NEW YORK, NY – The weekend is done. It was very quiet on the news front but not so much on the fixture side of things. This edition of Global Rugby Recap has information re: Super Rugby Format, USA Selects, Mandela Plate, AP, T14, Pro 12 and more… so without delay, here you go.
Super Rugby: Crusaders chief executive Hamish Riach has revealed that he will make a call for Super Rugby’s format to be changed at a Sanzaar meeting in Sydney next week. Super Rugby’s current conference system, which was introduced this year when the tournament was expanded to 18 teams, has proved to be difficult to understand and unpopular amongst fans. Riach said the Crusaders would like the tournament to be played on a full round-robin basis, which everyone understands. That would be easier said than done as a five-year broadcast deal for the competition has already been agreed upon. For more information, click here.
USA Rugby: The USA Rugby Selects will participate in the brand-new Americas Pacific Challenge, supported by World Rugby, in Montevideo this October alongside Argentina XV, Canada A, Fiji Warriors, Samoa A, and Uruguay A. Twenty-six athletes will be named to the Selects side that will head to camp in West Palm Beach, Fla., Oct. 1-4, before leaving for Uruguay Oct. 5. Grouped with Argentina and Samoa’s development sides in the six-team competition, the Selects will face Fiji Warriors (Saturday, Oct. 8), Canada A (Wednesday, Oct. 12), and Uruguay A (Sunday, Oct. 16) in an eight-day span. The tournament broadcast information will be announced by World Rugby and shared on USA Rugby’s social media channels in due course. For more information, click here…The USA Rugby Girls High School All-Americans powered by ATAVUS have arrived in central France for Rugby Europe Women’s U18 Sevens Championship, set for Stade Darragon Saturday, Sept. 10, and Sunday, Sept. 11. We will be back later in the week with the results of the matches.
World Rugby: The latest edition of the WRO rankings have been released. Click here to view.
The weekend’s fixtures:
The Rugby Championship: New Zealand crushed Argentina to begin round 3 of The Rugby Championship. In the other match, Australia knocked off South Africa to retain the the Nelson Mandela Challenge Plate.
Here are the results:
Sat – 10 Sep 2016
New Zealand 57-22 Argentina
Australia 23-17 South Africa
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 began with Worcester drew with Gloucester and Sale won at home against the Harlequins. Bath steamrolled Newcastle, Leicester fell at home to Wasps for the first time in 8 years. Bristol lost to Northampton in their first home match back in the big leagues. Finally, its a final’s rematch Exeter were still no match for Saracens.
Here are the results:
Fri – 9 Sep 2016
Worcester Warriors 23-23 Gloucester
Sale Sharks 19-10 Harlequins
Sat – 10 Sep 2016
Bath 58-5 Newcastle Falcons
Leicester Tigers 22-34 Wasps
Sun – 11 Sep 2016
Bristol 10-32 Northampton Saints
Exeter Chiefs 13-34 Saracens
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 Stade Francais edging out Castres… Then Bordeaux-Begles easily dispatched Bayonne, La Rochelle trounced Lyon, Montpellier crushed Pau and in heavyweight bout Clermont-Auvergne destroyed Racing 92. Finally, Grenoble were too strong for Brive and in another heavyweight bout Toulouse fell to Toulon.
Here are the results:
Sat – 10 Sep 2016
Stade Francais 29-25 Castres
Bordeaux-Begles 40-20 Bayonne
La Rochelle 43-18 Lyon
Montpellier 41-13 Pau
Clermont Auvergne 47-10 Racing 92
Sun – 11 Sep 2016
Grenoble 36-23 Brive
Toulouse 15-32 Toulon
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 Newport Gwent struggled to get past Zebre, Edinburgh comfortably defeated Scarlets and Munster fell short against Cardiff. Glasgow knocked off Leinster, the other Italian side Treviso were outclassed by Ulster and Connacht shockingly lost to Ospreys to finish of the weekend.
Here are the results:
Fri – 9 Sep 2016
Newport Gwent Dragons 11-6 Zebre
Edinburgh 20-9 Scarlets
Munster 23-24 Cardiff Blues
Sat – 10 Sep 2016
Glasgow Warriors 33-25 Leinster
Benetton Treviso 11-22 Ulster
Connacht 11-32 Ospreys
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 fourth round of fixtures began when Griquas smashed Boland. The weekend saw big score lines as Golden Lions crusie past Western Province, the Sharks fall to Free State and the Pumas crushed by the Blue Bulls. Round five will begin with the Golden Lions hosting Western Province.
Here are the results:
Thu – 8 Sep 2016
Griquas 46-22 Boland
Here is the schedule:
Fri – 9 Sep 2016
Golden Lions 58-32 Western Province
Sat – 10 Sep 2016
Sharks 30-38 Free State
Pumas 14-41 Blue Bulls
Here is the schedule:
Thu – 15 Sep 2016
Golden Lions – Western Province
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 4 began with Auckland scrapping by Hawkes Bay. Taranaki won soundly against Southland on the Thursday night ticket, with Northland thrashing Bay of Plenty in a Friday night lights affair and Wellington just managed to defeat Counties Manukau by whisker to win the first installment of the Jonah Lomu Memorial Cup. Saturday saw North Harbour beat Manawatu, Otago win its clash with Tasman, Canterbury destroyed Hawkes Bay while Auckland ended the weekend narrowly losing to Waikato. The next round kicks off with midweek action as Counties-Manukau face Taranaki then Southland go up against Hawkes Bay.
Here are the results:
Wed – 7 Sep 2016
Hawkes Bay 24-25 Auckland
Thu – 8 Sep 2016
Taranaki 30-14 Southland
Fri – 9 Sep 2016
Bay Of Plenty 25-52 Northland
Counties Manukau 27-28 Wellington
Sat – 10 Sep 2016
North Harbour 29-25 Manawatu
Otago 30-27 Tasman
Sun – 11 Sep 2016
Canterbury 63-7 Hawkes Bay
Auckland 32-35 Waikato
Here is the schedule:
Wed – 14 Sep 2016
Counties Manukau – Taranaki
Thu – 15 Sep 2016
Southland – Hawkes Bay
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 Western Sydney Rays fell to the Perth Spirit, Queensland County lost against the Sydney Rays, Brisbane City were surprisingly crushed at home by the Canberra Vikings and the Melbourne Rising lost on the road to New South Wales Country side.
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 10 Sep 2016
Western Sydney Rams 24-30 Perth Spirit
Queensland Country 22-30 Sydney Rays
Sat – 11 Sep 2016
Brisbane City 20-52 Canberra Vikings
NSW Country Eagles 32-30 Melbourne Rising
That’s all for now, please feel free to comment below, look for and “Like” our Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Pageand follow us on Twitter@: @RugbyWrapUp, @Junoir Blaber, @MeetTheMatts, @Luke Bienstock, @Ronan Nelson, @Brian C Cole and @Declan Yeats.
And as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.
