Northampton’s Champions Cup final date with Bordeaux should be all-out attack | Ugo Monye
How do Northampton Saints go again? After pulling off a stunning upset to avenge last season’s semi-final defeat by Leinster and take their place in Saturday’s final, the question is how do Phil Dowson’s side overcome one of the French giants, Bordeaux, to clinch the Champions Cup?Had the final been a week later I’d have feared for Northampton but they are helped by the ability to distract themselves with Premiership action, and I think the manner of victory over Leinster plays into their hands.Northampton need to focus on being unashamedly themselves.In Dublin the gameplan was to put the car into fifth gear from the first whistle and that’s precisely what they did.When your approach is so authentic and in keeping with your culture, it makes it that much easier.I also think we have two teams contesting the final after the heartache of last year – maybe even because of it.
They both lost knockout matches in this competition in agonising circumstances and it often goes that you have to lose one to win one.Perhaps it will be a similar story for Bath in their Challenge Cup final against Lyon on Friday.They lost the Premiership final last season and are now odds-on to complete a treble.What I love about this Champions Cup final is how both sides are set up to throw the ball around.Bordeaux have some frightening physicality, though Northampton do too, and in Josh Kemeny they have an outstanding performer who does not get the credit he deserves.
But this match is going to be won on attacking prowess.Bordeaux possess wingers to die for in Damian Penaud and Louis Bielle-Biarrey.Penaud has already set the record for most tries in the competition in a season and Bielle-Biarrey is the most dangerous finisher on the international stage.They provide incredible balance to the side.For Northampton, on their budget, even to have earned the right to face them in a final is testament to the work of Dowson and his coaches.
It is easy to forget Dowson is only in his third season as director of rugby.He has already guided Northampton to the Premiership title and now a Champions Cup final.We often hear that English clubs have no hope in this competition because of their lack of spending power and if you were to rank the competing teams on financial strength alone, Saints would be nowhere near.But Northampton have a brilliant English model of recruitment, wonderful player retention and an effective academy system.Players such as Tommy Freeman, Alex Mitchell, George Furbank and Fraser Dingwall have been there a long time but have continued to improve and that’s a credit to Dowson.
Perhaps the biggest difference is that Northampton’s league form has shown how difficult it is to go the distance in the Premiership and the Champions Cup, all the more so when the spine of your team are England internationals.I don’t imagine Dowson sat down at the beginning of the season and made the Champions Cup the No 1 priority but they have shown an ability to peak at the right time in a competition with a staccato rhythm.If they are to prevail they’ll need another statement performance from Fin Smith at fly-half, the kind he delivered in Dublin, and the kind he has been producing for every major challenge he has faced this season.Andy Farrell, the British & Irish Lions coach, will be watching the matches in Cardiff closely this weekend because while Bath are favourites to beat Lyon, Finn Russell – another contender for the Lions No 10 jersey – could do with a big performance in a final.Sign up to The BreakdownThe latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewedafter newsletter promotionI expect to see one because I have been so impressed with the messaging coming out of Bath.
Every coach, every player regardless of experience or standing in the squad, has showcased Bath’s ability to shut out external noise.They are not saying anything groundbreaking or unheard of but it demonstrates such togetherness.They should be under pressure as they seek a treble but they do not show any signs of it.They’ve plotted their way through a gruelling campaign and the only way you can do that is with a strong identity and a strong leadership group.To have that collective buy-in goes well beyond rugby intellect.
It speaks to personal buy-in from the coach and it’s clear that Johann van Graan must really care for his players and they must really care for him.The same can be said of Dowson; perhaps that is the best illustration of why their sides are in European finals this weekend.
Tories must ‘get moving’ on new policies or face crisis, says Robert Jenrick
The Conservative party needs to “get moving” with new policies or risk being cut adrift in a social media-informed world where people make up their minds quickly, Robert Jenrick has said.While the shadow justice secretary did not directly criticise Kemi Badenoch for the time she is taking to formulate policies, and said he accepted there was a need for reflection after a bad election defeat, he warned that without rapid action the Tories faced an “existential crisis”.Badenoch, who defeated Jenrick in the party leadership race last year, has attracted some criticism within the party for her insistence that the Conservatives should not rush into policies but instead spend the next couple of years working to rebuild voters’ trust.Asked about generating new polices at an event in London on Wednesday evening, Jenrick said: “I do think you’ve got to get moving. That’s not a criticism
Talks to start on recognition of state of Palestine by western states
Talks will start on Friday at an official level about the possibility of recognising the state of Palestine.A senior Arab diplomat in London said:“If you asked me a fortnight ago if there will be wider recognition [of Palestine] by western states I would have said no, but now I am not so sure.”The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, suspended trade talks with Israel on Tuesday and described its refusal to lift a blockade of aid into Gaza as “abominable”.Lammy spoke to the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, on Wednesday about the barriers blocking aid. The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said this week: “We cannot leave the children of Gaza a legacy of violence and hatred
Labour could review other benefit cuts after winter fuel U-turn, sources say
Keir Starmer has announced a partial U-turn that would make more pensioners eligible for winter fuel payments as government figures opened the door to more tweaks to controversial policies.After a major backlash against one of the most unpopular measures announced by the Labour government, the prime minister indicated he would look again at the £11,500 threshold over which pensioners are no longer eligible for the allowance.Downing Street said the change was a result of an improved economic landscape, with sources saying ministers could revisit policies including the two-child benefit cap or health and disability cuts if the economy continued to improve.“We’re open to adapting policy as the circumstances allow. So when there’s an opportunity to make people better off, which is our central purpose, then we’re going to take it,” a government source said
Lammy’s rebuke of Israel marks turning point after weeks of growing frustration
The anger inside the Foreign Office over Israel’s blockade of aid into Gaza had been slowly building until – like an exploding pressure cooker – the foreign secretary, David Lammy, let loose his most damning criticism of Israeli since the Gaza conflict started in 2023.Lammy’s innate ability to put the rhetorical burners on issues has had to be restrained as the UK’s leading diplomat, but once he entered the Commons chamber to condemn Israel’s blockade of aid, this was Lammy unleashed.One UK diplomat formerly based in the Middle East said: “The language was carefully chosen and it was quite simply unprecedented. It marks a turning point.” Even if Lammy’s rhetoric and his actions did not match, sometimes language matters in diplomacy
UK politics: No 10 won’t say if fuel payments U-turn will be implemented in time for this winter – as it happened
At the post-PMQs lobby briefing Downing Street was unable to say how many more pensioners would receive winter fuel payments or whether the reforms would be in place this winter.Asked if the changes would be in place this coming winter, the PM’s spokesman said:We obviously want to deliver this as quickly as possible, but the prime minister was very clear in the house that this has to be done in an affordable way, in a funded way, and that’s why those decisions will be taken at a future fiscal event.Officials insisted the pledge to change course was based on the government’s stewardship of the economy and the public finances, PA Media reports. Asked how markets could have confidence in the government if it performed a U-turn whenever Labour suffered an electoral setback, the PM’s press secretary said:We will only make decisions when we can say where the money is coming from, how we’re going to pay for it and that it’s affordable. And that’s what you’ve heard from the prime minister today
Labour does a major U-turn but does Clueless Kemi even notice? | John Crace
Never change, Kemi, never change. We love you just the way you are. Look on the bright side: it could have been worse. KemiKaze could have used all six of her questions at prime minister’s questions to have re-examined the Tories’ very own rubbish Brexit deal. Just as she had for the previous two days
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