NEW YORK, NY – It was a busy weekend of rugby action as the domestic competitions in Europe were back in focus. We will report on those matches, as well as the weekend’s news, plus, we’ll cover the headliners like: Western Force, Liam Messam, Tim Nanai-Williams, Nick Civetta, Titi Lamositele, Gareth Baber… So, let’s dive into the RWU Global Rugby Recap.
News & Transactions:
Super Rugby: The Western Force are taking a radical route to keep their long-term future alive by giving fans the option to own a part of the franchise. Following a strategy used by NFL team, the Green Bay Packers, and international football giant FC Barcelona, the Force is offering 5000, 1000 Australian dollar ownership certificates, that will be valid for a year, a move that could raise 5 million dollars.
Liam Messam and Tim Nanai-Williams will return to the Chiefs for the 2017 Super Rugby season after stints in Japan… Former Blues coach Paul Feeney has put pen to paper on a three-year deal with Western Province and the Stormers, according to a report… The Southern Kings have bolstered their stocks by signing six players for the 2017 Super Rugby campaign. They added experienced prop Chris Heiberg who joins from the Western Force. He will be joined by second row duo Irné Herbst and Wandile Putuma. These three experienced players will be joined by youngsters Garrick Mattheus (fly-half), Yaw Penxe (wing) and Sintu Manjezi (flank/lock).
Mitre 10: Waikato announced the re-signing of All Blacks center Anton Lienert-Brown and front-row Loni Uhila for the 2017 Mitre 10 Cup season.
USA Rugby: Newcastle Falcons’ Nick Civetta and Saracens’ Titi Lamositele are being made available by Premiership Rugby to tour with the USA Men’s Eagles in November, including the match against the New Zealand Maori All Blacks at Chicago’s Toyota Park. The Friday, Nov. 4, match falls just outside of the international test window and Global Release Period that calls for professional clubs around the world to release players called up to international duty as subject to World Rugby’s Regulation 9.
World Rugby: A World Rugby-commissioned study examining the management of game and training load by elite players has provided recommendations that will further inform player management and injury-prevention strategies for the elite game… Published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, and called ‘Managing player load in professional rugby union: a review of current knowledge and practices‘, the study reflects World Rugby’s ongoing evidence-based commitment to injury prevention at all levels of the game. It was undertaken by a cross-discipline working group as an action from World Rugby’s annual medical conference. For more information, click here.
Gareth Baber has been appointed the new head coach of the Fiji Rugby Union’s men’s sevens team, the reigning Olympic and HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series champions. Baber had spent the last three years overseeing Hong Kong’s sevens program, will assume the post vacated by Ben Ryan early next year. He has big shoes to fill.
The weekend’s fixtures:
As always, Ladies first…
Women’s Exhibition: Scotland‘s preparations for next month’s two-legged WRWC 2017 play-off against Spain continued on Saturday afternoon with loss to Wales Women at Cardiff Arms Park.
Here are the results:
Sat – 29 Oct 2016
Wales 15-0 Scotland
Aviva Premiership: The 2016/2017 Aviva Premiership will be the 30th season of the top flight of English domestic rugby union competition, and the seventh to be sponsored by Aviva Insurance. The current champions are Saracens. The most recently promoted side is Bristol, who have returned to the top flight after defeating Doncaster in the 2015-16 RFU Championship Play-Off Final. This weekend had Northampton edging out Gloucester. Harlequins were too strong for Worcester, Saracens out-muscled Leicester in the clash of the weekend. On Sunday, Wasps thumped Newcastle, Bristol fell to Sale and finally Exeter lost out to a late comeback from Bath.
