Category Sports News

Gallagher Premiership

Exeter (12) 17

Tries: Rigg, Moloney, Fisilau Con: Slade

Newcastle (15) 15

Greg Fisilau’s last-minute try saw Exeter come from behind to beat Newcastle 17-15 to win the battle of the Premiership’s bottom two sides.

Will Rigg’s early try for the hosts was cancelled out soon after by the Falcons ‘ Joe Davis before team-mate Max Clark put his side in front.

But with Newcastle’s Richard Palframan yellow carded Martin Moloney drew the scores level, only for Brett Connon’s penalty to put Newcastle 15-12 up at the interval.

Newcastle defended well as a scrappy second half produced few great scoring chances.

But in the final minute Exeter broke through the Falcons ‘ stubborn defence as Fisilau went over in the corner.

The win was just a third of the season for Exeter as they closed the gap to eighth-placed Northampton to eight points.

The Falcons, who beat Exeter at Kingston Park earlier in the season, are now 10 points adrift at the bottom of the table.

Despite being against a strong wind it took Exeter just seven minutes to break through – Rigg dotting down in the right corner as Exeter moved the width of the field after strong pressure had seen them win a line-out penalty in the left corner.

But young scrum-half Davis drew the scores level five minutes later when he intercepted a loose Ben Coen pass and raced in under the posts from 25 metres for a try on his first Premiership start.

Fifteen minutes after Newcastle – who had not won away from home since November 2022 – went ahead when Clark forced his way over following eight phases from a five-metre line-out in the Falcons ‘ first sustained period in the Exeter red zone.

Despite having the bulk of the first-half possession Exeter’s attack struggled to create chances as the half wore on until Newcastle prop Palframan was sin-binned five minutes from half-time for an infringement in an Exeter line-out.

Two minutes later the Chiefs drew level as Moloney was forced over from a five-metre line-out before Connon kicked a long-range penalty on the stroke of half-time.

Exeter had half-chances to go ahead early in the second half, but each time they were thwarted either by their own errors or good defence from the visitors.

The Falcons – led by skipper Callum Chick – continued to defend well as the half wore on and almost went further ahead with nine minutes left but Connon’s clever kick towards the left corner took a nasty bounce and evaded the onrushing Ben Stevenson.

But just as it looked as though Newcastle might hold on, Exeter struck.

Replacements: Norey, Blose, J Roots, Tuima, James, Cairns, Tua, Hammersley.

Newcastle: Obatoyinbo, Hearle, Doherty, Clark, Stevenson, Connon, Davis, Brocklebank, Blamire, Palframan, Hawkins, de Chaves, Lockwood, Neild, Chick (capt).

Replacements: Fletcher, Rewcastle, McCallum, Scott, Leatherbarrow, Stuart, Wilkinson, Spencer.

Yellow card: Palframan (35)

Referee: Adam Leal.

Gallagher Premiership

Exeter (12) 17

Tries: Rigg, Moloney, Fisilau Con: Slade

Newcastle (15) 15

Greg Fisilau’s last-minute try saw Exeter come from behind to beat Newcastle 17-15 to win the battle of the Premiership’s bottom two sides.

Will Rigg’s early try for the hosts was cancelled out soon after by the Falcons ‘ Joe Davis before team-mate Max Clark put his side in front.

But with Newcastle’s Richard Palframan yellow carded Martin Moloney drew the scores level, only for Brett Connon’s penalty to put Newcastle 15-12 up at the interval.

Newcastle defended well as a scrappy second half produced few great scoring chances.

But in the final minute Exeter broke through the Falcons ‘ stubborn defence as Fisilau went over in the corner.

The win was just a third of the season for Exeter as they closed the gap to eighth-placed Northampton to eight points.

The Falcons, who beat Exeter at Kingston Park earlier in the season, are now 10 points adrift at the bottom of the table.

Despite being against a strong wind it took Exeter just seven minutes to break through – Rigg dotting down in the right corner as Exeter moved the width of the field after strong pressure had seen them win a line-out penalty in the left corner.

But young scrum-half Davis drew the scores level five minutes later when he intercepted a loose Ben Coen pass and raced in under the posts from 25 metres for a try on his first Premiership start.

Fifteen minutes after Newcastle – who had not won away from home since November 2022 – went ahead when Clark forced his way over following eight phases from a five-metre line-out in the Falcons ‘ first sustained period in the Exeter red zone.

