Bath’s second-half revival carries them past Bristol and into Premiership final

  • Bath 34-20 Bristol

  • Nerveless Russell converts four second-half tries

Bath’s oval-ball custodians have spent years trying – and failing – to construct a team to match the striking nature of their home city. Now, finally, they are within 80 minutes of claiming their first domestic league title since 1995-96 after a storming second-half revival put paid to a gallant Bristol side who had led by seven points at half-time.

If the outcome was still theoretically up in the air at the interval there was not a shred of doubt by the hour mark, Bath launching a blistering fusillade that yielded four converted tries without reply and underlined their status as short-priced favourites to lift the Premiership trophy at Twickenham next Saturday. “This team is tough to beat,” confirmed their head coach, Johann van Graan. “Bristol asked some questions but effort-wise I couldn’t be prouder. That is what it takes to get to Twickenham.”

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Bath 34-20 Bristol: Premiership rugby union semi-final – as it happened

Three second-half tries at the Rec took the home side to the final

7 mins. Alfie Barbeary revs up for one of his trademark boom-boom carries from the drop-out return, but he slips over as he and Genge are about to come together with such force it could’ve created a singularity that would swallow the entire west country. Instead it’s a knock-on, which is probably best for all concerned.

4 mins. From the lineout the Bath forwards set to work after a big carry by Ted Hill moves them to within ten metres. The try looks inevitable but Bristol do a great job to get under the ball and hold it up over the line which will allow the Bears to kick a long drop-kick from under the posts to relieve the early pressure.

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Hull KR are out of the darkness and ready to end 40-year wait in Challenge Cup final

Close calls in the past couple of years point to a team on the up and they are favourites to beat Warrington

For a while around the 80s, it must have felt like the good times were never going to end for Hull KR: Challenge Cup winners in 1980; winners of the Premiership in 1981 and 1984; champions of England in 1979 and again in 1984 and 1985.

Legends such as Roger Millward, Gavin Miller and George Fairbairn – revered on one side of Hull to this day – at the heartbeat of one of the finest sides in history.

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‘I’ve got nothing to prove’: George Ford on inspiring Sale and why 99 England caps are not enough

The tactically brilliant fly-half will attempt to overcome his former club Leicester in Saturday’s Premiership semi-final

Should Leicester fail to reach this year’s Premiership final they will have been floored by a familiar foe. George Ford spent two spells totalling nine years at Welford Road and made his Tigers first-team debut as a 16-year-old. It says everything about his enduring desire and dedication that, aged 32 and clad in the blue of Sale Sharks, his tactical decision-making grows sharper by the year.

Whether he is kicking teams to death or slicing them apart with his deft short passing game, the GF menu of fly-half skills remains rich and varied. His fellow squad members all regard him as a coach in waiting, so good is he at steering them around the field and managing pressure situations. When Michael Cheika, Leicester’s head coach, expressed bafflement at Ford’s omission from this year’s British and Irish Lions squad, he was by no means alone.

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Warrington’s Paul Vaughan: ‘We didn’t deliver last year so have to take this opportunity’

Vaughan left the NRL in disgrace but he has been a guiding light on Warrington’s road to two Challenge Cup finals

By No Helmets Required

Paul Vaughan arrived in England two years ago as damaged goods, an NRL cartoon baddie after he had been sacked by the Dragons for breaking Covid rules and fallen out with Canterbury. If he wins the Challenge Cup at Wembley on Saturday, he will be a Warrington superhero.

The sight of the giant prop – who looks as if he squeezes into a jersey two sizes too small and shorts borrowed from Kylie Minogue – running in from the back fence to get Warrington out of trouble, or smashing his way through a defensive line before delicately offloading with delightful subtlety, is hard to forget.

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Warrington pin hopes on Marc Sneyd to defy odds and inflict more final woe on Hull KR

The form book suggests Hull KR are firm favourites in the Challenge Cup final but the Wolves’ scrum-half could be their nemesis

Were you to have the briefest glance at the Super League table and the recent form of the Challenge Cup finalists, you would think the Wembley meeting of Hull KR and Warrington Wolves is going only one way.

Rovers have lost only once all year and are the standout side. Warrington, in contrast, sit eighth and to suggest they have been inconsistent under Sam Burgess would be putting it mildly. But a couple of things could redress the balance and make this an intriguing final.

