Here are your rugby morning headlines for Sunday, April 5.
Ospreys ‘hard done by’ after ‘harsh’ decision
The Ospreys were knocked out of Europe in contentious fashion on Saturday night, with Tom Shanklin and Stephen Ferris in agreement that their winning try against Ulster was wrongly ruled out.
Kieran Hardy’s late score was chalked off for a questionable forward pass by Owen Watkin in the build-up. Former internationals Shanklin and Ferris both criticised the decision by referee Anthony Woodthorpe.
“It was a really good break by Owen Watkin,” said former Wales centre Shanklin on Premier Sport. “They struggled for linebreaks all through the game.
“For me, it looks like it comes out flat. It doesn’t look like it’s forward. You’ve got to look at the hands. The Ospreys are really hard done by.
“I think that’s fine. I would say play on. The Ulster players say they felt they were lucky, which suggests they got away with one. But not to Anthony Woodthorpe.
“He gave that as a forward pass. They had one last week against Connacht last week.
“They were on the field for a long time after the match in a huddle. I bet they were just talking about feeling hard done by at the moment, but they’ve got to stick together to finish the season on a high.
“It’s such a big decision because it’s a knockout game.”
Former Ireland flanker Ferris added: “I thought Anthony Woodthorpe was brilliant all night until that decision. It was the TMO who came in and said to have a look.
“I thought it was very harsh on the Ospreys. These guys are running at nearly 10 metres per second.
“The physics of it can look like it’s going forward but it’s not actually a forward pass. It didn’t look like it came out of the hands forward.”
Referee’s call ‘tough to take’ for Cardiff
The Ospreys weren’t the only Welsh side ruing a late refereeing call after a European exit, with Cardiff also left frustrated following their defeat to Benetton in Italy.
Corneil van Zyl’s injury-hit side went down 38-35, with a last-gasp attempt to force their way over for a winning try falling short. However, on-field captain Ben Thomas was aggrieved that French referee Kevin Bralley didn’t even check with the TMO if either Rory Thornton or Lucas de la Rua had grounded the ball prior to Alex Mann’s knock-on.
In the end, Wales centre Thomas was penalised for continuing to argue his point with the official.
“It’s a tough one to take because there’s different rules and set-up between the URC and Europe,” said van Zyl.
“We understand but it feels like we could have had a look at the last one. You never know, it could have been a try and that would have won it.”
On the game itself, which saw Benetton score after nine seconds and lead 28-7 after 15 minutes, the South African added: “We didn’t start well. We were three, four tries behind in the first half, but we just kept getting slowly back to what we can do.
“It was a obviously loss of concentration and focus in the beginning and we got behind and then we had to fight our way back. I am massively proud of the boys getting back in and giving us a shot at the end of the game.
“At one stage it felt like it could go to 50 points but the boys got stuck in and clawed their way back. That was very pleasing and something we are very proud of.
“With the squad we had, with a few forwards out, we had to make different plans and fair play to the boys who moved position to slot in and fight for the jersey.”
‘World’s best’ saves Welshman’s blushes
By Duncan Bech, Press Association Rugby Union Correspondent
Thomas du Toit was hailed by head of rugby Johann van Graan as Bath’s matchwinner after his 40-minute cameo helped turn the tide in a 31-22 victory over Saracens.
Bath will take on Northampton in the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup on Friday after England backs Henry Arundell, Joe Cokanasiga, Ben Spencer and Ollie Lawrence ran in second-half tries at the Recreation Ground.
But crucial to the last-16 triumph was Du Toit stepping off the bench at half-time to rescue a scrum that had been providing Saracens with a stream of penalties.
Prior to that, Wales prop Rhys Carre had been causing compatriot Archie Griffin plenty of problems after the Wales tighthead was trusted to start just his fourth game for Bath this season.
With the South Africa tighthead prop on the field, Bath’s set-piece was revitalised as they began to win penalties that provided the platform for victory and he was named man of the match despite his limited time on the field.
