NEW YORK, NY- Another great weekend of big-time rugby is in the books; now the hard part of trying to condense it into this small Weekend Rugby Recap begins.
The were several matches with playoff indications in Europe’s 3 top leagues: Aviva Premiership, Pro 12 and Top 14… Though playoffs aren’t beckoning in the same sense in SANZAR‘s Super Rugby, this weekend helped to separate the pretenders from the contenders… In the international arena there was the Can-Am series, Junior World Rugby Tournament (JWRT) and Tier 3, European Nations Cup… If that wasn’t enough, there was also USA Rugby News, International Announcements and Transactions…
Ladies First,
Can-Am Series : The Can-Am series between the Canadian and USA Women’s rugby teams in the Weekend Preview. The Women’s Eagles’ players will tour Canada from April 11-21. The first match of the 2 match series saw the USA get steamrolled, the second match was as different as day and night. The Eagles fought harder and appeared more crisp in the first half. They finished the first half up 10-0, however a furious comeback by Canada saw them overcome the first half deficit and win the the series 2-0.
Here are the results:
SAT – 19TH APR 14
Canada 14 – 10 USA
Junior World Rugby Trophy – The Junior (Under-20) World Rugby Trophy is a tournament for the second tier nations of rugby at the U-20 level. The winner gets promoted to the Junior World Cup competition which features, the top tier nations in international rugby. It is being held in Hong Kong this year. This week will be the start of pool play. The USA won the JWRT in 2012 and got promoted to the JWC in 2013. Japan are your new champions of the JWRT. They thoroughly outclassed a physical Tongan side to win handily and promotion to the JWC. Though it was the 3rd place match, the USA v Uruguay game was a match that could have easily been the championship match, if not for bonus points and the odd bounce of the rugby ball. As such this match was the toughest and tightest match of the weekend. In the end, USA snatched a win by the slimmest margin possible.
Here are the results:
SAT – 19TH APR 14
7th Place Play-Off
Hong Kong 30-33 Canada
5th Place Play-Off
Georgia 46-17 Namibia
3rd Place Play-Off
USA 26-25 Uruguay
Final
Tonga 10-35 Japan
Aviva Premiership – The East MidlandsMachiavellian rugger, Nick Hall, will have some great talking points following this weekend’s games when he returns later in the week. In the interim, Harlequins got a major scalp and really gave themselves an outside chance of the playoffs by taking down Leicester. Sale slaughtered Exeter, while Bath assured Worcester‘s relegation with their home victory. Wasps took on Gloucester in match for pride and the home side Wasps gave their friends a good show. Northampton got back to their winning ways against London Irish and Saracens continued their great form as the traveled to Newcastle and left victorious.
Here are the results:
Fri – 18th Apr 14
Harlequins 24 – 20 Leicester
Sat – 19th Apr 14
Exeter 12 – 55 Sale
Bath 32 – 20 Worcester
Wasps 38 – 30 Gloucester
Sun – 20th Apr 14
Northampton 36 – 21 London Irish
Newcastle 18 – 23 Saracens
Top 14 – Our Top14 Castres based expert, James Harrington has an exciting recap of all the action from this frantic weekend. Please CLICK HERE, to check him out.
Rabodirect Pro12 – There seem to be four teams locked into the 4 playoff spots but there are still a few games left so anything can happen. Leinster continued their grip on first place by running a clinic on Treviso, Glasgow solidified their 4th place spot against 3rd place Ulster. Last placed Zebre enjoyed a home win at Edinburgh‘s expense and Munster were able to scratch out a win against Connacht. Cardiff put an end to Scarlets slim playoff hopes and Ospreys are still in the hunt for the playoffs while they remain the odd man out in 5th place.
Here are the results:
FRI – 18TH APR 14
Leinster 62 – 7 Benetton Treviso
Glasgow 27 – 9 Ulster
SAT – 19TH APR 14
Zebre 26 – 13 Edinburgh
Connacht 23 – 32 Munster
SUN – 20TH APR 14
Cardiff Blues 17 – 13 Scarlets
Newport Gwent Dragons 10 – 20 Ospreys
Super Rugby – Super Rugby Superman, Jamie Wall, has some good news and some bad news regarding the this latest weekend of Super Rugby action. Please CLICK HERE to read more.
Tier 3 – The European Nations Cup consists of 7 divisions, each with 4-6 teams. The upcoming matches determine who will get promoted and relegated form groups 1A, 1B, 2A – 2D, and 3A. This weekend matches saw Bosnia & Herzegovina be rude hosts to Norway as they demolished the Scandinavians. Meanwhile Croatia took on Lithuania in a tight contest as they emerged victorious.
Here are the results:
SAT – 19th APR 14
ENC Bosnia & Herzegovina 43 – 0 Norway
ENC Croatia 25 – 21 Lithuania
Penalty Kick:
Signings/Player Moves: In a rarity there were no transactions this past weekend. The largest piece of news was the announced retirement of Bruce Reihana from rugby after being turned down for a renewed contract by Bordeux-Begles. Don’t be surprised if he ends up as part of the coaching staff for Northampton Saints, where he is a club legend.
USA Rugby News and Updates: USA Rugby has officially accepted the International Olympic Committee’s invitation to send one Boy’s and one Girl’s rugby sevens team to the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games. The Games will be held in China, August 16-28.
In conjunction with the USA Rugby AIG Women’s Collegiate and Junior All-American East and West camps in Harrisonburg, Va., and Greeley, Colo., respectively, the USA Rugby Coach Development Department is offering a professional development opportunity to the nation’s coaches. Coaches selected for the Coach Development Program this summer will shadow and assist the WCAA and WJAA coaching staffs of Martha Daines and Danielle Miller, respectively, while also gaining 10 Professional Development Credits.
That’s it for now. Feel free to comment below, look for and “Like” our Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Page and follow us on Twitter@: RugbyWrapUp,Junoir Blaber, DJ Eberle, Nick Hall, James Harrington, Cody Kuxmann, Jaime Loyd, Karen Ritter , Jamie Wall, Jake Frechetteand Declan Yeats, respectively.
And until the next time… stay low and keep pumping those legs!
