These are your rugby morning headlines on Sunday April 23.
Jenkins sees red amid huge Euro blow
Wales star Dafydd Jenkins will miss Exeter's season-defining Heineken Champions Cup semi-final against La Rochelle next weekend after being red carded in the Chiefs' impressive 22-21 Gallagher Premiership win against Bristol.
The downside for Exeter is that they will head to Bordeaux without lock star Jenkins, who was sent off in the 17th minute for a high tackle on Max Lahiff with the game scoreless.
Exeter stayed in the fight with tries from departing club greats Ian Whitten and Dave Ewers, and another for Josh Iosefa-Scott, to allow Joe Simmonds to land a 78th-minute penalty to win it.
The game's flashpoint came in the 17th minute when Jenkins was shown yellow for an upright face-on-head tackle on Bristol tighthead Lahiff, which cut him and saw his own match end early.
After close examination from the TMO, referee Craig Maxwell-Keys flashed red to Jenkins instead.
It was a cruel blow for the Wales youngster who misses what would have been the biggest club game of his career to date.
Williams wins big battle of Wales number nines
Tomos Williams won the battle of the Wales scrum-halves hands down, according to his coach, as Cardiff beat the Ospreys 38-21 on Judgement Day.
Williams helped set up two tries and was named man of the match in a timely reminder to Warren Gatland about his ability as he went head to head with Wales rival Rhys Webb.
The Cardiff man lost his Wales starting spot to veteran Webb during the Six Nations, although Gatland has yet to nail down his first choice number nine for the World Cup.
Cardiff boss Richard Hodges, standing in for David Young, said: "Tomos delivered to a tee. He was absolutely superb.
“There was only one nine in it. He obviously lost his Wales shirt towards the end of last season but he’s put himself back firmly in the mix.
“Rhys Webb is a quality operator but Tomos got the better of him.”
Peel's warning to Scarlets stars
Dwayne Peel has warned his Scarlets players they will have to raise their game significantly if they are to have any chance of beating Glasgow in their Challenge Cup semi-final.
The Scarlets were dire at Judgement Day, failing to build on their recent good form, as they got taken to the cleaners by a Dragons side who had not won a game in the UK since last November.
And the former Wales number nine insists if they play like that against Glasgow in Llanelli next Saturday they will come unstuck.
"I think that the level of intensity will be big next week, there's no doubt about that," said the Scarlets head coach.
"I think there'll be emotion involved, and it'll be an exciting week ahead. We will need to raise standards from what we had today. We have to look at ourselves, staff, and players to make sure that come a week today we are better.
"If we are not that level in a week we are going to get hurt."
The Scarlets found themselves 21-0 down after a mere 15 minutes at the Principality Stadium, and never seemed to be at the races from an emotional point of view.
And Peel admits he was deeply frustrated by the team's performance.
"It was littered with inaccuracies and I was a bit disappointed with some of the energy we showed in that first period."
Warriors warm up for Scarlets showdown as quarter-finals confirmed
Double chasing Glasgow Warriors warmed up for their big Challenge Cup semi-final showdown with the Scarlets by beating Connacht 29-27 win at their Scotstoun fortress.
The Warriors, who are unbeaten in 17 successive home matches, will hope to carry their momentum into next week's game in Llanelli and then their home United Rugby Championship play-off quarter-final against Munster.
Sadly, the quarter-final line-up sees on Welsh representation, the four regions each finishing outside of the top eight.
The quarter-finals are thus:
Leinster (1st) v Sharks (8th)
Ulster (2nd) v Connacht (7th)
Stormers (3rd) v Bulls (6th)
Glasgow (4th) v Munster (5th)
Wales Women back in action
Wales Women hope to get their Six Nations campaign back on track with victory over title chasing France in Grenoble today.
England, who thrashed Wales last time out, maintained their Grand Slam collision course with the French with a 48-0 victory over Ireland in Cork.
Only France can stop the World Cup runners-up from clinching a fifth consecutive Six Nations title and will be keen to maintain their own momentum.
However, Wales hope to have a significant say today and coach Ioan Cunningham said: "We always knew playing England and then playing France away was going to be a major challenge. But these are the tests we want, we are an ambitious team and we need to know where we are and we have made no secret that we have to build our strength in depth ahead of the next World Cup.
"We have reviewed the performance against England and we proved we can compete and can cause the best in the world problems."
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