NEW YORK, NY – Plenty o’action to talk about with the comings and goings in the rugby world, so a lack of matches wasn’t an issue. This Global Rugby Recap is chock full goodies re: Steve Hansen, the RFU-PRL Agreement, Kyle Eastmond, Josh Beaumont, Mick Byrne, Super Rugby Playoffs and more… so without further adieu, let’s begin:
News & Transactions:
As always with RWU, Ladies first;
England Women: Professional player contracts will be awarded for the 15-a-side game for the first time as part of England Rugby’s on-going commitment to the professionalisation of women’s rugby. There will be 48 player contracts for the 2016/17 season with 16 players will being awarded full-time contracts.
Steve Hansen: All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen has been reappointed through until 2019, the New Zealand Rugby (NZR) union has confirmed. In making the announcement, NZR Chief Executive Steve Tew said “it had been easy for the board to make a unanimous decision to extend Hansen’s current contract from 2017 through to the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.”
Aviva Premiership: The Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Premiership Rugby Limited (PRL) have agreed a progressive new partnership for the next eight years (July 2024). The ground-breaking agreement for the clubs and England, will see Premiership clubs benefit from the successful financial performance of England Rugby for the first time, as PRL and the RFU have agreed an appropriate share of rugby revenues as a basis for the investment over the life of the deal. For more details please go to the RFU website.
Wasps announced that England international and former Bath centre, Kyle Eastmond, will join the club ahead of the 2016/17 season… Bristol announced the signing of Georgian international second-row Giorgi Nemsadze ahead of the 2016/2017 Premiership season… Sale Sharks announced that eightman, and member of the RWU class of 2016, Josh Beaumont has signed a new three-year deal with the club and will also captain the side in the coming season. Sale are expected to make some more signings this week, so expect to hear from them in the weekend preview.
Pro 12: Irish province Munster confirmed the signing of Western Province and Stormers lock Jean Kleyn on a three-year deal.
Super Rugby: Former All Blacks skills coach Mick Byrne has signed a four-year contract with the Australian Rugby Union. Originally an Aussie Rules Football legend and coach, Byrne started out as a kicking coach in rugby before added skills to his resume. Byrne worked with the All Blacks through three World Cup campaigns, including two wins and will now work with all of Australia’s national teams, Super Rugby clubs and junior representative teams to improve skills across all areas of the game… The Reds search for a new coach, despite loads of media rumor, never left the Queensland Rugby Union headquarters’ parking lot as the QRU are set to announce interim co-coach Nick Stiles as the new head coach of the Reds for next season according to the Australian media… The Melbourne Rebels have signed Australia Sevens star Pama Fou for the 2017 Super Rugby season. The New Zealand born speedster will join the Rebels in August on a one-year contract after he was granted dispensation by the club this year to pursue his dream of competing in the Olympics with the Australian Sevens team which unfortunately ended abruptly courtesy for a freak accident that caused him to tear his ACL.
USA Rugby: In the world of College rugby, Clarence Picard and Andrew Tui Osborne have been named full-time coaches of men’s and women’s rugby at St. Bonaventure University. The pair will split the role of coaching each team in 15s and 7s.
World Rugby: The Rio 2016 Paralympic Wheelchair Rugby schedule announced. Click here for the full schedule… The latest movers and shakers in the world of Rugby has been confirmed with the latest version of the World Rugby Rankings released; View the full rankings… Former English RFU president Brian Williams, sadly passed away on Friday:
The weekend’s fixtures:
PRO Rugby: Round 14 of the inaugural season of PRO rugby rolled in California this weekend. In this round, San Diego lost to Sacramento in arguably the most thrilling match of the season. While Denver took sole possession of first place winning a tense affair against San Fransisco. As usual, our stats man Luke Bienstock will have a piece out later this week.
