Engelbrecht, Addison, Janse van Rensburg, PdV, All Blacks

World Rugby: World Rugby, is proudly boosting about major tier two investment as November internationals announced. Tier two sides set for competitive encounters during the international window if you follow this link.

The weekend’s fixtures:

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. In the weekends action, Netherlands outlasted Russia and Spain totally destroyed the Czech Republic.

Here are the results:
Sun – 9 Oct 2016
Russia 17 – 22 Netherlands
Czech Republic 0 – 97 Spain

The Rugby Championship: It was suppose to be a re-building year for New Zealand. It was more of re-loading as the All Blacks went on to tie the previous record of 17 game winning streak in their win in the sixth and final round of The Rugby Championship against South Africa in Durban. In the other match, Australia traveled Twickenham, yes your read that right. The Aussies won against Argentina in England.

Here are the results:
Sat – 10 Oct 2016
South Africa 15-57 New Zealand
Argentina 21-33 Australia

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 will have Bath hosting Sale. Exeter welcome Gloucester, Harlequins tackle Northampton, Leicester play Worcester, Newcastle will face Bristol and finally Saracens battle Wasps.

Here are the results:
Fri – 7 Oct 2016
Bath 30-3 Sale Sharks
Sat – 8 Oct 2016
Exeter Chiefs 27-27 Gloucester
Harlequins 20-9 Northampton Saints
Leicester Tigers 34-13 Worcester Warriors
Newcastle Falcons 19-14 Bristol
Sun – 9 Oct 2016
Saracens 30-14 Wasps

Top 14: The Top 14 season continues. The twelve 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 Racing knocking off Stade Francais. Then Montpellier knocked off Castres, Bordeaux-Begles edged out Brive, Grenoble crushed Bayonne and La Rochelle drew Toulon. Finally, Lyon outlasted Pau and in a heavyweight bout Clermont defeated Toulouse.

Here are the results:
Sat – 8 Oct 2016
Racing 29-22 Stade Français
Montpellier 28-19 Castres
Bordeaux-Begles 27-25 Brive
Grenoble 44-16 Bayonne
La Rochelle 17-17 Toulon
Sun – 9 Oct 2016
Lyon 27-22 Pau
Clermont 29-25 Toulouse

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 Connacht knocking off Ulster, Edinburgh trounced Treviso, Ospreys defeated Cardiff. Leinster won against Munster in the O’Classico and the other Italian side Zebre couldn’t hold out against the Glasgow Warriors while Scarlets won a Welsh derby against Newport-Gwent to finish off the weekend.

Here are the results:
Fri – 7 Sep 2016
Connacht 30-25 Ulster
Edinburgh 45-10 Benetton Treviso
Ospreys 46-24 Cardiff Blues
Sat – 8 Oct 2016
Leinster 25-14 Munster
Zebre 28-33 Glasgow Warriors
Scarlets 31-27 Newport-Gwent Dragons

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 round one, Argentina dominated Canada, Fiji crushed the USA Select XV, and Samoa edged out Uruguay.

Here are the results:
Sat – 8 Oct 2016
Argentina XV 56-29 Canada A
Fiji 62-12 USA Select XV
Samoa A 44-42 Uruguay A

In the second round it will be regional derbies as Samoa take on Fiji, USA face Canada and Argentina battle Uruguay.

Here is the schedule:
Wed – 12 Oct 2016
Samoa A – Fiji Warriors
USA Select XV – Canada A
Argentina XV – Uruguay A

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 this week began with Wellington falling to Manawatu. Tasman knocked off Auckland on the Thursday night ticket. In a Friday night lights affair Canterbury won at home against North Harbour. Saturday saw Southland top Northland, Otago narrowly fell to Counties-Manukau, Waikato soundly defeated Hawkes Bay while Wellington fell at Taranaki and Bay of Plenty edging out Manawatu ended the weekend.

Here are the results:
Wed – 5 Sep 2016
Manawatu 50-28 Wellington
Thu – 6 Sep 2016
Auckland 31-49 Tasman
Fri – 7 Sep 2016
Canterbury 47-18 North Harbour
Sat – 8 Oct 2016
Southland 39-31 Northland
Otago 14-16 Counties Manukau
Waikato 46-22 Hawkes Bay
Sun – 9 Oct 2016
Wellington 31-54 Taranaki
Bay of Plenty 38-33 Manawatu

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 visit the NSW Country Eagles, Canberra go against the Perth Spirit, the Melbourne Rising tackle the Sydney Rays and the Brisbane City will face Queensland Country.

Here is the schedule:
Sat – 8 Oct 2016
Western Sydney Rams 40 – 44 NSW Country Eagles
Canberra Vikings 36-42 Perth Spirit
Sun – 9 Oct 2016
Melbourne Rising 32-38 Sydney Rays
Brisbane City 58-52 Queensland Country

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.

In the Conference 2 North this weekend, Norway defeated rivals Finland, Hungary knocked off Denmark and Bosnia-Herzegovina fell on the road at Austria.

Here are the results:
Sat – 8 Oct 2016
C2N: Norway 48-31 Finland
C2N: Hungary 25-13 Denmark
C2S: Austria 29-22 Bosnia-Herzegovina

Sudamerica Rugby: Formerly the SAMC now just Sudamerica Ruby is the same as the ENC – except it’s South America, a minor detail – and that it has 4 divisions featuring 15 teams. It is the battle to find the 2nd best team in South America with Argentina the firm number 1. The top division is called the CONSUR division and features Argentina’s B team, Uruguay and Chile. Speaking of the CONSUR, there B division championship started last weekend. In the midweek matches Columbia crushedt Peru and Venezuela did likewise to Ecuador.

Here are the results:
Wed – 5 Oct 2016
B Division: Colombia 41-14 Peru
B Division: Venezuela 52-10 Ecuador

This left this weekend for the final. Venezuela fell to Colombia as Colombia captured the B division title for the 3rd year in a row. Hopefully this time they win the promotion/relegation match. In the 3rd place match  Peru plays Ecuador for 3rd place.

Here are the results:
Sat – 8 Oct 2016
B Division Final: Venezuela 10-35 Colombia
B Division 3rd/4th Place: Peru 65-5 Ecuador

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.