Anthony Foley, Chris Coyle, Gordon Tietjens, World Rugby Hall Of Fame

World Rugby: Gordon Tietjens has been appointed as the new head coach of Samoa‘s rugby sevens team just one month after retiring from duty with his native New Zealand. Here is a clip of “Titch” with JWB.

The World Rugby Hall of Fame is set open in November and will celebrate the game’s illustrious past in this interactive and innovative museum located at the birthplace of the sport, Rugby town, England. Hong Kong‘s men secured their overall series title with a game to spare, with a 19-7 semi-final win over rivals Sri Lanka, before going on to overcome South Korea 24-19 in the Cup final. The women of Japan defeated China to win the Women’s division.

The weekend’s fixtures:

As always, Ladies first…

Rugby Europe Women’s Championship: Rugby Europe Women’s Championship: (or – as it is also known – the European Nations Cup and the European Trophy) is an international competition contested between women’s national teams who are members of FIRA. The competition has its origins in a four nation “European Cup” held in 1988 but did not become an official FIRA competition until 1995. The competition has grown significantly and is some years attracts sufficient entrants for it to be divided into two “Pools” (A and B) with the eight highest ranked entrants in any year (based on FIRA rankings) in Pool A. The schedule for the weekend saw, Switzerland knock off the Czech Republic for 5th place, Belgium were smashed by Russia in the battle for 3rd with Spain dominating the Netherlands for the European title.

Here are the results:
Sat –  15 Oct 2016
5th Place: Switzerland 24-12 Czech Republic
3rd Place: Belgium 5-74 Russia
1st Place: Spain 35-7 Netherlands

European Champions Cup: The 2016/2017 European (Rugby) Champions Cup kicked off this weekend. This first weekend was a chance for the tournament underdogs to place down a big marker while the favorites tried to get out to a strong  start. Our Ronan Nelson will have a fantastic review of the round, later this week.

European Challenge Cup: The second tier European Challenge Cup is a quality tournament in its own right. It is played by mid-table European clubs, they play good rugby and are looking to move up to the Champions Cup next season. The new season of the Challenge Cup began with Harlequins easily defeating Stade Francais. Then Grenoble fell to Top 14 rival Lyon, Ospreys shellacked Newcastle, Newport-Gwent put away Brive and Bristol;s search for their first win in all competitions continues as they lost to Cardiff. On Saturday, Timisoara welcome Edinburgh to Romania and lost big, while Worcester travelled to face Russian side Enisey-STM and lost. Treviso fell big to La Rochelle, Bayonne lost their clash with Gloucester and finally Pau were edged out by Bath.

Here are the results:
Thu – 13 Oct 2016
Harlequins 43-21 Stade Francais
Fri – 14 Oct 2016
Grenoble 13-39 Lyon
Ospreys 45-0 Newcastle Falcons
Newport-Gwent Dragons 37-16 Brive
Bristol 20-33 Cardiff Blues
Sat – 15 Oct 2016
Timisoara Saracens 17-59 Edinburgh
Enisey-STM 19-12 Worcester Warriors
Benetton Treviso 10-41 La Rochelle
Bayonne 27-47 Gloucester
Pau 22-25 Bath

Americas Pacific Challenge: The Unión de Rugby del Uruguay will host the first edition of World Rugby’s Americas Pacific Challenge (APC), a development tournament that gathers teams from three key regions of World Rugby and runs from 8-16 October. Introduced to offer a new tier of competition for the six participating nations, the APC will be played in its entirety at the Estadio Charrúa, the home of Uruguayan rugby. Uruguay A and Argentina XV, from Sudamérica Rugby, are joined by Canada A and USA Selects, the two representatives from the Rugby Americas North region, while Fiji Warriors and Samoa fly the flag for Oceania. The APC will be played over three rounds, spread over eight days, with three games in each matchday. In the third and final round, Samoa knocked off Canada, USA lost big Uruguay and finally Argentina won a thriller against Fiji for the title.

Here are the results:
Sun – 16 Oct 2016
Samoa A 27-22 Canada A
USA Select XV 15-47 Uruguay A
Argentina XV 27-26 Fiji Warriors

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 playoffs began with the Blue Bulls thumped Western Province in the highveld and Free State fought off a fierce comeback from the defending champions, the Golden Lions.

Here are the results:
Sat – 15 Oct 2016
Blue Bulls 55–17 Western Province
Free State Cheetahs 36–30 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 All Blacks released back to the provincial sides for the weekend, it guarantees that the action will only get more intense. The regular season finale this week began with North Harbour drawing with Tasman. Taranaki edged out Auckland on the Thursday night ticket. In a Friday night lights affair Otago won on the road against Manawatu. Saturday saw Counties-Manukau defeated Canterbury, Hawkes Bay lost the battle of the bays to Bay of Plenty, Wellington fell to Waikato while Tasman crushed Southland and Northland had no answer to North Harbour to end the weekend.

Here are the results:
Wed – 12 Sep 2016
North Harbour 27-27 Tasman
Thu – 13 Sep 2016
Taranaki 35-32 Auckland
Fri – 14 Sep 2016
Manawatu 14-21 Otago
Sat – 15 Oct 2016
Counties-Manukau 33-21 Canterbury
Hawkes Bay 24-26 Bay Of Plenty
Wellington 24-28 Waikato
Sun – 16 Oct 2016
Tasman 56-0 Southland
Northland 28-44 North Harbour

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. It is playoff time once again in the NRC. The top four sides in the regular season advance to the semifinals of the knock-out stage, which is followed by the final to decide the National Rugby Championship title. The first semi-final saw the NSW Country Eagles double up against the Melbourne Rising and in the second semi-final, the Sydney Rays had no answer for Perth Spirit.

Here are the results:
Sat – 15 Oct 2016
NSW Country Eagles 50–24 Melbourne Rising
Sun – 16 Oct 2016
Sydney Rays 24–42 Perth Spirit

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.