NEW YORK, NY- The June International Tours are officially over. This weekends action confirmed it. There were also qualifiers for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. There was an exciting round of Super Rugby, plus plenty of Tier 3 action. We also have all the latest transfer news and rumors and of course, USA Rugby news. And with all that said, here’s the Weekend Rugby Recap:
Ladies first:
The USA Women’s Eagles begin their 3 match warm-up tour for the Women’s Rugby World Cup in France in August, with a win against the RBS Women’s Six Nations 5th place finisher Wales. The Eagles won amid horrid conditions with the rain coming in from all directions. Of note was that the USA try was scored by RWU Player to Watch 2012 graduate Vanesha McGee and was the first 15s cap for our 2013 grad, Akalaini “Bui” Baravilala. The Eagles will face England in a midweek clash.
Here are the results:
SAT – 28thJUN 14
TOUR Wales 7 – 10 USA
Here is the midweek schedule:
WED – 2ND JUL 14
TOUR England – USA
June Internationals – There was only one Men’s International this weekend as South Africa steamrolled Scotland . The scoreline flatters the Springboks a bit but with Scotland only have access to players that were playing in the Rabodirect Pro 12, their side was young and a bit inexperienced. Though young, the newly crowned IRB World Junior Player of the Year, Handre Pollard looked good at fly-half for Springboks.
Here are the results:
SAT – 28thJUN 14
TOUR South Africa 55 – 6 Scotland
Super Rugby – The RWU Super Rugby Superman, Jamie Wall, has a great round-up of the first weekend back for Super Rugby. Please CLICK HERE.
Rugby World Cup Qualifiers – In what was anticipated to be a huge pacific island clash this weekend between Fiji and The Cook Islands. it became an epic pasting by the Flying Fijians. Considers the vast majority of The Cook Islands player base are still playing amateur rugby in New Zealand and Australia, it was really to be expected.
Here are the results:
SAT – 28thJUN 14
RWCQ Fiji 108 – 6 Cook Islands
Tier 3
The NACRA Championship is the tournament similar to those in other IRB regions. This tournament is for the countries in North America and the Caribbean. NACRA has 2 zones with top level (championship) and a bottom level (cup). Each Championship zone has 3 teams while the Cup Zones have 4 each. The Zones are regionally divided, so there is a North Zone and South Zone. USA Rugby competes in the North Zone Championship division. The USA is represented by the USA South Regional all-star team, in order to develop talent and make the competition a much fairer one. In the cross zone championship final, Guyana (who we said were no slouches in the prev) upset the USA South team in a match played in Marietta, Georgia at the Life University Campus. In the other two match, Mexico destroyed Turks and Caicos while Jamaica just got by the Bahamas.
Here are the results:
SAT – 28TH JUN 14
NACRA CH Bahamas 10 – 17 Jamaica
NACRA CH Mexico 97 – 0 Turks & Caicos
NACRA CH USA South 27 – 30 Guyana
Africa Cup: The The Africa Cup 2014 will be the fourteenth edition of the continental tournament that involves the best African national teams, organized by the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR). Given their superiority, the South African national team has rarely participated in the tournament and the 4 times the SARU has sent either a U-23 team or amateur side, they go on to win it. Beyond South Africa, there are up to 15 rugby countries in the Cup with the national participants in the main division, divided into three groups of 14 merit ( 1A, 1B, and 1C ), with promotion and relegation. Tournaments Divisions 1A and 1B’s games are often double as qualification games for the Rugby World Cup. This year the Division 1A Championship will be held between 26th June and 6th July 2014, at the Mahamasina Municipal Stadium in Antananarivo, Madagascar. The winner will qualify for the 2015 Rugby World Cup as Africa 1 and the runner up will qualify for the repechage. The weekend’s match-ups saw an upset by Kenya over Namibia and the home side, Madagascar could not slow down the Zimbabwe attack. Zimbabwe hope to keep their win streak going when they take on Namibia, while Kenya hope to win big over Madagascar to remain in the driver’s seat for a RWC place.
Here are the results:
SAT – 28TH JUN 14
AFRC/RWCQ D1A Kenya 29-22 Namibia
AFRC/RWCQ D1A Zimbabwe 57-22 Madagascar
Here is the midweek schedule:
WED – 2ND JUL 14
AFRC/RWCQ D1A Zimbabwe – Namibia
AFRC/RWCQ D1A Kenya – Madagascar
Conversion Kick:
Signings/Player Moves: London Welsh have announced their 19th new signing since clinching promotion to the Aviva Premiership. The Welsh have added former England international lock forward Dean Schofield. According to rumors, Super Rugby Brumbies Director of Rugby Laurie Fisher has been tipped to become the new head coach at Gloucester by reports.
In the Rabodirect news, Pro12 finalists Glasgow Warriors have signed Munster center James Downey on a two-year contract, subject to a medical.
In the Super Rugby news, Melbourne Rebels back Lachlan Mitchell is set to retire following his release at the end of the season at the age of 26. Stephen Larkham has committed to another 3 years as Brumbies head coach, signing on til the end 2017…Crusaders scrum-half Andy Ellis will skip the ITM Cup this year and has signed a contract with Kobelco Steelers in Japan. However, Crusaders loose forward Jordan Taufua has rejected the an overseas move and re-signed for two years in hopes of eventually winning an All Blacks jersey. The Cheetahs were disheartened to hear that highly-rated center Johann Sadie is heading to Japan to join the NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes, who already have Heinrich Brüssow and Riaan Viljoen in their ranks.
USA Rugby News and Updates: The USA Rugby AIG Men’s Collegiate All-Americans completed their 3 match tour of the Northeast, with a 33-16 lost to the Ontario (Canada) Blues squad at the Irish Cultural Center, just outside of Boston, Mass. Click HERE for the full match recap.
Our friends at Rugby America there has been a change at the top of USA Rugby’s Executive Committee. In a nutshell, Kevin Roberts steps down as Chairman and Bob Latham steps up. Pam Kosanke is back and Will Chang is the man tasked with a winning bid to host the 2018 7s World Cup. Click HERE for the full report.
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!