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Bristol tap into class divide in bid to shock ‘posh’ rivals and title favourites Bath

Unsung inside centre James Williams typifies Bears’ graft in emotional build-up to Friday’s Premiership semi-final against their bitter foes

When the Rugby Football Union launched its rebrand of the Championship last month, Henry Pollock was put front and centre, made the poster boy by virtue of his five loan appearances for Bedford Blues. You can hardly blame the union for trying to capitalise on the hype but there are better examples of players who epitomise the strengths of the second tier.

None more so than James Williams, Bristol’s inside-centre who at 28 has taken the road less travelled to the Premiership semi-finals. Williams began his career at Birmingham Moseley in National League One before moving to Hartpury. He joined Worcester in 2018 but managed just one appearance, signed with Sale a year later and appeared just three times and when Covid hit he was released by the Sharks.

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‘A great privilege’: Mal Meninga locked in as Perth Bears’ inaugural NRL coach

  • Former Origin coach beats Sam Burgess and Brad Arthur to role

  • Kangaroos coach steps down from national team job

The Perth Bears hope the presence of Mal Meninga will give the NRL’s 18th team immediate cut-through in an AFL-dominated city after unveiling the Immortal as the head coach of the start-up franchise.

At a press conference in Sydney on Friday, Meninga was locked in as the Bears’ inaugural coach on a three-year deal. It is his first foray into club coaching in more than 25 years.

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England set to face Fiji, South Africa and Argentina in inaugural Nations Championship matches

  • First three games ‘away’ but Fiji want to play in Europe

  • England would host Australia, NZ and Japan in November

England are set to begin their inaugural Nations Championship campaign in just over a year’s time by playing Fiji – potentially in Europe – as well as away matches against the back-to-back world champions South Africa and Argentina, the Guardian understands.

The 12-team competition, which will be held every two years and replaces traditional tours, is set to break new ground next year in the northern hemisphere summer and while the fixture list is yet to be announced, the Guardian has learned current proposals put England in line to face the Springboks in South Africa for the first time since 2018. A return to Argentina – where Steve Borthwick’s side will face two Tests this summer – is also on the cards.

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The Breakdown | The Premiership team of the 2024-25 season

Gloucester’s silky backs and Bath’s fearsome forwards feature heavily among our best players of the year

Santiago Carreras (Gloucester) Plenty of quality contenders – Sale’s Joe Carpenter, Northampton’s George Furbank and Bristol’s Rich Lane – and I was also tempted to hand Alex Goode a well-deserved retirement gift. But Carreras has been an absolute joy to watch and central to Gloucester’s attacking reinvention. For a snapshot check out the try he helped to start and then finished against Sale at Kingsholm in January. The prospect of him linking up with Finn Russell at Bath next season is mouthwatering.

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Waratahs’ Super Rugby finals hopes crushed in ugly thrashing by Blues

  • Blues 46-6 Waratahs

  • NSW finals hopes crushed in seven-try drubbing

The NSW Waratahs’ season of promise has ended in despair with an ugly, record-breaking 46-6 Super Rugby Pacific loss to the Blues in Auckland.

The Waratahs needed to defeat the defending champions for the first time at Eden Park in 16 years to keep their finals hopes alive. Instead, Dan McKellar’s depleted side copped a seven-tries-to-nil drubbing at New Zealand rugby’s burial ground on Saturday.

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Bristol feel playoff pressure as Premiership finale promises tries

Free-scoring Bears face Harlequins knowing a slip-up could open the door for local rivals Gloucester

There will be tries. That is hardly a revolutionary prediction in a sport that has long since rained down on us the 21st century’s manna of entertainment at all costs, but even by those standards this weekend’s last round of the Premiership promises bounty.

The science of prediction is at best hit and miss, but one blind alley all too many “experts” get lost down is consideration of tactics, gameplans and the like, when all that really matters is a team’s motivation. Purity of desire is a special ingredient in a side’s prospects for any individual match. This weekend we have five matches, and they all might be summarised as a team with something to play for versus a team with nothing.

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A London club winning Super League? That’s the vision for the new Broncos

London Broncos are penniless and on their way to the third tier but the man who ran Leeds Rhinos has a rescue plan

By No Helmets Required

When the most successful rugby league administrator in the country takes over one of its biggest underachievers and promptly gets the backing of major players in the Australian sports market, it’s worth listening to his plans. Last week Gary Hetherington, who spent 29 years as chief executive of Leeds Rhinos, invited politicians, coaches, fans and players to the Australian High Commission to hear what he has in store for London Broncos. And he wants them all on board.

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