Charteris, Gray, SANZAR, Challenge Cup, Barbarians, USA Rugby, World Rugby news

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NEW YORK, NY – There was quite a bit of activity this weekend with player moves, but there were also some key administration changes. With that, lets dive into the Global Rugby Recap.

News & Transactions:

Aviva Premiership: It was made official this weekend as it was announced by Bath that Wales second-row Luke Charteris is set to join the club ahead of the 2016/17 season… London Irish announced that loosehead prop Tom Smallbone has committed his future to the club, signing a two-year extension.

Top 14: Montpellier have have confirmed that back-row Fulgence Ouedraogo has re-signed… Scotland lock Richie Gray has reportedly agreed to join Toulouse for next season… New Zealand center Ma’a Nonu is set to make his debut for Toulon against Agen in the Top 14 next month. The double World Cup winner was unveiled to the press by the club earlier today.

Super Rugby: SANZAR announced the appointment of Andy Marinos as the organization’s Chief Executive Officer, who will formally start in the position on January 1, 2016.

USA Rugby: An update on the partnership between USA Rugby and Taranaki Rugby can be found on the USARugby.org. For those unaware, four American rugby players, Cameron Falcon, Hanco Germishuys, David Tameilau, and Mike Te’o spent eight weeks immersed in the New Zealand Union’s ITM Cup – or National Provincial Championship – program. For more info click here.

World Rugby: Over the next couple of days in Los Angeles, representatives from each of the 10 tier two unions will come together at a World Rugby workshop designed to maximize the gains made from Rugby World Cup 2015. The workshop is in effect a Rugby World Cup debrief. Over the course of the two days they’ll be pouring over a myriad of statistics to see which teams have improved their performance from tournament to tournament in key areas of the game, while also examining what has and hasn’t worked from a player release, scheduling and a team preparation and assembly time point of view… Newly appointed England coach – and former Australia and Japan coach – Eddie Jones will be a guest speaker… Newest edition of the rankings are out, CLICK HERE.

The weekend’s fixtures:

European Champions Cup: Round two of the European (Rugby) Champions Cup is in the books. It was good to try and get Europe to focus back on sports and Rugby following the events in Paris. There were tight games as well as one-sided matches… look for our recap.

European Challenge Cup: The second tier European Challenge Cup is a quality tournament in its own right, it is filled with mid-table European clubs playing good rugby and looking to graduate to the Champions Cup. The weekend began on Thursday with Harlequins getting a bonus point win against Cardiff and same goes for Gloucester at La Rochelle… The Friday games saw Agen go down to Edinburgh and Calvisano get absolutely destroyed by Montpellier… The actual weekend games saw Sale be too much for Pau, Zebre shock the Worcester Warriors, Connacht edge out Brive, Castres sneak by Newport-Gwent and Grenoble out-muscle the London Irish… Newcastle trounced Siberian club Enisei to close out the round.

Here are the results:
Thu – 19 Nov 2015
Cardiff Blues 20 – 32 Harlequins
La Rochelle 20-33 Gloucester
Fri – 20 Nov 2015
Agen 6 – 27 Edinburgh
Montpellier 64 – 0 Calvisano
Sat – 21 Nov 2015
Sale Sharks 29 – 20 Pau
Zebre 27 – 8 Worcester Warriors
Connacht 21 – 17 Brive
Castres Olympique 32 – 29 Newport-Gwent Dragons
Grenoble 27 – 20 London Irish
Sun- 22 Nov 2015
Newcastle Falcons 55 – 7 Enisei-STM

Barbarians: World Cup finalists from New Zealand and Australia joined forces as a star-studded Barbarians side against Argentina at Twickenham. The match celebrated the 125th anniversary of the Barbarians club, founded by WP Carpmael in 1890, and many of the club’s former greats – including legendary 1973 try-scorer Gareth Edwards – were watching from the Royal Box. It was a very open and fun game in traditional Barbarian’s style. However, the Pumas were too much for the squad of champions and won comfortably.

Here are the results:
Sat -21 Nov 2015
Barbarians 31-49 Argentina

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 in 2A, Malta came up short against the Czech Republic. The division 1B match between Ukraine and Moldova was postponed.

Here are the results:
Sat -21 Nov 2015
1B: Ukraine – Moldova – postponed until to 02/04/2016
2A: Malta 13 – 20 Czech Republic

Hong Kong Cup of Nations: The 2015 Cup of Nations will be the third Cup of Nations tournament, but the first to be held outside the United Arab Emirates. Unlike 2011 and 2012, the Cup of Nations will be staged in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Football Club Stadium from November 13 to 21. The tournament will act as a year ending tournament for tier 3 teams from different continents. The weekend saw the final round of action, the playoff round. Portugal defeated Zimbabwe for third place and Hong Kong lost big to Russia as the Polar Bears won the cup.