NEW YORK, NY – First things first – need to give a shout out to my college rugby squad. I shuffled off to Buffalo… well, Niagara Falls to be exact, for the 40th Anniversary celebration of my Niagara University Rugby team. It’s where my love of rugby all began. It was a grand time. As for the rest of the rugby world, there is some stunning Rugby News and Player/Coach Transactions to report. And beyond Europe‘s three top domestic competitions and Super Rugby, there was an enormous amount of Tier 2/3 championship and Junior (U20) Rugby games. Let’s get to the Global Rugby Update:
News & Transactions:
Premiership: Bath confirmed that Amanaki Mafi is returning to Japan prior to the end of the season by mutual agreement with the club… Wasps confirmed that hooker Edd Shervington will retire at the end of the season and that fly-half Ruaridh Jackson will leave the club at the end of the season to join Harlequins… In other Harlequins news, ‘Quins and England prop Joe Marler admits that he has sought professional help from a psychologist following his suspensions… … Saracens have added a new second-row, ahead of next season, with the signing of the Bedford Blues’ (of the Greene King IPA Championship) Mark Flanagan on a two-year contract… Newcastle Falcons added Canadian lock Evan Olmstead to their squad for the 2016/2017season…. Bath confirmed that Argentina international wing Horacio Agulla will be leaving the club at the end of the season.
Top14: Former France fly-half Frédéric Michalak will leave Toulon at the end of the season to join newly-promoted Lyon… Toulouse assistant coach William Servat and Jean-Baptiste Elissalde have both signed new contracts with the club.
Pro 12: Scarlets confirmed that backline duo Gareth Owen and Tom Williams have signed contract extensions… Edinburgh announced the signing of tighthead prop Nick Beavon on a one-year deal ahead of next season… Connacht announced the recruitment of full-back Cian Kelleher from Leinster on a two-year deal.
Super Rugby: Australia international Scott Higginbotham is reportedly a targeted signing for the Reds ahead of 2017. The 29-year-old left the Rebels to head to Japan last season but ruptured his achilles, although Higginbotham is nearing a full return…. The Chiefs have received a significant boost with the news that fullback Damian McKenzie has committed himself to the team for two more years. The 21-year-old star put pen to paper last week extending his initial two-year contract to include the 2017 and 2018 Super Rugby seasons.
PRO Rugby: Tongan international winger Viliame ‘Pila’ Iongi has signed with PRO Rugby. The 26-year-old has been assigned to San Francisco. Iongi joins the team directly from the Greene King IPA Championship in England, where he finished the season with 11 tries in 11 league games.
USA Rugby: In stunning news covered in this press release, Nigel Melville will be stepping down from his role as Chief Executive Officer of USA Rugby effective June 30, 2016. In July, Melville will return to England where he has accepted the role as Director of Professional Rugby for the Rugby Football Union (RFU)… The USA Men’s Eagles national team’s Summer Series matches against Italy and Russia in northern California this June will be broadcast exclusively live to viewers in the United States on TheRugbyChannel.tv… The 2016 USA Rugby College 15s National Championships, consisting of five championship matches at Saint Mary’s College Saturday, May 7, will be broadcast live from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. PT on The Rugby Channel… Coach Mike Friday‘s Men’s Eagles Sevens squad for HSBC Paris Sevens May 13-15 has been announced… An updated roster of Women’s Eagles Sevens resident athletes at the United States Olympic Committee’s Olympic Training Center has been announced. In very sad news, a long time member of the USA Rugby Community, Mike Cobb, who played, coached, and officiated rugby for more than three decades, was killed Saturday when an automobile struck him in Thailand where he was participating in a rugby referee exchange.
World Rugby: The award for best VIP/Premium ticketing at the Ticketing and Technology Awards, was presented to STH Group (formerly RTH), the exclusive provider of travel and hospitality for RWC2015 and reflects the record-breaking success of the program and innovative experience for fans.
The weekend’s fixtures:
PRO Rugby
: The inaugural season of professional rugby is finally here in America. The third week of action saw Denver at San Diego and San Francisco travel to Ohio. Our own Jake Frechette has a review of the Denver v San Diego game and the San Fran v Ohio game, if you follow the links.
