Die Jäger des Schicksals » Minnesotas fourth line s

Stuart Barnes has high praise for Connacht after the underdogs won the PRO12 title on Saturday and looks at the positives and negatives from Englands win over Wales ahead of their tour to Australia... 1. Where to start on a weekend where the club competitions reached their finale and over 80,000 people packed into Twickenham to see England and Wales meet? The answer can only be Edinburgh. The best team in Europe were sealing their superb season a few hundred miles south, well come to them later but this was a day for rugby romantics and Connacht. John Muldoons team weathered a five minute shower of Leinster pressure before taking the Guinness Pro12 final by the scruff and utterly outplaying the favourites.Those of us outside the Connacht camp wondered whether their inexperience would tell, we wondered whether playing on the big stage in front of a 34,500 crowd would cause them to freeze. We were wrong to wonder. They didnt. We discovered that Pat Lams men relished the sound surface and the absence of hurricane Galway. Their home crowd has inspired them all season but the wind and rain has held them back. The first half an hour or so was thrilling as they ripped the leagues meanest defence to shreds with their freewheeling attacking play in benign conditions. At global level New Zealand proved positive rugby can prevail. At club level in Europe, Connacht did the game a similar favour. No one was sneering at the rugby romantics come full-time. Highlights of the Guiness Pro 12 final between Connacht and Leinster from Murrayfield Stadium. 2. All season it was a consummate team effort, start to finish, but two men deserve individual mentions. Muldoon was playing his 275th game for the team. A one-club man and the glue that has held the team together through the bad years, the unfettered joy on his face and emotion in his voice when interviewed by Graham Simmons after the final whistle was my moment of the weekend. Muldoon put in a man-of-the-match performance as his side beat Leinster 20-10 in the Pro 12 final Connachts achievements cannot be mentioned without a word also for Lam. He has endured some tough coaching times in Auckland but in Ireland he assembled a team who believed in his positive style of rugby. They were also defensively savvy. This was a masterclass of coaching from the former Samoa international. Yes, they were romantic in their attacking adventure but dont be kidded, they were a ruthlessly professional side as well. Their presence will be a massive boost for the Champions Cup which lacked some atmosphere this season. If I have one regret this weekend it was the impossibility of hitching a ride back to Galway for what would have been the Sunday to end all Sundays. Lam claims the Pro 12 Championship crown is just the start for his side. 3. In contrast Leinster limped away from Edinburgh. The margin was ten points but with AJ McGinty losing his radar it distorted the difference between the teams. Many thought the semi-final victory against Ulster was a sign of them coming to form at the right moment as Wasps so famously used to do. It was not. It was a flash in the pan. Wooden and predictable was their way on Saturday, as it has been for much of the season. Against some of the better teams in Europe their defeats were inevitable - against the best team in their league, so it proved again.4. The manner of the victory puts Joe Schmidt once more under the spotlight. My Irish colleagues in the media have been critical of Irelands lumbering style of rugby for a while. Schmidts argument against Ireland playing like his great Leinster side did was the absence of players capable of playing with speed of thought and body. Despite defeat in the Guinnes Pro12 Final, Leinsters Eoin Reddan suggested that Connacht have got a lot right both on and off the field this season Well, the Connacht back three looked the part on Saturday while Leinsters wings and full-back were heavy legged. The Leinster trio are on the flight to South Africa, none of the Connacht men are making the trip. The microscopes are out.5. Now to the utterly unromantic Saracens. Back-to-back English titles with the European Champions Cup in their trophy cabinet, this is the most powerful side in England since Leicester dominated country and continent from 1999-2002. They looked a little flat for half an hour in the second half but when Exeter got within striking distance they scored again to keep the contenders at a distance. Only Harlequins beat Saracens when they were anywhere near full strength this season. Like that great Leicester side they suffer in the media from being too dominant. There is more to their game than they are credited. Somehow I dont think Saracens will care. Congratulations on a superb season. Eddie Jones launched a vigorous defence of fly-half George Fords performance, saying people need to get some perspective after Englands win over Wales 6. While Owen Farrell was playing like the Lord of the Manor yet again, George Ford played the part of intruder one day later. At the moment there is no comparison between the two players and I have always been a great believer in Fords long term talent. Right now the discrepancy between the two men is huge. One has no confidence - as his kicking illustrated - the other is oozing the stuff. If it comes down to a choice between one and the other as fly-half in Australia, there is no choice. Highlights of Englands 27-13 win over Wales at Twickenham 7. It may be that both will play together because England cannot resolve their pickle at inside centre. Luther Burrell picked a cracking line for his try against Wales but was otherwise too one dimensional in his game. Manu Tuilagi is again crocked and Ben Teo looked anything but Test class against a Connacht team whose pace of game at times exposed him. Jones dreams of a 12 who can punch the gain line but none of the contenders are convincing. The only other options are Henry Slade and Ollie Devoto. The one disappointed against Saracens, the other remains an interesting player but one with more potential than proof so far in his career. 