Despite having the bulk of the first-half possession Exeter’s attack struggled to create chances as the half wore on until Newcastle prop Palframan was sin-binned five minutes from half-time for an infringement in an Exeter line-out.

Two minutes later the Chiefs drew level as Moloney was forced over from a five-metre line-out before Connon kicked a long-range penalty on the stroke of half-time.

Exeter had half-chances to go ahead early in the second half, but each time they were thwarted either by their own errors or good defence from the visitors.

The Falcons – led by skipper Callum Chick – continued to defend well as the half wore on and almost went further ahead with nine minutes left but Connon’s clever kick towards the left corner took a nasty bounce and evaded the onrushing Ben Stevenson.

But just as it looked as though Newcastle might hold on, Exeter struck.

Replacements: Norey, Blose, J Roots, Tuima, James, Cairns, Tua, Hammersley.

Newcastle: Obatoyinbo, Hearle, Doherty, Clark, Stevenson, Connon, Davis, Brocklebank, Blamire, Palframan, Hawkins, de Chaves, Lockwood, Neild, Chick (capt).

Replacements: Fletcher, Rewcastle, McCallum, Scott, Leatherbarrow, Stuart, Wilkinson, Spencer.

Yellow card: Palframan (35)

Referee: Adam Leal.

United Rugby Championship

Scarlets (17) 38

Tries: Murray, Fifita, J Roberts, James, Plumtree, Penalty Cons: Lloyd 3

Ospreys (17) 22

Scarlets kept alive their United Rugby Championship play-off hopes and dented the Ospreys’ chances with a bonus-point victory in the first of a derby double-header.

In front of 11, 384 fans in Llanelli, Dwayne Peel’s side recorded a first win against Ospreys since January 2022 with the six-try performance.

Ospreys opened up a 17-point lead in 15 minutes with tries from number eight Morgan Morris and full-back Iestyn Hopkins before the visitors were undone by ill discipline.

Hooker George McGuigan and scrum-half Kieran Hardy were shown yellow cards as Scarlets levelled the scores at half-time with a penalty try and further efforts from Blair Murray and Vaea Fifita.

Second-half scores from Wales trio Joe Roberts, Eddie James and Taine Plumtree sealed the win.

Scarlets and Ospreys are level on 33 points with both teams outside the top eight play-off places in 10th and 11th places respectively.

They will meet again in eight days with the European Challenge Cup last-16 tie in Swansea on Sunday, 6 April.

Struggling Welsh rugby needs some positives with the precarious financial climate hitting this week as both sides recorded annual losses of more than £2m.

A five-figure crowd should lift some spirits for an occasion that saw friends of 30 years go against each other in the shape of opposite head coaches Peel and Mark Jones, who were former Scarlets and Wales team-mates.

Jones ‘ first game in charge was against Scarlets just before Christmas as Ospreys secured a dramatic last-gasp 23-22 victory with a Iestyn Hopkins try.

This defeat in Llanelli was just a second in nine games since he took over as head coach from Toby Booth.

Full-back Hopkins was one of eight changes from the side that beat Connacht 43-40 with the back three of Jack Walsh, Keelan Giles and Daniel Kasende rested.

Welsh singer Dafydd Iwan galvanised the crowd with his rousing rendition of ‘ Yma o Hyd’.

The Ospreys had been late arriving to the Llanelli ground because of an accident just outside the ground with the kick-off delayed by five minutes.

It was the Scarlets who were caught cold from the kick-off with a disastrous opening quarter which started with conceding a try after 49 seconds.

Wales wing Ellis Mee failed to take the restart before his horribly slicked kick set up an attacking line-out.

Ospreys originally lost the set-piece but a strong Morgan tackle on Scarlets lock Alex Craig saw the ball dislodged with Morris pouncing on possession to score.

Edwards converted and slotted over a penalty before the visitors took advantage of another glaring error from the hosts.

A break from Ospreys wing Luke Morgan allowed Hopkins to collect his own chip after Scarlets fly-half Ioan Lloyd inexplicably failed to gather possession.

Scarlets, with captain Josh Macleod disrupting the Ospreys ‘ breakdown, finally woke up with a well-worked try for Murray following a long looping Lloyd pass.

Scarlets ‘ dominance forced Ospreys to continually infringe and after a couple of warnings, visiting hooker McGuigan was shown a yellow card on his first start.

