VALENCIA, VENEZUELA – It’s Monday, which means it’s time for our Weekend Rugby Wrap-Up. Let’s get to it, starting with The Rugby Championship:
TRC: If you bet like we told you to, you’d be that much richer today… but actually, we should have been wrong on both games. That said, the Wallabies and All Blacks – or should that read: The Springboks and Pumas lost?
South Africa went toe-to-toe with New Zealand in the forwards but the kicking exploits – or lack there of – by Morne Steyn, Frans Steyn and Johan Goosen, helped NZ steal the game and win 21-11. The Springboks kickers managed only two of nine attempts and combined with a few blown scoring opportunities, they enabled the All Blacks to finally click. NZ did just enough and Richie McCaw was simply great, but our opinion is that the Boks lost this match more than NZ won it. Oh, and Coach Meyer could be heard screaming, “What the Heyneke were you doing out there?!” at oft-penalized prop Dean Greyling, who who Sin-Binned for a stupid penalty. In a refreshingly honest post-match interview, Meyer second-guessed himself on a number of things. Read it HERE.
In The Battle of the A’s, Australia roared back from a 19-7 Argentina lead with 17 unanswered points with just over 15 minutes in the game and stunned Los Pumas 23-19. It was one of the greatest escapes in rugby history. Graham Henry could not have been happy with “his” Puma squad’s Gold Coast Collapse, while the win saved Robbie Deans‘ job… for now.
Aviva Premiership: The English Domestic Rugby season continued with Round 3 and surprise, surprise… the London Welsh have their first victory of the season.
Bath 14 – 18 Northampton
Worcester 16 – 16 Gloucester
Harlequins 37 – 14 Sale
Wasps 43 – 14 London Irish
Saracens 9 – 9 Leicester
London Welsh 25 – 24 Exeter
French Top 14:The French season trucks along and the clubs remain uncooperative about releasing players during non-test windows.
Montpellier 32 – 25 Toulon
Perpignan 34 – 20 Toulouse
Bayonne 18 – 25 Racing Metro Paris
Agen 32 – 26 Grenoble
Castres 28 – 13 Biarritz
Mont de Marsan 6 – 14 Clermont Auvergne
Bordeaux-Begles 30 – 22 Stade Francais
RaboDirect Pro 12: Most of the weekends action had already taken place before the tragic news about Nevin Spence came out. Tributes will be planned at next week’s games. Ulster did win, though.
Connacht 11 – 24 Scarlets
Benetton Treviso 18 – 19 Leinster
Newport-Gwent Dragons 5 – 16 Cardiff Blues
Ospreys 10 – 28 Glasgow
Ulster 20 – 19 Munster
Edinburgh 41 – 10 Zebre
The Currie Cup: Round 6 is over and it appears the Golden Lions are struggling to stay top of the table, while the Sharks are beginning to hit their stride. Dark Horse favs Griquas appear not to be going anywhere either.
Griquas 49 – 34 Blue Bulls
Cheetahs 38 – 23 Golden Lions
Sharks 43 – 27 Western Province
The ITM Cup: The season has an insane fixture list, so I included the games that occurred after last week’s Wrap-Up and the mid-week matches – plus this weekend’s results:
Week 5
11 Sep Waikato 15 – 6 Bay of Plenty
12 Sep Tasman 13 – 10 Southland
Week 6
13 Sep North Harbour 20 – 23 Manawatu
14 Sep Bay of Plenty 37 – 16 Auckland
14 Sep Counties Manukau 43 – 12 Otago
15 Sep Taranaki 18 – 9 Canterbury
15 Sep Wellington 29 – 13 Waikato
16 Sep Tasman 17 – 20 Northland
16 Sep Southland 35 – 7 Hawke’s Bay
Chris Ashton: The England and Saracens winger might get the new nickname “Glashton.” Apparently some crazy fan glassed (hit with a glass bottle) him while out with his missus. Ashton tweeted that he was okay, except for a couple of scars, and he will be at training on time. I hope this doesn’t stop other rugby players from interacting with fans.
England 2015 Qualifying:South America: Paraguay finished unbeaten and was the winner of the South American B Championship in Valencia, Venezuela. However, it was Colombia who caused the upset of the tourney, with a victory over hosts Venezuela to go 2-1 and win second place. Here are the results from the Consur B qualifying round of games all held at the Estadio Arístides Pineda.
09/09/2012 Paraguay 54 – 17 Colombia
09/09/2012 Venezuela 28 – 17 Peru
12/09/2012 Paraguay 69 – 3 Peru
12/09/2012 Venezuela 3 – 26 Colombia
15/09/2012 Colombia 49 – 9 Peru
15/09/2012 Venezuela 8 – 73 Paraguay
Moscow 2013 Qualifier: Africa It has been determined that the final two places for qualifying in Africa will take place on September 29-30 at the Morocco 7s in Rabat, Morocco. Zimbabwe are one of the favorites but only time will tell. We will keep you updated.
That is it for me for now. Please feel free to comment below, look for and “Like” our Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Page and follow us on Twitter @RugbyWrapUp, @JunoirBlaber, @Declan Yeats and @Mathew Drew Turner, respectively.
And as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.
