitch loss away to Connacht.