Another yellow card was brandished as Scarlets were awarded a penalty try but the officials lost control as Ospreys still had 14 men at the restart.

After they finally realised, Hardy was identified as the man who had been sin-binned.

Scarlets took advantage with a clever move involving Sam Lousi, Lloyd and Macs Page allowing Fifita to canter over on his 50th appearance to level the scores at half-time.

Ospreys made a couple of half-time replacements with full-back Max Nagy and lock Rhys Davies coming on for Hopkins and James Ratti before Wales prop Gareth Thomas was also forced off.

Scarlets again took advantage with a fine one-handed inside pass from prop Alec Hepburn releasing centre Roberts to canter away for the bonus-point score.

Ospreys were in disarray and Ryan Conbeer’s failure to collect a Gareth Davies cross-kick allowed Page to inadvertently set up James to score.

Ospreys attempted to regroup with some scrum dominance but attempted one set-piece too many.

Mistakes from visiting replacements Luke Davies and Nagy allowed the platform to Plumtree to burrow over.

” I don’t think we looked like a rugby team for the first 15 minutes and it was error after error.

“I am proud of the resilience we showed and for the last 60 minutes we showed we were a good side and played in the right areas.

” When they had a few yellow cards we made them pay and that is what the game is about. “

Ospreys head coach Mark Jones:” We got off to an awesome start and were looking pretty good.

“I was pleased with the first 25 minutes especially coming away from home but discipline came into the game after that.

Replacements: Ryan Elias, Sam O’Connor, Sam Wainwright, Jac Price, Jarrod Taylor, Efan Jones, Ioan Nicholas, Dan Davis

Sin-bin: Macleod (69)

Ospreys: Iestyn Hopkins, Luke Morgan, Evardi Boshoff, Owen Williams, Ryan Conbeer, Dan Edwards, Kieran Hardy, Gareth Thomas, George McGuigan, Ben Warren, James Ratti, Adam Beard, Tristan Davies, Jac Morgan (capt), Morgan Morris

Replacements: Dewi Lake, Steffan Thomas, Tom Botha, Rhys Davies, Morgan Morse, Luke Davies, Phil Cokanasiga, Max Nagy

Sin-bin: McGuigan (33), Hardy (34)

Referee: Griffin Brandon Colby (South Africa)

Assistant Referees: Adam Jones, Ellis Poulden (Wales)

Now Crystal Palace have secured their place in the last four of the FA Cup, it’s hard to believe that they did not win their first game of the Premier League season until late October.

The Eagles had won two games in the Carabao Cup against Championship opposition, but tension was starting to build around Selhurst Park before that much-needed victory over Tottenham in their ninth league game of the season.

The memories of those struggles are far in the past now as supporters and those around the club begin to look forward to a trip to Wembley after an impressive 3-0 win away at Fulham, having last reached the semi-finals in 2022.

The Eagles have never won the FA Cup and have lost twice in the final, in 1990 and 2016, but can dream of lifting the first major trophy in their history, which dates back to 1861 depending on which historian you believe.

Their turnaround has been masterminded by manager Oliver Glasner and since the start of 2025, only Liverpool (11) have won more games in all competitions among Premier League sides than Glasner’s Palace (10).

The Eagles, with eight, have also recorded more clean sheets than any other English top-flight side in that time.

Glasner has always said he knew the start of the season would be tricky after a summer where they lost star player Michael Olise to Bayern Munich, had a large part of their squad involved in major tournaments and had four players sign on deadline day.

It’s taken time for all of those factors to settle down but in Glasner’s trusted 3-4-2-1 formation, the Eagles are highly organised and have built real momentum as they approach the end of the season.

Palace have lost just twice in their past 15 games – which is all the more impressive when somehow they have only managed to win three games at home in the league all season.

Glasner was asked by BBC Sport if the match against Fulham, in which the visitors were under pressure at the start before finishing strongly, mirrored their season and the exciting end it could have.

“The season is not over. If this is the end today I wouldn’t be happy”, Glasner said.

“I think this is just the start of our crunch time. Two months now, hopefully we have 12 games to play.

” The good thing is we are in a good momentum and the players are in a good shape.

“The next two months we always stay together and we have many games and we can get into our best shape again.

