A 33-19 victory for the Saracens on Sunday sees them through to the next round of the EDF Energy Cup.

23 of the points came from Gordon Ross from six penalties, a drop goal and a conversion whilst Myler, his opposite number scored 3 penalties.

Tries were scored on both sides with Rauluni and England left wing Cato scoring for the Saracens and Foden and Wilson for the Saints.

In the 20th minute, Cato was sin binned where Myler scored two penalties for Northampton and after the second, took out Matt Lord to receive the yellow card.

The lead was increased to 15-6 when the ball was snatched by Rauluni running between the posts leaving an easy conversion for Ross.
But they were denied a losing bonus point when Ross kicked two more penalties in the 61st and 68th minutes.

Dylan Hartley, England’s favourite Hooler was released from the bench  to salvage the game alongside Spencer and Gray though narrowly escaped a high tackle on Rauluni.

The final stages were near and the Saracens held back the oppositions attacks thoguh with one more penalty, the game was over.

The scorers:

For Saracens:
Tries: Cato, Rauluni
Con: Ross
Pens: Ross 6
Drop: Ross

For Northampton Saints:
Tries: Foden, Lewitt
Pens: Myler 3

A victory for Wasps has kept them in the running for the EDF Energy Cup beating Newcastle 26-13 in a nail biting match on Friday.

After scoring 4 tries and receiving a bonus point, Edwards now has more faith after taking a beating from Leinster in recent weeks.

Unfortunately for England though, Noon was stretchered off in the first half ruling him out for the next few matches.

Missing 2 easy kicks early on in the first half, Cipriani had to make amends and did so setting up Voyce for a try in the second half.

Just 2 minutes into the game Clegg was offered a penalty after a messy scrum and only minutes later, a long delay came with Noons injury and having to be replaced by Dillon.

With 8 minutes left, Clegg put Newcastle back in the running with a converted try taking the scores to 19-13 though Simpson charged through with a bonus point try which Cipriani converted just 2 minutes before full time.

The scorers:

For Newcastle:
Tries: Vickers
Con: Clegg
Pen: Clegg 2

For Wasps:
Tries: Sackey, Rees, Voyce, Simpson
Con: Cipriani 3

Worcester Warriors were beaten 37-22 against the Ospreys on Sunday at the Liberty Stadium.

With a determined solo try for Henson, the Wales coach watched closely as the favourites moved closer to the finals. After a 2 match ban for skipping training, he carved through the defence close to the half way mark to prove his importance.

Tries for the Osprey’s also came from Wingers Williams and Walker and centre Bowe.

Hook scored 17 points though, ironically his opposite number, Matthew Jones scored 5 penalties converting Tuitupou’s try.

The next game will be against London Irish and the Ospreys to secure a semi final slot and with much of the Welsh Test squad were in the starting lie up for the Ospreys including both Biggar and Jones, a victory is in the clear.

With Hook scoring a 4th penalty there was no chance the Warriors would be letting go early though with Bowe scoring in the last few seconds, no chance of victory.

The scorers:

For the Ospreys:
Tries: Walker, Henson, S Williams, Bowe
Cons: Hook
Pens: Hook 5

For Worcester Warriors:
Tries: Tuitupou
Cons: M Jones
Pens: M Jones

The Air New Zealand Cup will come to a close on Saturday with Wellington and Caterbury battling out for the prestigious trophy.

Both teams did not meet in the latter stages of the tournament but most agree the two top teams have reached the final.

Auckland, who are the reigning champions left the tournament early thus we will see a new team crowned; though with Wellington who have lost 4 times in the last 5 finals they will want to make this match count in front of their home fans.

Wellington have a strong team with many of the All Black squad within though often in recent history turn out second best to Canterbury and Auckland.

There is much promise with Jane, Gear and Nonu on the back line all expecting to be picked for the New Zealand end of season tour.

The prediction for the final will be Canterbury winning by a small margin of no less than 8 points after some poor early performances for Wellington and though they had outstanding individual performances , unfortunately that will not win the final against such a strong contender.

Munster bounce back beating the Sharks 24-16 at Edgely Park on Sunday in the Heineken Cup.

With a crowd of over ten thousand, the European Champions were unable to deliver in the final quarter. Early on, the visitors conceded a penalty which unfortunately swerved off to the right of the posts.

Only a minute later, another penalty was laid out for the All Black McAllister who proved his substance scoring and making amends for the previous.
Earls and Dowling both realised that running was the only option feeding the ball to Mafi to prove his strength.

Munster, once again on the attack and with Warwick on the attack scored the first try of the game with a converted try from O’Gara.

