Top 14 final, Finn Russell, Barbarians disappoint : Planet Rugby

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!

Top 14 final: Rugby officialdom continues to tie itself up in knots with its constant tweaking of the laws and their application to generate better entertainment, but the drama produced in Saturday’s breathtaking French decider was an example of what will always make rugby most thrilling is two teams going at it with the attitude of playing to the best of their abilities.

Watching the action unfold was like being on a 100-minute roller coaster ride, awe-inspiring with the intelligence and skill level on show and yet brilliantly scary as hell with the juddering top-notch physicality. It was a hoot and while it was a shame for Bordeaux that they were eventually eclipsed 33-39 and failed to complete the league/Champions Cup double, no one could begrudge an excellent Toulouse an epic victory inspired by the likes of the fabulous Jack Willis.

Toulouse v Bordeaux-Begles: Five takeaways as Thomas Ramos stays cool in extra-time heat while ‘exquisite’ Jack Willis sends Lions reminder in ‘gladiatorial’ Top 14 final

Finn Russell: It’s always a fascination how international rugby players can be excused poor performances due to an alleged lack of time together. This ‘let off’ is annoyingly given air time at the start of every Test rugby block, coaches going on about cobwebs still being dusted off and all the rest.

It’s always a calling card for Steve Borthwick, for instance, when things with England don’t start well. It was heartening then to hear Andy Farrell label the Lions’ lack of appetite against Argentina as “unacceptable” and even better that Finn Russell doubled down on this by rolling with the punches last Saturday against the Force and still producing.

The Lions lacked cohesion in the first half but the Scot wasn’t prepared to settle for lethargy and his quick thinking stood out in making the difference, especially his quick tap in the creation of Elliot Daly’s important try. A Test rugby player should always be able to play to a decent standard regardless of the newness of his surroundings. Russell’s quality effort was a timely example of this, as was the excellent contribution of Joe McCarthy.

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Cheslin Kolbe: It was lovely to be reminded last Saturday that the winger is still a class act. He has had a second season of club rugby with Suntory Sungoliath under his belt since he last appeared for the Springboks but, truth be told, he has been out of sight, out of mind at a time when rugby is crying out to have its stars on view as widely as possible around the world.

No disrespect to the league in Japan: it has become an immensely popular product in its neck of the woods, but this doesn’t carry over into the global rugby conversation due to the lack of regularly available footage.

We used to love monitoring the weekly progress of Kolbe at Toulouse and Toulon but, similar to football’s Lionel Messi leaving Europe to play in the MLS, that attachment has fallen by the wayside with his post-2023 Rugby World Cup switch to the less TV-accessible Japanese club league.

It’s why Kolbe’s blocks of Test duty with the Springboks are now lapped up even more than they used to be. He remains a player capable of exhilarating contributions and his try-scoring display in the swatting aside of the Barbarians bodes well for what is to follow in the weeks ahead and then on into the Rugby Championship.

Springboks v Barbarians: Five takeaways as returning stalwart ‘dominates’ and newbies impress in ‘marred’ spectacle

Free Jacks/Junior Boks: We’ll give this pair the team performances of the week accolade for different reasons. Running a franchise in America isn’t easy given the turnover in clubs and the start-up nature of the rugby industry there, but the Boston-based Free Jacks have cracked the code with their consistency and Saturday’s clinching of a third successive title was no mean feat.

Also off the beaten track, the Junior Springboks were powerful in their demolition of the Junior Wallabies in the opening round of the latest World Rugby U20 Championship. The South Africans endured difficult campaigns in recent years, getting beaten in the semi-final and then failing to progress from their pool in back-to-back tournaments hosted in Cape Town.

They have since rejigged their management and the structure of their programme since 2004 and it finally paid off handsomely in Italy on Sunday with a 73-17 triumph. That was quite the result given how just eight weeks ago they lost 24-29 to the same opposition in Port Elizabeth in the age-grade Rugby Championship.

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COLD AS ICE!

Tomos Williams: It is cruel that the record books will show that the Welsh scrum-half played just 78 minutes across two matches for Farrell’s 2025 British and Irish Lions. In contrast to some other players who featured in Dublin and Perth, Williams’ form was excellent from the get-go.

It was his injection of tempo off the bench in place of the pedestrian Alex Mitchell that lifted the Lions after their slow start against Argentina, and his all-court game as a starter also caught the eye versus the Force. It’s brutal that he will now miss the rest of the tour because of the hamstring injury suffered in the act of scoring his second try.

Lions star who was ‘leading the scrum-half position’ out with ‘cruel’ injury as Scottish replacement left ‘shaking’

Barbarians: The service that the Baa-Baas does for rugby can often be inspiring. Just look at how 41 new players could call themselves Barbarians after featuring in anniversary matches last month against Durham University and Glasgow Academicals. To have grassroots players wear the famous shirt is immense and can’t be criticised.

However, their lack of punch last Saturday against the Springboks in Cape Town with a New Zealand-dominated XV was deflating. It’s always a gamble assembling a scratch side and having so few training sessions to concoct a game plan, but what was produced with Robbie Deans at the helm left much to be desired in a dreary 7-54 defeat. Some talented players with serious reputations had zero impact.

Barbarians player ratings v Springboks: All Blacks struggle to shine as legend ‘anonymous’ in Cape Town rout

Jean Kleyn: The lock’s appearance off the Springboks bench in the 2023 Rugby World Cup final was quite the development given that the South African had played in the previous tournament in 2019 wearing an Ireland shirt. However, his luck since that joyous rainy night in Paris has been rotten.

Having had two surgeries in 2024, he was all set to start versus Wales last November only for an injury to rule him out at the 11th hour. Back to Munster he went for another operation and another stint on the sidelines. It was late March by the time he returned and his impressive club form resulted in Saturday’s start for the Boks versus the Baa-Baas. Brutally, though, he sustained an unspecified injury and has been packed off to Ireland “to undergo the necessary rehabilitation”.

Springboks player ratings v Barbarians: Returning forward and Cheslin Kolbe the ‘star performers’ in world champions’ one-sided win

Louis Bielle-Biarrey: The recently turned 22-year-old has quickly become a global star but, similar to the savagery experienced this weekend by Williams and Kleyn on their respective duties with the Lions and the Boks, Bielle-Biarrey also experienced the viciousness of the sport with his truncated Top 14 final appearance.

Sidelined with a June 7 concussion, he originally wasn’t expected to be available for the French showpiece. However, his recovery came right in the nick of time for him to start on the Bordeaux wing but his contribution was cut short as a headbutt to the pelvis after the start of the second half prevented him from running. He looked incredibly sad every time the TV camera panned to his team’s bench during the remainder of the match.

READ MORE: Romain Ntamack cuts short Toulouse celebrations for operation on an injury different from the one sustained in Top 14 final

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