” I think today, especially at the beginning, we were far away from this. We need to be at our best to win as many games as possible. “

The Crystal Palace supporters were singing about their trip to Wembley but Glasner would not be drawn on his thoughts on what it would mean if his side were able to lift a trophy at the national stadium.

” I don’t want to talk about winning a trophy because even in the next game we can’t win a trophy. It is just the semi-finals, “he said.

” When you enter a cup competition it doesn’t matter if you lose in round number one or the semi-finals, we enter the competition to win it.

Glasner said he has been to Wembley three times and only ever on the Tube. Twice to watch England play and once when he dropped his daughter off to watch a Taylor Swift concert.

One of those visits to the stadium was on Monday night as Glasner watched Eberechi Eze score his first goal for his country against Latvia.

It has taken Eze time to adjust to life at Palace without Olise and the England international’s goal against Fulham was just his fifth of the season.

“I think Ebs is having quite a strange season”, Glasner said. “Because he does not have many goals in the Premier League but he has had so many chances.

” So unlucky in so many situations, disallowed goals, deflected goals, hitting the post – he always keeps going.

“He has struggled with injuries, some strange injuries. I think his goal against Latvia, first goal for England, means a lot for him as a person and has helped him.

” He always has the confidence. We all know that he is an amazing finisher and that he can cut in on his right foot.

Now Crystal Palace have secured their place in the last four of the FA Cup, it’s hard to believe that they did not win their first game of the Premier League season until late October.

The Eagles had won two games in the Carabao Cup against Championship opposition, but tension was starting to build around Selhurst Park before that much-needed victory over Tottenham in their ninth league game of the season.

The memories of those struggles are far in the past now as supporters and those around the club begin to look forward to a trip to Wembley after an impressive 3-0 win away at Fulham, having last reached the semi-finals in 2022.

The Eagles have never won the FA Cup and have lost twice in the final, in 1990 and 2016, but can dream of lifting the first major trophy in their history, which dates back to 1861 depending on which historian you believe.

Their turnaround has been masterminded by manager Oliver Glasner and since the start of 2025, only Liverpool (11) have won more games in all competitions among Premier League sides than Glasner’s Palace (10).

The Eagles, with eight, have also recorded more clean sheets than any other English top-flight side in that time.

Glasner has always said he knew the start of the season would be tricky after a summer where they lost star player Michael Olise to Bayern Munich, had a large part of their squad involved in major tournaments and had four players sign on deadline day.

It’s taken time for all of those factors to settle down but in Glasner’s trusted 3-4-2-1 formation, the Eagles are highly organised and have built real momentum as they approach the end of the season.

Palace have lost just twice in their past 15 games – which is all the more impressive when somehow they have only managed to win three games at home in the league all season.

Glasner was asked by BBC Sport if the match against Fulham, in which the visitors were under pressure at the start before finishing strongly, mirrored their season and the exciting end it could have.

“The season is not over. If this is the end today I wouldn’t be happy”, Glasner said.

“I think this is just the start of our crunch time. Two months now, hopefully we have 12 games to play.

” The good thing is we are in a good momentum and the players are in a good shape.

“The next two months we always stay together and we have many games and we can get into our best shape again.

” I think today, especially at the beginning, we were far away from this. We need to be at our best to win as many games as possible. “

The Crystal Palace supporters were singing about their trip to Wembley but Glasner would not be drawn on his thoughts on what it would mean if his side were able to lift a trophy at the national stadium.

” I don’t want to talk about winning a trophy because even in the next game we can’t win a trophy. It is just the semi-finals, “he said.

” When you enter a cup competition it doesn’t matter if you lose in round number one or the semi-finals, we enter the competition to win it.

Glasner said he has been to Wembley three times and only ever on the Tube. Twice to watch England play and once when he dropped his daughter off to watch a Taylor Swift concert.

One of those visits to the stadium was on Monday night as Glasner watched Eberechi Eze score his first goal for his country against Latvia.

It has taken Eze time to adjust to life at Palace without Olise and the England international’s goal against Fulham was just his fifth of the season.

“I think Ebs is having quite a strange season”, Glasner said. “Because he does not have many goals in the Premier League but he has had so many chances.

” So unlucky in so many situations, disallowed goals, deflected goals, hitting the post – he always keeps going.

“He has struggled with injuries, some strange injuries. I think his goal against Latvia, first goal for England, means a lot for him as a person and has helped him.

” He always has the confidence. We all know that he is an amazing finisher and that he can cut in on his right foot.