In a dazzling display, Premiership frontrunners Northampton Saints notched an astounding 14 tries to thrash a substantially altered Gloucester side 90-0, propelling themselves five points ahead at the league’s summit.
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Ollie Sleightholme spearheaded the onslaught, leaving the visiting defence in disarray with a hat-trick, contributing to a fixture that shattered the league’s previous record for home points amassed.
Gloucester captain Lewis Ludlow wrote on X: “We know @gloucesterrugby supporters are angry and embarrassed. So are we. That was no where near good enough for this shirt. We won’t shy away from why today happened, but, we have a massive two weeks ahead and we need you with us please.”
One fan responded: “Well done for fronting this up. As a Saints fan , love a good tussle with Gloucester. Really felt for the players being put in that position and mostly for the fans who paid good money to travel. It’s not good for the Prem brand either. Good luck for the final , go get it!”
A second said: “Perhaps the club could do something for the supporters who paid good money to buy tickets and travel?”
Another wrote: “At least you had the decency not to wear cherry and white but no team representing Gloucester can be allowed to surrender. Who wanted to wear the shirt?”
“I’m going to have to be real with you Lewis, that was an all time low result that for any glaws fan. Win the final alls forgotten, lose todays resting of players, was all for nothing,” said a fourth.
The latest odds for the 2025 British & Irish Lions Tour Captain – by BonusCodeBets
1/1 – James Ryan (50%)
4/1 – Maro Itoje (20%)
5/1 – Jac Morgan (16.7%)
10/1 -Jamie Ritchie (9.1%)
16/1 – Owen Farrell (5.9%)
20/1 – Peter O’Mahony (4.76%)
The current 36-man British & Irish Lions squad for 2025, according to the bookies
Andy Farrell faces numerous challenging decisions leading up to finalising his Lions squad, yet bookmakers appear confident in predicting the players destined for Australia next summer.
We found it intriguing to project a smaller squad based on the favored contenders according to bookmakers’ odds as of April19, 2024.
The Lions will play a New Zealand and Australia invitational XV as part of their nine-match tour down under in 2025.
The historic fixture in Adelaide will precede Test matches with the Wallabies in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
A sell-out at the 100,000-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground would smash records for a Lions Test match.
The series finale will be played in front of more than 80,000 fans in Sydney’s Olympic Park.
The 2025 Lions tour fixtures in full
- Saturday 28 June: v Western Force, Optus Stadium, Perth
- Wednesday 2 July: v Queensland Reds, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
- Saturday 5 July: v New South Wales Waratahs, Allianz Stadium, Sydney
- Wednesday 9 July: v ACT Brumbies, GIO Stadium, Canberra
- Saturday 12 July: v Invitational Australia & NZ XV, Adelaide Oval
- Saturday 19 July: First Test, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
- Tuesday 22 July: v Melbourne Rebels, Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
- Saturday 26 July: Second Test, Melbourne Cricket Ground
- Saturday 2 August: Third Test, Accor Stadium, Sydney
The bolded players in our proposed Lions squad represent the starting XV, according to current odds.
2025 BRITISH & IRISH LIONS SQUAD (36)
BACK-THREE (6)
- Duhan van der Merwe (Scotland) – 1/16
- James Lowe (Ireland) – 1/8
- Hugo Keenan (Ireland) – 1/5
- Tommy Freeman (England) – 4/9
- Immanuel Feyi-Waboso (England) – 8/11
- Mack Hansen (Ireland) – 2/1
CENTRE (4)
- Bundee Aki (Ireland) – 1/5
- Ollie Lawrence (England) – 1/4
- Sione Tuipulotu (Scotland) – 2/7
- Robbie Henshaw (Ireland) – 8/11
FLY-HALVES (3)
- George Ford (England) – 1/10
- Marcus Smith (England) – 8/15
- Finn Russell (Scotland) – 8/11