NEW YORK, NY – The weekend and is over and it is time for the review. We will look at all the weekend Rugby News and Transactions. Then we must cover the two world sevens series tournaments that occurred in the USA and Asia, respectively. We also have the knockout stages of the European Professional Club Rugby Champions and Challenge Cup that require our attention. last but not least we look at the weekend’s Super Rugby matches that were played before we finish with some Tier 2 coverage. So without delay, he is the Global Rugby Recap.
News & Transactions:
Allister Coetzee: Former Stormers boss Allister Coetzee has been named as the new head coach of South Africa for the next four years, taking over from Heyneke Meyer.
Super Rugby: Brumbies eightman Ita Vaea was on the verge of a Wallabies call-up when doctors told him that he risked death if he continued his rugby career. A shattered Vaea announced his immediate retirement from rugby after scans showed a recurrence of a blood clot condition that could have killed him.
Pro 12: Wales and Ospreys star Justin Tipuric is set for a three-month break from rugby following the concussion he suffered against Italy… Newport-Gwent Dragons completed the signing of Wales international prop Craig Mitchell ahead of next season, according to head coach Kingsley Jones… Glasgow Warriors secured the services of Scotland tighthead prop Zander Fagerson on a new three-year contract until at least May 2019.
PRO Rugby: London Irish confirmed that center Dominic Waldouck has joined PRO Rugby side Ohio… The broadcast details for the inaugural PRO Rugby season have been unveiled at last. With less than a week until the new North American professional rugby competition kicks off, CEO Doug Schoninger announced that games will be broadcast live online at AOL.com and on television via ONE World Sports… PRO Rugby kicks off its inaugural season this weekend and with the new season imminent the schedule has now been confirmed with kickoff times added. See here for the updated match schedule.
USA Rugby: The Women’s Spring Division II field shrunk from 16 teams to just four after four Regional Playoffs eliminated 12 teams from the competition. Humboldt State, Salisbury University, University of Southern California, and Tulane University each won two games over the weekend, qualifying themselves for the April 23-24 Spring Championship.UC Davis and Virginia will play for the Women’s Division I Spring Championship after each team won two playoff matches over the weekend.
World Rugby: World Rugby has announced the match officials that will take charge when rugby returns to the Olympic Games this year. Click here for the full panels.
The weekend’s fixtures:
Atlanta 7s: The third leg of the 2015/2016 HSBC World Rugby Womens 7s Series stopped in Atlanta this weekend. We have a complete review of the tournament, if you click here.
Hong Kong 7s: The Hong Kong leg of the 7s series is the granddaddy of them. The 2015/2016 HSBC World Rugby Mens 7s Series stop in Hongers was extra special as it also hosted qualifiers for core status. As we did for the women, we have a complete review of the tournament and team USA’s performance, if you click here.
European Rugby Champions Cup: And then there were four left standing in The European (Rugby) Champions Cup race. The quarterfinals were an Anglo-Franco affair and there were some great matches. Once again, the RWU Wolf Man Ronan Nelson has put together an fantastic review featuring the RWU Analysts’ picks, just click right here.
European Rugby Challenge Cup: The second tier, European Challenge Cup tournament should not be dismissed because it is a second tier competition You will find it filled with European clubs with real ambitions and playing a very entertaining brand of rugby. As for the matches this weekend, they began on Friday with Sale falling to in form Montpellier. Saturday saw Gloucester were upset by Newport-Gwent, Grenoble snuck by at the death against an injury ravaged Connacht and Harlequins dug deep to get by rivals London Irish.
Here are the results:
Fri – 8 Apr 2016
Sale Sharks 19-25 Montpellier
Sat – 9 Apr 2016
Gloucester 21-23 Newport-Gwent Dragons
Grenoble 33-32 Connacht
Harlequins 38-30 London Irish
Pro 12: The Pro 12 had a make-up match this weekend between Zebre and Glasgow that was due to be played in January, but was postponed so the Warriors could play their rescheduled European Rugby Champions Cup fixture with Racing 92. Glasgow won easily at Zebre.
Here are the results:
Sat – 9 Apr 2016
Zebre 14-43 Glasgow Warriors
Super Rugby: Super Rugby continues into the eighth round of the newly re-formatted tournament that crosses 7 time zones. As for this round of fixtures, it started with the Chiefs coming back to defeat the Blues and the Crusaders needed a last gasp try to defeat the Force. In the other matches this weekend, the Sunwolves continued their South Africa tour and were soundly beaten by the Stormers, the Hurricanes were too much for the Jaguares. The Reds won a thriller by one point over the Highlanders, The Sharks fell to the Lions in a SA local derby. The final match saw another SA derby as the Kings lost big to the Bulls.
Here are the results:
Fri – 8 Apr 2016
Chiefs 29-23 Blues
Force 19-20 Crusaders
Stormers 46-19 Sunwolves
Sat – 9 Apr 2016
Hurricanes 40-22 Jaguares
Reds 28-27 Highlanders
Sharks 9-24 Lions
Kings 6-38 Bulls
European Nations Cup: The ENC, or the 6 Nations “B” , is the premier tournament for the second-tier nations of Europe. Unbeknownst to some, 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, where the best teams in Europe not called England, Ireland, France, Italy, Wales or Scotland reside, has no promotion option – only relegation back to 1B. Hopefully promotion from 1A to the proper 6N will eventually occur… but we aren’t banking on it.
In 2A this weekend, the Czech Republic continued their winning streak as they defeated Croatia and tiny nation Switzerland beat fellow tiny nation Malta. In 2B, Cyprus won at home against Hungary and 2C saw Austria fall to Serbia.
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 9 Apr 2016
2A: Czech Republic 26-5 Croatia
2A: Switzerland 29-3 Malta
2B: Cyprus 15-3 Hungary
2C: Austria 12-26 Serbia
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.
