Saints ready to 'go again' in relegation showdown
Simo Valakari says there is no better occasion for his players to follow up their midweek win than in a Tayside derby against fellow Scottish Premiership strugglers Dundee.St Johnstone have won three of their last five top-flight games but remain three points adrift of Tony Docherty's side in 11th place.A win, coupled with a three-goal swing would see St Johnstone move off of bottom spot for the first time since mid-December as they fight to retain their Premiership status."You feel it, you feel a little bit, but you need to go again," Valakri told club media, external, on any fatigue his players may be feeling after playing two games already this week,"And no better place to go than this game now, a local derby, a big, big game for many, many, many reasons. And I think it will be a great atmosphere."The 51-year-old Finn's first game in charge of the Perth Saints was a dramatic late win at Dens Park, but at the start of 2025, they were thrashed 3-1 by their Tayside rivals."It was one of the biggest things in my coaching career to feel that," he added on his first game in charge."But at the same time, I felt it maybe most low as well in this one game we played them here in our own stadium, in front of our own fans, 3-0 after 15 minutes."So high and low. I felt both. And now again, it's a new occasion, a new game."They want to attack us, they want to put us under pressure, they want to hit us in counter-attacks and score early goals and you know, make it very difficult for us. So we need to prepare ourselves mentally and physically."We need to be, first of all, ready for this occasion, we know it will be a high-intensive game, with a lot of duels, with a lot of second balls you need to win it."
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Telegraph
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There are some classic moments in this 📼 Here's a throwback to 2006, when @SaleSharksRugby beat @LeicesterTigers 45-20 to become champions of England for the first time 😮💨 #GallagherPrem — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) June 11, 2025 Key player: Charlie Hodgson Underrated player: Oriol Ripol Favourite player: Ignacio Fernández Lobbe 7. Leicester, 2007 Sometimes you just need to forget everything else and focus on the performance and this amounted to the most brutal beat-down ever witnessed in a Premiership final. Gloucester arrived at Twickenham as the darlings of the league, playing a dazzling brand of rugby. A bit like the famous fight scene in Game of Thrones between the Viper and the Mountain, for all Gloucester's razzle-dazzle Leicester just focused on crushing the Cherry & Whites' skull with a display of fearsome power. The image of various Gloucester backs being sent into a different postcode by the rampaging Alesana Tuilagi and the late great Seru Rabeni remains fixed in my mind. Geordan Murphy and Alesana Tuilagi let rip for @LeicesterTigers v Gloucester in the 2007 Premiership final. — Leicester Tigers History (@HistoryTigers) November 24, 2023 Key player: Alesana Tuilagi Underrated player: Leo Cullen Favourite player: Seru Rabeni 6. Bath, 2025 Recency bias? What recency bias? I strongly suspect, however, that this Bath side, which is going to be even stronger next season with the additions of Santi Carreras, Henry Arundell and Chris Harris, might end up climbing this list. They dominated the regular season and lost only two matches with their full-strength side, as well as winning the Challenge Cup and Premiership Cup. For Johann van Graan's team to take their place among the great teams, the next challenge will be to conquer the Champions Cup. 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ITV News
an hour ago
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Bath Rugby victory parade after historic treble season
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ITV News
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