NEW YORK, NY – Like a bartender yelling last call, the curtain has drawn on the regular season for two of Europe’s three leagues, the Aviva Premiership and the Guinness Pro 12. While after this weekend, there is only one more round of the #Top14 left. The end is also calling in the southern hemisphere so Super Rugby is beginning to draw to a close. Speaking of closing out, it was the final leg of HSBC World Rugby Org Sevens World Series in London this weekend. Joining the men in London are the women as the London 7s is the penultimate leg of the World Rugby Org Womens Sevens World Series. Still not gotten your fill? Well there is also the Junior (U-20) Rugby World Trophy to discuss along with Tier 3 international rugby championships in South America, and Asia. We once again must squeeze in all of the Transfers, Player Transactions, USA Rugby and World Rugby news. And now, let’s get into the Global Rugby Recap:
Player Transactions:
Aviva Premiership: In a move that had been rumored for a while, Harlequins have confirmed the signing of Wales and Lions center Jamie Roberts from Racing-Métro for the 2015-16 season, post Rugby World Cup. According to the Mail on Sunday, England will name a 50-man training squad which will come together on June 21, with Sam Burgess likely to be included…French newspaper Midi Olympique believe that Bath winger Semesa Rokoduguni with a possible move to Clermont Auvergne. Apparently with Clermont’s move for Highlanders winger Waisake Naholo set to be called off, Rokoduguni could be Clermont’s next target.
#TOP14: According to RMC, Montpellier are set to announce the signatures of the du Plessis brothers, Springboks Jannie and Bismarck, from Super Rugby‘s the Sharks later this week.
Guinness Pro12: Glasgow Warriors have announced that contrary to reports in the Australian press, that the Scottish Rugby Union had lured the 23-year-old Fijian-born NSW Waratahs wing Taqele Naiyaravoro to Edinburgh on a three-year deal worth AUS$ 1 million, Naiyaravoro is actually heading to Glasgow.
USA Rugby News/Updates: Most of the USA Rugby News this weekend revolved around the London 7s but there was a bit of major club news. However in the Pacific Rugby Premiership, The Glendale Raptors defeated SFGG in the PRP Grand Final, 25-11.
World Rugby News: SANZAR Game Manager Lyndon Bray has issued a strongly-worded statement following a weekend of poor performances from Super Rugby referees. Although Bray did not name individuals, Australian referees Rohan Hoffmann, George Ayoub and Kiwi TMO Vinny Munro are both missing from the list of scheduled referees for the upcoming weekend.
As for the weekend’s fixtures:
London 7s: The USA men had a pretty good tournament to say the least! Spoiler Alert!! They won the whole tournament. The USA women also had good tourney. The tournament itself had such massive upsets everyday that it was impossible to keep track. Click Here, for our complete review of the tournament.
Super Rugby: If you want to know more about the bad reffing performances that we just mentioned, then you need to talk to our Super Rugby expert, Kiwi . Mr. Wall shares his thoughts on the dodgy reffing, the great matches and the not-so-great matches. You can check out his piece if you, Click Here.
#Top14: According to our Top 14 expert, it is tight all around. There is almost no midtable side in the Top 14. About 9 clubs are fighting for the 6 playoff spots and another 5 are battling to avoid relegation. Fingernails were bitten this weekend and for the complete breakdown check out his review that will be out shortly.
Aviva Premiership: What a final weekend of action in the Premiership. Somehow the team with the fewest tries scored outside of the 1 relegated side qualified for playoffs and another lost out though they were tied for points with the fourth and final seed. Plus there was still a battle to finish in the top 6 and secure a Champions Cup spot. Our Aviva Premiership expert, Nick Hall, will be on the scene shortly with a great preview of Saturday’s action. In the meantime, check out Jake Frechette‘s piece on the importance of kicking, since a team can not score many tries and still make the playoffs by clicking here.
