Tuesday 19 May 2015 23:06, UK
Dodgy refereeing , French figures, Manu Tuilagi and the awakening of a sleeping giant in rugby all feature in Rupert Cox's Off Load...
On May 17, 1924 at the Stade Yves du Manoir in Paris - now home to Top 14 club Racing Metro - a USA 15-a-side rugby team met hosts France in the Gold medal rugby match of the Olympic Games.
According to reports, it was a feisty final. French fans threw bottles and rocks onto the pitch after one of their players was carried off on a stretcher. An American substitute was knocked unconscious after being hit in the face with a walking stick and after the USA won the match the Star Spangled Banner was drowned out by boos and jeers from the angry French crowd.
Ninety one years later, almost to the day, the USA Sevens team made their own history. Fortunately there was no near-riot after their 45-22 win over Australia in the London Sevens Cup final, but the achievement of this American Eagle’s side is no less significant.
For far too long the USA have been the 'sleeping giant’ of world rugby and their tournament win at Twickenham could be the boost the sport needs in America. After finishing 13th out of 15 core nations on the previous world series the USA Eagles, under new head coach Mike Friday, have ended up sixth overall and won a maiden Cup Final.
The USA and Canada will now go head to head for an Olympic place at the North American qualification tournament in North Carolina next month. On this form the Stars and Stripes will be heading to Rio.
The other big stories coming out of the London Sevens were Fiji winning a first overall Series title in nine years and England securing an Olympic place on behalf of Team GB.
Fiji have never won an Olympic medal of any colour but if they can keep the likes of Jerry Tuwai and Semi Kunatani together – have to be favourites to take gold next year. After a slow start to the season England finished strongly knocking Australia out of that coveted fourth spot, so let’s hope the Team GB Sevens programme gets organised quickly and the best rugby players in Britain are given a chance to play in an Olympic games.
Calculators at the ready! Just one round left to go before the Top14 Barrages and it’s still wide open at either end of the table. Who plays who on the final day is all-important for both the play-off and relegation fights. Top placed Toulon host the surprisingly fifth-placed Oyonnax while Clermont, behind the champions on points difference only, travel to Montpellier.
Third-place Stade Francais could break into the top two depending on what they get out of their game at Brive, who in turn are in a desperate fight for survival - just one point clear of Bayonne in the relegation zone. Toulouse, currently in fourth place, welcome sixth-place Bordeaux-Begles to the Stade Ernest Wallon, while seventh-place Racing Metro host Castres, who are now mathematically safe.
Lyon are already down but who joins them could be any one of Bayonne, Brive or even Grenoble. Glad we cleared that up.
The west Ireland wind has given a big advantage to Glasgow and Munster in the Guinness PRO12. Despite leading 24-0 at half time, the Ospreys turned into a second half gale in Galway and were unable to get the maximum against Connacht.
So the semi-finals will be played in Limerick and Glasgow. Munster booked home ground advantage after racking up a half-century against the Dragons in Cork and the Warriors will return to Scotstoun Stadium to host Ulster for the second week running after Gregor Townsend’s team picked up a bonus-point win against the Irish province. Two tries for Finn Russell and a brilliant solo effort from Stuart Hogg did the damage before Richie Vernon put the icing on the cake with seven minutes to go.
The two best teams in Super Rugby went head-to-head in Wellington and it took a two-try contribution from Ma’a Nonu - and more than a little help from the officials (see Bouquet) for the Hurricanes to beat the Chiefs.
The Canes are now 17 points clear of the next best conference leader – the Bulls – and they have now secured, at the very least, a top six play-off spot. A home semi-final is a banker bet. Nonu became the leading try scorer of any active Super Rugby player with his double and young flanker Ardie Savea did his All Black World Cup chances no harm at all with another standout game, including the Hurricanes’ third try.
Elsewhere, the Highlanders remained in the top six with a seven-try bashing of the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein, while the Brumbies kept ahead of the Waratahs with a bonus-point win over the Lions in Johannesburg. Four weeks to go until the Super Rugby post-season.
Manu Tuilagi. Perhaps the most surprising thing about Tuilagi’s assault conviction and resulting World Cup ban is that no-one from the Leicester Mercury or any other local media outlet picked up on the story before it was seamlessly released by the RFU on Friday afternoon. England cricket could well have done with the distraction of a nice juicy rugby scandal to divert attention from the whole KP saga.
Sanzar game-manager Lyndon Bray. Unafraid to criticise his own, the Super Rugby referees boss has come down hard after some shocking officiating in Round 14.
Australian whistler Rohan Hoffman and TMO George Ayoub have both been punished after some very strange decision making in the Waratahs v Sharks game in Sydney. Bray has also dumped Kiwi TMO Vinny Munro after he denied the Chiefs what would have been a match-winning try against the Hurricanes.
I only wish the Top 14 would hire bruiser Bray. Some of the refereeing in French rugby this season has defied belief.
