Former Munster and Ireland loose forward CJ Stander believes the return of four key stars sets up a “cracking final” in Cape Town on Saturday.

Stander’s old side managed the most impressive of semi-final wins over Leinster in the United Rugby Championship without the likes of Conor Murray, RG Snyman, Calvin Nash and Malakai Fekitoa.

Now, the Irish side heads to Cape Town to face the Stormers at a packed DHL Stadium with the quartet fit and ready to go.

Key returns

Stander was pleased to see the return of those key players and underlined just how important a game like this is for Munster, particularly, after having won at the same venue in round 17.

“When I saw that list of players getting on to the plane, it was good to see, especially guys like Conor Murray, RG and Malakai,” Stander said.

“It brings a boost to the squad. You see the energy that Munster have got in the last few weeks from beating the Stormers in Cape Town and then going to Dublin and beating Leinster.

“It’s going to be a cracking final, I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully it will be a bit wet then Munster will have the upper hand, but we’ll see.”

Munster need the title

Stander, who hails from South Africa but reached the peak of his powers in Ireland, insists that there are no mixed feelings for him as Munster need the title to get their belief back.

“No, not at all. Munster need this. Not just for the team, but in general, for Cork, Limerick, the Munster province in general,” he said.

“Just to get that belief back that all that hard work over the last eight or nine years hasn’t been for nothing.

“I don’t miss the game but I do miss these weekends because the craic afterwards, the few beers, and all the hard work in the years of disappointment, you’re going to sit there and hopefully win the final and celebrate with your mates. That’s the part I miss.

“It’s still going to be a tough game. Watching the Connacht (semi-final) game, the Stormers know the way they want to play. They play from anywhere and they are very good at it.

“They scored two tries that looked like nothing was on, so Munster need to be ready for that from the start.

“But no mixed emotions, just immensely proud to be in a final and having a great chance to win it.”

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Premier League side Arsenal have made a concrete €100m offer for AS Monaco forward Kylian Mbappé, according to L’Équipe.

The Gunners, in the largest bid the club has ever made for a footballer in their history, have moved into attack mode following the 2-year contract extension of Arsène Wenger.

Wenger was exceptionally close to convincing Mbappé to sign a professional contract with Arsenal last summer, having even visited the player in Monaco in an attempt to make the move work.

The Mbappé clan has been previously noted to have enormous respect for Wenger, but Real Madrid and Manchester City have both made very forceful bids too, verbal offers of around €120m, with Manchester United also rumoured to have bid for the player .

As it stands, it would appear that Real Madrid (Mbappé’s eventual dream club) lead the race for Mbappé, with Manchester United in last place because the player does not like the way they play football, the latter assertion has been reported by L’Équipe before.

It is important to note that the exact nature of the fees offered to AS Monaco this summer are unlikely to have a real impact on Mbappé’s destination. The Principality side do not need to sell – rather they will respect whatever Mbappé’s wish is and act accordingly.

Monaco have in the meantime made Mbappé a contract extension offer.

Friday 2nd June – 07:00 BST:

The L’Équipe report in full published this morning has additional claims within it to add to our reporting from last night.

They claim that Arsenal will attack this transfer window like never before with the intention to sign a world class player in every single line of the field (presumably all four: goalkeeper, defence, midfield, attack). They also assert that the €120m figure that was reported in the press in recent days as the club’s budget was put out there falsely.

Despite Arsenal’s bid being a club record offer, it is underneath Manchester City and Real Madrid’s and it comes from a club that will miss out on the Champions’ League for the first time since 1997.

The French daily asserts that Wenger is prepared to place Kylian Mbappé at the centre of the club’s project. At the beginning of 2016, Arsenal were one of three sides vying for Mbappé’s signature on a professional contract, alongside Liverpool and PSG.

Mbappé’s future will not be clear for several weeks. Mbappé and his entourage continue to refuse to speak to any club whatsoever until after his season is completely finished, a very unique approach which they should be praised for.

Mbappé is also very far from excluding the possibility of staying another season at Monaco, where he still has another two years contract. Like his team-mates, his decision could depend on how many of Monaco’s stars the club hold on to this summer.

