>!Australia suffered a lot of early injuries, and Wales took advantage of the disruption. A 20 minute red to Evans saw Australia hit back against a 14-man Wales. It ended up coming down to this play and ruling.!<
Full match highlights here
>!England looked to have this game won at 24-40, and 13 minutes left. However, Argentina scored two converted tries, and England had two men sent to the bin. As full-time approached, England got back to 14 men, with a scrum on Argentina's 5 yard line. All they needed to do was win the ball, and kick it off the pitch. Easy-peasy.!<
Schalk Brits was on the GBR podcast to talk about the Springbok selection for the weekend. The subject of Henry Pollock came up.
A number of media reports say only 21,000 tickets have been sold for this weekend's match between the Springboks and England. Ellis Park can hold 62,500.
SARU thought the England fixture would be the biggest draw outside the All Blacks series, and set ticket prices at the higher end, which may have priced some fans out. SARU is still hopeful the final total will be more like 80-90% of capacity.
The Guardian headline makes it seem like Qatar might be pulling out of sponsoring the Nations Championship. However, the body of the article suggests the Qatari government is concerned about the optics of pushing its name out right now, and may prefer to publicize its involvement in November. Initial paragraphs from the piece below.
>Qatar Airways has put its £80m sponsorship of rugby union’s new Nations Championship on hold due to the fallout from the war in the Middle East.
>The Guardian has learned that while the state-owned airline remains committed to the deal, contracts have not been signed, and the inaugural edition of the new competition will kick off next week without a title sponsor.
>Senior figures within the Qatari government are understood to have concluded that it would be inappropriate to announce a new global sponsorship at a time of continuing uncertainty in the region.
>It is understood the November leg of the new biennial tournament is now the most likely point at which Qatar Airways branding will appear in a partnership that is due to run until 2032, which will also give the Gulf nation hosting rights for two finals.
Sweet hands from Ryōto Nakamura, the Tokyo Sungoliath 22, in their match against the Wild Knights.
Nakamura, a former Test international, announced he will retire at the end of this season, so this play-off was his last appearance for the club.
Full YouTube highlights of today's JRLO play-off semi-final between Panasonic Wild Knights and Kubota Spears here
>!Panasonic scored a second try under the posts, which is usually converted. Kubota decided to challenge and got a chargedown. The final score was 24-26 to Kubota, so that missed conversion could have helped Panasonic take it to extra time. Japanese fans are comparing it to Kolbe's chargedown against France.!<
Martin Devlin interviewed Ben O'Keeffe (full YouTube video here). Asked about a Super Rugby try where he ruled no forward pass, O'Keeffe said he was happy with the decision, adding that there was no crowd reaction to the incident, which can be a factor in realtime.
Devlin picked up on that, and asked him what kind of influence it does have. In the short clip, O'Keeffe reaffirms that he makes his own decisions but it's revealing that the rhythms and swells of crowd noise obviously do affect referees.
This isn't a slight on O'Keeffe. It's great that he is willing to do these kinds of interviews, and he fields a lot of questions over the 45 minutes. Worth watching the whole thing.
Adam Ashley-Cooper, Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell speaking with Jordie Barrett about Leinster.
Full YouTube podcast here
>Steve Borthwick is considering resting Maro Itoje, the England captain, for the Nations Championship this summer.
>In the previous two seasons, Itoje has exceeded the Rugby Football Union’s own player welfare guidelines by playing in more than 30 matches each campaign. On Monday, Borthwick will announce an extended training squad for the summer matches away to South Africa, home to Fiji and away to Argentina. The three games involve 25,000 miles of travel across three continents.
>Borthwick is expected to rest a handful of players for one if not all of those fixtures and Telegraph Sport understands Itoje is one of them, even if he is included in the squad for the mini-camp which assembles on Monday.
>So far this season, the Saracens second row has played 20 games for club and country. He began the season with the lingering effects of a concussion that he suffered in the third Test of the Lions tour while he has also been dealing with a knee injury.
>Steve Borthwick is considering an immediate England call-up for Benhard Janse Van Rensburg after the RFU confirmed that the Bristol Bears centre will be eligible for Test selection during the Nations Championship.
>Borthwick, the England head coach, will name a training squad on Monday to begin preparations for a challenging run of summer Tests against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina.
>England need an injection of fresh impetus following the worst Six Nations campaign in their history, and Borthwick is under pressure to improve results and change the team’s style of play after four defeats in five games during the championship...
>...Initially, Janse Van Rensburg, who plays both centre positions, was not expected to be eligible for England until the autumn.
>But the RFU has clarified that the former South Africa Under-20 international will complete his residency qualification period on July 8, five years after arriving in England to join London Irish.
>Janse Van Rensburg’s first England experience could be in a non-cap game against a France XV in Vannes on June 19, providing Bristol Bears are not in the Gallagher Prem final the following day.
>The 29-year-old centre cannot play against the Springboks in Johannesburg on July 4, but he could make his England Test debut against Fiji at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium the following weekend.
The JRFU has suspended Eddie Jones from coaching duties for six weeks for making inappropriate remarks to officials during an U23 tour of Australia last month. The suspension lasts from the 24th of April until the 6th of June.
Jones will also be unable to take part in four matches, from the two Japan Select XV matches against Hong Kong, a Japan XV match against the Maori All Blacks, up to the Nations Championship match against Italy on the 4th of July.
Following the announcement of disciplinary measures, Jones issued an apology, saying his remarks caused offence, and he would reflect on his behaviour.
[Edited coaching ban date to end on the 6th of June, not 6th of May]
David Walsh, chief sports writer with The Sunday Times, went to Christchurch to talk with Holly Parkes, girlfriend to rugby player Shane Christie, who died last year. The full interview on YouTube is here.
Christie, and his friend Billy Guyton, were the first two New Zealand rugby players to be officially diagnosed with CTE. In the clip, Parkes explains why she thinks the two men registered to be tested for CTE after their deaths.
In the rest of the interview, she describes what it was like watching Christie decline, and how little help she feels he and Guyton received. She says, in ten years time, we'll either thank Christie and Guyton for drawing attention to the issue, or else be dealing with problems, because we turned a blind eye.