NEW YORK, NY – Another superb weekend of rugby is fresh in the binder, fixtures dotting the globe. All of Europe’s top three leagues, the three SANZAR domestic leagues and The Rugby Championship, were all in action. Plus, there is USA Rugby News and Player Transactions and to cover, so here’s L the Weekend Rugby Recap:
The Rugby Championship: The lastest round of TRC saw the All Blacks v the Springboks game live up to the billing as it didn’t fail to disappoint. The Wallabies fought Los Pumas in a tense affair. Our resident Kiwi, Jamie Wall, has a brilliant review of the matches. Please click here.
Top 14: After a busy week off the field with results of the Florian Fritz debacle, another Clermont player being attacked and the continued warring words between the Racing’s Metro & Toulon’s owners, this weekend’s action was so good it pushed all of the aforementioned to the the back of the bus. Our exceptional #Top14 expert, , has a complete review of the weekend’s matches. Please click here.
Aviva Premiership: Round Two was filled with a couple of upsets and unexpected results… Harlequins got blanked in a match that was expected to be huge clash but turned into a runaway victory for Saracens… Gloucester bounced back from last week’s loss to upset Sale… London Welsh faced up to their first road game at Bath, with a much stronger showing than last week. Unfortunately, Bath were undeterred on their way to a dominating win… Our Premiership man, Mr. Nick Hall, saw his Leicester Tigers visited Exeter and barely claw their way to a victory… Wasps survived a stern challenge from defending champs Northampton and Newcastle came up short against London Irish. Look for Nick Hall’s Talking Points tomorrow.
Here are the results:
Fri – 12th Sep 14
Harlequins 0 – 39 Saracens
Sat – 13th Sep 14
Gloucester 34 – 27 Sale Sharks
Bath 53 – 26 London Welsh
Exeter 20 – 24 Leicester
Sun – 14th Sep 14
Wasps 20 – 16 Northampton
Newcastle 18 – 20 London Irish
Guinness Pro 12: Friday night under lights was the theme of Round 2 in the #Pro12, with 4 games that night. The festivities began with Munster traveling to Treviso and notching an unimpressive victory… Then, in an all-Wales clash, Newport-Gwent were too generous as they rolled out the welcome mat for Neath-Swansea Ospreys to the tune of a two point defeat… Connacht escaped the trip to Edinburgh with a win by the slimmest margin possible, while Zebre were thoroughly outplayed by Ulster at Ravenhill… Saturday saw Leinster in their first home game of the season look absolutely dominant against Scarlets… And last year’s finalist Glasgow, outclassed their host, Cardiff.
Here are the results:
Fri – 12th Sep 14
Benetton Treviso 10 – 21 Munster
Newport Gwent Dragons 15 – 17 Ospreys
Edinburgh 13 – 14 Connacht
Ulster 33 – 13 Zebre
Sat – 13th Sep 14
Leinster 42 – 12 Scarlets
Sun – 14th Sep 14
Cardiff Blues 12 – 33 Glasgow
Currie Cup: It appears that Eastern Province will be left for dead as they were outplayed by a struggling Blue Bulls side… Griquas shocked the in-form Pumas… Two struggling sides trying to right their respective ships, the Cheetahs and the Sharks, ended in a draw… First-place Western Province traveled to Johannesburg to play the Lions and left needed points at the airport, as they lost by two.
Here are the results:
Fri – 12th Sep 14
Eastern Province Kings 13 – 28 Blue Bulls
Sat – 13th Sep 14
Griquas 31 – 27 Pumas
Cheetahs 30 – 30 Sharks
Lions 35 – 33 Western Province
ITM Cup: The latest round of the 2014 ITM Cup started early with a mid-week match that saw Northland easily handle Otago… In the Thursday night game, a late push by Taranaki saw them scrape past Tasman… In the weekend’s matches, North Harbour put away Manawatu… Undefeated Canterbury remained undefeated and continued Wellington’s winless streak… Auckland seems to be hitting their stride as they dispatched Bay of Plenty and the team from the northern most part of New Zealand, Northland, lost to their counterparts from the southern most point – Southland – by two in a tense affair… Otago had no time to lick their wounds as they traveled to face Hawkes Bay in a Ranfurly shield match, where the lack of rest was apparent as Otago were throttled… Waikato edged out Counties Manukau in an exciting match.
Here are the results:
Wed – 10th Sep 14
Otago 23 – 40 Northland
Thu – 11th Sep 14
Tasman 30 – 31 Taranaki
Fri – 12th Sep 14
North Harbour 24 – 13 Manawatu
Canterbury 46 – 12 Wellington
Sat – 13th Sep 14
Bay Of Plenty 12 – 27 Auckland
Southland 36 – 34 Northland
Sun – 14th Sep 14
Waikato 26 – 21 Counties Manukau
Hawkes Bay 41 – 0 Otago
Australia NRC: The inaugural National Rugby Championship is now in week 3. Our resident Australian rugby expert, , will have his weekly Rewind & Predictions later in the week. As for the outcome of the matches:
In a clash of tournament favorites, Melbourne easily handled Perth… North Harbour just edged Queensland Country… the Greater Sydney Rams easily defeated rivals Sydney Stars for local bragging rights and Brisbane City were too much for NSW Country Eagles.
Here are the results:
Thu – 11th Sep 14
Melbourne Rising 44 – 24 Perth Spirit
Sat – 13th Sep 14
Queensland Country 29 – 32 North Harbour Rays
Greater Sydney Rams 47 – 18 Sydney Stars
Sun – 14th Sep 14
NSW Country Eagles 26 – 34 Brisbane City
Penalty Kick:
Transactions: In the Top 14, Argentina international Juan Martín Hernández will be joining Toulon to replace departing back James O’Connor… Also rumored is that Sona Taumalolo will join Racing Métro as a medical joker after Davit Khinchagishvili was injured against Clermont… All those moves, along with the release of the top 74 players in the French Federation de Rugby’s plan going for the future (including 10 non-french players to be poach, 7 of which may be through the olympic loophole), will all be discussed by later this week.
IRB News: The IRB Women’s 7s series held their qualification for core status tournament this weekend. Fiji, China, France and South Africa will play at every event on the IRB Women’s Sevens World Series 2014/15 after reaching the Cup semi-finals of the qualifier at Shek Kip Mei Sports Ground in Hong Kong on Saturday.
USA Rugby News and Updates: The latest Eagle to be heading overseas appears to be Tim Maupin. Maupin is headed to Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Trinity has become a key stepping stone for loads of American players looking to make the step up into Europe. Shawn Pittman and Scott Lavalla are the most notable current Eagles that have used the Trinity path.
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.
