NEW YORK, NY – A tsunami. A tsunami of rugby, is how I described the amount of rugby we had to cover this weekend to the RWU staff. There was just wave after wave of rugby to cover and only one weekend to do it. It felt like it would never end. We had to cover the Americas Rugby Championship and the HSBC Sevens World Series. There was also the three top pro leagues in Europe and the domestic action from the SANZAR leagues. Before we could come up for air, there was a RWC 2015 Qualifier and Tier 3 action. A quick breathe later, we still had Player Transactions, IRB News and USA Rugby News… We’ll try to keep a float as we get to the Global Rugby Recap:
Americas Rugby Championship: The ARC is the most important developmental tournament for Canada, USA, Uruguay, and to a far lesser degree, Argentina. In Round 1 while Canada struggled to a 20-6 win over Uruguay meanwhile the Argies showed why they are the ones to beat in the tournament in their match against the USA. Our friend has a complete review of the Argentina and USA match. Please Click here.
Gold Coast 7s: The 2014-2015 IRB HSBC Sevens World Series kicked off this weekend. To celebrate it, we have a preview of the whole season ahead, please click here. We also have a report on the USA 7s coach Mike Friday, the Eagles’ 7s and a review of the opening tournament of the series, The Gold Coast 7s. Please click here to read all about that.
RWC Qualifer: The second leg of the RWC 2015 Repechage Qualifier between Russia and Uruguay is this weekend. The overall winner from the two-legged play off will join Australia, England, Wales and Fiji in Pool A at RWC 2015. Russia won the match in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia by one point and but had to defend that lead in the return leg in Montevideo. Uruguay were able to successfully qualify for the 2015 RWC with a rousing victory.
Here are the results:
Sat – 11th Oct 14
Uruguay 36 – 27 Russia
Top 14: The #Top14 had its final weekend of action before European Champions/Challenge Cup play started. There were several surprises as some teams made huge statements that they were not pretenders, while others showed that they can’t be discounted just yet. The RWU Ligue Nationale de Rugby expert James Harrington has a review of all the action… Please click here.
Aviva Premiership: With the ECC break around the corner there were some massive clashes occurring in the premiership. Our East Midlands Man Nick Hall will be around tomorrow to recap all of the weekend’s action.
As for the matches going on this weekend:
Leicester stopped their losing streak by defeating Harlequins. London Welsh lost bravely against Newcastle in the relegation clash, Exeter handily defeated London Irish, Gloucester gave Saracens a mighty scare but still came up short while Northampton easily crushed Sale. Finally, in-form Bath, had to leave London with only a losing bonus point after going down to Wasps.
Here are the results:
Fri – 10th Oct 14
Leicester 22 – 16 Harlequins
Sat – 11th Oct 14
London Welsh 3 – 23 Newcastle
Exeter 44 – 24 London Irish
Saracens 28 – 21 Gloucester
Northampton 43 – 10 Sale Sharks
Sun – 12th Oct 14
Wasps 29 – 22 Bath
Guinness Pro12: The 2014/2015 Pro12 has shown strong signs that things have changed in the league and this will be one very unpredictable season. In the last round before European action, Treviso were out-dueled in a penalty kicking contest by Connacht while Scarlets lost at Munster. Meanwhile, Newport-Gwent were woeful against Edinburgh in a cavernous Murrayfield. Leinster hand no problem with Zebre, Ulster shocked the co-table-toppers Glasgow at Ravenhill and co-tabletoppers Ospreys won their Welsh derby against Cardiff.
Here are the results:
Fri – 10th Oct 14
Benetton Treviso 6 – 9 Connacht
Munster 17 – 6 Scarlets
Sat – 11th Oct 14
Edinburgh 24 – 10 Newport Gwent Dragons
Zebre 3 – 20 Leinster
Ulster 29 – 9 Glasgow
Sun – 12th Oct 14
Ospreys 26 – 15 Cardiff Blues
Currie Cup: The bell has sounded and the regular season is over for the Currie Cup. However it ended with fireworks, which began on Friday, when the Kings got their first win of the season at home against the Pumas. The Lions snotklapped the Cheetahs, Western Province lost to a resurgent Sharks side and Griquas were smashed in Pretoria by the Blue Bulls.
Here are the results:
Fri – 10th Oct 14
Eastern Province Kings 26 – 25 Pumas
Sat – 11th Oct 14
Lions 47 – 7 Cheetahs
Western Province 20 – 28 Sharks
Blue Bulls 46 – 12 Griquas
ITM Cup: The 2014 ITM Cup is heading down to the wire and playoff places and positions are at stake in almost every match. Counties Manukau took a huge step toward snatching 4th place in the Premiership by throttling Auckland on Wednesday and Waikato kept the heat on both by easily winning against Bay of Plenty on Thursday.