“Thomas was fantastic in that second half,” said Van Graan of the 30-year-old Springbok who is joining the Sharks at the end of the season.
“If you look at his two years and nine months that he’s been at Bath, in my view he’s become one of the best players in the whole world of rugby and he showed it again against Saracens.
“He was absolutely phenomenal in the scrum, in defence and attack. That’s why you build a squad. You call on 20-50 guys on a weekend and all credit to the players.”
Ben Spencer’s 59th-minute try was a pivotal moment that propelled Bath 19-10 ahead, but the audacious length-of-the-field attack was only launched after Saracens’ Andy Onyeama-Christie had the ball dislodged from his hands as he neared the home line.
It was effectively a 14-point swing and Spencer said: “It was definitely a big turning point because they could have scored 15 seconds earlier.
“Our scramble defence really got us out of jail and that’s the kind of hunger that goes a long way in the group.
“Sometimes in knockout rugby you just need to get the job done and that’s what this feels like.
“We are under no illusions that we are going to have to be a lot better on Friday night to get through to the semi-finals.”
Saracens fought for everything and were only truly beaten when Arundell ran in his second try in the 80th minute, but Bath ultimately had too much class.
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said: “We’ll probably have some big moments in the game which we’ll regret.
“I know we’ve got a good team but we’ve been really Jekyll and Hyde all year. I can’t remember which one is the good one, but we were that one today! If we can keep doing that for the rest of the year then it’ll be something to build on.
“To go toe-to-toe shows our team what they’re capable of and of course we’re going to regret that we lost. But overall, I loved the way we competed against a really top side.”
Ford praised as he steers Sale into quarter-finals
By Press Association Sport Reporters
Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson hailed the talents of George Ford as Sharks booked a place in the quarter-finals of the Investec Champions Cup with a 26-17 victory over Harlequins.
The England fly-half’s goal-kicking proved the difference as Ford compiled a match-tally of 16 points to help Sale build up a 26-5 lead before an ill-disciplined Quins rallied, although the deficit was insurmountable.
Luke Cowan-Dickie scored both of Sale’s tries, with Ford converting both and adding four penalties.
Alex Dombrandt crossed twice for Harlequins and Chandler Cunningham-South scored another, with Marcus Smith adding a conversion
Sanderson said: “George is the best in the world in building scoreboard pressure and keeping the scoreboard ticking over.
“Quins didn’t fire many shots in the first half as our set-piece was dominant, but in the second half they played with free abandon and are a really dangerous team.
“They kept scrapping and with 10 minutes to go, the game could have gone either way as we were under the cosh losing Bevan (Rodd) and Luke (Cowan-Dickie) with injures and two others to HIA’s.”
It was not good news for Sale on the injury front as both Rodd and Cowan-Dickie seemed to suffer serious injuries.
Sanderson said: “Luke is a tough boy and he believes he’s broken his wrist or forearm whilst Bevan dislocated his shoulder but had it put back in on the field, but I think that’s probably their season over with the summer tour for England also in jeopardy.”
Sale now face a probable trip to Leinster in next week’s quarter finals, which Sanderson accepted was a tough ask.
He said: “We have an underdog mentality, us against the world, which we will take into the match.
“With their attacking prowess, you’ll need to score at least 30 points to give yourself a chance.”
Quins head coach Jason Gilmore was annoyed by his side’s performance as they failed to build on last week’s impressive victory over Bristol in Cardiff.
Gilmore said: “It’s hugely frustrating to lose when we score three tries to two and lose to goal-kicking.
“We missed two clear try-scoring opportunities in the first half which would have made a difference and I’m pleased that we showed some fight in the second half.
“We couldn’t get any territory or possession and it was a very messy game, especially at the breakdown.
“Our discipline was a problem. Some penalty awards were clear but some were hard to fathom, but we need to be better than that.”