Here are the results:
Sat – 23 Jul 2016
San Diego 27-35 Sacramento
Sun – 24 Jul 2016
Denver 31-24 San Francisco
Super Rugby: It has been 5 long months, 4 if you count the international season break, since the start of the Super Rugby season but we finally reached the playoffs. The knockout round began with the Highlanders winning a war of attrition on a soggy pitch against the Brumbies. The round continued with the top seed Hurricanes smashing and shutting-out the Sharks. The second seed and most exciting team of the season, the Lions, started fast and finished strong against the always dangerous Crusaders. The Final match of the weekend saw the Stormers exposed as paper tigers by the Chiefs.
Here are the results:
Fri – 22 Jul 2016
Brumbies 9-15 Highlanders
Sat – 23 Jul 2016
Hurricanes 41-0 Sharks
Lions 42-25 Crusaders
Stormers 21-60 Chiefs
Premiership 7s: The play-in qualifiers for entry into England’s Premiership Rugby 7s were played in Cardiff at the Cardiff Arms Park over the weekend. The 4 Welsh regions playin the English club 7s tournament, the premier pro club 7s tournament.The Cardiff Blues, the Newport Gwent Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets battled for the right to play in the Singha Premiership 7s final, with Cardiff and the Ospreys winning that right. The first of the English qualifiers were played on Saturday in Exeter between and featured the Exeter Chiefs, Bristol, Wasps and Bath. The winners were Exeter and Wasps.
Here are the results:
Fri – 22 Jul 2016
Cardiff Blues 7s 17-15 Ospreys 7
Scarlets 7s 12-26 Newport Gwent Dragons 7s
Ospreys 7s 21-19 Newport Gwent Dragons 7s
Cardiff Blues 7s 22-12 Scarlets 7s
Ospreys 7s 24-5 Scarlets 7s
Cardiff Blues 7s 24-22 Newport Gwent Dragons 7s
Sat – 23 Jul 2016
Exeter Chiefs 7s 36-5 Bristol 7s
Wasps 7s 36-21 Bath Rugby 7s
Wasps 7s 22-14 Bristol 7s
Exeter Chiefs 7s 33-5 Bath Rugby 7s
Bristol 7s 33-12 Bath Rugby 7s
Exeter Chiefs 7s 26-19 Wasps 7s
Africa Cup: The Africa Cup 2016 will be the sixteenth 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, 2 West, 2 East, and 2 South), with promotion and relegation. In the 1A, this weekend Zimbabwe were upset by Uganda.
Here are the results:
Sat – 23 Jul 2016
1A: Zimbabwe 27-34 Uganda
2016 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. The final round of fixtures began with the Sharks defeating SouthWest District. Then on Saturday, Valke (Falcons) thumped Eastern Province while the Welwitschias were destroyed by Western Province. Other matches saw Leopards be too strong for Griquas, Boland edge out the Golden Lions, Border fell to Free State and Griffons were smashed Pumas.
Here are the results:
Fri – 22 Jul 2016
SWD Eagles 24-29 Sharks XV
Sat – 23 Jul 2016
Falcons 59-26 Eastern Province Kings
Welwitschias 7-71 Western Province
Leopards 37-17 Griquas
Boland Cavaliers 28-24 Golden Lions
Border Bulldogs 18-22 Free State
Griffons 17-60 Pumas
With the qualification process finally done, the Currie Cup Premier division is set. Here is the list of teams for the this years premier division and where they finished in qualifying. (please keep in mind that the six super rugby franchise provinces were guaranteed qualification regardless of performance):
1 Western Province
2 Griquas
3 Boland Cavaliers
4 Pumas
5 Golden Lions XV
6 Free State XV
7 Blue Bulls
10 Sharks XV
14 Eastern Province Kings
Congratulations to Griquas, Boland and Pumas!!!
That’s all for now, please feel free to comment below, look for and “Like” our Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Page and follow us on Twitter@: RugbyWrapUp, Junoir Blaber, @MeetTheMatts, Luke Bienstock, Ronan Nelson, James Harrington and Declan Yeats.
