NEW YORK, NY – The world is not big enough! Despite its size, the RWU staff conquered it with ease. We have rugby news from all the inhabited continents of this big beautiful world. It starts with coverage of the final stop of the IRB 7s series in London, still in England we take on the final weekend of the regular season for the Aviva Premiership . We tackle the other two top leagues in Europe with the final round of the Pro12 and the start of the playoffs for the Top 14 … Super Rugby covers Africa, Australia and New Zealand and we made sure to tackle it….The international clashes and championships in Tier 3 action occurring in North America, The Caribbean, South America, Asia and Europe, made up the rest of the global events that had to be covered. If that wasn’t enough we have all the weekends transactions, news, events… and USA Rugby! Who needs 80 days to go around the world when you can do it in 8 minutes with the Weekend Rugby Recap:
England 7s: The London 7s, the 9th and final stop of the IRB 7s series is in the bag. Now stop us, if you heard this before, the AIG New Zealand All Black 7s side are champions of the series. This makes it their 12th series title in the 15 years of the series and their 4th title in a row. As for Team USA , they again struggled but managed to leave on a slightly positive note by winning the Shield. It is their 4th shield of this series. We will have our own review of this years 7s series in the following weeks.
Here are the results:
Final Cup: Australia 33 – 52 New Zealand
Third Place: England 26 – 19 Fiji
Final Plate: Kenya 14 – 38 South Africa
Final Bowl: Argentina 19 – 31 Canada
Final Shield: United States 36 – 12 Japan
Aviva Premiership – The East Midlands Machiavellian Rugger, Nick Hall, will back later in the week with his wrap-up of the final weekend of action in the Aviva. As for the matches, James O’Connor help inspire the London Irish to win over Sale, Leicester won in a controversial manner against Saracens, Northampton destroyed a young Wasps side, Worcester edged out Gloucester and Exeter beat up on Newcastle. In the playoff play in game between Harlequins and Bath, it was the Quins that outlasted their opponents in order to qualify for the playoffs.
Here are the results:
London Irish 22 – 20 Sale
Harlequins 19 – 16 Bath
Leicester 31 – 27 Saracens
Northampton 74 – 13 Wasps
Worcester 28 – 27 Gloucester
Newcastle 13 – 23 Exeter
Top 14 – Our Top14 expert, James Harrington has big news regarding the playoff quater-final matches. Both matches had fans and pundits talking and scratching their heads in wonder. Please CLICK HERE to check it out.
Rabodirect Pro12 – The final regular season of the Pro12 is in the books. Ospreys beat up on Connacht, Ulster edged out Munster. Treviso came up short against Newport-Gwent, Scarlets topped Cardiff, Glasgow shutout Zebre and Leinster just snuck by Edinburgh. The top four teams that are headed for the playoffs, in order are Leinster, Glasgow, Munster and Ulster.
Here are the results:
SAT – 10TH MAY 14
Ospreys 45 – 20 Connacht
Munster 17 – 19 Ulster
Newport Gwent Dragons 20 – 19 Benetton Treviso
Scarlets 27 – 15 Cardiff Blues
Glasgow 54 – 0 Zebre
Leinster 15 – 13 Edinburgh
Super Rugby – The RWU Super Rugby Superman, Jamie Wall, has all the important information on whether Round 13 proved to be lucky or unlucky for some teams this weekend.. Please CLICK HERE for the review.
Tier 3 – The weekend’s Tier 3 calendar was incredibly congested with championships all over the globe. We will begin with the European Nations Cup, which consists of 7 divisions, each with 4-6 teams. The matches determine who will get promoted and relegated form groups 1A, 1B, 2A – 2D, and 3A. Saturday’s fixture list, saw tiny Luxembourg put in a dominant performance at home against Finland, while Greece traveled to Norway. and walked away empty handed thanks to a high powered Norwegian attack. In a mouthwatering clash,doubling as a Rugby World Cup Qualifier (RWCQ), we saw two programs on the rise, Germany travel to Netherlands and earn a hard fought victory to keep their RWC 2015 hopes alive.
