NEW YORK, NY – The rugby calendar for this weekend mad us beg for mercy. We have the Americas Rugby Championship starting, along with the start of the HSBC Sevens World Series. Then there’s domestic action from SANZAR, as well as the three top European leagues. If that was not enough, there is also the RWC 2015 Qualifier and Tier 3 action. Combine that with Player Transactions, IRB News and USA Rugby News… Let’s get to to the Weekend Rugby Preview:
Americas Rugby Championship: The ARC is the most important developmental tournament for the Canada, USA and Uruguay… Argentina finds it a handy tool but with them joining The Rugby Championship and their succession of players signing overseas, it is not as impacting. Still, the Argies are the ones to beat in the tournament and our friend has a complete preview. Click here, please.
Gold Coast 7s: The HSBC Sevens World Series kicks off again this weekend. To prepare you, we have a season preview- please click here. We also preview the opening tournament of the series, The Gold Coast 7s. Please click here to read all about that.
Top 14: The #Top14 is gearing up to head into the European Champions Cup break. There is a lot of confidence and points at stake as no team has taken a stranglehold of the competition and anyone can lose on any given day. The RWU Ligue Nationale de Rugby expert James Harrington has you covered… please click here.
Aviva Premiership: This heavyweights of the Aviva are also gearing up for the ECC break. Our East Midlands Man Nick Hall recapped last weekend and will be back to recap this weekend’s round.
As for the matches going on this weekend:
Leicester will try and stop their losing streak against Harlequins. London Welsh face Newcastle in a relegation clash, Exeter host London Irish, Gloucester will travel to challenge Saracens while Northampton welcome Sale. Finally, in-form Bath, head to London to face Wasps.
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
Fri – 10th Oct 14
Leicester – Harlequins
Sat – 11th Oct 14
London Welsh – Newcastle
Exeter – London Irish
Saracens – Gloucester
Northampton – Sale Sharks
Sun – 12th Oct 14
Wasps – Bath
Guinness Pro12: The 2014/2015 Pro12 has seen Glasgow Warriors and Ospreys shockingly start out undefeated. It is an omnious sign that things have changed in this league and the kind of unpredictable season ahead. In the last round before European action, Treviso will take on Connacht in Treviso. Scarlets are at Munster, Newport-Gwent will face off against Edinburgh in cavernous Murrayfield. Leinster will look to sort themselves out at Zebre, Ulster will face co-table-toppers Glasgow while co-table0toppers Osprey face Cardiff in a Welsh derby.
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
Fri – 10th Oct 14
Benetton Treviso – Connacht
Munster – Scarlets
Sat – 11th Oct 14
Edinburgh – Newport Gwent Dragons
Zebre – Leinster
Ulster – Glasgow
Sun – 12th Oct 14
Ospreys – Cardiff Blues
Currie Cup: Down the stretch they come!! That is the call being heard all around the Currie Cup. On Friday, the Kings will try and get their first win at this level against the Pumas. The Lions challenge the Cheetahs, Western Province have a mouth-watering clash against the Sharks and Griquas have been invited to Pretoria to face the Blue Bulls.
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
Fri – 10th Oct 14
Eastern Province Kings – Pumas
Sat – 11th Oct 14
Lions – Cheetahs
Western Province – Sharks
Blue Bulls – 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 Premeirship 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 welcome Championship leaders Manawatu on Friday. Wellington will be desperate to salvage a win in this horrible season against North Harbour, Hawkes Bay looks to solidify their Championship playoff place against Southland. Auckland will take on neighbors Northland. Sunday will feature to table busting matches as Taranaki take on Canterbury and Tasman face 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
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
Fri – 10th Oct 14
Otago – Manawatu
Sat – 11th Oct 14
Wellington – North Harbour
Hawkes Bay – Southland
Auckland – Northland
Sun – 12th Oct 14
Taranaki – Canterbury
Tasman – 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 face the NSW Country Eagles while the Melbourne travel to Sydney to face the Greater Sydney Rams and Queensland Country host the Stars of Sydney.
Here are the results:
Thurs – 9th Oct 14
North Harbour Rays 26 – 77 Brisbane City
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
Sat – 11th Oct 14
UC Vikings – NSW Country Eagles
Greater Sydney Rams – Melbourne Rising
Queensland Country – Sydney Stars
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 now must defend that lead in Montevideo. Barring a 1 point victory for Uruguay, this game is essentially a “win and your in” situation.
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
Sat – 11th Oct 14
Uruguay – Russia
Tier 3 – We begin with the SAMC, the South American version of the 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… In the midweek, Panama lost to Guatemala and Costa Rica were defeated by El Salvador. This weekend sees, a rematch of the first weekend as 1st place Guatemala faces 2nd place El Salvador and Panama and Costa Rica will battle for third.
Here are the midweek results:
WED – 8th OCT 14
SAMC C Costa Rica 14 – 24 El Salvador
SAMC C Guatemala 24 – 19 Panama
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
Sat – 11th Oct 14
SAMC C Guatemala – El Salvador
SAMC C Panama – Costa Rica
Transactions: Wasps have announced that they are moving to Coventry. Approximately a 2.5 hour drive from their west London home in Acton. Considering last season they dropped the London Wasps tag and just became Wasps, it should have been a sign of things to come and not just a return to their previous tag. The long trip fired up complaints on Twitter from fans but as our American counterparts at Meet The Matts pointed out, many New Yorkers travel 2-2.5 hours to watch the Jets or Giants play.
London Irish centre Fergus Mulchrone (who fittingly is qualified for England and Ireland) has signed a two-year extension with the club. Irish also brought in Alex Toolis on a short-term loan deal from Edinburgh as injury cover.
Ulster announced that current Director of Rugby Les Kiss will step down from the position due to Kiss’s Ireland duties then return after the RWC. The province of the Red Hand, also announced that lifelong Ulsterman and loyal servant to the province, Neil Doak will be Ulster’s new head coach.
Our man in France, James Harrington confirms that fly-half Brock James and centre Benson Stanley have both signed contract extensions with Clermont Auvergne. Also it was announced that Toulouse coach Guy Noves has been suspend for the clash with Toulon. It was a result of his behavior and comments to the fourth and fifth match official…Bayonne have signed utility back Adam Whitelock, from the Crusaders at the end of October.
The Reds have completed the signing of World Cup-winning All Blacks flanker Adam Thomson, who will join the franchise for Super Rugby season 2015 (don’t ask us where this money is coming from!!)…The Chiefs have secured the signings of Taranaki loosehead prop Mitchell Graham and center/wing Seta Tamanivalu for the next two years…The Highlanders have announced that Japanese international scrum-half Fumiaki Tanaka will be back in 2015 season…Robbie Fruean has been dropped from the Chiefs squad for Super Rugby next year following the return of Sonny Bill Williams…Former All Black David Hill will join the coaching team at the Blues for the forthcoming season.
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: In effort to create more respect and understanding, the USA 7s Eagles completed a Level 1 referee course.
IRB News: The IRB had a press release announcing its commitment to ensure that the world’s top players are included within its decision-making structures with the establishment of the first World Rugby Athletes’ Commission. There is a full explanation, here.
It was announced thatt Rugby World Cup winning coach Clive Woodward will take part in an intriguing panel discussion on “Mind games – The making of champions” on day two of the 2014 IRB World Rugby Conference and Exhibition (ConfEx) at the Hilton London Metropole on November 17-18.
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.
