Brumbies, du Preez, Conventry, WRWC 2017, Autumn Internationals

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NEW YORK, NY – Happy Thanksgiving!! Well to our American fans anyway. Even with the holiday, there was no slowing down in the rugby news. With that, here’s what happening re: Brumbies, du Preez, Conventry, WRWC 2017, Autumn Internationals…

News & Transactions:

Super Rugby: The Brumbies announced the appointment of Michael Thomson as their new chief executive ending what was a turbulent year for the club. This after the Canberra-based franchise were involved in a lengthy saga with their former chief executive, Michael Jones, who, after initially being removed from his position by the Brumbies board, took the franchise to court where he won an injunction to keep his position. Jones later agreed to leave the side.

Sharks head coach Robert du Preez has announced his coaching team for the 2017 Super Rugby campaign. Assistant coaches, Sean Everitt (back-line and attack) and Ryan Strudwick (defense), who did duty with du Preez in this year’s Super Rugby tournament, will once again form part of the coaching structure together with Jaco Pienaar, the former UP-Tuks and Blue Bulls U19 coach, who joins the Sharks on a two-year contract as forwards coach.

Mitre 10: Newly promoted North Harbour have announced the appointment of Tom Coventry as their new head coach for the 2017 season. His appointment comes with Steve Jackson‘s departure to the Blues following North Harbour’s strong Mitre 10 Cup Championship campaign this season… Canterbury Rugby Union confirmed the appointment of Glenn Delaney as their new head coach for the 2017 season. Delaney replaces Scott Robertson who, following a successful 2016 Mitre 10 Cup campaign, now takes the helm as head coach of the Crusaders. A born and bred Cantabrian, Delaney joins Canterbury Rugby from London Irish where he has most recently been head of rugby operations following on from being head coach.

Currie Cup: The Pumas have confirmed the signing of fly-half Sias Ebersohn and hooker Marko Janse van Rensburg for the 2017 season.

USA Rugby:USA Rugby announced today that Head Coach Richie Walker and Olympians Ryan Carlyle and Alev Kelter will present at USA Rugby’s National Development Summit. The NDS, the premier rugby conference in the USA, will take place January 13-15, 2017 in Baltimore, MD at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel… Head Coach Richie Walker has selected a squad of 12 for the first tournament of the 2016-17 circuit, including four Olympians from the Rio 2016 Olympic Summer Games as well as two of Team USA’s traveling reserves. Read more here.

World Rugby: World Rugby has announced details of an enhanced and modernized Regulation 17 framework following an extensive review of the sport’s disciplinary processes. Click here for the clarification… World Rugby proudly announced that this years HSBC World Rugby Sevens World Series will be broadcast in 100 countries this year… World Rugby has announced the appointment of Christopher Quinlan QC as independent Judicial Panel Chairman.

Kenya’s Sevens players have refused to take part in training ahead of next week’s opening Sevens World Series tournament in Dubai (Decemeber 2-3) in a standoff with the national federation over bonus payments. The players are demanding match-by-match bonuses for the 2015-2016 series season totaling about $200,000 before they resume training, barely a week before the opening leg of the 10-tournament series. The standoff led to the cancellation of the naming of the final 12-man touring squad.

The weekend’s fixtures:

Tracey Balmer will hope to lead Scotland to the WRWC

As always, Ladies first…
Women’s International: There are three internationals over the weekend. The biggest match of the weekend, in terms of importance was the Women’s Rugby World Cup qualifying match 2nd leg where Scotland go into it against Spain trailing by 5. The other matches of the weekend have England hosting Canada and finally Ireland welcome New Zealand.

Here are the results:
Tue – 22 Nov 2016
France 36 – 10 USA
Wed – 23 Nov 2016
Canada 10 – 20 New Zealand

Here is the schedule:
Fri – 25 Nov 2016
France – USA
Sat – 26 Nov 2016
England – Canada
Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017 Qualifying: Spain – Scotland
Sun – 27 Nov 2016
Ireland – New Zealand

France’s hopes to be touching down against the All Blacks

Autumn Internationals: This is the final official weekend of the international fixture season. As for the fixtures themselves, they begin with big rivals France take on New Zealand. The next batch of matches feature England challenging Argentina, Wales play South Africa and Ireland hosting Australia. Scotland will welcome Georgia, Italy face off against Tonga and Fiji will tussle with Japan. Canada will look to take the fight to Samoa, Romania battle against Uruguay, and finally in the second match of their two match series, Germany and Brazil clash.

Here are the results:
Thu – 25 Nov 2016
French Barbarians 19 – 11 Australian XV

Here is the schedule:
Sat – 27 Nov 2016
France – New Zealand
England – Argentina
Wales – South Africa
Ireland – Australia
Scotland – Georgia
Italy – Tonga
Fiji – Japan
Canada – Samoa
Romania – Uruguay
Germany – Brazil

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 begins with Northampton against Newcastle, Bristol play Leicester and
Exeter against Worcester, Gloucester host Saracens, Sale travel to Wasps and finally Harlequins welcome Bath.

Here is the schedule:
Fri – 26 Nov 2016
Northampton – Newcastle
Bristol – Leicester
Exeter Chiefs – Worcester Warriors
Sat – 27 Nov 2016
Saracens – Gloucester
Wasps – Sale Sharks
Harlequins – Bath

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 sees Connacht versus Cardiff, Glasgow battle the Ospreys, Scarlets face off with Leinster and Munster meet up with Treviso. In the last two matches, Ulster and Zebre clash and Newport-Gwent tackle Edinburgh.

Here is the schedule:

Fri – 26 Nov 2016
Connacht – Cardiff
Glasgow – Ospreys
Scarlets – Leinster
Munster – Benetton Treviso
Ulster – Zebre
Sat – 27 Nov 2016
Newport-Gwent Dragons – Edinburgh

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.