James Horwill will miss a handful of weeks of rugby after suffering a gruesome finger injury in Harlequins’ 25-6 loss to Leicester.
Horwill’s joint was left hanging and while the former Wallabies skipper tried to play on, he was forced to come off in the 70th minute and will undergo surgery in the coming days.
Fair play to @JHorwill playing for @Harlequins, hard as nails asking the Physio to tape this up to play on! pic.twitter.com/nB3N0FI2WA
— Andy Goode (@AndyGoode10) November 20, 2016
Peter Betham played out the match at outside centre for Leicester, with his former Waratahs teammate Lachlan McCaffrey at number eight.
Cooper Vuna played 26 minutes for Worcester in an agonising one-point loss to Northampton.
Ben Tapuai had a perfect start to his career with Bath, coming onto the wing in the 60th minute as the English side had a 16-9 win over Bristol.
Awesome to debut & get a win at the Rec tonight!! Unbeliveable crowd and atmosphere!! @bathrugby #bathfamily 🔵⚪️⚫️
— Ben Tapuai (@benntaps) November 18, 2016
Dave Dennis played 75 minutes of Exeter’s win over Newcastle, while Greg Holmes came off the bench in the 58th minute for the Chiefs.
TOP 14
Toulon is staying in touch with the Top 14 finals contenders, despite a 34-17 loss to Castres last weekend.
Liam Gill played the full match, starting at blindside flanker, while Drew Mitchell lined up on the left wing before leaving the field after just 12 minutes, in his second match back from injury and James O’Connor missed the game through injury.
Peter Kimlin, who has been drafted into the Wallaby XV for this week’s French Barbarians match, played at blindside flanker for Grenoble as they fell just five points short of Racing 92.
Kimlin played out the full match in Paris, in a result that couldn’t lift Grenoble off the bottom of the table.
Sitaleki Timani came off the bench in the 73rd minute as ladder leaders Clermont ground out a 16-13 win over Lyon at home.
Ben Mowen played 52 minutes at blindside in an in tense Brive-Pau clash, in which both sides were handed two yellow cards in the match as Brive took a 38-25 win.
Bordeaux had a big 26-0 win over La Rochelle, with Adam Ashley-Cooper playing the full game on the right wing and Luke Jones coming off in the 70th minute, after starting at lock.
Stade Francais took a narrow win over Montpellier in Paris, running out 21-17 victors.
Will Genia did not feature for Stade, on Test duties, while Jesse Mogg, Nic White and Joe Tomane featured for Montpellier.
Tomane was at outside centre for the entire match, combining with wing Mogg, who came off the bench, for a Montpellier try just after half-time.
WALLABY XV
A 19-man Wallaby XV squad was announced on Monday, ahead of Thursday’s clash with the French Barbarians.
