Steve Jackson, Robbie Fleck, Nathan Charles, Sevens Series

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NEW YORK, NY – It was another busy weekend on the rugby fixture list. There was also some key news to cover. This edition is of today’s RWU Global Rugby Recap has news re Steve Jackson, Robbie Fleck, Nathan Charles, Sevens Series and more… So, off we go.

News & Transactions:

Super Rugby: The Blues appointed North Harbour coach Steve Jackson as their new assistant-coach for the 2017 Super Rugby season. Jackson will be in charge of the forwards with Glenn Moore‘s contract having expired. Nick White‘s position as scrum coach has also been scrapped. Jackson has worked with Blues coach Tana Umaga before when they were both at Counties-Manukau… Current Stormers and Western Province coach Robbie Fleck has been given a three-year deal to stay on as the Cape Town outfit’s boss.

Top 14: Clermont-Auvergne search for a medical joker could lead them to recruit Western Force star Nathan Charles. Charles, 27, would provide cover for Benjamin Kayser and youngster Yohan Beheregaray.

Pro 12: Connacht have secured the signature of second-row James Cannon from Wasps.

USA Rugby: The USA Men’s 7s team kicks off the 2016-17 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series season in Pool B of the Dubai 7s with South Africa, Scotland, and the 16th team to be determined… The USA Selects team that will go to Uruguay to play in the Americas Pacific Challenge will be announced later this week.

World Rugby: Uganda have booked their place at the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens in December as African champions after a sensational win in Nairobi at the Safari 7s. In the Asian Rugby Sevens Series, Hong Kong saw off Sri Lanka in a one-sided final, after the Sri Lankans upset Japan to make the final, in Incheon, Korea. France fell at the final hurdle in their attempt to win back-to-back tournaments, a victorious Russia claiming the second and final round of the Rugby Europe Grand Prix Women’s Sevens Series in Malemort. As a result, Russia were crowned series champions with hosts France finishing as runners-up.

The weekend’s fixtures:

Aviva Premiership: The 2016/2017 Aviva Premiership will be the 30th season of the top flight of English domestic rugby union competition, and the seventh to be sponsored by Aviva Insurance. The current champions are Saracens. The most recently promoted side is Bristol, who have returned to the top flight after defeating Doncaster in the 2015-16 RFU Championship Play-Off Final. This weekend we had Bristol lose big to Exeter and Gloucester fell hard to Newcastle. Harlequins shocked onlookers and upset Saracens, Northampton losing streak continued against Wasps. Worcester drew with Sale and finally Leicester thumped Bath.

Here are the results:
Fri – 23 Sep 2016
Bristol 17-41 Exeter Chiefs
Sat – 24 Sep 2016
Gloucester 13-18 Newcastle Falcons
Harlequins 17-10 Saracens
Northampton Saints 15-20 Wasps
Worcester Warriors 34-34 Sale Sharks
Sun – 18 Sep 2016
Leicester Tigers 34-14 Bath

Top 14: If it feels like the Top 14 season just ended, it did. It was less than 60 days between the end of the #Top14 final and the start of the season, not to mention the players also had to deal with pre-season. The season was extended a month because of the Rugby World Cup so hopefully this year, it won’t last as long. The twelve returning teams this season are champions Racing 92, runners-up Toulon, Clermont, Montpellier, Toulouse, Castres, Bordeaux, Brive, La Rochelle, Grenoble, Pau and Stade Français… Two new teams from the 2015–16 Pro D2 season were promoted to Top 14 this year, Bayonne and Lyon in place of the two relegated teams, Agen and Oyonnax. It marks the first time that both teams relegated are both promoted in the following season (Bayonne and Lyon where both relegated during the 2014–15 Top 14 season). The line-up for the weekend began with Castres knocking off Racing 92 do… Then Bordeaux defeated Lyon, Grenoble fell to Pau, La Rochelle were too strong for Bayonne and Toulouse took down Stade Francais. Finally, Montpellier thrashed Brive and in a heavyweight bout and rematch of the 2015 final Toulon edged out Clermont-Auvergne.

Here are the results:
Sat – 24 Sep 2016
Castres 31-23 Racing 92
Bordeaux 32-10 Lyon
Grenoble 38-39 Pau
La Rochelle 34-17 Bayonne
Toulouse 23-18 Stade Français
Sun – 25 Sep 2016
Montpellier 42-13 Brive
Toulon 23-21 Clermont-Auvergne

Pro 12: The 2016–17 Pro12 (also known as the Guinness Pro12 for sponsorship reasons) will be the sixteenth season of the professional rugby union competition originally known as the Celtic League, and the seventh with its current four-country format. It is the third season to be referred to as the Guinness Pro12. The weekend started with Treviso upseyting Newport-Gwent, Glasgow fell to Ulster and Leinster knocked off the Ospreys. Munster were too strong Edinburgh and the other Italian side Zebre narrowly lost to Cadiff Blues and finally Scarlets were too strong for Connacht.