As for the rest of the weekend’s action:
Otago lost to Championship leaders Manawatu on Friday. Wellington are destined to be relegated to the Championship but they went out in a blaze of glory as they downed North Harbour. Hawkes Bay solidified their Championship playoff place and ensured that the Ranfurly Shield will stay with the Magpies as they drew at home against Southland. Auckland secured their playoff place by easily dismissing Northland. Taranaki narrowly lost to Canterbury and Tasman stumbled against Counties Manukau.
Here are the results:
Wed – 8th Oct 14
Counties Manukau 41 – 18 Auckland
Thu – 9th Oct 14
Waikato 29 – 12 Bay Of Plenty
Fri – 10th Oct 14
Otago 25 – 38 Manawatu
Sat – 11th Oct 14
Wellington 58 – 34 North Harbour
Hawkes Bay 20 – 20 Southland
Auckland 38 – 10 Northland
Sun – 12th Oct 14
Taranaki 23 – 26 Canterbury
Tasman 16 – 21 Counties Manukau
Australia NRC: The inaugural NRC enters its penultimate round. In the Thursday night game, Brisbane City put an all-mighty beat down on North Harbour.
As for the matches going on this weekend:
The UC Vikings came up short against NSW Country Eagles while the Melbourne traveled to Sydney and were victorious against the Greater Sydney Rams and Queensland Country steamrolled the Stars of Sydney.
Here are the results:
Thurs – 9th Oct 14
North Harbour Rays 26 – 77 Brisbane City
Sat – 11th Oct 14
UC Vikings 37 – 42 NSW Country Eagles
Greater Sydney Rams 40 – 58 Melbourne Rising
Queensland Country 53 – 29 Sydney Stars
Tier 3 – The SAMC, is the South American version of the European Nations Cup (ENC); it has 4 divisions featuring 15 teams. The C division played this weekend, as four teams battled it out for the title and promotion… This weekend saw a match for 1st and 3rd place. a rematch of the first weekend as 1st place Guatemala lost to Costa Rica and El Salvador dominated Panama.
Here are the results:
Sat – 11th Oct 14
SAMC C El Salvador 29 – 3 Panama
SAMC C Guatemala 17 – 22 Costa Rica
Penalty Kick:
Transactions: There are unconfirmed rumors that 3 London area clubs are hoping to sign Steffon Armitage on loan for the remainder of the 2014-2015 season so he will be eligible to play for England at the RWC2015.
Aussie Rugby Scandal: Not our nature to discuss rumors and allegations that don’t effect the game but this one has grown to the point it can’t be ignored… Coach Ewen McKenzie is currently denying that his handling of the row between Kurtley Beale and a team manager undermines his position. He also scoffed when he was asked if he’s been involved in “intimate” relationship with Di Patston, the aforementioned manager in the row. All the salacious details can be found here.
USA Rugby News and Updates: Key sponsor of Rugby in America and the big match against the New Zealand All Blacks (who they also sponsor) AIG, has launched a rugby safety initiative. Click here to read more…Speaking of the USA v NZ match, Rugby Today is claiming that USA Rugby has negotiated a stunning, if not shocking, deal with the Aviva Premiership teams with Eagles players on their roster. The deal will make the players available for the match against New Zealand but not available for the remaining 3 matches in the test window. Availability for matches during the test window is an IRB mandate, so that is an interesting caveat. It should be noted that USA Rugby has made no official comment or even unofficial as our sources can not confirm this information.
IRB News: The draw for the Dubai leg of the IRB 7s series was made this weekend, following the Gold Coast 7s. Fiji head Pool A in Dubai and face Argentina, France and Olympic hosts Brazil, who are the tournament’s invited team.
Gold Coast runners-up Samoa will play reigning Series champions New Zealand, as well as Scotland and Japan in Pool B.
England head Pool C as the third-placed team in Australia and face the Wallaby Seven as well as Gold Coast bowl winners USA and Kenya.
The Blitzboks of South Africa, meanwhile, will play Gold Coast quarter finalists Wales, Shield winners Canada and Portugal.
According to a report in the The Province, Vancouver is set to become a stop on the IRB 7s series in 2016. If it does happen, it will likely be partnered with the Las Vegas 7s to create an North American leg of the series. For the complete story, please click here.
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.
