NEW YORK, NY – As an early Christmas present, we’ve got a 2-parter for you today. Please check out the major announcements by USA Rugby and the IRB re USA 7s and the Rugby World Cup, respectively, by clicking this… Here though, we’re talking Aviva, RaboDirect & French Top 14.
Aviva Premiership: Round 11 of The English Domestic Rugby season is complete… and our Pre-season Previews are not completely on track. Gloucester are in the midst of an immense season, led by Freddie Burns. They continued their strong campaign, sneaking past Exeter… Leicester continue to have a solid season, dominating the over-matched London Irish… Northampton continue to spiral down as they lost to front-runners Harlequins… Bath continue to struggle offensively as they were shutout by a relentless Saracens defense. Here are all the scores:
Worcester 13 – 6 London Welsh
Bath 0 – 22 Saracens
Gloucester 18 – 16 Exeter
London Irish 9 – 31 Leicester
Northampton 9 – 18 Harlequins
Wasps 25 – 18 Sale
French Top 14:
In the French Top 14, the main surprise was Grenoble. Jonathan Pélissié and his mates upset 2nd place Toulouse. This was Toulouse’s second loss in as many games, while Grenoble got its second consecutive victory across competitions. The two sides seem headed in different directions, but only time will tell if that is temporary. Toulouse are desperately missing Luke McAllister at fly-half… Biarritz couldn’t continue the momentum gained from their Heineken Cup win last week against Stade Francais, who were continuing their winning streak from the Amlin Challenge Cup… Bayonne won despite a player going to the hospital and Montpelier lost against Perpignan as Perpignan are finding their form… Toulon won again, this time against Agen… but they didn’t get to 62 this time. No matter, they just keep winning.
Grenoble 15 – 6 Toulouse
Stade Francais 36 – 23 Biarritz
Bayonne 39 – 13 Mont de Marsan
Perpignan 30 – 19 Montpellier
Castres 31 – 10 Racing Metro Paris
Agen 9 – 15 Toulon
RaboDirect Pro 12: While Neath-Swansea Ospreys & Newport-Gwent Dragons had byes, this round of the RaboDirect was full of local derbies… Cardiff lost to their Welsh rivals Scarlets… Leinster had the difficult task of going to Ravenhill and taking on Ulster , who were rebounding from their first lost of the season. Ulster not only secured, but also denied Leinster a losing bonus point… Glasgow won the first match of 1872 Cup against Edinburgh. These clubs/cities have been playing against each other in one form or another since 1872, thus the cup… Treviso won the battle of Italian sides, edging Zebre in a battle of the ugly. Here are the results:
Cardiff Blues 6 – 9 Scarlets
Ulster 27 – 19 Leinster
Glasgow 23 – 14 Edinburgh
Zebre 3 – 10 Benetton Treviso
Connacht 12 – 16 Munster
Ref-Cam: In Sunday’s game in the English second division, The Championship, the latest technology was being tried out. Ref-Cam, a small camera that is part of a vest worn by refs will give commentators and fans at home a view of all the action the unfolds in front of the Ref. I can’t wait to hear what RWU Referee Expert , Cody Kuxmann, has to say on this matter. For us fans, we finally get answer to age old question “What game are you watching, sir?!”
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.