Here are the results:
Fri – 23 Sep 2016
Benetton Treviso 27-11 Newport-Gwent Dragons
Glasgow Warriors 17-22 Ulster
Leinster 31-19 Ospreys
Sat – 24 Sep 2016
Munster 28-14 Edinburgh
Zebre 21-23 Cardiff Blues
Scarlets 17-8 Connacht

2016 Currie Cup qualification: The tournament is a competition that 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. The sixth round of fixtures began with Boland lost big to the Blue Bulls, Griquas fell to Western Province, Pumas lost huge to Free State and Eastern Province could not avoid a thrashing by the Golden Lions.

Here are the results:
Fri – 23 Sep 2016
Boland Cavaliers 26-48 Blue Bulls
Griquas 31-52 Western Province
Sat – 24 Sep 2016
Pumas 10-52 Free State Cheetahs
Eastern Province Kings 7-71 Golden Lions

Mitre 10 Cup: The Mitre 10 Cup (formally known “National Provincial Championship” or “NPC“) is the highest level of New Zealand domestic professional rugby union competition, contested annually from late August to early November and managed by the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU). Building off competitions dating back to the National Provincial Championship in 1976, with teams from a number of provinces, the Mitre 10 Cup officially started with the 2006 season with 14 teams after the National Provincial Championship (NPC) was split into this professional competition and the amateur Heartland Championship competition. The competition was known as the Air New Zealand Cup to the end of the 2009 season; the name then changed to the ITM Cup for the 2010 season after ITM, the trading name of Independent Timber Merchants Co-operative Ltd., a New Zealand building supplies retailer took over as lead sponsor. In 2016 the New Zealand-owned home improvement and garden retailer, Mitre 10 took over sponsorship after out-bidding ITM. For the Mitre 10 Cup competition it will involve the top 14 provincial unions of New Zealand. With 12 All Blacks released back to the provincial sides for the weekend, it guarantees that the action will only get more intense. The schedule for week 5 began with Southland scrapping by Bay of Plenty. Northland fell against Wellington on the Thursday night ticket. In a Friday night lights affair Counties-Manukau topped Waikato. Saturday saw Otago lose to Canterbury, Manawatu came up short Taranaki, Hawke’s Bay fell to Tasman while North Harbour topped Southland and Bay of Plenty came up short against Auckland.

Here are the results:
Wed – 21 Sep 2016
Southland 20–16 Bay of Plenty
Thu – 22 Sep 2016
Northland 21–29 Wellington Lions
Fri – 23 Sep 2016
Counties Manukau 35-26 Waikato
Sat – 24 Sep 2016
Canterbury 45-34 Otago
Taranaki 30-19 Manawatu
Hawke’s Bay 29-36 Tasman
Sun – 25 Sep 2016
North Harbour 35-14 Southland
Bay of Plenty 38-44 Auckland

The new week starts with Waikato and Canterbury do battle and the Thursday match-up sees Tasman clash with Counties-Manukau.

Here is the schedule:
Wed – 28 Sep 2016
Waikato – Canterbury
Thu – 29 Sep 2016
Tasman – Counties-Manukau

Aus. NRC: Australia’s third tier competition goes into its third year as the National Rugby Championship kicks off. Those with New York Rugby Club ties like me, will be supporting the two-time defending champs Brisbane City since one of their feeder clubs, is New York’s sister club West (Brisbane) Bulldogs. This weekend will see the NSW Country Eagless were far too strong for the Perth Spirit, Western Sydney Rams won shootout against Queensland Country, Canberra Vikings lost their shootout against Melbourne Rising and the Sydney Rays continued the misery for Brisbane City in a tough win.

Here is the schedule:
Fri – 23 Sep 2016
NSW Country Eagles 48-24 Perth Spirit
Sat – 24 Sep 2016
Western Sydney Rams 50-46 Queensland Country
Canberra Vikings 44-60 Melbourne Rising
Sat – 25 Sep 2016
Brisbane City 32-38 Sydney Rays

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 Championship, Trophy, Conference 1 North &1 South and 2 North & 2 South over a two-year cycle. The Championship, 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.