There were plenty of outstanding tries scored in Europe over the weekend but a few also went begging, leaving players with some regrets.

While the last-ditch defence has to be credited in some of these missed opportunities, the attackers will rue their inability to get the job done.

The worst came from England’s latest sensation Henry Arundell, who simply timed his dive wrong and ended up knocking on before the ball had reached the line.

Dry pitch

Perhaps forgetting that there had been a rare dry day in London, Arundell did not skid along the turf as he intended which forced the ball to come loose.

He was still convinced that the try had been scored, but replays showed that the 20-year-old had rather embarrassingly lost possession just shy of the whitewash.

Fortunately for London Irish, it did not prove costly as they ended up claiming a 37-22 triumph to move up to fourth in the Premiership table.

Perhaps it was simply a case of the rugby gods evening things up after Sale Sharks’ Cobus Wiese took the lackadaisical approach to scoring a try in the Exiles’ previous Premiership home game.

Thinking that no one would be able to stop him due to his sheer physicality, Wiese sought to stroll across the line only to be shocked by the comparatively diminutive Rory Jennings rushing across and smashing him across the dead ball line.

Back to the weekend’s action and Arundell’s error was preceded by this shocker from Harlequins’ Nick David.

The full-back had initially done so well, taking a superb line off Marcus Smith’s brilliantly timed pass and surging 30 metres.

David still had so much left to do but he evaded the tackle of Owen Farrell and looked set to touch down and bring his team back into the contest.

He had not accounted for Max Malins, however, who just got to him before the whitewash. The Quins full-back still should have scored but, like Arundell, as he hit the ground the ball came loose.

That was not quite as bad as Bath’s though. They actually enjoyed their best performance of the season against Exeter Chiefs, claiming an impressive 36-19 victory, but still produced a moment which rather summed up their campaign as a whole.

Poor decision-making and execution

The West Countrymen had put together a superb move, with Ollie Lawrence making a brilliant break. He found Piers Francis who had a three-on-one outside him, but the decision-making, lines of running and execution was poor after that.

Francis missed out Joe Cokanasiga and instead gave it to Tom de Glanville, which allowed the Exeter Chiefs defender to drift.

The try still should have been scored but it made De Glanville’s task harder with Matt Gallagher unable to grasp the final pass.

It wasn’t just in the Premiership where tries were being butchered, however, as the Stormers messed up this chance against Leinster in the United Rugby Championship.

Steven Kitshoff did superbly to steal a botched lineout from the Irish province and the Springbok prop sent the lightening quick Hacjivah Dayimani clear.

The number eight looked destined to score but for some reason he started to head in field, allowing the cover defence to get back and tackle him, forcing Dayimani to off-load.

Although it was superb work from the Leinster defence, who then managed to turn the ball over at the subsequent ruck, we were left questioning the back-row’s decision not to run straight to the corner.

READ MORE: WATCH: Fly-half targeted with three nasty tackles in United Rugby Championship clash

The article WATCH: A weekend of butchered tries in the Premiership and United Rugby Championship appeared first on Planetrugby.com.