Shaun Goosen looks back at the weekend's rugby which saw Toulouse lose ground, Leicester march on and the URC badly affected by COVID.
Toulouse lose more ground to Bordeaux in Top 14
The weekend saw Clermont Auvergne (seventh) beat second-placed Toulouse 16-13 at the Stade Marcel Michelin while leaders Bordeaux-Begles saw off Biarritz 30-27 at the Stade Chaban-Delmas. Le Stade are now five points adrift of Bordeaux and will need a big comeback showing when third-placed Montpellier visit in the next round. The latter had their game against Toulon called off but sit just a point back of Toulouse having played the same amount of matches.
Elsewhere, Stade Francais beat Perpignan 27-17 at the Stade Jean-Bouin, Pau thumped Brive 43-20 at the Stade de Hameau, fourth-placed Castres pipped fifth-placed La Rochelle 31-30 at the Stade Pierre Fabre and Lyon won 37-35 over Racing at the Stade Gerland in a round that saw every home team victorious.
Wins for top three in the Prem
The Tigers slapped the Falcons 31-0 at Welford Road as they maintained their stranglehold hold on the Premiership standings, earning their 11th-domestic win on the bounce. At Franklin’s Gardens, second-placed Sarries saw off a strong Saints side 30-6 and Harlequins (third) won their fourth on the trot, beating Gloucester (fourth) 20-17 at the Kingsholm. Quins midfielder Andre Esterhuizen bagged his second consecutive Man of the Match award as the barnstorming former Shark continues to state his claim for a return to the Springbok fold.
In other results, Sale beat Wasps 26-18 at the AJ Bell and indifferent Exeter won 19-13 win over Bristol at Sandy Park. Bath/ London Irish was called off.
Just two URC matches due to Covid
With Covid wrecking total havoc on this weekend’s fixtures list, just two games got underway. Ninth-placed Scarlets beat Ospreys in fourth 22-19 at the Parc y Scarlets, while eighth-placed Connacht ground out a valuable 10-8 win over Munster (seventh) in Galway.
Leinster continue to lead the way, followed just a point back by Edinburgh and Ulster rounding out the top three. As for the South African sides, the Lions (11th), Sharks (12th), Stormers (14th) and Bulls (5th) have plenty of work to do.