Here is the schedule:
Fri – 28 Oct 2016
Northampton Saints 23-20 Gloucester
Sat – 29 Oct 2016
Harlequins 36-14 Worcester Warriors
Saracens 24-10 Leicester Tigers
Sun – 30 Oct 2016
Wasps 31-6 Newcastle Falcons
Bristol 13-31 Sale Sharks
Exeter Chiefs 10-13 Bath
Top 14: The Top 14 season continues. The twelve teams this season are champions Racing 92, runners-up Toulon, Clermont, Montpellier, Toulouse, Castres, Bordeaux, Brive, La Rochelle, Grenoble, Pau and Stade Français… Two new teams from the 2015–16 Pro D2 season were promoted to Top 14 this year, Bayonne and Lyon in place of the two relegated teams, Agen and Oyonnax. It marks the first time that both teams relegated are both promoted in the following season (Bayonne and Lyon where both relegated during the 2014–15 Top 14 season). The line-up for the weekend began with Pau coming up short against Toulouse… Then Montpellier squeaked out a win against La Rochelle, Stade Francais knocked off Lyon, Toulon drubbed Grenoble and Bayonne fell to defending champs Racing. Finally, Castres were too strong for Bordeaux and in a key match Brive had no answer for high-flying Clermont.
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 29 Oct 2016
Pau 20-24 Toulouse
Montpellier 12-11 La Rochelle
Stade Français 25-19 Lyon
Toulon 42-12 Grenoble
Bayonne 3-16 Racing 92
Sun – 30 Oct 2016
Castres 33-27 Bordeaux-Bègles
Brive 16-40 Clermont-Auvergne
Pro 12: The 2016–17 Pro12 (also known as the Guinness Pro12 for sponsorship reasons) will be the sixteenth season of the professional rugby union competition originally known as the Celtic League, and the seventh with its current four-country format. It is the third season to be referred to as the Guinness Pro12. The weekend starts with Ulster welcoming Munster, Cardiff host Scarlets, Edinburgh go against Zebre. Glasgow will face Treviso, the other Italian side. In a Welsh Derby, Ospreys host the Newport-Gwent while Leinster versus Connacht finish off the weekend in a heavyweight clash.
Here is the schedule:
Fri – 28 Sep 2016
Ulster – Munster
Cardiff Blues – Scarlets
Edinburgh – Zebre
Glasgow Warriors – Benetton Treviso
Sat – 29 Oct 2016
Ospreys – Newport-Gwent Dragons
Leinster – Connacht
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. It is finals weekend in the Cup. In the Championship final, North Harbour won promotion to the Premiership by winning an instant classic against Otago. In the Premiership Final, Canterbury won their 13th national title on Saturday as they defeated Tasman in Christchurch.
Here is the schedule:
Fri – 28 Oct 2016
Championship Final: Otago 14-17 North Harbour
Sat – 29 Oct 2016
Premiership Final: Canterbury 43-27 Tasman
European Nations Cup: The ENC, or the 6 Nations “B” , is the premier tournament for the second-tier nations of Europe. Unbeknownst to some, the ENC consists of seven divisions, each featuring between four and six teams. The matches played will determine who will get promoted and relegated from groups Championship, Trophy, Conference 1 North &1 South and 2 North & 2 South over a two-year cycle. The Championship, where the best teams in Europe not called England, Ireland, France, Italy, Wales or Scotland reside, has no promotion option – only relegation back to 1B. Hopefully promotion from 1A to the proper 6N will eventually occur… but we aren’t banking on it.
In the Conference 1 South this weekend it was all one-sided affairs as Malta crushed Cyprus, Croatia trounced Andorra and Slovenia ran riot over Serbia.
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 8 Oct 2016
C1S: Malta 31-3 Cyprus
C1S: Croatia 47-15 Andorra
C2S: Slovenia 74-13 Serbia
World Cup 2019 Qualifiers: Each of World Rugby‘s regional rugby unions must hold their Rugby World Cup Qualifiers for the at-large qualification spots for Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan. The regional unions are Rugby Afrique, Oceania Rugby, Rugby Europe, Asia Rugby, Rugby Americas North and ConSuR. There is a big Americas clash as Colombia were too strong for Mexico.
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 29 Oct 2016
Colombia 29-11 Mexico
That’s all for now, please feel free to comment below, look for and “Like” our Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Page and follow us on Twitter@: @RugbyWrapUp, @Junoir Blaber, @MeetTheMatts, @Luke Bienstock, @Ronan Nelson, @Brian C Cole and @Declan Yeats.
And as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.
