Who’s hot and who’s not: Black Lion’s historical win, Andy Farrell’s new Ireland deal and the Eddie Jones saga

Adam Kyriacou
Who's hot and who's not image 18 December 2023.jpg

Black Lion players celebrate their Challenge Cup win over Scarlets and newly appointed Japan head coach Eddie Jones.

It’s time for our Monday wrap of who has their name in lights and who is making the headlines for all the wrong reasons after the weekend.

THEY’RE ON FIRE

History for Black Lion: What a special moment it was on Friday night when Georgian outfit Black Lion claimed their first Challenge Cup win at the expense of Scarlets. They had pushed Gloucester very close in Round One, so the warning signs were there for the Welsh team of a potential upset at Parc y Scarlets. So it proved as Black Lion won comfortably 23-7 in a historic result that does so much good for the game.

Courtney Lawes and Saints: Franklin’s Gardens was buzzing on Friday evening as Northampton produced a stellar performance, led by their brilliant blindside flanker Lawes, to edge Top 14 giants Toulon 22-19. The veteran back-rower has announced his retirement from Test rugby but is putting in the kind of shifts that players usually pull out at this time of year to convince the international selectors to call them up. Perhaps Lawes is looking to add another zero to his contract, with his current deal expiring at the end of the season, or maybe he is just enjoying his rugby with less pressure. Either way, it is working wonders for him and his club, as he was simply outstanding against Toulon.

Ireland lock in Andy Farrell: Ireland fans will be thrilled to have read the news that Farrell has signed a new deal to lead the team until the end of the 2027 Rugby World Cup. While it was a disappointing end to 2023 in France, no one can take away the exceptional work that Farrell and his coaching team and squad has done in recent years so it was highly unlikely the Irish Rugby Football Union would look for a fresh set of hands moving forward. Now the objective is to build on the foundations laid as Farrell gets a second shot at World Cup glory.

Finn Russell and in-form Bath: The Scottish playmaker turned on the style once again with a superb all-round performance for Bath in their 39-32 triumph over Cardiff in their Champions Cup encounter at the Arms Park on Saturday. As usual, the 31-year-old proved a handful to defenders, and he showed his class with his attacking quality in the build-up to Ollie Lawrence’s try. With Russell calling the shots in the backline, Bath have improved in leaps and bounds, and they have made a statement of intent in the Champions Cup, where they have a full house of 10 points – after back-to-back bonus-point wins over Ulster and Cardiff – and are sitting pretty, alongside Toulouse, atop Pool Two.

Another gong for Ardie Savea: The All Blacks superstar’s incredible campaign got even better last week when he walked off with New Zealand Rugby’s Kelvin R Tremain Player of the Year award. It is the second time that the 30-year-old has received the award – after also winning it in 2019 – and he was also named the All Blacks Player of the Year for the third year in a row. That caps an outstanding season for the Hurricanes loose forward, who was crowned as World Rugby Player of the Year last month. How is he going to top this year in 2024?

COLD AS ICE!

Eddie, come on, mate: So there we have it, the worst kept secret, and pedalling of a story refuting claims that wheels were in motion of a move back to Japan has finally come to a predictable end. Eddie Jones is now back in the Brave Blossoms hot-seat but not without a painful press conference announcing his return. Australian journalist Tom Decent travelled to the welcoming presser and made it a toe-curling affair as Jones and the Japan Rugby Football Union chairman had to bat back tough questions to Decent. Has Jones been “loose with the truth”?

Premiership exodus: The increase in Premiership budgets for next season has seemingly not stopped the exodus of talent leaving English shores as some of the league’s top players head abroad. In the week that young England wing Henry Arundell confirmed that he would not be returning to the Premiership, Leicester Tigers announced Jasper Wiese’s impending departure, and reports suggest that Jonny Gray will also be packing his bags for Bordeaux-Begles. All this while Lewis Ludlam and Kyle Sinckler’s futures are still up in the air, along with Louis Rees-Zammit’s and reports from Ireland suggest that Bath have missed out on RG Snyman. While Jamie George and Maro Itoje have seemingly signed new deals to remain in the league, it does feel like more bigger names are leaving than staying in worrying times for the competition.

Second-string teams: Despite the prestige associated with the Champions Cup, there were some clubs who risked resting several of their first-choice players over the weekend, and they paid the price by finishing on the losing side in their respective matches. At Stade Chaban-Delmas, a much-changed Bristol side went into battle with Bordeaux-Begles and paid a heavy price as they suffered a 36-17 loss. Meanwhile, the Bulls also rang the changes for their clash with Lyon at Matmut Stadium de Gerland, and although they were more competitive than the Bears, the men from Pretoria were on the wrong end of a 29-28 result. Things could have been much different if they were at full strength.

Racing 92 lose again: Three in a row. It’s been a brutal run of fixtures for Stuart Lancaster’s Racing 92 in recent weeks, but the Parisian side will be incredibly disappointed by their start to the Champions Cup campaign. Before their opener against Harlequins, they fell to a 23-18 away loss to Clermont and looked set to steal a win over the Famous Quarters late on if it weren’t for a brutal Will Evans tackle. While both those defeats were by fine margins and could well have fallen in their favour, they were comprehensively put to the sword by Ulster in their second Champions Cup defeat on Saturday as the impressive Irish province claimed a crushing 31-15 victory at Kingspan Stadium.

Scarlets’ shock loss: Dwayne Peel admitted it was a “bitterly disappointed” changing room after that surprise defeat to Black Lion in the Challenge Cup. The result is the lowest moment for a side that has struggled thus far in the United Rugby Championship, so they would have hoped to have gained some confidence in Europe before facing Ospreys on Boxing Day. Instead, the knives are out, and pressure is mounting.

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