Watch every second of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nAussies Abroad breaks down the best from the weekend.<\/p>\n
Japan<\/p>\n
In-demand former Wallaby Bernard Foley will take his final bow in the Japan Rugby League One decider after Spears Funabashi Bay beat Saitama Wild Knights 26-24 to qualify for next week’s championship game.<\/p>\n
Flyhalf Foley has been linked to a return to the Waratahs, whom he kicked to victory in the 2014 Super Rugby final against the Crusaders.<\/p>\n
The Spears prevailed on Sunday in a tight contest that swung on the first-half yellow card awarded against Southport School (Gold Coast) old boy Dylan Riley, with the Wild Knights centre sent to the sideline for a deliberate knock-down.<\/p>\n
The Spears will face the Kobe Steelers, with former Wallabies coach Dave Rennie chasing his first club title since 2013 after his side thrashed Tokyo Sungoliath 69-23 in Saturday’s opening semi-final.<\/p>\n
Former Rebel and Wallaby Sean McMahon started for Sungoliath but was unable to stop the power of Rennie’s team.<\/p>\n
Europe<\/p>\n
Len Ikitau and Tom Hooper have combined to keep Exeter in the finals race with a 32-26 win over Leicester.<\/p>\n
Ikitau crossed early in the second half to put the Chiefs in front after a powerful run from Hooper, with the Brumbies centre also setting up a try.<\/p>\n
They face a must-win match next week against Saracens, with the winner booking their place in the finals.<\/p>\n
In France, Jordan Uelese and Tom Banks both started for the red-hot Montpellier as they defeated Pau 26-16.<\/p>\n
It was a similar result for Tolu Lotu’s La Rochelle, thumping Montauban 71-15, while Taniela Tupou came off the bench for Racing 92 to defeat Clermont 41-13, who had Rob Simmons and Irae Simone in their 23.<\/p>\n
In other matches, Jordan Petaia impressed off the bench for Perpignan, helping them to a last minute winner against Castres, with Lachlan Swinton topping the tackle count (16) for Bordeaux in a shock defeat to Toulon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The finals are heating up around the world, with several Australians making an impact over the weekend. It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,97542,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-709657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-aussies-abroad","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}