MOSCOW, RUSSIA – There was lots of great rugby action in the past few days, including the Rugby World Cup 7s (RWC7s), British & Irish Lions vs Australia and Super 15 action. Let’s get to it. Also occurring on this side of the world this weekend was the 2nd test between the British and Irish Lions as well as plenty of Super 15 action. So lets get to it.
RWC7s Mens Bracket – The RWC 7s concluded with a bang. The action was fantastic but the turnout… wasn’t. This was no surprise as RWU friend, the Russian Rugby Rain Man, told us in advance. In the Men’s Bracket the action started out on Friday with loads of teams looking good and laying their claim for a top 8 spot. The boys were separated from the men on Saturday, with some matches being extremely tight like the USA’s 1 point loss to Canada. On the final day it seemed only fair that the best team on the 2013 circuit and over the last 4 years since Dubai 2009, the AIG New Zealand 7s Mens team were crowned champions after blanking England. Congrats to RWU friend, DJ Forbes, captain of the World Champions!!
Here are the results:
Final: New Zealand 33 – 0 England
Third Place: Fiji 29 – 5 Kenya
Plate Final: Samoa 12 – 19 Canada
Bowl Final: Russia 29 – 5 Japan
RWC7s Womens Bracket: The women were even harder to predict as so many teams were even. The eventual winner were AIG New Zealand 7s Womens team, but the 2nd place finish by Canada and the 3rd place match between USA and Spain proved that faults in their respective Men’s teams do not necessarily apply to their national womens programs, which is nothing but a positive.
Here are the results:
Final: New Zealand 29 – 12 Canada
Third Place: USA 10 – 5 Spain
Plate Final: England 5 – 14 Australia
Bowl Final: Netherlands 10 – 12 Fiji
Lions v Australia: In another instant classic, Australia came away victorious, notching the series at 1-1. Thankfully, this match didn’t have as high a body count. It was nip and tuck all game as no team could get away by more than 6 points. Australia scored almost at the death and a Lions long distance PK by Leigh Halfpenny fell short in extra time. Australia will likely not have lock and captain James Horwill after the 2nd hearing regrading his stamping charge. The Lions will be without captain Sam Warburton, who tore his hamstring deep into the 2nd half.
The match itself became a kicking duel early on. Leigh Halfpenny and Christian Lealiifano traded blows for most of the match. A tight game was finished with Australia knocking on the Lions door late in the game and after a few minutes of sustained pressure Adam Ashley-Cooper finally slid over for the try to make it 14-15 and Lealifiano made the tough conversion to give Australia the lead. After a series of poor decisions by the Wallabies, the Lions had a chance to win it with a 55m long range penalty kick, but that proved too far for Halfpenny’s boot.
Final Score:
Australia 16 – B&I Lions 15
Super 15: In Super Rugby, The Crusaders showed no mercy to the Highlanders while The Chiefs were too much for the Hurricanes. the Bulls snotklapped the Kings and the Sharks beat the Blues in the last minute of play. The Cheetahs seemed to have no answer for the Stormers.
Here are the results:
Chiefs 34 – 22 Hurricanes
Highlanders 12 – 40 Crusaders
Sharks 22 – 20 Blues
Bulls 48 – 18 Southern Kings
Stormers 28 – 3 Cheetahs
That is it for now, feel free to comment below, look for and “Like” our Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Page and follow us on Twitter @RugbyWrapUp, @JunoirBlaber, @Declan Yeats, @Mathew Drew Turner and @Ebstide52, respectively. And until the next time… stay low and keep pumping those legs.
