Weekend Rugby Preview: Women's RWC, Super Rugby Final, Player Moves, USA Rugby News

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WRWC captains NEW YORK, NY – This week’s addition of the Weekend Rugby Preview is warm and waiting like apple pie, so let’s get it served…

The big news is that this is kickoff weekend of the Women’s Rugby World Cup. TheWRWC began today in Marconnes, France. Our very own Karen Ritter,put together an nice and straightforward preview of the tournament and our man in France, James Harrington, had a scathing review regarding the lack of coverage of the tournament by the French media. All that aside, the matches are underway and we aim to recap as much as possible for you. For much more in-depth coverage we can recommend our friends Scrum Queens or Your Scrumhalf Connection. They are the forerunners in Women’s rugby coverage. TheUSA will face Ireland in a key opening game tussle.

Super Rugby: The RWU Super Rugby Superman, Jamie Wall, has produced a spectacular preview each weekend and the one before this weekend’s final for the Super Rugby title meets his high standard of excellency. Please CLICK HERE for his most awesome latest.

Premiership 7s: The Premiership Rugby Sevens Series is a 7s competition for the 12 Aviva Premiership Clubs that will play the following season. From this, loads of young talent are discovered. The premiership 7s is now followed by a World Club 7s tournament, which is the brainchild of the Premiership 7s branding team. This weekend begins play in the other 3 groups to see who will join the 2 Welsh sides in the final.

Here are the groups:
Pool B
Gloucester
Bath
Exeter
London Irish

Pool C
Harlequins
Wasps
Northampton
Saracens

Pool D
Newcastle
Leicester
Sale
London Welsh

RWC2015: The repechage round took on a stark contrast as the first round of play is scheduled this weekend. Poor old Zimbabwe will travel to an unknown foreign climate to take on Russia. Meanwhile the Hong Kong national trip was smooth but more than 36 hours in the air. There is good news as a new words under the DL of piece/

Here is the weekend schedule:
SAT– 2ND AUG 14
RWCQ Russia – Zimbabwe
RWCQ Uruguay – Hong Kong

Conversion Kick:
Transactions: Namibian and Super Rugby Lions player, Chrysander Botha, is now an Exeter Chief. He’ll likely play one year in England before representing Nambia in the RWC… Bath, have announced that theB&NES Council have approved the club’s temporary planning application… Busy week then I guess… Wasps have recruited former England and Lions hooker Andy Titterrell as their Strength and Conditioning team for the new season… Harlequins have confirmed the that former England U18 hooker Harry Allen was let go due illegal steroid doping usage.

Glasgow Warriors prop Jon Welsh has undergone shoulder surgery and is expected to be unavailable for the first few months of the season… The Newport-Gwent Dragons have confirmed that Italian international (by way of Australia) fly-half Kris Burton has left the Welsh Region and is headed back down under. The Dragons also announced that full-back Lee Byrne will captain the squad in the upcoming season.

Clermont 8Man Damien Chouly will be the club’s new captain after center Aurelien Rougerie stepped down from the role at the end of last season. According to rumors from France, former South Africa prop CJ van der Linde has joined French and European champions Toulon.

Sharks prop Tendai “Beast” Mtawarira has revealed that he will leave the franchise at the end of 2015 after the 2015 RWC… The Sharks allegedly also have completed a deal to sign Lionel Cronje from the Brumbies, as Cronje looks tokick start his career… The Cheetahs suffered a quadruple blow as Springbok front-row pair Adriaan Strauss and Trevor Nyakane, along with Pieter Labuschagne and Jamba Ulengo, have all joined the Bulls… Western Force utility back Dane Haylett-Petty has signed a one-year contract extension with the Perth-based franchise.

Two years ago we reported about Western Force hooker Nathan Charles signing a two-year extension with the franchise. Charles suffers from Cystic Fibrosis (a debilitating disease affecting the respiratory system) and was not expected to live to 10 when born. He is now 25 and the doctors are telling him he will not last until 37. He is the only pro athlete playing a contact sport with this illness. On a good day he has to take 28 tablets – 20 vitamins and eight prescribed medications. On bad days, it’s twice that.At the time there was talk of him being a Wallaby. Since then he has two caps, has been named to the Rugby Championship training squad for this year and has re-signed with the Force again, through 2016. Way to go Nathan!!

USA Rugby News and Updates: The USA Rugby AIG Boys High School All-Americans, also sponsored by Aircraft Charter Solutions, lost their third match of their Rugby 4 nations mini-tournament. The tournament features the Italy U-18s, Uruguay U-18/19s and the the U-18s of the host nation, Argentina. The USA could not keep the tempo they started the match with against Uruguay. Please CLICK HERE for a match report.

USA Rugby Boys High School All-Americans | Argentina Tour
USA 13-35 Argentina U18s
USA 9 – 20 Italy U18s
USA 17 – 27 Uruguay U18/19s

The 32 men’s and women’s teams for the 2014 USA Rugby Emirates Airline Club 7s National Championships were announced, along with the pools for the tournament. Please CLICK HERE for more information.

The 2013-2014 USA Women’s college Americans was announced.Please CLICK HERE for the list. As for how the WCAAs did on their tour of Canada, they went undefeated. Please CLICK HERE for a tour recap.

Tai Enosa and Pila Taufa, who have been in the 7s residency program in Southern California in the past, and Perry Baker of Tiger Rugby Academy, will join the Eagles ahead of the 2014-15 IRB HSBC Sevens World Series on USOC off-site residency contracts.

Speaking of 7s, the cities and stops for the 2014-2015 Womens Sevens Circuit have been announced.

IRB Women’s Sevens World Series 2014-15
First round: Dubai, United Arab Emirates – December 4-5, 2014
Second round: São Paulo, Brazil – February 7-8, 2015
Third round: Atlanta, Georgia, USA – March 14-15, 2015
Fourth round: Langford, British Columbia, Canada – April 18-19, 2015
Fifth round: London, UK – May 15-16 2014
Sixth round: Amsterdam, Netherlands – May 22-23 2014