NEW YORK, NY – This edition of the Weekend Rugby Preview is another short and sweet version. It’s warm and waiting like an apple turnover, so let’s get it served…
Women’s Rugby World Cup: It is the final matchday of the WRWC on Saturday in Marconnes, France. We have put together a great recap of the most recent matchday and a preview of the final matchday,Please CLICK HERE. For much more in-depth coverage we can recommend our friends Scrum Queens or Your Scrumhalf Connection. They are the forerunners in Women’s rugby coverage.
Premiership 7s: The Premiership Rugby Sevens Series is a 7s competition for the 12 Aviva Premiership Clubs that will play the following season. From this, loads of young talent are discovered. The premiership 7s is now followed by a World Club 7s tournament, which is the brainchild of the Premiership 7s branding team. This weekend the Twickenham Stoop, home of The Harlequins will see the hosts along with Cardiff Blues, Gloucester, Leicester Tigers, London Irish, Newcastle Falcons, the Dragons and Northampton Saints fight it out for the Premiership Rugby 7s title.
Southern Hemisphere National Comps: This weekend South Africa‘s Currie Cup kicks off and in the following weeks New Zealand‘s ITM Cup and Australia‘s National Rugby Championship will also be kicking off soon. Expect previews of each comp from RWU shortly.
Conversion Kick:
Transactions: Harlequins have revealed their expansion plans for the stoop. The long term plan is to move to a 20,000 seat stadium by first renovating the North Stand within the next three years and expanding the capacity from 14,800 to 16,800 seats. After that, the club hopes to turn a profit within two years, and further expand the ground to 20,000 seats within a decade. Harlequins also announced that Joe Marler will replace Chris Robshaw – captain since 2010 – as the captain for the 2014/15 season…London Welsh have confirmed their 25th signing since gaining promotion to the Aviva Premiership. The exiles have added former Bedford Blues tighthead prop Ben Cooper.
Glasgow announced that Scottish Rugby Elite Development Program graduate and backrower Adam Ashe has signed a 1 year pro contract.
Serge Blanco, the former France full-back and vice-president of the FFR i shocking most by leading the cause for blocking the call-up of Rory Kockott to the French national team. Apparently Blanco is set to take a more hands-on role with the national team to support head coach Philippe Saint-André.
Todd Blackadder will return as Crusdaers coach according to chief executive Hamish Riach… The Western Force’s Solomoni Rasolea had to check with his mom and dad back in Brisbane before signing a new two-year deal to keep him with the Perth based club.
USA Rugby News and Updates: USA Rugby announced the launching of USA Wheelchair Rugby website, usawr.org. USA Rugby also produced preview of the 4 Mens and 2 Womens pools for the Club 7s championships. After recently launching its SafeSport website, USA Rugby announced it is expanding its background check policy to include requiring all staff members, member coaches, and officials – including referees this year – to be checked every two years beginning with the 2014-15 membership cycle. The screening will be conducted by leading volunteer background screening company SSCI.
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.
