The latest rugby stories making morning headlines on Sunday, May 17.
Here are your rugby morning headlines for Sunday, May 17.
Spitting allegation made in URC clash
Munster’s United Rugby Championship victory over the Lions was marred by an allegation of spitting by one of the Lions players.
Munster replacement Diarmuid Barron made the allegation during the second half of Saturday night’s match.
The Irish province’s captain Craig Casey brought the incident to the attention of referee Andrea Piardi during their 24-17 win at Thomond Park.
Piardi looked at the “serious allegation” with the TMO, which was made by replacement Barron.
However, the TMO was unable to verify anything obvious from the Lions players during the rucks.
After a lengthy delay, play resumed – although the incident is likely to be sent to the disciplinary citing commission.
Bizarrely, Barron did an on-air TV interview following the match – but wasn’t asked about the incident.
Barron had initially been banned for the match against the Lions, but he was cleared to play after his red card against Connacht was overturned.
Cardiff learn play-off opponents
Cardiff will take on the Stormers in their United Rugby Championship quarter-final in a repeat of Friday’s superb victory.
The Blue and Blacks sealed their place in the top eight by overcoming the South African side at the Arms Park, winning 22-16.
Having had to wait for Saturday’s results to find out where they’d finish in the league table, the Bulls’ win ended any hopes of a home quarter-final.
Leinster’s win over the Ospreys and Munster’s win over the Lions meant that Corniel van Zyl’s side will face the Stormers once again – this time in Cape Town.
The match will take place at DHL Stadium on Saturday, May 30, kicking off at 2.30pm.
Two Welsh bosses ruing missed chance
Both Scarlets and Dragons bosses were left ruing their luck after the two sides finished off their season with an entertaining 35-35 draw.
The Dragons, who were bidding to avoid being Wales’ lowest-placed side in the league for the first time since 2020, led for much of the match in Llanelli, but were ultimately pegged back in an eventful Welsh derby.
The Scarlets had a chance to win it late on, but Joe Hawkins’ penalty was off-target.
“The character was fantastic and since I’ve been here I can’t fault the effort of these players,” said Scarlets interim director of rugby Nigel Davies.
“We could have easily had four home wins.
“There’s a few things we can do moving forward next year and probably one of the biggest is make sure discipline is where it needs to be.”
Dragons head coach Filo Tiatia added: “We should have won. We dominated territory and possession for large parts of the game.
“We just allowed them to have opportunities and they took them. It was one of those games and I was disappointed for the group.
“It was a fourth draw in 18 games and not really a record I want because you can talk about whether they should have been wins.”
Jones says Dublin hammering won’t define Ospreys season
Ospreys head coach Mark Jones says Saturday’s 10-try defeat to Leinster won’t define their season.
The club brought the curtain down on a difficult season with a 68-14 defeat in Dublin. It has been a testing campaign for the club, with off-field uncertainty threatening their very existence and resulting in the departure of Wales duo Jac Morgan and Dewi Lake.
“The scoreboard is really ugly,” said Jones afterwards. “I just said to the group try not to focus too much on that as a level of how hard you tried and the quality you put into the game.
“There were some good patches for us there and we created some good opportunities. We didn’t capitalise.
“That first 20 minutes, we had good field positions and lineouts in key areas, but we turned the ball over. Like good teams do, they went up the other end and punished us on every one.
“We chased a little bit then because we wanted an impact on the scoreboard. Through the chasing, we snatched at some bits and fed some of the high quality transition players Leinster have got.
“You’re basically playing Ireland here. We knew it was a big ask. It was probably one game too much for us. We looked a bit tired in some of those moments.
“I don’t want this to be the game we remember. I want to remember some of the performances and victories, through the adversity we’ve had. The boys deserve credit for it.”
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