NEW YORK, NY – The Autumn Internationals are essentially over. The finality of it added to the intensity of this weekend’s matches. The SANZAR nations had a collective edge over 6 Nations unions. Did that change? We’ll address that after covering Player Transactions, USA Rugby News and World Rugby News, plus the Aviva Premiership, Pro 12 and Tier 3 action in the European Nations Cup. With that, here’s the Global Rugby Update:
Penalty Kick:
Transactions: London Welsh have confirmed the signing of Wales Rugby League international wing Elliot Kear, who joins the club from Bradford Bulls… Hopefully he will in no time know what he is doing out there.
USA Rugby News and Updates: After a tough High Performance Camp, USA 7s Head Coach Mike Friday announced his squad for the Dubai and South Africa 7s. We will tackle the 7s squad and the selections in our usual pre-7s tournament article. For now, though, here is the squad – including the non-traveling reserves.
Men’s Eagles Sevens | Emirates Dubai Rugby Sevens
Perry Baker
Danny Barrett
Garrett Bender
Pat Blair
Andrew Durutalo
Madison Hughes
Martin Iosefo
Carlin Isles
Folau Niua
Aladdin Schirmer
Zack Test
Maka Unufe
Men’s Eagles Sevens | Non-traveling reserves
Nic Edwards
Kingsley McGowan
Mike Te’o
The final 4 teams for the the 2014 Men’s Division II College Regional Playoffs were confirmed after the action this weekend. Here are the regional champions:
Here are the results:
Northeast Region
UW-Whitewater
Mid-Atlantic Region
James Madison
South Region
Notre Dame College
Midwest Region
UM-Duluth
The ACRC Bowl Series completed its inaugural weekend. The Bowl Series brought high-level collegiate rugby to Charlotte, N.C. and allowed some of the country’s top teams and conference winners to face-off against other conference winners.
Here are the results:
North Meck High School 33-5 William A. Hough High School
Iona College 19-29 Boston College
North Carolina State 63-7 Texas State University
Western Michigan University 10-42 Life University Eagles (JV)
American International College 46-40 Bowling Green University
Kutztown University 43-17 University of Michigan
Stony Brook University 21-20 West Virginia University
University of North Texas 46-0 University of Massachusetts
Life University 53-19 Army Black Knights
Clemson University 40-14 University of South Carolina
Stars and Stripes Rugby are accepting applications to be part of their team for Vegas 7s. If you want to know more or are interested in applying contact Program Director Liz Entwhistle.
World Rugby News: The IRB (World Rugby) Player of the Year in 2014 is Brodie Retallick of the New Zealand All Blacks. Retallick becomes the 3rd straight All Black to win the award. Our views and doubts on the decision have been made public previously, so no need to re-hash them.
WEEKEND FIXTURE LIST:
LADIES FIRST: There was one Women’s International this weekend and it saw Italy handily defeat a helpless Scotland side.
Here are the results:
SUN – 23RD NOV 14
W INT Italy 27- 3 Scotland
Autumn Internationals: The fixtures were all quality matches. They begun with Fiji barely surviving the challenge from the USA in a less than clinical affair in France… Scotland easily defeated Tonga and South Africa headed struggled to get by Italy… In the big matches of the weekend, Ireland just edged out Australia and New Zealand dD the best for last in Cardiff against Wales… In the always-intriguing Tier 2 clashes, we saw Portugal accomplish a small upset by defeating Namibia and Georgia out-muscled Japan… Canada continued their poor form in their loss to Romania…. Samoa pushed aside their internal dilemma and fought bravely in a losing effort against England… France were denied an undefeated fall season by a tough Argentina side.
RWU has reviewed four of the weekend’s matches. The France v Argentina match review is up and can be found by clicking here, and clicking here will get you a review of the Fiji v USA match… The Wales v New Zealand match is reviewed here by … Nick Hall has a review of the England-Samoa game.
Here are the results:
FRI – 21ST NOV 14
TOUR Fiji 20 – 14 USA
SAT – 22TH NOV 14
TOUR Scotland 37 – 12 Tonga
TOUR Italy 6 – 22 South Africa
TOUR Ireland 26 – 23 Australia
TOUR Portugal 18 – 9 Namibia
TOUR Wales 16 – 34 New Zealand
TOUR Romania 18 – 9 Canada
TOUR England 28 – 9 Samoa
TOUR France 13 – 18 Argentina
SUN – 23RD NOV 14
TOUR Georgia 35 – 24 Japan
Aviva Prep: The Aviva Premiership has been chugging along during the international window with some young talent coming to the forefront. This weekend began with Harlequins losing at home to Sale and Newcastle improving their home record with a win against Gloucester. Oddly, the AP has scheduled matches on Saturday, making fans choose between whom to support, club or country? Saturday, saw the boys from Bath traveled south to upend the London Irish, while the team formerly known as the London Wasps traveled north to face Exeter and were easily defeated by the Exeter’s expansive style of play… The biggest match of the season saw a rematch of the 2014 final, as Saracens lost at home against 2014 champions Northampton… London Welsh put on an improved defensive effort against Leicester, but still came up short due to an impotent attack.
Here are the results:
FRI – 21ST NOV 14
Harlequins 12 – 16 Sale Sharks
Newcastle Falcons 20 – 10 Gloucester
SAT – 22ND NOV 14
London Irish 23 – 33 Bath
Exeter 31 – 15 Wasps
SUN – 23RD NOV 14
Saracens 24 – 31 Northampton
London Welsh 5 – 26 Leicester Tigers
Guinness Pro 12: The Pro12 is also back in action. However, they scheduled their clashes for Friday and Sunday, so fans won’t have to choose between club and country regarding what to watch on Saturday. The fixtures began with the Newport-Gwent Dragons losing to Munster and Glasgow Warriors unable to win at Scarlets… Ulster won at home against Ospreys, while the boys of Connacht throttled Italian outfit Zebre… On Sunday, Leinster traveled to Italy and drew with Treviso and Edinburgh had no problems dispatching the Cardiff Blues.
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
FRI – 21ST NOV 14
Dragons 12 – 38 Munster
Scarlets 19 – 9 Glasgow Warriors
Ulster 25 – 16 Ospreys
Connacht 43 – 3 Zebre
SUN – 23RD NOV 14
Treviso 24 – 24 Leinster
Edinburgh 28 – 13 Cardiff Blues
Tier 3 – In Tier 3, the men’s European Nations Cup consists of 7 divisions, each with 4-6 teams. The matches determine who will get promoted and relegated from groups 1A, 1B, 2A – 2Dd and 3A. There is only one game this weekend and it was a a 1B encounter as Moldova steamrolled Sweden.
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
SAT – 22ND NOV 14
Moldova 57-8 Sweden
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.
P.s.. Finally, a bit of shameless self promotion: Please feel free to donate to my MOVEMBER Campaign via The Movember Foundation; The leading global organization committed to changing the face of men’s health. Click here for the info. Thanks!
