Global Rugby Recap: Autumn Internationals, LV= Cup, and more

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NEW YORK, NY – Another fantastic weekend of  international rugby is in the books. We have witnessed some great games featuring the  the SANZAR nations of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand taking on the 6 Nations unions, matches in the Aviva Premiership and the LV= Cup and finally, Tier 3 action in the European Nations Cup. We’ll also  discuss Player Transactions, USA Rugby News and IRB News. With that being said, let’s dive into the  Global Rugby Recap:

Penalty Kick:
Transactions: London Welsh have made the signing of eightman Chris Hala’ufia from the Scarlets permanent. The Welsh also added Tongan number eight Opeti Fonua to their roster on Friday and he went straight into their matchday squad on Saturday.  Scottish born Bath prop, Grant Shiells was released by the club  at his request so that he could join Guinness Pro 12 side Edinburgh less than six months after his arrival  from Newcastle. Shiells wasn’t getting enough playing time and he made the request in an attempt to for more first team action.

USA Rugby News and Updates: USA Rugby announced its first official USA Rugby Girls High School All-American team, which will be sponsored by Serevi Rugby. Joining six other USA Rugby age-grade All-American sides, including the Boys High School All-Americans, the GHSAAs will allow for comprehensive opportunities for young female rugby players to be identified through the USA Rugby High Performance pathway. This continues the development of player pathways by USA Rugby.

The Men’s 7s program will be having its High-Performance Camp in preparation for the Dubai 7s from Sunday, Nov. 16, through Saturday, Nov. 22. Fourteen athletes in Residency at the Olympic Training Center will train with the Eagles’ coaching staff– 11 remote athletes, and four members of the World-Class Athlete Program (WCAP). Series debutant and resident athlete, Perry Baker will be joined by the likes of WCAP players Will Holder and Nu’u Punimata who appeared in the previous season.  The remote athletes knocking on the door include the likes of Kingsley McGowan and Max DeAchaval. It’s an interesting mix and only one or two names can be debated. The full press release can be found here and the squad list is below.

Men’s Eagles Sevens High Performance Camp

Men’s Eagles Sevens | Coaching Staff
Mike Friday – Head Coach
Chris Brown – Coach
Phil Greening – Coach
Brian Finn – Athletic Trainer
Nick Tricarico – High Performance Sevens Manager
Alex Magleby – National Sevens Director

Shadowing Camp
Tui Osborne – Life NDA
Nese Malifa – Coach – at Large

The 2014 USA Rugby Women’s Division I College Fall Championship and qualifier for next May’s National Championship took place this weekend. The competition is hosted by ACRA. The road to the 2015 USA Rugby College National Championship Series began with the Rounds of 16 and eight Nov. 15-16th. Dartmouth College, Notre Dame College, University of Northern Iowa, and Vassar College hosted the 4 regional brackets. Click here for the full national bracket. For the full list of results, check out our friend Wendy Young and her website for all things ScrumhalfConnection.com

IRB News: World champion New Zealand celebrates five years at the top of the IRB World Rankings. Five years consistently ranked as the best team in the world. This is a serious achievement.

Click here for an interesting story of cooperation and friendship as the Ireland RFU work with the Georgia RU to help Georgia improve its referee levels.

WEEKEND FIXTURE LIST:

Autumn Internationals: The Autumn Internationals are an interesting mix. The 4 big Southern hemisphere sides are at the end of their season while the Northern sides are come together for the first time since the summer. There is often a rustiness for Northern sides,though they still win some matches during the first weekend. The second will see sides that have been together more. These matches become much tighter tussles.  This weekend, Argentina edged out their rugby cousin Italy. Samoa was able to push past Canada and Japan managed to win their arm wrestle against Romania. Once again, England came up 3 points short against a SANZAR nation as they lost to South Africa. Wales survived a serious fright from Fiji. Tonga pounded the USA. The motley crew known as the French Barbarians easily defeated Namibia. New Zealand got a scare of their own against Scotland while France achieved a small upset against Australia. Russia defeated Hong Kong and won the Ustinov Cup (a version of the Bledisloe Cup between the two nations) and Ireland crushed Georgia in the final match of the weekend.

