NEW YORK, NY – Happy Labor Day! Well, at least to our USA based readers. Let’s fire up the rugby barbeque (Braai in SA or Barbie in Aus/NZ) and see what’s cookin’ in the Weekend Rugby Recap.
Wales Rugby Accord: With the end of the rugby civil war in Wales, the man that broke down the State of Wales Rugby here on RWU, , has a detailed review of the participation agreement, click here.
The Rugby Championship: The TRC is on a travel bye this week after two interesting rounds. Our resident Kiwi, Jamie Wall, has got a just the thing for those of you with SANZAR test urge. It is a review of the top 10 tries ever scored against the All Blacks. Please click here.
Top 14: If you felt a tremor under your feet, that was the the Top 14 table being rocked to its foundation. Our #Top14 expert , has a great review of an upset-heavy round 3, just click here.
Currie Cup: Matchday 4 for South Africa’s Currie Cup saw some big results. Pumas continue to make their Mbombela Stadium into a fortress as they downed the big boys from Durban, Sharks… Meanwhile, Griquas continued to struggle as they lost to neighbors the Free State Cheetahs… The Blue Bulls became the latest side to lose Western Province, as Province are now top of the table and undefeated… On the flipside, the Eastern Province Kings remain winless as they lost to the Golden Lions.
Here are the results:
Fri – 29th Aug 14
Pumas 32 – 22 Sharks
Sat – 30th Aug 14
Griquas 25 – 36 Cheetahs
Blue Bulls 18 – 23 Western Province
Eastern Province Kings 22 – 41 Lions
ITM Cup: The big news from round three is that the the Ranfurly Shield has a new home. Counties Manukau had hoped to continue their reign but Hawkes Bay was looking for revenge after losing the shield to Counties last season. Hawkes Bay left happy and with the Log of Wood in hand… Going into the weekend, Canterbury continued their rampant start to the season by crushing Northland on Thursday night… Manawatu piled more misery on a struggling Wellington by winning on the road… Elsewhere Southland fell short to neighbors Otago as did North Harbour to guests Waikato… On Sunday, Taranaki crushed Bay of Plenty and Auckland – with 3 All Blacks in their line-up – were only able to tie Tasman.
Here are the results:
Thu – 28th Aug 14
Canterbury 48 – 3 Northland
Fri – 29th Aug 14
Wellington 21 – 27 Manawatu
Sat – 30th Aug 14
Counties Manukau 21 – 27 Hawkes Bay
Southland 22 – 33 Otago
North Harbour 16 – 22 Waikato
Sun – 31st Aug 14
Taranaki 41 – 3 Bay Of Plenty
Auckland 16 – 16 Tasman
Australia NRC: The inaugural National Rugby Championship wrapped up its second round and if you aren’t caught up, we explained the competition and its creation, here. Hopefully, our man in Wollongong, Working Class Rugger, will have weekly talking points after this round, so be on the look out for it… WCR saw his Greater Sydney Rams drop to 0-2 after losing to the UC Vikings on Thursday night… Meanwhile Brisbane City, backed by yours truly, Matt McCarthy and Johnathan Wicklow Barberie, is undefeated after coming back to defeat the Perth Spirit… The rest of the weekend saw Queensland Country play their debut match, a home one against NSW Country. Unfortunately, the host lost convincingly… The Sydney Stars were thrashed at home by the formidable Melbourne Rising.
Here are the results:
Thu – 28th Aug 14
Greater Sydney Rams 18 – 37 UC Vikings
Sat – 30th Aug 14
Queensland Country 13 – 37 NSW Country Eagles
Sun – 31st Aug 14
Perth Spirit 21 -26 Brisbane City
Sydney Stars 13 – 45 Melbourne Rising
Penalty Kick:
Transactions: Of all the major news in the transactions market, it slipped past us (we fired an intern just to save face) that Karmicheal Hunt is coming to play rugby union at the Super Rugby Queensland Reds. Hunt is an Isreal Folau–type player. Somewhat more broad, but a stud in rugby league that got drawn away to Aussie Rules for more money, but wants to give rugby union a try – in hopes of making the 2015 RWC Wallabies squad. Let’s say he likely will. He will be joined (in January) by none other than James O’Connor, who is also gunning for a RWC spot.
‘s review will cover O’Connor’s most recent performance with Toulon and our Rugby League expert will discuss the use of Hunt by the Reds and Wallabies.
Wasps have announced that they are looking for a new stadium, but that they have not committed to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.
Sonny Bill Williams will definitely be on the All Blacks’ end-of-year tour even though he might not play in any games according to All Black Head Coach Steve Hansen.
USA Rugby News and Updates: After hosting the Brazilian women’s national sevens team at the Olympic Training Center, the Women’s Eagles Sevens will travel to Alaska for a week of training and community outreach programs Sept. 7-13. According to the press release “supported by Serevi Rugby, the Eagles will visit 27 schools during their stay in the Last Frontier and work with the Alaska Rugby Union to raise the profile of rugby in the area.”
IRB re-branding: The International Rugby Board have decide to under go a major re-branding program, which will see the organization changing its name from “International” to “World,” as in World Rugby, starting November 19th of this year.
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 as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.