The Asian5N is short for the Asian 5 Nations, which is similar to the ENC but with 5 divisions and 5 teams in each. The matches this weekend were lopsided affairs despite two matches doubling as RWCQs. In the first RWCQ Hong Kong easily dispatched Korea and Japan absolutely obliterated Sri Lanka. In a match-up of developing rugby programs Kazakhstan pounded Chinese Taipei.
The SAMC is the same as the two previously mentioned tournaments but for South America and that has 4 divisions featuring 15 teams. In the matches this weekend, Uruguay‘s B side easily pasted Chile and Paraguay outlasted up and coming rugby nation, Brazil in an exciting affair.
The NACRA Championship is the same as the three previously mentioned tournaments but for North America and the Caribbean. It is not as layered as the other three competitions and rather has the weaker teams play qualifiers to get to a stage that it would seem fair to bring in the larger unions. USA Rugby competes in this tournament by sending the USA South Regional all-star team, in order to develop talent and make the competition a much fairer one. This weekend USA South easily disposed of Bermuda and Curacao thrashed St. Lucia.
Here are the results:
SAT– 10th MAY 14
ENC Luxembourg 27 – 7 Finland
ENC Norway 45 – 23 Greece
ENC/RWCQ Netherlands 7 – 17 Germany
ASIA5N Kazakhstan 37 – 8 Chinese Taipei
ASIA5N/RWCQ Hong Kong 39 – 6 Korea
ASIA5N/RWCQ Japan 132 – 10 Sri Lanka
SAMC Paraguay 31 – 24 Brazil
SAMC Uruguay 55 – 13 Chile
NACRA CH Curacao 56 – 7 St. Lucia
NACRA CH USA South 33 – 6 Bermuda
Drop Kick:
Signings/Player Moves: Munster and the IRFU confirmed that Canterbury and Crusaders fly-half (and RWU Class of 2012 member) Tyler Bleyendaal will join the province on a three-year contract from November 1st 2014.
USA Rugby News and Updates:
The college playoffs championship dominated the weekend in USA Rugby. Upstarts Mary Washington proved to be deserving champions of Women’s DII and Penn State continued their dominate run in women’s rugby as the shutout both their opponents in the semi-final and final for their 3rd straight Women’s DI title. In the men’s DI-A, St. Mary’s of California proved why they are the best team in the country as they won the rematch of last year’s title game against Life University with a complete and dominant performance. Central Florida repeated as DI-AA champions by taking apart Arizona.
Here is this weekend’s schedule:
FRI– 9th MAY 14
Women’s DI College National Championship Semifinals
Penn State 58 – 0 West Chester
Stanford 29 – 15 American International
SAT– 10th MAY 14
Women’s DII National Championship Semifinals
Indiana University of PA 10 – 15 Cal State Northridge
Mary Washington University 24 – 17 Florida International
Women’s DI College National Championship
West Chester 37 – 31 American International – 3rd Place
Penn State 38 – 0 Stanford – Final
Men’s DI-AA National Championship Semifinals
Central Florida 43 – 5 San Diego
Arizona 45 – 22 Bowling Green
Men’s DI-A College National Championship Final
Saint Mary’s College (CA) 21-6 Life University (GA.)
SUN– 11th MAY 14
Women’s DII National Championship
Florida International 17-19 Indiana University of PA – 3rd Place
Mary Washington University 36-22 Cal State Northridge – Final
Men’s DI-AA National Championship
Bowling Green 25 – 19 San Diego – 3rd Place
Central Florida 64-13 Arizona – Final
All of the National Championship Semi-Finals and Finals were streamed live and can still be watched on USA Rugby TV.
Samsoni Viriviri IRB Sevens Player of the Year– RWU Class of 2013 member, Mr. Viriviri as per the IRB press release, “becomes the first Fijian to win the award since it was first presented in 2004, having finished the season with 52 tries. Viriviri beat fellow nominees Kyle Brown (South Africa), Tim Mikkelson (New Zealand) and Tom Mitchell (England).”
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 Frechette and Declan Yeats, respectively.
And until the next time… stay low and keep pumping those legs!