10/12 will be a fascinating selection for the first test in Brisbane.8. Overall England will be reasonably pleased with their performance on Sunday. The set piece was solid, the structure of the English game rebuilt after Australia destroyed their foundations in the World Cup. Jones builds his foundations first. Thereafter comes the instinctive stuff which is taking its time to emerge from the debris of autumn 2015. Still, English teams have more chance of winning by reverting to the structures than having no solid foundations at all. To win a World Cup might be a different matter but to win a Test in Australia, England are just about on course. To win a series they have to sort out 9, 10 and 12. Warren Gatland was reasonably happy with aspects of Wales game despite their 27-13 defeat 9. Warren Gatland put a brave face on what was a poor performance by Wales. Yes, they started well but to concede five tries was something to set the alarm bells ringing. When England reached the wider channels and played with pace Wales were troubled. It is no trade secret to let on that the All Blacks have a few handy performers with the ball out wide.10. On the balance of what we saw at Twickenham, England look far more likely to win a series against Australia than Wales a Test against New Zealand. Either would be magnificent achievements. What with Ireland under pressure to produce a performance in South Africa, we have the best month of rugby since last October and you can see it all live, here on Sky Sports.Ill take a brief column break next week. Its time for a weekend with Mrs Barnes before the long flight down south. Back with a few (hopefully not too jet lagged) thoughts in Melbourne from Monday, June 13.Watch Englands tour to Australia, Wales tour to New Zealand and Irelands tour to South Africa on Sky Sports. Click here for fixtures. Catch the Tests without a contract for £6.99 on NOW TV. Also See: Ford boo-boys anger Jones Greenwood: Perfect preparation Farrell: We want more titles Follow @SkySportsRugby Stitched Los Angeles Chargers Jerseys . 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The 2014 edition will be the ninth meeting between the Caps and Vikes in a tradition that dates back to 2005. "Since the original Whitecaps, the club has enjoyed fantastic support from fans in Victoria and all across Vancouver Island," said Whitecaps FC president Bob Lenarduzzi. ST. PAUL, Minn. -- On a night when two of the biggest stars in the NHL were on the ice, Minnesotas fourth line stepped up to help the Wild continue their surge toward the playoffs. Cody McCormick had a goal and an assist, and Ilya Bryzgalov stopped all 20 shots he faced in the Wilds 4-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night. Erik Haula, Mikko Koivu, and Stephane Veilleux also scored for the Wild, who have gone 3-0-1 over their past four games. With four games to play, they hold a five-point cushion over Dallas for the seventh playoff spot in the Western Conference. With Olympic captains Sidney Crosby of Canada playing for the Penguins and Zach Parise of the United States on the ice for the Wild, Minnesota won with huge nights from some of its least-heralded players. The fourth line, centred by McCormick, accounted for two goals and helped keep the Penguins off the board all night. "When you get contributions from your energy guys like we did tonight with Cody and Veilleux, it goes such a long way for the team," Parise said. "I thought those guys had such a good game tonight when they were out there. They were hitting, they didnt give up anything against, defensively, and they got the big goals." The Wild jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first period, scoring on three of their first five shots against Pittsburgh rookie goalie Jeff Zatkoff. Haula started the scoring just 1:42 into the game, chipping a backhand shot over Zatkoffs shoulder on the back end of a give-and-go with Matt Moulson. Haula had spent most of his rookie season on the fourth line, but hes scored twice in two games while filling in for Mikael Granlund, who has missed the past two games with an upper-body injury. Koivu put Minnesota up 2-0 on its fourth shot of the game, scoring his 11th of the season just under 9 minutes in. Koivu carried the puck across the Penguins blue line, waited patiently for Parise to crash the net, then flicked a wrist shot past a screened Zatkoff. Veilleuux pushed the lead to 3-0 on a gift goal from Zatkoff.dddddddddddd McCormick fed the puck into the slot, where Veilleux corralled it, spun and fired a shot that was headed wide of the net. Zatkoff tried to glove it, but he mishandled the puck and it trickled behind him and into the net. "They got three goals on six shots in the first period and got out to that lead," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. "We were certainly from behind in this game and couldnt generate a lot going the other way." Bryzgalov posted his second shutout since being acquired by the Wild on March 4. He was steady throughout and made a pair of outstanding saves in the second period to keep the shutout intact. First he sprawled to his right to rob James Neal with a stick save. A few minutes later, he kicked out his right leg just in time to stuff Lee Stempniak, who was alone at the left post after a rebound off the back boards had bounced out to him. "We were pretty good defensively, but they had a bit of a push right from the start," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "They had some shots, but he just settled everything right down. He looked so calm and in control and the team definitely feeds off that." With four games to play, Pittsburgh has all but wrapped up the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. So while Saturdays outcome wasnt ideal, Crosby said the Penguins wont overreact to the loss as they prepare for the final week of the season. "Just play the right way," he said of their approach heading down the stretch. "We know what that is. Weve done a pretty good job of it. Its just a matter of making sure we find that urgency here for the last couple." NOTES: The game was played before 19,409 fans, the largest crowd for a Wild game in the history of Xcel Energy Center, which opened in 2000. ... McCormicks assist on Veilleuxs goal was his first point with the Wild. He and Moulson were acquired from Buffalo on March 5. ... Parises first-period assist was his 500th NHL point. 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