Rugby

Bath suffer first defeat to impressive Tigers

Tries from Brendon O'Connor, Tom Youngs and Ed Slater helped the Tigers to a commanding victory at Welford Road, Owen Williams adding 17 points with the boot.

Semesa Rokoduguni and Tom Dunn crossed for Bath, but Todd Blackadder's men were ultimately well beaten as the hosts powered clear in the second half.

Leicester move up to fourth in the table, a point behind Bath and five shy of leaders Wasps.

Wasps maul sorry Bristol

Bristol's difficult start to life back in the top tier continued at the Ricoh Arena, where ruthless Wasps turned on the style and ran in 10 tries to join Bath and champions Saracens on 14 points.

Brilliant Wasps had the bonus point in the bag at half-time, with Tommy Taylor touching down off the back of a driving maul in the first minute as Bristol were swept aside on Sunday.

Elliot Daly, Jake Cooper-Woolley, Matt Symons and Christian Wade also went over in the first half as Wasps opened up a commanding 37-3 advantage at the break.

Imhoff treble stuns Toulon

Racing beat Toulon in a showdown in Barcelona back in June to be crowned champions of France despite having Maxime Machenaud sent off, having also ended their European Champions Cup reign at the quarter-final stage.

The Paris club outdid Toulon again, consigning them to a third defeat of the season thanks in no small part to Imhoff at the end of a week in which France scrum-half Machenaud signed a new contract to run until 2020.

People’s love for rugby is beyond expectation

When there is no proper seats, no proper fencing and field boundaries but the people’s love for the footy goes beyond expectation.

Today, hundreds of people surrounded the Sogeri Rugby League field to witness the A grade Grand final match of the Eda Ranu Koiari Rugby League competition.

Surrounding villagers as far as from the inland Kokoda and the Owen stanley range walked to the station to watch and support their local village teams.

Families and relatives including fans cheer, support and danced with pride and enthusiasm around the field.

Tietjens steps down as sevens coach

The All Blacks Sevens were a major disappointment at the recent Rio Olympics - failing to win a medal and being generally lackluster in their play.

Tietjens said he had taken some time to think about his options following the Olympic campaign and felt the time was right for a fresh challenge.

"I love the sevens game and I'm immensely proud of what I've achieved and what all our players have been able to achieve in my time with the team," he said.

Teens thrilled to meet medal-winning sevens players

RNZ reports Winger Portia Woodman and captain Sarah Goss said the response from fans at an all-girls under-15 sevens tournament in Wellington yesterday was fantastic.

"It's our team's mission to inspire the younger girls. Rugby is an awesome sport and it's a career path now," Woodman said.

Goss said such tournaments were a great way of developing young players.

"If we can inspire girls to pick up rugby and get them playing the game in four years' time hopefully they'll be playing alongside us in Tokyo."

Messam ineligible for Chiefs play offs

RNZI reports Sanzaar made the decision late last night and around six hours before the Chiefs were to leave for the airport to travel to Cape Town.

Messam joined the Chiefs after the June Internationals as injury cover having concentrated on trying to make the Olympics sevens squad.

Sanzaar ruled that as he was not part of the original squad of 40 players before April 1 and had not played four regular season matches, he could not play in the knock out stage.

Messam made just two appearances and played against the Reds and Highlanders.

Wales lose England warm-up match

RNZI reports the win will send England on a three-test tour of Australia in confident mood.

After trailing 10-0 early on, England fought back and eventually surged clear with tries for Luther Burrell, Anthony Watson, Ben Youngs, Jack Clifford and Marland Yarde.

Bledisloe heading north?

RNZI reports the Australian Rugby Union is considering staging a Bledisloe Cup test at Twickenham and at several other venues in Australia and around the world during Sydney's ANZ Stadium rebuild.

The ARU committed to playing a Bledisloe Cup game in Sydney every year until 2021 but with the venue to get a facelift from 2018, those matches between the Wallabies and All Blacks are set to hit the road.

Tonga out of the 2016 World Rugby Pacific Challenge

The Friendly Islanders suffered their second loss in the four-team tournament at the ANZ Stadium in Laucala Bay, Suva on Saturday after being thrashed 50-0 by Samoa A.

Fiji Times reports Lolohea's boys simply had no answer to the Samoan onslaught in an entertaining, open-style game.

"Yes. It's a disappointing performance but I'm all right with that," Tonga A head coach Isi Fatani said.

"We have a lot of new players from U21.

"This is the first time for most to play in a tournament like this. This is new to them.