NEW YORK, NY – After such a sad and sobering weekend preview, we’ll try to focus on rugby. So let’s keep it short and get to the business Transfer Rumors, Player Transactions, USA Rugby & World Rugby news and review all the action from Europe’s three premier domestic rugby competitions with the Global Rugby Recap:
Transactions: The January Silly Season of transfer talk continues, while real transfers are also occurring.
We begin with the Top 14… Fabien Galthie remains suspended until further notice by Montpellier. Galthié has a contract that runs until 2017 and it could prove costly for the club to fire him due to French labor laws… France captain Thierry Dusautoir has signed a two-year contract extension with his club Toulouse.
In the Aviva Premiership, Wasps and Tongan international wing Will Helu will leave the newly based Coventry side to join Edinburgh at the start of next season on a two-year contract… Harlequins number eight Nick Easter has re-signed with the club on a two-year deal that will keep him at the Twickenham Stoop until he is 38.
Tighthead prop Samson Lee has become the latest Welsh international to sign a dual contract keeping him with his region, Scarlets and Wales… Ulster were proud to announce that academy product Stuart McCloskey has signed his first senior contract, a two-year agreement, with the province.
Super Rugby Stormers franchise and Currie Cup side Western Province‘s director of rugby Gert Smal has admitted in interviews that talks are in place to retain head coach Allister Coetzee and other coaches. Coetzee’s deal with the union is over at the end of the calendar year and he has interest from Japanese side, the Kobe Kobelco Steelers. The Steelers are looking for a new director of rugby after Gary Gold‘s departure to join the Super Rugby Sharks.
USA Rugby News and Updates: The USA Rugby Referees Association proudly released their 2015 Game Management Guidelines. They also released specific versions for High School and Sevens… USA Rugby has opened the bid process for hosting a National Championship event and if you click here you can see the article with its recommendations for any club looking to bid.
The USA Rugby Board of Directors has approved an exemption in USA Rugby’s Eligibility Regulations that allow for in-season transfers of collegiate players to senior club teams, as soon as the college season is over. The updated USA Rugby Eligibility Regulations have been updated to reflect the college-to-club changes and the necessary Transfer Request for the player are both available on the USA Rugby website. As the newest member of the official USA Olympic family, it was announced that the USA Olympic Committee has selected Boston as the USA applicant city for 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Condolences to Samu Manoa‘s family. Manoa’s brother, Ewee, passed away on New Year’s Eve, and Manoa decided to play for his club Northampton and help them to a 39-31 win over Newcastle Falcons before leaving for home. Manoa missed this weekend’s match but is expected to be back from the US by week’s end.
World Rugby News: Currently on the World Rugby website are a set of video interviews with Brian O’Driscoll, Alex Corbisiero and Shaina Turley discussing how they got into rugby and their first rugby experiences.
WEEKEND FIXTURE LIST:
Top 14: Our Ligue Nationale de Rugby expert has all the action from a sombre weekend of rugby for the French nation. It covers not only the on-the-field play, but tributes by fans and clubs in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack. Click here for the review.
Aviva Premiership: It was a weekend for the underdogs. The underdogs didn’t win every match but they did cause a few big upsets. Coincidentally, all the winning sides were also the home sides. Our East Midlands man, , will be back later in the week to give the gory details with his weekly talking points. A brief review of the action shows the upsets began on Friday night when Gloucester upended Saracens by one point. The next day saw table toppers Northampton come crashing down as they fell to Sale. Bath restored some order by defeating Wasps but the struggling Harlequins helped their playoff chances and hurt Leicester‘s chances with a victory. Newcastle hammered London Welsh to no one’s surprise while everyone was shocked to see London Irish defeat Exeter.
Here are the results:
Fri – 09th Jan 15
Gloucester 24 – 23 Saracens
Sat – 10th Jan 15
Sale 20 – 7 Northampton
Bath 39 – 26 Wasps
Harlequins 32 – 12 Leicester
Sun – 11th Jan 15
Newcastle 38 – 7 London Welsh
London Irish 28-26 Exeter
Guinness Pro 12: The Pro12 is becoming a league within a league. There is a clear divide between the top half of the table and the bottom half. The top six features two teams close to securing playoff berths and four teams that form the chasing pack. The bottom six features teams just looking to keep competitive and give their fans hope. As for the weekend’s results… Glasgow easily dismissed Scarlets, while Connacht were edged out at home by Edinburgh. Leinster defeated a fierce-fighting 14-man Cardiff, while Zebre were hammered by Munster. Ulster traveled to Treviso and emerged victorious while Ospreys beat regional rivals Newport-Gwent Dragons.
Here are the results:
Fri – 09th Jan 15
Glasgow Warriors 22 – 7 Scarlets
Connacht 13 – 16 Edinburgh
Sat – 10th Jan 15
Cardiff Blues 13 – 22 Leinster
Zebre 7 – 31 Munster
Sun – 11th Jan 15
Benetton Treviso 20 – 24 Ulster
Ospreys 22 – 11 Newport Gwent Dragons
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.