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Crusaders head coach Scott Robertson praised Scott Barrett’s captaincy in his side’s 15-3 victory over the Blues in Super Rugby Pacific on Saturday.

The replay of last season’s final was a tightly contested game, and the line-out proved to be a huge influence on the result.

Praise for the captain

Robertson felt his skipper controlled this facet of the game brilliantly and showed impressive composure throughout the clash.

“Scott Barrett’s captaincy was incredible,” Robertson told Sky Sport.

“13 [first-half] line-outs, and he threw all the variations at them. At half-time, he was composed. He knew what we had and hadn’t used and what we were going to do in the second.

“We wanted to make them tackle, and they did.

“The breakdown was where we won lots of little races. We didn’t allow them to get access to our ball.”

Something to work on

Meanwhile, Blues boss Leon MacDonald admitted the line-out is a weakness in his side and with second-row Sam Darry set to be sidelined for a while, he is looking for someone to step up into that void.

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“It’s an area that has been an Achilles heel, but with Sam [Darry] in particular, he’s done a really good job in that space. We need somebody to step up and take the reins,” he said.

“We’re doing a lot of good work in that space, but we weren’t quite right; a couple where the throws weren’t quite right, or we didn’t quite get the calling right. It’s an area that’s got to be good if you’re going to win the title at the end of the year.”

The Blues travel to face the Reds in Queensland before two home games against the Hurricanes and Highlanders at the end of the regular season. MacDonald is confident his side will make the play-offs, and from there, anything can happen.

“We’ve got a little run home that’s going to give us an opportunity to make the play-offs, and once you’re in the play-offs, it’s all go, so there’s still plenty to play for,” he said.

Ligue 1 side FC Metz have made contact with second division side Valenciennes for 21-year-old left-back Moussa Niakhaté, according to L’Équipe.

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This news comes after Les Grenats decided not to extend 35-year-old left-back Franck Signorino’s contract.

Bulls director of rugby Jake White is in a confident mood ahead of his side’s United Rugby Championship (URC) quarter-final against the Stormers in Cape Town on Saturday.

White believes the Stormers are the favourites but said his team “have a history of playing really well in big games”.

This weekend’s encounter is a repeat of last year’s final which the Stormers won 18-13 at the same venue – a match which was part of a five-match winning streak against their arch rivals from Pretoria, after they also beat the Bulls at home and away in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons.

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White‘s troops reached that final after clinching a shock 27-26 away victory against Irish heavyweights Leinster in their semi-final.

That result is viewed as the biggest upset of last season but White feels beating the Stormers this weekend will also be a huge achievement, although he doesn’t like it when he is reminded of his team’s record in the URC against the men from the Cape.

Not underestimating the champions

“I think you’re being disrespectful to the Stormers if you say last year (against Leinster) was a bigger ask,” the former Springbok coach told IOL. “These are champions… These guys won the competition.

“But five times… It’s irrelevant. It’s absolutely irrelevant how many times they’ve won before. The players are in the right space. It’s knockout rugby now, and a couple of months ago, we had no chance of making the playoffs.

“If I read all the articles, we were doom and gloom. We had, in everyone’s eyes, a poor season after ending sixth on the log. Some teams play really well and end up fifth and fourth…

“So, it’s a massive challenge, I am not disputing that. But it’s a knockout game now, and one thing we have managed to do over time is to play really well in games that have counted, where we’ve had to win and knock people out of competitions.

“That’s all I can trust myself and the team on – we’ve got a history of playing really well in those big games.

“And it’s going to be massive: I heard there’s going to be 38 000 tickets sold, and we played in that final last year and it was an unbelievable occasion.”

Speaking to reporters following France’s 3-2 victory over England, Kylian Mbappé laid out his plans for the coming weeks.

“We are going to go away as a family and think about what will happen. We are going to have to sort through (offers), what is going on with the club, because I am under contract with a club, I am not free, and we will see what happens… Real Madrid? They have been trying to sign me since I was 14.”

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