Guinness Pro 12: Final weekend of action in the Pro 12 regular season and though the four playoff spots are locked up, there is still plenty to play for. The seventh-placed Pro 12 side will play in the first Champions Cup play-off game on May 24 against Gloucester of the Aviva Premeirship. Connacht despite their loss 4 point loss to Ospreys, managed to hold onto seventh. Unfortunately for Ospreys, their 4 point win was not enough of a win margin as second place Glasgow romped over fourth place Ulster, to set up a rematch next weekend with Glasgow as the one seed. Third place Munster moved up to second place after they thrashed Newport Gwent. Sixth place Scarlets avoided being drawn into the Champions Cup spot as they slumped to a victory over Treviso. Leinster ‘s big win over Edinburgh denied Edinburgh the chance of pushing for seventh and giving Connacht seventh while Cardiff dominated Zebre.
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
Sat – 16th May 15
Connacht 20 – 24 Ospreys
Glasgow Warriors 32 – 10 Ulster
Munster 50 – 27 Newport Gwent Dragons
Benetton Treviso 13 – 17 Scarlets
Cardiff Blues 29 – 5 Zebre
Edinburgh 23 – 36 Leinster
Junior World Rugby Trophy – The Junior (Under-20) World Rugby Trophy is a tournament for the second tier nations of rugby at the U-20 level. The winner gets promoted to the Junior World Cup competition which features, the top tier nations in international rugby. It is being held in Portugal this year. The USA failed to qualify this year and lost out to Canada. The teams playing this year are Canada, Uruguay, Portugal, Georgia, Namibia, Fiji, Tonga and Hong Kong. This week will be the start of pool play. Fans can watch live streaming of the tournament around the world. Two venues will be in use on each of the four match days during the tournament in Lisbon with all games being available to view via the Portuguese Rugby Union (FPR) website. In the weekend’s fixtures, Fiji were dominated by Georgia in a match-up of contrasting strengths, Uruguay outlasted Portugal. Canada continued their good form against Hong Kong and Tonga thumped Namibia.
Here are the results:
Sat – 15th May 15
Fixtures (local times)
Pool A – CAR Rugby do Jamor
15:00 Fiji 13-30 Georgia
17:00 Uruguay 37-26 Portugal
Pool B – Estadio Universitario de Lisboa
15:00 Canada 24-15 Hong Kong
17:00 Tonga 45-11 Namibia
For round three, Portugal will take on Georgia and are the only thing that can stop the young Lelos from making the final. Uruguay will then take on Fiji while Namibia and Hong Kong look for their first win against each other and Tonga takes on Canada in the group decider.
Here is the schedule:
Wed – 20th May 15
Fixtures (local times)
Pool A – CAR Rugby do Jamor
17:00 Portugal – Georgia
19:00 Uruguay – Fiji
For Pool A matches click here.
Pool B – Estadio Universitario de Lisboa
17:00 Namibia – Hong Kong
19:00 Tonga – Canada
For Pool B matches click here.
South American Championships (SAMC) 2015: The SAMC is the same as the ENC – except it’s South America, a minor detail – and that has 4 divisions featuring 15 teams. It is the battle to find the 2nd best team in South America with Argentina the firm number 1. The top division is called the CONSUR division and features Argentina’s B team, Uruguay and Chile. Speaking of the CONSUR division, this weekend saw Uruguay fall to the continental giants, Argentina.
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
Sat – 9th May 15
Uruguay 14 – 36 Argentina
The Asian Rugby Championship, which is similar to the ENC (European Nation’s Cup) but with 5 divisions with the 3 most dominant teams, the tri-nations of Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan in the top division. There are 4 teams in division 1 and 2 then division 3 is broken up into East, Central and West with 3 teams each before we finally get to division 4 with 7. Believe it or not this is allegedly streamlined from previous years where it was just 5 divisions and 5 teams in each…As for the weekend’s fixtures, Korea lost a squeaker to Hong Kong in the top division. In D2 the UAE struggled to fight off Chinese Taipei while Malaysia beat up on Thailand.
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
Sat – 16th May 15
Top: Korea 37 – 38 Hong Kong
D2: United Arab Emirates 16 – 12 Chinese Taipei
D2: Malaysia 53 – 7 Thailand
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, James Harrington, Jamie Wall, Nick Hall, DJ Eberle, Jake Frechette, Scheenagh Harrington, Jamie Loyd, Cody Kuxmann, Karen Ritter, Audrey Youn, Akweley Okine, Rocky Brown and Declan Yeats, respectively.
And as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.