The locals soon had to defend from a heavy attack though a decent pass from Mafi made room for Wallace to score an unconverted try.

The Sharks were left high and dry with a drop goal from O’gara after the the visitors showed their real strength of mind and lost the game.

The scorers:

For Sale Sharks:
Try: Schofield
Con: McAlister
Pens: McAlister 3

For Munster:
Tries: Warwick, Wallace
Cons: O’Gara
Pens: O’Gara 2
Drops: Warwick, O’Gara

The next Air New Zealand Cup Final will see Wellington vs Canterbury with Canterbury beating Hawke’s Bay 31-21 in the semi finals.

At half time the scores were level on 14-14 until the magpies threw in everything they had in the second half to claim victory. 

A couple of powerful tries for Canterbury in the last quarter finished any chances Hawke’s Bay had left.

Being the hot favourites, Canterbury stepped up the tempo where the visitors could not respond in time to save their title chances.

Unfortunately for the Hawke’s Bay backs, they were unable to produce any of the magical footing that was present in their last meeting and instead had Canterbury run all over them.

Berquist finished the game with a 100 per cent kicking record and now have Canterbury a chance to win their first piece of silverware for 4 years.

For Canterbury:
Tries: Ellis, Slade, Paterson, Read
Cons: Slade 4
Pen: Slade

For Hawke’s Bay:
Tries: Lowe 2, Evans
Cons: Berquist 3

Ryan Lamb, the Fly-Half for Gloucester is backing Glaucester to beat Cardiff at the Millenium Stadium on the weekend.

Lamb, who has played both excellently and abysmally this season is confident that the sixth pool will be a pivotal moment in the competition.

Kicking off the campaign, Gloucester were victorious over Biarritz, however realise they will need another strong display for the game this weekend.

Biarritz seem to have a stronger defece than Cardiff and with Gloucester’s styrength of play, Lamb believes they can break down the Cardiff defence.

The game will prove crucial and will determine the outcome of the group.

Both teams have a high level of players who are confident and creative and mostly Internationals themselves.

With a 30,000 crowd expected at the Millenium Stadium, Gloucester believe their will be a fair share of supporters.

The Heineken Cup matxh with Wasps and Magners League champions Leinsterand has been moved to the 17th January and will now be played at twickenham. 

This will prove crucial when determining who will qualify for the top position in the quarter finals. This will essentially give Wasp’s players a chance to make it the biggest game of the season.

With only 8,800 fans at Adams Park at the last Heineken Cup game, a larger stadium is needed particularly with Wasp’s High Wycombe only having a capacity of 10,000.

The Heineken Cup has been won by Wasps at England’s home stadium in 2004 and 2007 and even moving forward to win the Guinness premiership the same year.

This announcement is following on from the Stade Francais when they switched
the Heineken Cup match with Harlequins in December to the Stadium in Paris. Officials are confident they will attract a crowd of 80,000. 

Assistant Coach for the All Blacks, Wayne Smith is expecting both Ali Williams and Stephen Donald be included in the end of season tour for New Zealand - though McDonald will be left out of the squad due to injury.

After suffering concussion during new Zealands loss to the Springboks in Dunedin in July, missing the  Tri-Nations struggling with symptoms of fatigue and light headedness.

After being closely monitored by both the New Zealand doctor Deb Robinson and medical staff at Canterbury he has been in light training over the past few weeks. Although making decent progress, the Full Back will not be attending trips to Ireland, England or Hong Kong.

A contender who has impressed the Lions this season is Cory Jane; a commonwealth games gold medal winner from 2006 who could take up the number 15 slot.

The full squad for the All Blacks will be named on 26th October  after the Air New Zealand Cup final.

With fly-half Butch James kicking 18 points for Bath, they have their first Premiership victory under their belts at the Memorial Stadium for 10 years scoring three tries to two in the Derby.

The same year Bristol were relegated and beginning the campaign where they left the last having another defeat inturn, their seventh in a row.

With Lipman out due to a clash of heads in an earlier friendly and Crockett missing a fitness test with a broken ankle, Bath were force to have a couple of late changes the the starting line up.

Scoring the first try, Bristol opened the game within 3 minutes with Flanker Blowers taking a close range try after Arscott being tackled.

For Bath’s second try, Cheeseman went for a dash for the line though converted by James though Bristol still trying to come back.

Bristol defended heavily ruling out a bonus point for the visitors in the closing minutes though the campaign was now fully underway.

The Scorers:

For Bristol:
Tries: Blowers, Lemi
Cons: Jarvis 2
Pens: Jarvis 2

For Bath:
Tries: Maddock, Chessman, Faamatuainu
Cons: James 3
Pens: James 4