The latest rugby news and headlines from Wales and beyond
Here are your rugby morning headlines for Wednesday, May 27.
Lions star dealt injury blow on England duty
England and Lions scrum-half Alex Mitchell is set to miss the rest of the season with a hamstring injury.
Northampton’s hopes of lifting the Prem have been dealt a blow after Mitchell picked up an injury last week during an England alignment camp, with the scrum-half set to miss the rest of the domestic season – even if Saints reach the final at Twickenham on June 20.
Mitchell is now a doubt for England’s Nations Championship campaign in July.
The Prem final takes place just two weeks before England face back-to-back world champions South Africa in Johannesburg, with fixtures against Fiji in Liverpool and Argentina in Buenos Aires completing the summer tour.
“He’s pulled it, and he’s done a decent job on it. Matt Lee (Saints head of medical) sent me the picture, so it’s going to be a push to get him any rugby for us for the rest of the season. It is frustrating,” said Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson.
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“And every DoR would say that. Steve (Borthwick) would say that. Steve would say that when people get injured on club time, they’re about to go and play in internationals. It’s the nature of the beast.
“These things happen. My question would be, what can we learn from it, and how can we make sure we mitigate the risks of it happening again.”
Mitchell was the only player on last year’s Lions tour to be named in every matchday squad.
On whether questions needed to be asked about why England held an alignment camp so late in the season, Dowson added: “That’s something that I think we need to discuss as a group of directors.
“It would be good to have some conversations around that. But also with England, and, say, how do we mitigate the risk?
“What does the training look like? Did he get the training that he wanted? Where are the metrics? I don’t think it was a ludicrous session in terms of volume.
“I think we’ve got to be careful of saying this session was hard or this session wasn’t hard. It’s unfortunate, and maybe there are things we can do better, but I’m not going to start casting aspersions until I’ve spoken to Phil Morrow and the rest of their medical team.”
Uncapped Wales star singled out by opponents
The Stormers have identified uncapped Cardiff back-row Dan Thomas as the Arms Park club’s dangerman they bid to get revenge this weekend.
The Blue and Blacks recently defeated the South African side in the final round of the United Rugby Championship regular season to earn a place in the play-offs.
That victory set up a quarter-final against the Stormers – albeit in Cape Town rather than the Welsh capital.
Ahead of the rematch, Stormers prop Neethling Fouche noted how Thomas had been superb in Cardiff’s win at the Arms Park.
“They got the better of us,” he said. “Dan Thomas got the better of us and their captain also got one or two steals.
“We’ve looked at that. As players, you have certain roles going into a breakdown and you have to execute those roles.
“They were quite street smart around when to go and when not to go, so we’ll have to be ready for that this weekend and know there’s going to be a breakdown battle.”
Ex-England star launches scathing attack on Test coach
Former England international Stuart Barnes has launched a scathing attack on Fabien Galthié, accusing the French national coach of squandering a golden generation of talent.
Despite French sides claiming six consecutive Champions Cup titles, Barnes believes France have underachieved on the Test stage under Galthie – even though they have won the last two Six Nations.
Reviewing the European finals in The Times, Barnes wrote: “Now for the inexplicable. France, as a Test team, cannot match their clubs.
“There are influential overseas players – Big Billy (Vunipola) stood out for Montpellier, as Adam Coleman, the Australian lock, did for Bordeaux – but the basis of the Champions and Challenge Cup double is homegrown talent.
“The repeat champions haven’t lost a game in Europe for two seasons, despite this season’s run-in of Toulouse, Bath and Leinster – the three respective European league champions. In stark comparison, France may have won the past two Six Nations but in an era when England have lost their way outside the pick-and-drive modus operandi and Ireland were rebuilding through the course of the tournament, that is simply not good enough.
“France has won the past six Champions Cups. The sixth in the same season as France conceded 50 points to Scotland.
“I defy anyone to even fantasise of Scotland scoring the same margin against Europe’s finest club team, the team with three French starters who held an Ireland XV to 19 points and beat them with a display that cruised through the second half in third gear.”
Barnes then went straight for the jugular, taking Galthié to task for overlooking some of the talent that has made Bordeaux such a formidable force.
“Fabien Galthié is failing France,” he continued. “They won their last Grand Slam in 2022 but fell at the quarter-final stage of their own World Cup.
“The Toulouse players perform better for Toulouse. Bordeaux’s contingent of French starters are two short with the crazy omissions of the majestic Cameron Woki and that rugby genius, Damian Penaud. Louis Bielle-Biarrey apart, every Bordeaux player is a lesser man when disguised as Les Bleus.
“Galthié is guilty of wasting a few years of Matthieu Jalibert; quite possibly he has squandered, or is close to squandering, a golden generation of French talent.
“Watching 20-year-old flankers tearing around the field, Friday and Saturday, and Yoram Moefana being twice the player for Bordeaux as he is for France makes you realise this country should be the biggest threat to a South African hat-trick of World Cups. Australia, 2027, must surely be the last chance for Galthié.”
Top-seeded Glasgow in confident mood for Connacht clash
By Anthony Brown, Press Association
Gregor Hiddleston declared Glasgow “in a good place” ahead of Friday’s visit from Connacht after they recovered from a chastening April to secure the top seeding for the United Rugby Championship play-offs.
Warriors looked to be faltering at the crucial point of the campaign after a demoralising Champions League quarter-final defeat at home to Toulon was followed by heavy losses in South Africa against Lions and Stormers.
But Franco Smith’s side regrouped to win their last two regulation league matches and secure home advantage throughout the play-offs.
“The Toulon game really stung us, but we took the learnings from that,” said hooker Hiddleston. “Obviously, going out to Ulster and getting a win away from home, that was massive.
“We’d not won there in a few years. And we’re the top-seeded team in the URC right now. Finishing first in the table is massive so I would say we’re in a good place.”
With Glasgow likely to play any semi-final or final at Murrayfield, Friday’s match will represent a Scotstoun farewell for several players, including Huw Jones, Adam Hastings, Jamie Bhatti, Johnny Matthews, Sione Vailanu and Jack Dempsey.
“Obviously it’s going to be sad seeing so many boys go,” said Hiddleston. “It’s a big group of boys that have done massive things for the club so we’re obviously going to be disappointed seeing them go.”
Hiddleston, 24, is eager to strengthen his bid for a Scotland call-up for this summer’s Nations Championship fixtures against Argentina, South Africa and Fiji.
“I’ve not booked any holidays yet, but we’ll just see what happens,” he said. “It’d be a great opportunity and if it came, I’d definitely grab it with both hands.”
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