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 Harare, Zimbabwe this year. The teams playing this year are the USA, Uruguay, Zimbabwe, Spain, Namibia, Fiji, Samoa and Hong Kong. In the final, Spain was leading by eight points with nine minutes left to go and threatened to cause an upset against, Samoa, a side relegated from the U20 Championship in 2015 until eightman Elia Elia struck with his hat-trick try to hand Samoa a lifeline which they gratefully accepted three minutes into extra-time when replacement Tivoli Masaga crossed in the corner. In the third place playoff, Fiji held off a Namibia fight-back to win their third place playoff game. While USA beat Uruguay with a dramatic comeback victory courtesy of a Uruguay red card, the USA’s Ben Cima once again proved how dangerous his leg is by nailing a 45-meter penalty kick for the victory. Hong Kong picked up their first win, 44-40 against hosts Zimbabwe to finish seventh.
Here are the results:
Sun – 1 May 16
Final: Samoa 38-32 Spain
3rd Place Playoff: Fiji 44-30 Namibia
5th Place Playoff: Uruguay 30-32 USA
7th Place Playoff: Zimbabwe 40-44 Hong Kong
The Oceania Rugby (U-20) Junior Championship 2016 will be the second edition of the Oceania Rugby Junior Championship. It will be played as two tournaments; the Oceania Under 20 Championship hosted on the Gold Coast in Australia, and the Oceania Under 20 Trophy hosted in Suva. In the Championship it will only consist of New Zealand and Australia. As expected, defending World Junior Champions New Zealand easily defeated the Aussies.
Here are the results:
Sun – 1 May 16
New Zealand 30-10 Australia
Aviva Premiership: The 2015/2016 Aviva Premiership headed into its penultimate round with European Cup places, playoffs and avoiding relegation all still at stake and increasing the intensity in every match. This weekend began with Sale losing narrowly to Gloucester. It continued with Leicester winning comfortably against Worcester and Northampton scrapping past Bath. Sunday saw a mouth watering Exeter-Wasps clash turn into one way traffic in Exeter’s favor followed by a London derby that saw the London Irish lose to Harlequins and confirm relegation. The weekend concluded with Saracens cruising past Newcastle.
Here are the results:
Fri – 29 Apr 2016
Sale Sharks 11-12 Gloucester
Sat – 30 Apr 2016
Leicester Tigers 31-17 Worcester Warriors
Northampton Saints 15-14 Bath
Sun – 1 May 2016
Exeter Chiefs 24-3 Wasps
London Irish 25-32 Harlequins
Saracens 23-14 Newcastle Falcons
Top 14: The Top 14 had a full slate of matches this weekend also. There are only four rounds left and the heat is on to make the playoffs or secure a place for Europe. The first match of the weekend saw Toulon narrowly fall to Toulouse. The other matches saw relegation bound Agen soundly defeat Brive, Pau fell hard to Castres, Montpellier crushed Grenoble, also relegation bound Oyonnax scrapped a win against La Rochelle and Bordeaux-Begles defeated Stade Francais. The final match of the round was the other match of the round as Racing 92 saw off Clermont-Auvergne.
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 30 Apr 2016
Toulon 10-12 Toulouse
Agen 37-19 Brive
Castres 37-6 Pau
Montpellier 51-10 Grenoble
Oyonnax 17-16 La Rochelle
Bordeaux Begles 35-25 Stade Francais
Sun – 1 May 2016
Racing 92 26-20 Clermont Auvergne
Pro 12: The Pro 12 had a very big round of its own dripping with playoff and European cup permutations. Foot of the table Treviso upset top of the table Connacht. Glasgow traveled to Italy and thrashed Zebre, while Munster left it late to knock-off Edinburgh. The Saturday line-up saw 2 Welsh derbies and 1 Irish derby. It began with Cardiff falling to the Ospreys and Newport-Gwent losing to Scarlets with Ulster dominating at home against Leinster.
