NEW YORK, NY – The only thing people want to talk about his weekend are the European Champions & Challenge Cup matches. However, there are still a few bits of news and transactions taking place that we must cover. Let’s get straight to the Global Rugby Recap.
News & Transactions:
January is the start of rugby’s signing season. With the game being so global, it is the month that you will see a large number of players re-sign with clubs or announce that at the end of the season they are going to be playing elsewhere.
Pro 12: Edinburgh confirmed that Scotland and Glasgow Warriors‘ fly-half Duncan Weir will be joining the club at the start of next season, on a two-year contract.
Super Rugby: Israel Dagg plans on staying in New Zealand for the foreseeable future after terminating an out-clause in his contract.
USA Rugby: USA Rugby has officially released training content only available to USAR-registered members. Now, every athlete and team in the USA Rugby system can access the standardized skills and drills training as well as strength and conditioning content being used in the National Team system. USA Rugby Director of Performance Alex Magleby believes this provides an opportunity to develop young talent from grassroots to entering the National Team pipeline. With this release, each team can now receive a customized training program. Based on position and experience, the BridgeAthletic platform will deliver personalized strength training, as well as rugby drills, to accelerate player skill development and improve performance on the pitch. Click here to read more.
USA Rugby is accepting nominations for two positions on its Board of Directors, to be seated in September. To submit a nomination, or for any related queries, contact USA Rugby Director of Human Resources Janna Doyscher…
According to Americas Rugby News, Men’s Eagles Sevens Head Coach Mike Friday has subbed in Bret Thompson for Maka Unufe – due to undisclosed reasons – on the travel squad for Wellington Sevens and possibly the Sydney 7s, the third and fourth legs of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.
World Rugby: World Rugby TV heads to Jamaica to discover how Get Into Rugby is helping to keep young people away from a life of crime.
The weekend’s fixtures:
European Rugby Champions Cup: The European (Rugby) Champions Cup has completed the final round of pool play. It will be an Anglo-Franco match-up for the knockout round. RWU Wolf Man Ronan Nelson has a great review featuring the RWU Analysts’ picks and the insane ending of the final match-day coming.
European Rugby Challenge Cup: The second tier, European Challenge Cup tournament should not be dismissed because it is second tier. Keen observers will notice that it is filled with European clubs with real ambitions and playing a very entertaining brand of rugby. Some clubs in the Champions’ Cup competition this season were in the Challenge Cup last season. As for the matches, they began on Thursday when Sale shellacked Newport-Gwent. Coming up this weekend, Castres defeated To14 rivals Pau, La Rochelle easily dispatched Worcester, Cardiff ran rings around Calvisano and Montpellier crushed a second string Harlequins. The final day of the round saw Zebre fall just short to Gloucester, Connacht demonlished Enisey-STM, Brive fell just short to Newcastle, while London Irish won easily at Agen. Finally Grenoble were toomuch fo Edinburgh in the final match of the day.
Here are the results:
Thu – 21 Jan 2016
Sale Sharks 38-5 Newport Gwent Dragons
Fri – 22 Jan 2016
Castres 24-7 Pau
La Rochelle 35-11 Worcester Warriors
Cardiff Blues 74-6 Calvisano
Montpellier 42-9 Harlequins
Sat – 23 Jan 2016
Zebre 11 – 14 Gloucester
Connacht 47 – 5 Enisey-STM
Newcastle Falcons 27 – 23 Brive
Agen 17 – 31 London Irish
Grenoble 34 – 23 Edinburgh
That is 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, Ronan Nelson, Kyle Phillips and Declan Yeats, respectively
And as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.