RWU has reviews of four matches. The Tonga v USA  match review is found by clicking here.  The reviews for the England-South Africa match, France v Australia and the Scotland v New Zealand matches by James Harrington, Nicholas Hall and Jamie Wall can be found here, here and here, respectively.

Here are the results:
FRI – 14TH NOV 14
TOUR Italy 18 – 20 Argentina
TOUR Canada 13 – 23 Samoa
SAT – 15TH NOV 14
TOUR Romania 13 – 18 Japan
TOUR England 28 – 31 South Africa
TOUR Wales 17 – 13 Fiji
TOUR Tonga 40 – 12 USA
TOUR French Barb 35 – 14 Namibia
TOUR Scotland 16 – 24 New Zealand
TOUR France 29 – 26 Australia
TOUR Hong Kong 27 – 39 Russia
SUN – 16TH NOV 14
TOUR Ireland 49 – 7 Georgia

If you are in the US and looking to watch any of these internationals, I must recommend beIN sports. That is not a typo. That is how they spell the sports network’s name. Check your cable provider for access because I have England/SA, Italy/Argentina and Wales/Fiji and the rest of the matches appearing on tape delay as the week rolls on. They also have Aviva Premiership and Pro12 matches.

Aviva Prep: The Aviva did not take this weekend off as some of you may have thought. Northampton came up short against Exeter and Gloucester had a letdown against Harlequins. London Irish traveled up to Sale and left empty handed, while Newcastle made the short trip to Bath heading  home a defeated side . In an interesting match-up, Leicester showed they still have some fight as they drew Saracens. The London Welsh were absolutely obliterated by Wasps.

Here are the results:
FRI – 14TH NOV 14
Northampton 18 – 24 Exeter
Gloucester 15 – 22 Harlequins
SAT – 15TH NOV 14
Sale Sharks 36 – 8 London Irish
Bath 23 – 14 Newcastle Falcons
SUN – 16TH NOV 14
Leicester Tigers 21 – 21 Saracens
Wasps 71 – 7 London Welsh

LV=Cup: With the rugby calendar so full, the LV= Cup has developed into one of the premier developmental tournaments for young players in Wales and England. The 12 Aviva premiership teams along with the 4 Welsh regions battle it out to find a champion. The tournament allows the starts of tomorrow to showcase their abilities. This weekend was Welsh Derby weekend as the Cardiff Blues edged out the Scarlets. The Ospreys were no match for the Dragons.

Here are the results:
FRI – 14TH NOV 14
Cardiff Blues 19 – 13 Scarlets
Ospreys 35 – 51 Dragons

Tier 3 – In Tier 3, The men’s European Nations Cup consists of 7 divisions each with 4-6 teams. The matches determine who will get promoted and relegated form groups 1A, 1B, 2A – 2Dd and 3A. Saturday’s fixture list saw action between 1B and 2C.It was a hometown sweep in the ENC as Ukraine lost to hosts Beligum. Poland headed over to Moldova but returned home thoroughly beaten. Finally, the seemingly unstoppable force that is Cyprus was finally stopped by the home side, Latvia.

Here are the results:
Sat – 15th Nov 14
Moldova 48-25 Poland
Belgium 25-10 Ukraine
Latvia 39-20 Cyprus

That’s it for now. Feel free to comment below, look for and “Like” our Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Page and follow us on Twitter@: RugbyWrapUp,Junoir Blaber, DJ Eberle, Nick Hall, James Harrington, Cody Kuxmann, Jaime Loyd, Karen Ritter , Jamie Wall, Jake Frechette and Declan Yeats, respectively.

And as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.

PS: Here is the USA v Tonga Game, and if you want to say thanks for the video, you can do so by donating to my MOVEMBER Campaign at https://us.movember.com/mospace/1862480