Here is the schedule:
Fri – 29 Apr 2016
Benetton Treviso 22-21 Connacht
Glasgow Warriors 70-10 Zebre
Munster 27-19 Edinburgh
Sat – 30 Apr 2016
Cardiff Blues 27-40 Ospreys
Ulster 30-6 Leinster
Newport Gwent Dragons 20-34 Scarlets
Super Rugby: The newly re-formatted Super Rugby tournament continues. Under this new format, it has games in 6 countries, crosses more than 7 time zones, features 18 teams, and four conferences. As for the 12th round of fixtures, it started with the Sharks narrowly losing to the Chiefs and the Force falling hard to the Bulls. The Blues were too much for the Rebels, the Highlanders shutdown the Brumbies, the Reds had too much fire power for the Cheetahs, Lions were thumped by the Hurricanes, the Stormers lost a close one to the Waratahs and the Jaguares hammered the Kings for their first win of the tournament.
Here is the schedule:
Fri – 29 Apr 2016
Chiefs 24-22 Sharks
Force 20-42 Bulls
Sat – 30 Apr 2016
Blues 36-30 Rebels
Highlanders 23-10 Brumbies
Reds 30-17 Cheetahs
Lions 17-50 Hurricanes
Stormers 30-32 Waratahs
Jaguares 73-27 Kings
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. This past weekend in 1B, the Netherlands trounced Poland, Sweden fell to Ukraine meanwhile Denmark lost a shocker to Luxembourg in 2C and finally in 2D, Turkey were too much for Norway.
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 30 Apr 2016
1B: Netherlands 40-16 Poland
1B: Ukraine 23-10 Sweden
2C: Denmark 14-19 Luxembourg
2D: Turkey 21-7 Norway
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. This week, Division 3 West/Central , West and the Top 3 are in action. In an historic occasion Saudi Arabia played their first ever test against Jordan and as expected lost. In the Top 3, Japan absolutely destroyed Korea.
Here are the results:
Fri – 29 Apr 2016
D3 West: Jordan 44-13 Saudi Arabia
Sat – 30 Apr 2016
Top 3: Japan 85-0 Korea
Africa Cup: The Africa Cup 2015 will be the fifteenth edition of the continental tournament that involves the best African national teams, organized by the Rugby Afrique , formerly known as the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR). Given their superiority, the South African national team has rarely participated in most tournaments. The four times the SARU has participated, they sent either a U-23 team or amateur side, and went on to win it. Beyond South Africa, there are up to 27 rugby countries in the Cup with the national participants in the two divisions with each division divided into three groups (1A, 1B, 1C, 2West, 2SouthEast, and 2South), with promotion and relegation. Tournament Divisions 1A and 1B’s games often double as qualification games for the Rugby World Cup. In a friendly over the weekend, Lesotho fell big to a B side from Botswana.
Here are the results:
Sat – 30 Apr 2016
Lesotho 5-41 Botswana
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 Sudamerica Rugby Cup division and features Argentina’s B team, Uruguay and Chile. There are 3 division after that known as Division A,B, and C. This weekend was the second round in the South American A Championship and it saw Brazil draw with Chile and Paraguay lose big to Uruguay.
Here are the results:
Sat – 30 Apr 2016
Division A: Brazil 20-20 Chile
Division A: Paraguay 15-60 Uruguay
Rugby Americas North: 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… In a friendly this weekend Turks and Caicos Islands soundly defeated Curacao (of the Nether Antilles).
Here are the results:
Sat – 30 Apr 2016
Turks and Caicos 41-10 Curacao
2015 Currie Cup qualification: The tournament is a competition between which will be played between 9 April and 23 July 2016. It will feature all fourteen South African provincial unions plus the Welwitschias from Namibia and will also serve as a qualifying competition for the 2016 Currie Cup, the 78th edition of South Africa’s premier domestic rugby union competition. Nine teams from this competition will play in the 2016 Currie Cup Premier Division, while the remaining six teams will play in the 2016 Currie Cup First Division. Round four’s fixtures began on Thursday as Griffons defeated Falcons and SouthWest District outlasted Leopards. On Friday, Boland lost to Griquas, Border had no answers to Pumas. The Welwitschias lost at home to Eastern Province on Saturday and Western Province narrowly defeated the Golden Lions.
Here are the results:
Thu – 27 Apr 2016
Falcons 26–49 Griffons
SWD Eagles 26–21 Leopards
Here is the schedule:
Fri – 29 Apr 2016
Boland Cavaliers 14–30 Griquas
Border Bulldogs 3–28 Pumas
Sat – 30 Apr 2016
Welwitschias 18–31 Eastern Province Kings
Western Province 27–24 Golden Lions XV
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 and Declan Yeats.
And as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.
