NEW YORK, NY – In case you were caught up in the Olympics – and rightfully so – we’ll help you catch up on what you may have missed re Christian Lealiifano, Women’s 7s, Super Rugby Premiership 7s and more, in our Global Rugby Update.
Ladies first…
Olympic Womens 7s: The USA Women’s 7s team played a great tournament. Richie Walker’s team was five points away from a chance at reaching the podium at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, falling to No. 2-ranked New Zealand Saturday in the Quarterfinals after already having kept No. 1-ranked Australia from a win in that day’s Pool A match. A redemptive defeat of Fiji Monday meant the U.S. would finish as low as sixth, and the win against France confirmed the fifth-place ranking.The have been two rounds of play as Rugby returned to the Olympics this weekend. The USA women were upset by Fiji but managed to qualify for the quarterfinals courtesy of a tie against favorites Australia. After the first day of action, the quarterfinals were set.
Click here for the full results… But here’s the skinny on medals:
Gold: Australia grabbed gold, beating New Zealand 24-17.
Silver: The Silver Ferns of New Zealand, aptly earned… Silver.
Bronze: Our northern neighbors in Canada got the final medal, besting Great Britain, 33-10
News & Transactions:
Christian Lealiifano: Following a brief illness, investigations have indicated that Super Rugby ACT Brumbies Fly-half/Inside center Christian Lealiifano has been diagnosed with Leukemia and is receiving further medical care. Affectionately known as Lilo, Lealiifano is one of the most respected rugby players in the world for his quiet, humble demeanor, impressive work-rate and dedication to his team. This can be seen by the flood of tweets from rugby players all over the world wishing him the best. The Lealiifano family has asked for privacy in this matter for the sake of his young wife and child, so not more is known beyond the diagnosis but we do want to join the chorus of well-wishers for one of Rugby’s stand up guys. Get well Lilo, you are in our thoughts and prayers.
Super Rugby: Hurricanes head coach Chris Boyd has signed a two-year contract extension with the franchise. It makes perfect sense that he was re-signed, just keep reading this post.
USA Rugby: The AIG Men’s Collegiate All-Americans Tour to Queensland sponsored by WellDog, opened their tour of Australia with a 31-17 win over Darling Downs in Toowoomba… Meanwhile the Girls High School All-Americans West Powered by ATAVUS beat the BC Rugby Union U-18 side 54-24 on Friday and 55-5 on Sunday as part of their tour.
World Rugby: Australia captain Ed Jenkins and Team GB captain Emily Scarratt have been announced as World Rugby’s Keep Rugby Clean ambassadors in Rio de Janeiro… The latest edition of the World Rugby Rankings have been released. Click here to see them.
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 final. As only fitting, the two best teams all season will face off when the top seededHurricanes face the second seeded Lions. The Lions could have been hosting this match decided to rest their players in the final match of the season, which they lost, giving the Hurricanes first place and a chance to host the final in Wellington.
The Hurricanes sealed their first Super Rugby title on Saturday as they got the better of the Lions 20-3 in a cold and wet Wellington. The conditions didn’t make for attractive rugby but the Hurricanes did what was necessary to win. The Hurricanes were the Chicago Cubs of Super Rugby in New Zealand, always possessing the talent to win it all but always coming up short. They are the final New Zealand franchise to win a Super Rugby Title. Also New Zealand is the only nation of the Super Rugby Nations to have each franchise win a title.
Here are the results:
Sat – 6 Jul 2016
Hurricanes 20-3 Lions
Premiership 7s:
The finals of England’s Premiership Rugby 7s were played in the Ricoh Arena on Sunday. The 8 teams playing for the title were Cardiff Blues, Sale Sharks, Exeter, Northampton Saints, Harlequins, Wasps, Newcastle Falcons and Ospreys. Wasps were crowned Singha Premiership Rugby Sevens Series champions in extraordinary circumstances on home soil, after an epic end-to-end final against Exeter Chiefs. It was Wasp’s Tom Cruse’s score that ultimately got them over the, but the two teams traded tries throughout in a game where the lead changed hands an astonishing six times.
Here are the results:
Sun – 7 Aug 2016
Exeter Chiefs 7s 28-31 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, In the 1A, this weekend Zimbabwe fell hard to Namibia as the Namibians look set to claim another 1A cup.
Here are the results:
Sat – 6 Aug 2016
1A: Namibia 60-22 Zimbabwe
2016 Currie Cup qualification: The tournament is a competition between which It will be played between 5 August and 15 October 2016 and will feature nine teams that qualified through the 2016 Currie Cup qualification competition. The 9 South African provincial unions are Pumas, Sharks, Blue Bulls, Western Province, Eastern Province, Boland, Griquas, Free State and Golden Lions. This will be the 78th edition of South Africa’s premier domestic rugby union competition. Before the first round kicked off, there was off the field drama. There was an approved request by the defending champion Lions, who asked to have their Round One encounter – with Griquas in Kimberley on Saturday, August 6 – postponed to a later date due to their Super Rugby commitments. The second was from the Eastern Province Kings – asking that they withdraw from the competition altogether. Shockingly their request was denied due to the pettiness of the smaller Griffons union. Griffons feels that if they knew they could have won promotion to the premier division, they would have played better and not lost their final match in the qualification tournament. For the full details, please go here.
The first round of fixtures began with the Sharks winning comfortably against the Pumas, the Blue Bulls spanking Western Province and finally Boland were smashed by Free State
Here are the results:
Fri – 5 Aug 2016
Pumas 10-26 Sharks
Blue Bulls 45-26 Western Province
Sat – 6 Aug 2016
Boland Cavaliers 16-44 Free State Cheetahs
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, @LukeBienstock, @BrianCCole, @Ronan Nelson and @Declan Yeats.
And as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.
