![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0_JS408701308.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe latest rugby news headlines from Wales and beyond today<\/p>\n
Max Llewellyn of Gloucester in action (Image: Peter Nicholls\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Here are your rugby headlines on Sunday, June 7.<\/p>\n
Wales centre outstanding as Gloucester seal Champions Cup place<\/p>\n
Max Llewellyn put down a marker ahead of Wales’ Nations Cup campaign this summer with an outstanding individual performance as Gloucester thrashed Newcastle Red Bulls 54-21 at Kingsholm.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old missed the Six Nations<\/a> through injury but on this evidence will be pushing hard for a place in Steve Tandy’s starting XV against Fiji at the Cardiff<\/a> City Stadium next month.<\/p>\n Llewellyn scored two tries for the Cherry & Whites and he set up a further two as Gloucester booked their place in next season’s Investec Champions Cup. Win free tickets to watch Fiji v Wales in Cardiff this summer<\/a><\/p>\n The Wales centre looked extremely powerful throughout with his explosiveness getting the home side over the gain-line while some deft handling from the former Cardiff centre also helped unlock the Newcastle defence.<\/p>\n With Bath centre Louie Hennessey out injured Llewellyn will compete with the likes of Eddie James, Bryn Bradley and Joe Roberts for a place in the starting XV.<\/p>\n Wales star’s suffers final heartache<\/p>\n Tomas Francis suffered heartache as his Provence side lost 18-14 to Vannes to see the Pro D2 title slip through their fingers.<\/p>\n They will now face an access match against USA Perpignan next weekend for a place in the Top 14 next season.<\/p>\n Vannes will line up next term in France’s top flight after a narrow victory and marks an immediate return following relegation last season.<\/p>\n But their promotion was thoroughly deserved, having dominated this season, losing just five times across the entire campaign.<\/p>\n As for Francis, he will hope to leave the club on a high and achieve promotion via the access match before he leaves France for a return to the UK.<\/p>\n He has signed a deal with English Premiership side Sale Sharks after three years in Provence.<\/p>\n Francis has been given the summer off Wales duty as Steve Tandy looks to preserve him for next year’s Rugby World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n Leinster book final spot<\/p>\n By Anthony Brown, Press Association<\/p>\n Leinster held on to book a return to the United Rugby Championship Grand Final with a hard-fought 20-11 win over Stormers at the Aviva Stadium.<\/p>\n The champions were pegged back after opening up an early 13-0 lead but the South Africans were undone by their own indiscipline.<\/p>\n The visitors had Ruan Ackermann sent off and Salmaan Moerat sinbinned in the second half before Jamison Gibson-Park settled an ill-tempered contest \u2013 during which a scuffle broke out in the tunnel at half-time \u2013 with a late try.<\/p>\n Leinster had made a strong start with Rieko Ioane crossing on eight minutes and Sam Prendergast converting and adding two penalties.<\/p>\n Stormers responded after Andrew Porter was forced off through injury and reduced the deficit to five points as Andre Smith crashed over from close range and Jurie Matthee landed a penalty.<\/p>\n Stormers survived Leolin Zas\u2019 sinbinning, and a further Matthee penalty brought them back within two as they dominated after the break, but Ackermann was then shown a yellow card \u2013 later upgraded to red on review \u2013 for a dangerous challenge on Ronan Kelleher.<\/p>\n Gibson-Park regathered after the ball was kicked out his hands by Moerat to race under the posts and seal victory nine minutes from time.<\/p>\n Moerat was then sin-binned for his cynical play in the build-up and the hosts saw out the closing stages.<\/p>\n Follow all of our channels to ensure you stay up to date with the latest Welsh rugby news. Sign up to our free daily newsletter here<\/a> and our WhatsApp channel here<\/a> for all the breaking news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest rugby news headlines from Wales and beyond today Max Llewellyn of Gloucester in action (Image: Peter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-626107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}