News
Pre-season weekend wrap
August 24 2008
The pre-season fixtures continued over the weekend with European clubs going head to head around the UK, Italy and even as far as the United States of America.
Chris Ashton scored two late tries as Northhampton Saints enjoyed a satisfying win against Australian Super 14 side Western Force at Franklin's Gardens on Saturday.
The Force kicked the opening score of the match courtesy of a Scott Daruda penalty but from there it was all the home side.
With scores locked at 3-3 at half-time, Ashton enjoyed a pair of tries after the break to help set up the thumping victory.
The Force, who have cancelled Thursday's clash with Northampton's academy squad due to a spate of injuries, will face last year's Premiership finalists Leicester Tigers on Saturday in their final match of the five-week tour.
In Swansea, first-half tries from Will Hurrell and Matt Smith, combined with a late penalty try and fifteen points from the boot of Toby Flood, gave Leicester a 30-17 victory over the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium in their second pre-season fixture on Saturday.
The Tigers took an early lead and held a 17-10 advantage at half-time in front of a 7,000 crowd in a fixture arranged as part of a testimonial year for Ospreys and Wales wing Shane Williams.
Meanwhile, European Challenge Cup champions Bath won their second pre-season encounter on the trot when they beat Llanelli Scarlets 24-16 at the Rec on Saturday - adding the Welsh scalp to that of Irish province Ulster.
New club captain Michael Lipman and winger Joe Maddock crossed over for the visitors in the first and second halves respectively to stretch lead for the English club who led 11-6 at the interval.
Fielding an almost entirely different team to that seen in the first half, the fresh legs proved to give the Scarlets an advantage from the outset. A penalty kick after 46 minutes was successfully slotted over the sticks by Rhys Priestland, and was followed two minutes later by a try by centre Rob Higgit. The well aimed conversion took the Scarlets into the lead by five points and with rolling replacements, the Scarlets protected their advantage.
It was not until the final quarter that Bath began to break Welsh resistance and hand the English club a well deserved win.
Elsewhere, Geoff Cross scored a wonder try against Guinness Premiership champions, London Wasps, to ensure Edinburgh's start to the new season began with a 22-15 win at Murrayfield on Saturday.
Leinster completed their pre-season tour of Italy with a narrow but deserved victory over Treviso.
Leinster took a handy 12-0 advantage into the interval but Treviso, to their credit, fought back with converted tries on 43 and 50 minutes.
The visitors pressed to regain the lead and it was substitute Rob Kearney who gathered a well-worked kick and chase to race clear of the Italian defence. Felipe Contepomi added the points to conclude a positive week's work for the Magners League champions in front of an animated home crowd.
And finally, Head Coach Tony McGahan made a winning start in charge in Munster's 46-22 domination of Scott Johnson's US Eagles for the Setanta Challenge Cup at Rentscheler Field, in New England.
The Eagles skipped out to an 8-0 lead from a Valenese Malifa penalty and a flashing try out wide by Justin Boyd in the 11th minute with Paul Warwick landing a penalty.
Then, Lifeimi Mafi steamed onto a reverse ball from Warwick to make the posts before Billy Holland added another for Munster.
Right wing Boyd sparked a counter with Munster committed to attack for second row John van der Giesen to feed Louis Stanfield for a converted try before Warwick kicked Munster to a 20-15 lead at the break.
Munster struck through replacements Jeremy Manning, Frank Sheahan and Barry Murphy (two) to move away from the Eagles in a physical match-up.