Premiership & URC Team of the Week: Home comfort in Semi-Finals

The Premiership and URC semi-finals have now been played, with the finalists for both competitions now decided. 

All four home teams won, with Bath seeing off Bristol Bears and Leicester Tigers edging past Sale Sharks in the Prem. 

Meanwhile, Leinster comfortably saw off Glasgow Warriors, and Bulls put in a great performance to beat compatriots Sharks in the URC. 

The stage is now set for a Bath v Tigers final at Twickenham and a Leinster v Bulls final at Croke Park this weekend. 

Plenty of players stood out, with Charlie Elliott selecting his Team of the Week for both sets of semi-finals. 

15 Freddie Steward (Leicester Tigers) 

Steward gets in this team following some excellent work under the high ball, in which he nullified one of the biggest aerial threats in the league, Tom Roebuck. 

He sometimes goes under the radar and is criticised for not being the most exciting to watch, but this game showed his defensive strengths and why he is so highly regarded at Tigers and England. 

Made a try-saving tackle with around ten minutes to go and ended up finishing the game with his hit on Luke Cowan-Dickie. 

14 Adam Radwan (Leicester Tigers) 

Radwan didn’t actually have the best game of his life, but still scored a brace of tries, which is enough to get him into this team. 

He finished off his first by stepping three Sale Sharks defenders at once and used his blistering pace to latch onto a slightly wayward Handre Pollard kick to finish off his second. 

Wasn’t hugely involved in the second half, but his first will be remembered for a long time. 

13 Jamie Osborne (Leinster) 

Scored a try early on, but it was his defensive work which really set him apart against Glasgow. 

Was key in Leinster’s blitz defence, working time and time again with some supreme game intelligence that made sure he was always in the right place at the right time. 

His team kept things tight for large portions and were dangerous on the break, which was down to Osborne. 

12 Solomone Kata (Leicester Tigers) 

Kata really stepped up to the plate against Sale and looked dangerous every time he touched the ball. 

If it wasn’t a bounding run forward, it was a well-timed offload to set one of his teammates free into space. 

It was a game that required someone to take it by the scruff of the neck, which Kata did. 

11 Sebastian de Klerk (Bulls) 

It was a Springbok-esque performance from the presently uncapped De Klerk, who was rightfully named as Player of the Match against Sharks. 

Ran for almost 100 metres with the ball and got a beautiful, kicked assist for Canan Moodie, for which he got it literally inch-perfect to fall into his hands. 

Also got a try for himself to round off a simply incredible match. 

10 Finn Russell (Bath) 

It wasn’t much of a weekend for fly-halves, but Finn Russell was head and shoulders above his positional counterparts in Bath’s win over Bristol. 

A bit of a slow start was quickly sorted out, and Russell looked locked in for the second half and continuously made the right pass. 

Showed his quality and game intelligence with a game to remember at The Rec. 

Gave Bath an injury scare by coming off late on, but it appears that it won’t rule him out of the final on Saturday. 

9 Embrose Papier (Bulls) 

Papier has been out of the Springboks’ reckoning since 2018, but this performance was really a statement that he deserves a call-up. 

A hugely accurate kicker who does things at a great speed, he also kept the Sharks’ defence honest around the fringes and gave them something extra to think about. 

1 Andrew Porter (Leinster) 

While Leinster’s backs sometimes struggled, their forwards absolutely blew Glasgow out of the water. 

Porter was a key part of that dominance in the scrum and was part of a pack that won a couple of scrum penalties in the first half, whilst also being solid with the ball in play. 

2 Dan Sheehan (Leinster) 

Sheehan was an absolute carrying machine, and every time he got the ball, he looked to drive play forward with some powerful runs towards the Glasgow defence. 

Ended the game with a total of 17 carries, which included three in the first few minutes that ended up leading to the opening try of the game, a statement early on that he would be the player to stop. 

Also scored a try from a maul. 

3 Thomas du Toit (Bath) 

It must be so disheartening as an opposition prop thinking that you’ve had a good game against Bath, then they bring some huge firepower off the bench that blows your team out of the water. 

That has become a trademark of their team this season, with Du Toit coming off the bench against Bristol to bring an immense amount of power to close the game out. 

Once he came on the pitch, the result only really looked like going one way. 

4 Cobus Wiese (Bulls) 

Wiese did his job, but to an extremely high level, which is the type of player that every rugby team needs. 

Was defensively extremely solid with some big tackles on various Sharks players, whilst also turning playmaker with a well-timed pass for David Kriel’s try. 

5 Ollie Chessum (Leicester Tigers) 

It was hard to pick the second lock, given that a few different players put in decent performances of similar levels. 

Chessum just about edges it into this team thanks to his splendid work at the lineout, both offensively and defensively. 

Against a team known for their set piece, he stepped it up a notch and constantly disrupted things, forcing a few errors out of the usually reliable Luke Cowan-Dickie. 

6 Ted Hill (Bath) 

Bagged himself a try, but it was his work across the pitch that really set him apart. 

Hill was seemingly unstoppable at times and put in some big tackles at crucial moments, including one on Kalaveti Ravouvou, which stopped the big man from scoring a try. 

Was a huge reason behind Bath’s quality showing in the end as he constantly made inroads and put pressure on the Bears players. 

7 Guy Pepper (Bath) 

There must have been two Guy Peppers on the pitch at The Rec, because that man was absolutely everywhere. 

Unbelievable work to continuously put pressure on at the breakdown, whilst also making plenty of tackles. 

His work was huge for Bath, and he got a well-deserved Player of the Match award for his efforts. 

8 Scott Penny (Leinster) 

No number eight really stood out, so flanker Penny will have to do for this team. 

He was arguably the best player out of this back row because he was so key in Leinster’s defensive work, getting the most tackles out of his team on the day. 

Had a bit of joy with the ball in hand and made a few good runs forward, but it was his tackling that really stood out. 

Leinster’s blitz needed to be on point, and Penny made sure that was the case. 

By Charlie Elliott

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