NEW YORK, NY – Another great weekend is in the books. With that, here is what went down re: Claassen, Rio Reserves, PRO Rugby Title and Super Rugby Playoffs and more.
News & Transactions:
Top 14: France international back-row Antonie Claassen has signed a new contract with Top 14 championsRacing 92.
USA Rugby: @Eagles7s head coach Mike Friday has picked his three traveling reserves to head to Rio. Nate Augspurger, Martin Iosefo, and Shalom Suniula have made the cut after a training camp in Florida. Will Holder and Thretton Palamo also traveled to Florida in attempt to make it as one of the three reserves but were left out. The rules in Rio means that it is possible to actually swap out players after day one even without injury so the three players could feature without an injury. On the women’s team an injury to Meya Bizer sees her replaced by Cheta Emba. Heartbreaking for Bizer but huge for Emba. Here are the updated squads:
2016 Rio Olympics Men’s Squad: Madison Hughes, Zack Test, Folau Niua, Danny Barrett, Garrett Bender, Maka Unufe, Perry Baker, Carlin Isles, Andrew Durutalo, Chris Wyles, Nate Ebner, Ben Pinkelman
2016 Rio Olympics Men’s Reserves: Nate Augspurger, Martin Iosefo, Shalom Suniula
2016 Rio Olympics Women’s Squad: Bui Baravilala, Ryan Carlyle, Lauren Doyle, Nana Fa’avesi, Carmen Farmer, Vix Folayan, Kelly Griffin, Jessica Javelet, Kathryn Johnson, Alev Kelter, Jillion Potter, Richelle Stephensar.
World Rugby: The preliminary squads for The Rugby Championship have been announced. Click here to see the squads.
The weekend’s fixtures:
PRO Rugby: The inaugural season of PRO rugby is over and it was a success, to say the least. Check out Matt McCarthy’s recap of the final… The Denver Stampede are the inaugural PRO Rugby champions, despite falling to the Ohio Aviators 32-25 on a last-second try. Thanks to their two bonus points, one for four tries and one for losing by 7 or less, the Stampede finish on 47 points to 46 for Ohio. It was only fitting that it came down to Denver and Ohio in the final match of the season… The day before, San Francisco won a rare away game against Sacramento in the northern California derby..
Here are the results: Sat – 30 Jul 2016 San Francisco 37-34 Sacramento Sun – 31 Jul 2016 Denver 32-25 Ohio
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 have finally reached the playoffs. The semi-finals saw the Highlanders traveling to Johannesburg and be unable to over the jet lag and altitude against the Lions. Meanwhile the top seed Hurricanes dispatched their New Zealand rivals, the Chiefs.
Here are the results: Sat – 30 Jul 2016 Hurricanes 25-9 Chiefs Lions 42-30 Highlanders
Premiership 7s: The play-in qualifiers for entry, groups C and D, in England’s Premiership Rugby 7s finals were played in Newcastle at Kingston Park and Northampton in Franklin Gardens. The 4 teams in group C are Harlequins, Saracens, Gloucester and Northampton meanwhile group D will feature the Newcastle, Sale, Leicester and Worcester. The top two teams from each group (Harlequins, Northampton, Sale and Newcastle) qualified to be one of the 8 teams the Singha Premiership 7s finals.
Here are the results: Sat – 30 Jul 2016 Hurricanes 25-9 Chiefs Lions 42-30 Highlanders
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 1A action this weekend Uganda will travel to Nairobi to face Kenya in the return match of the Elgon Cup. The Elgon Cup is held annually and contested between the rugby teams of Kenya and Uganda. The competition and the cup are named after Mount Elgon, a mountain on the border of the two countries. The men’s and women’s teams of these countries compete for their respective Cups on a Home-and-Away basis. The mens’ competition has been rolled into the 1A matches for both sides, so the match will be both a RWC qualifier and an Elgon Cup match. Kenya are Elgon Cup winners. After winning the first leg by 38 points, they dominated in the second leg at home.
Here are the results: Sat – 30 Jul 2016 1A:Kenya 45-24 Uganda
Born in Osu, Accra, Ghana, West Africa, Junoir Blaber is a rare commodity; while most Ghanians eat, sleep and dream Soccer (football), Junoir is all about Rugby. A self-proclaimed Rugbyologist, he has been involved in Rugby as a ref, coach, administrator and player since Columbus discovered Ohio. His useful/trivial rugby knowledge qualify Blaber as RWU's Senior Correspondent & known in rugby circles as The Rugby Rain Man. He can also be found moonlighting for our American partners at MeetTheMatts.com.
USA Rugby: @Eagles7s head coach Mike Friday has picked his three traveling reserves to head to Rio. Nate Augspurger, Martin Iosefo, and Shalom Suniula have made the cut after a training camp in Florida. Will Holder and Thretton Palamo also traveled to Florida in attempt to make it as one of the three reserves but were left out. The rules in Rio means that it is possible to actually swap out players after day one even without injury so the three players could feature without an injury. On the women’s team an injury to Meya Bizer sees her replaced by Cheta Emba. Heartbreaking for Bizer but huge for Emba. Here are the updated squads:
PRO Rugby: The inaugural season of PRO rugby is over and it was a success, to say the least. Check out Matt McCarthy’s recap of the final… The Denver Stampede are the inaugural PRO Rugby champions, despite falling to the Ohio Aviators 32-25 on a last-second try. Thanks to their two bonus points, one for four tries and one for losing by 7 or less, the Stampede finish on 47 points to 46 for Ohio. It was only fitting that it came down to Denver and Ohio in the final match of the season… The day before, San Francisco won a rare away game against Sacramento in the northern California derby..
Premiership 7s: The play-in qualifiers for entry, groups C and D, in England’s Premiership Rugby 7s finals were played in Newcastle at Kingston Park and Northampton in Franklin Gardens. The 4 teams in group C are Harlequins, Saracens, Gloucester and Northampton meanwhile group D will feature the Newcastle, Sale, Leicester and Worcester. The top two teams from each group (Harlequins, Northampton, Sale and Newcastle) qualified to be one of the 8 teams the Singha Premiership 7s finals.
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 1A action this weekend Uganda will travel to Nairobi to face Kenya in the return match of the Elgon Cup. The Elgon Cup is held annually and contested between the rugby teams of Kenya and Uganda. The competition and the cup are named after Mount Elgon, a mountain on the border of the two countries. The men’s and women’s teams of these countries compete for their respective Cups on a Home-and-Away basis. The mens’ competition has been rolled into the 1A matches for both sides, so the match will be both a RWC qualifier and an Elgon Cup match. Kenya are Elgon Cup winners. After winning the first leg by 38 points, they dominated in the second leg at home.