NEW YORK, NY – It was a slow news weekend. However there are still transactions to cover and some very important news reports. We will also cover the matches in Europe’s top domestic competitions over the weekend and all the tier 2/3 matches. Without further adieu lets get to the Global Rugby Recap.
News & Transactions:
Aviva Premiership: Wales second-row Luke Charteris who currently plays for Racing 92, in the Top 14, is close to agreeing a deal to join Bath next season, according to the South Wales Evening Post.
Super Rugby: According to Rugbyweek, Toulon’s Top 14 Rugby club owner Mourad Boudjellal is understood to be in talks to buy South Africa’s struggling Super Rugby side the EP (Southern) Kings. The South African Rugby Union have pushed for the Kings return to Super Rugby and in just over three months they will return but there are reports that the Union is ZAR 80Million in debt. Boudjellal has offered to buy the franchise and take on some of the debts but in return for Toulon matches against the Springboks to help generate funds.
USA Rugby: Goff Rugby Report announced that Former High School All American and Fallbrook HS captain, and current University of Arizona freshman Steven Branham was presented with the Mark Loane Medal in New York. The Mark Loane Medal is sponsored by the University of Queensland Academy in America Foundation, and is presented to the top high school rugby player in the United States. The award recognizes skills and leadership on and off the field, also included is a scholarship for Branham to travel to Australia and train at the University of Queensland in the summer of 2016.
World Rugby: The latest version of the World Rugby Rankings are out. View the full rankings.
The weekend’s fixtures:
Ladies first,
Exhibition Match: France recorded their second win over England this year with an 11-0 victory over their cross-channel rivals in and exhibition match at Le Stade Francis Turcan, Martigues.
Here are the results:
Sat – 7 Nov 2015
France 11-0 England
Aviva Premiership: The 2015/2016 Aviva Premiership is starting to find its groove. After England’s RWC failure, the domestic game is the great hope of English rugby. As for the results, Harlequins edged Sale to kick off the action this round. London Irish were crushed by Bath, Worcester Warriors were too much for Newcastle, Northampton were upset by Saracens and Leicester fell to Exeter. The final match of the round will saw Wasps dominate Gloucester.
Here are the results:
Fri – 6 Nov 2015
Harlequins 16-14 Sale Sharks
Sat – 7 Nov 2015
London Irish 14-45 Bath
Worcester Warriors 28-20 Newcastle Falcons
Northampton Saints 6-12 Saracens
Exeter Chiefs 19-6 Leicester Tigers
Sun – 1 Nov 2015
Wasps 23-3 Gloucester
Top 14: The 2015/2016 #Top14 is back to its full compliment of world class players and with all teams fully armed, the league will be at its best. This round was a home team sweep as all the home teams won. The weekend began with struggling powerhouse Toulon crushing Montpellier then Brive put away Bordeaux, La Rochelle rout Oyonnax, Pau scrapped by Agen and Toulouse romped over Grenoble. The round ended with Castres cruising past Racing 92 and in championship rematch Stade Francais were once again victorious against Clermont.
Here are the results:
Sat – 7 Nov 2015
Toulon 52-8 Montpellier
Brive 16-3 Bordeaux Begles
La Rochelle 38-3 Oyonnax
Pau 33-31 Agen
Toulouse 52-12 Grenoble
Sun – 8 Nov 2015
Castres 34-8 Racing 92
Stade Francais 14-9 Clermont Auvergne
Guinness Pro 12: The Pro 12 season have had their international stars back and the action has gone up a notch. This weekend saw Connacht defeat Treviso and Leinster struggle past Scarlets to start the weekend. Then Ospreys trounced Zebre, Cardiff Blues fell to Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh lost on a last minute kick to Munster. The final game of the weekend saw Newport-Gwent fall to Ulster.
Here are the results:
Fri – 6 Nov 2015
Connacht 33-19 Benetton Treviso
Leinster 19-15 Scarlets
Sat – 7 Nov 2015
Ospreys 36-3 Zebre
Cardiff Blues 30-35 Glasgow Warriors
Edinburgh 14-16 Munster
Sun – 1 Nov 2015
Newport Gwent Dragons 12-19 Ulster
Regional Olympic Qualifiers: Each of World Rugby’s regional rugby unions must hold playoffs for their teams to book their places in the XXIX Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 for the Men and the Women. The regional unions are Rugby Afrique, Oceania Rugby, Rugby Europe, Asia Rugby, NACRA, and ConSuR.
Asia Rugby – In Hong Kong, Japan’s men qualified for the rugby sevens event in Rio 2016 after coming from behind to beat hosts Hong Kong 24-10 in the final of the Asian qualifier. Hong Kong stunned their rivals by scoring two first-half tries to take a deserved 10-0 lead into half-time. But Japan responded in style to book their ticket for Rio and ensure the rugby fever sweeping Japan since the Brave Blossoms’ good showing at Rugby World Cup 2015 and solid finish to their HSBC WR 7s series, despite relegation… The women’s competition is a two-legged affair, unlike the one-off tournament for the men, and reaches its conclusion in Tokyo on 29th November with the winner determined by the points accumulated during the two event. It is between Japan, China and Hong Kong, at the moment.
Qualified to Rio 2016:
Men: Japan
Qualified to Repechage:
Men: Hong Kong
European Nations Cup:The ENC, or the 6 Nations “B” , is the premier tournament for the second-tier nations of Europe. Believe it or not, the ENC consists of seven divisions, each featuring between four and six teams. The matches played will determine who will get promoted and relegated from groups 1B, 2A – 2D, and 3A over a two-year cycle. Division 1A aka the 6 Nations B is where the six best teams in the rest of Europe reside and there is no promotion to the Europe’s premier international rugby competition, only relegation back to 1B… In action this weekend we saw a road team sweep. Beginning in 1B Sweden fell to Moldova, 2A saw Israel come up short to Crotia, 2B witnessed Latvia crush Cyprus and 2C had Serbia get dominated by Slovenia.
Here are the results:
Sat – 7 Nov 2015
1B: Sweden 7-25 Moldova
2A: Israel 21-26 Croatia
2B: Cyprus 3-31 Latvia
2C: Serbia 17-33 Slovenia
Sudamerica Rugby: Formerly the SAMC now just Sudamerica Ruby is the same as the ENC – except it’s South America, a minor detail – and that it 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, there is a B division and this weekend in CONSUR B saw Colombia destroy Ecuador and Venezuela handled Peru. Prior to those matches there will be an exhibition match between Costa Rica and Panama in Costa Rica, with the hosts winning comfortably.
Here are the results:
Sat – 7 Nov 2015
Exhibition match: Costa Rica 72-25 Panama
Sun – 8 Nov 2015
CONSUR B: Colombia 72-13 Ecuador
CONSUR B: Venezuela 24-10 Peru
NACRA Championships 2015: Another regional tournament in full swing is the North America and Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) Championship. The NACRA Championship is for the countries in North America and the Caribbean. NACRA has 2 zones with top level (championship) and a bottom level (cup). Each Championship zone has 3 teams while the Cup Zones have 4 each. The Zones are regionally divided, so there is a North Zone and South Zone. USA Rugby competes in the North Zone Championship division. The USA is represented by the USA South Regional all-star team, in order to develop talent and make the competition a much fairer one…The weekend there was an exhibition match between the British Virgin Islands and Barbados.
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 7 Nov 2015
Exhibition match: British Virgin Islands 17-15 Barbados
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, Ronan Nelson, Kaitlin McCabe, Rocky Brown and Declan Yeats, respectively.
And remember to stay low and keep pumping those legs!
