Leeds win Challenge Cup for 14th time
Exeter become European club rugby champions
LONDON, Oct 18, (AP): Leeds Rhinos won English rugby league’s Challenge Cup for the 14th time by beating Salford Red Devils 17-16 thanks to a drop goal five minutes from time at a deserted Wembley Stadium.
It was a poignant victory for Leeds, whose former player Rob Burrow was an absent “chief guest” for the match after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease two years after ending his illustrious playing career in 2017.
Leeds captain Luke Gale came up with the winning point as his team recovered from Salford edging in front for the first time after 57 minutes. Rhinos winger Ash Handley scored his second try of the match to level the scores before Gale’s drop goal.
Salford were seeking their first Challenge Cup title since 1938.
Meanwhile, Exeter Chiefs completed their decade-long rise from English rugby’s second tier to the top of the northern hemisphere club game by winning the European Champions Cup for the first time in dramatic fashion.
The team from southwest England beat French side Racing 92 31-27 in a thrilling final featuring eight tries – a record for the title match – at Ashton Gate, the home of English soccer club Bristol City.
Exeter played the final nine minutes with 14 men after replacement prop Tomas Francis was sin-binned, but held out because of some stoic defending – much of it near the team’s own try line.
An 80th-minute penalty gave Exeter a four-point advantage and, although there appeared to be a few seconds remaining for Racing to kick off again, the officials decided the clock had restarted too late while the penalty was being taken and declared the match to be over.
Racing were playing in their third final in five years, and have lost them all.
After first-half tries for Exeter by Luke Cowan-Dickie, Sam Simmonds and Harry Williams, a try by another England international – Henry Slade – ultimately proved to be the key score after the center intercepted a pass from Scotland flyhalf Finn Russell.
The Chiefs were in the fourth tier of English rugby in 1996 and still relative minnows in the second tier 10 years ago, when they beat Bristol unexpectedly in a playoff match to take a place in the English Premiership for the first time.
They have grown steadily since then, without spending huge sums like others in England’s top tier, and were English champions for the first time in 2017.
They will look to regain the domestic league title when they play Wasps in the Premiership final next weekend.
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AUCKLAND, New Zealand: Powerful young winger Caleb Clarke energized a struggling All Blacks team and lifted them to a 27-7 win over Australia Sunday in the second Bledisloe Cup rugby Test.
In his first run-on appearance after making a debut from the bench in the first Test last weekend, Clarke became the All Blacks’ most dangerous weap
on, carrying the ball with ferocity and making great inroads into the Australia defense.
During the first half he helped spark a lethargic and under-pressure New Zealand team, making his damaging runs mostly out of defense but still thrilling a crowd of 46,900 at Auckland’s Eden Park.
But in the 45th minute, he was handed a rare attacking chance in the open field. Wallabies flyhalf James O’Connor skewed a clearing kick infield and it fell to Clarke in open space. He set off downfield with gathering momentum, first running between two defenders then fending another. Like a snowball downhill, he gathered pace and energy and more defenders fell at his feet.