WEST GHANA/USA – Another hurly-burly weekend of rugby is in the books. The Super 15 Rugby Champs have been crowned… The Premiership Rugby Champs have been crowned… Now we have a couple weeks of no major rugby but we will deal with that another time, lets get to the weekend’s events.
Super 15 Champs – As predicted here – thank you – the new champions of the 2012 Super Rugby season are the Waikato Chiefs. The Durban Sharks of South Africa tried their best in the first 20 minutes, throwing the kitchen sink at the Chiefs. However the jet-lag from 3 long trips in 3 weeks, finally caught up to the Sharks as from the 20th minute on, it was all Chiefs. Liam Messam had a man-of-the-match performance. However the greatest moment of the match went to Sonny Bill Williams as he leaped into the stands to celebrate with the fans after his try in the dying minutes to put the icing on the cake as the Chiefs won 37-6.
JP Morgan Asset Management Premiership 7s Champions – The London Irish 7s team beat Gloucester 7s 33 – 28 at the Rec Ground in Bath. The Irish came back from 28 – 5 at the half to score 28 unanswered points in the second half. Leading the charge were English International center Jonathan Joseph and Scotland International Joe Ansbro. It was a thriller, with Ansbro’s try at the death finishing the comeback.
All-Americans – The USA Rugby Men’s Collegiate All-Americans were named over the weekend. For the complete list of players and staff for both the 7s and 15s side, visit the USA Rugby Website. There were some players unavailable for selection due to JAA duty earlier in the summer to give proper these guys proper rest. The 15s squad will travel to Ireland this month to play Provincial Academy teams, facing Connacht Academy on Aug. 11 and Leinster Academy on Aug. 14. The 7s touring teams will assemble in Glendale, Colo., for the Serevi Rugbytown Sevens tournament Aug. 8-12, and in Chula Vista, Calif., for the National All-Star Championship (NASC) 7s tournament Aug. 14-19.
RWC 2015 Qualifying – The Schedule came out for the first round of matches in the Consur Bracket of Qualifying in the Americas region. Consur is basically the South American Division, minus Argentina as one would expect. The Consur B playoff will occur between 8-15 September 2012 and be between Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Costa Rica. The winner will move on the next phase and face the Caribbean winner Bermuda. Bermuda won the NACRA region playoff in March.
That is it for me for now. You can find us on the Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Page or on Twitter @JunoirBlaber and @RugbyWrapUp, respectively. And as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.
