NEW YORK, NY – Much like how Friday we had the shortest Preview ever, today we will have the shortest Weekend Recap ever. We only had a limited amount of fixtures to report, but the Global Rugby Recap still has updates re: All Blacks, Lancaster, Watson, USA Club 7s, Currie Cup and more… so without delay, here you go.
USA Rugby Club 7s: Congrats to Scion Sirens ODA out of the DC area for winning the Women’s division of the 2016 USA Rugby Club 7s National Championships at Dick’s Sporting Good Park in Commerce City, Colo . We also extend congratulations to Rugby Utah ODA for winning the Men’s division. Here’s a solid write-up. Every one of the 96 matches at Club 7s Championships was be available to watch free of charge on The Rugby Channel and could still be seen on the Rugby Channel website… The AIG Men’s Collegiate All-Americans Tour to Queensland sponsored by WellDog ended Saturday night at Ballymore Stadium, where they played the BLK Queensland Premier Rugby Barbarians in a tense 80-minute clash… In USA player news, James Hilterbrand is once again going to play with the Sydney Rays in the National Rugby Championship in Australia.
News & Transactions:
All Blacks: New Zealand Rugby (NZR) are not planning to remove the All Blacks moniker from its Sevens and Maori teams. The aforementioned sides were given the name in 2012 as part of a re-branding strategy, although it hasn’t always had the approval of some sections of New Zealand’s rugby community. Calls to scrap the name intensified after the All Black 7s Men’s poor performance at the Rio Olympics, where they suffered a humiliating defeat to Japan and then bowed out in the quarter-finals to eventual winners Fiji. If you are wondering what an All Black is, you a re not alone. Check out this video.
Super Rugby: The Western Force have secured the signature of Canterbury Bulldogs (of Australia’s National Rugby League) star Curtis Rona to a two-year contract.
Mitre 10 (NPC): Former England coach Stuart Lancaster is helping Counties-Manukau prepare for their upcoming Mitre 10 Cup Premiership campaign. Since resigning as England boss, after their humiliating exit from the Rugby World Cup on home soil last year, Lancaster has been exploring how different professional sporting teams operate. He was contacted by new Counties coach Darryl Suasua who asked Lancaster if he was interested in helping for a short time and Lancaster has been staying at Suasua’s house while in New Zealand… For an explanation on the Mitre 10 Cup, see fixtures.
Currie Cup: Embattled president of the Eastern Province Rugby Union (EPRU), Cheeky Watson, has again escaped a vote of no confidence against him. Watson was set to face the music at a general meeting on Saturday, but the meeting was called off at the last minute because SA Rugby executive member Francois Davids has flu and won’t be able to attend the meeting. The meeting would have been a continuation of a meeting on May 31 which couldn’t be concluded. The business wing of the EPRU has since been liquidated.
Australia Buildcorp NRC NRC: Queensland Rugby Union announced the coaching staff for both the Brisbane City and Queensland Country sides. Former Brisbane City coach Nick Stiles has been promoted to head of the Queensland Reds in Super Rugby and his post has been filled by Rodney Seig. Country unveiled Wallabies legend Toutai Kefu as their coach for the 2016 NRC. Kefu’s assistants will be former head coach Jason Gilmore and All Blacks great Brad Thorn as forwards coach… Thorn will play a dual for Queensland Country as he is set to make his return to the field after being named in the Queensland Country Squad for this year’s Buildcorp NRC.
The weekend’s fixtures:
2016 Currie Cup qualification: The tournament is a competition that will be played between 5 August and 15 October 2016 and will feature nine teams that qualified through the 2016 Currie Cup qualification competition. The 9 South African provincial unions are Pumas, Sharks, Blue Bulls, Western Province, Eastern Province, Boland, Griquas, Free State and Golden Lions. This will be the 78th edition of South Africa’s premier domestic rugby union competition. The second round of fixtures began with Boland dispatching the make-shift Eastern Province side and Sharks comfortably winning against Griquas. The Golden Lions began defense of their title by crushing Pumas and Free State made light work of the Blue Bulls.
Here are the results:
Fri – 12 Aug 2016
Eastern Province 10-28 Boland
Sharks 46-24 Griquas
Sat – 13 Aug 2016
Golden Lions 68-26 Pumas
Free State 43-20 Blue Bulls
Mitre 10 Cup: The Mitre 10 Cup (formally known “National Provincial Championship” or “NPC“) is the highest level of New Zealand domestic professional rugby union competition, contested annually from late August to early November and managed by the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU). Building off competitions dating back to the National Provincial Championship in 1976, with teams from a number of provinces, the Mitre 10 Cup officially started with the 2006 season with 14 teams after the National Provincial Championship (NPC) was split into this professional competition and the amateur Heartland Championship competition.
The competition was known as the Air New Zealand Cup to the end of the 2009 season; the name then changed to the ITM Cup for the 2010 season after ITM, the trading name of Independent Timber Merchants Co-operative Ltd., a New Zealand building supplies retailer took over as lead sponsor. In 2016 the New Zealand-owned home improvement and garden retailer, Mitre 10 took over sponsorship after out-bidding ITM. For the Mitre 10 Cup competition it will involve the top 14 provincial unions of New Zealand. We will hopefully have more information in our Southern Hemisphere preview. The schedule for week one see North Harbour host Counties-Manukau, Northland against Manawatu, Bay of Plenty tackles Taranaki, Hawkes Bay face Wellington and Canterbury battle fellow heavyweight Auckland.
Here is the schedule:
Thu – 18 Aug 2016
North Harbour – Counties Manukau
Fri – 19 Aug 2016
Northland – Manawatu
Sat – 20 Aug 2016
Bay Of Plenty – Taranaki
Hawkes Bay – Wellington
Canterbury – Auckland
That’s all for now, please feel free to comment below, look for and “Like” our Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Pageand follow us on Twitter@: @RugbyWrapUp, @Junoir Blaber, @MeetTheMatts, @Luke Bienstock, @Ronan Nelson, @Zack Stryfeller, @Brian C Cole, @Garrett Harper, @James Harrington and @Declan Yeats.
And as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.
