NEW YORK, NY – The Rugby Championship was the talk of the weekend. In particular the South Africa v New Zealand game. However there was still action form Aviva Premiership, Rabodirect Pro 12, the ITM Cup and the Currie Cup. Plus loads of news, so let’s get into the Weekend Rugby Preview.
The Rugby Championship: What could have been a great contest was marred by horrible refereeing. Frenchmen Romain Poite and his handling of the game led to discontent for all those around them, especially South Africa fans. Poite gave Bismarck Du Plessis of SA a yellow card for a hard yet clean tackle on NZ’s Dan Carter in the 17th minute of the game. The IRB even officially said Poite got it wrong. This allowed the All Blacks to go up in the game during the 10 minute man advantage. Du Plessis would get a more legit yellow card a minute into the second half but as a result of the horrible first yellow, Du Plessis’ day was done. This meant that the Springboks had to play the second half down a man. In the final 10 minutes of the game, Poite handed out two more yellow cards against NZ yet he didn’t hand out a 3rd for a more dangerous play. It was by far one of the worst reffing displays in the history of test rugby.
Meanwhile on the other side of the Tasman Sea in Perth, Australia, there was a cliff hanger of a match. Match Referee Nigel Owens had a much better game than his French counterpart, although he did have some calls that went against his usually consistent form. Regardless of that Argentina left the field gutted as they came so incredibly close to getting their first road win in the brief history of the TRC. However, the rain and lack of execution proved the difference as Australia held on for the win.
Here are the results:
New Zealand 29 – 15 South Africa
Australia 14 – 13 Argentina
Aviva Premeirship: Newcastle celebrated their first win of the season and first AP win since gaining promotion as they narrowly defeated Sale. Northampton held Harlequins tryless as they squeaked out a win on the road. Bath shocked Leicester to claim a big scalp, Exeter out lasted Wasps and London Irish did just enough to beat Worcester and finally Saracens steamrolled a 14 man Gloucester side. Gloucester went down to 14 men just 2 minutes into the game as Wayne Barnes, yes the same man from the Dylan Hartley controversy, among many others, sent Nick Wood to the showers for a head stamp. Referee Kuxmann’s inbox has been flooded but we hope to hear from him this week.
Here are the results:
Fri – 13th Sep 13
Harlequins 6 – 13 Northampton
Sale 14 – 15 Newcastle
Sat – 14th Sep 13
Exeter 30 – 26 Wasps
Worcester 18 – 20 London Irish
Bath 27 – 20 Leicester
Sun – 15th Sep 13
Saracens 44 – 12 Gloucester
Rabodirect Pro 12: Munster made light work of Zebre, while Cardiff proved their might against Connacht. Glasgow scrapped by Ulster, leaving the Ulstermen winless to start the season. Part of the reason might have been that it was the one year anniversary of the Nevin Spence tragedy and the home game at the newly refurbished Ravenhill was a bit too much emotion for the Ulster lads. Edinburgh won by a kick over Newport-Gwent, while Ospreys fought Leinster to a standstill and Scarlets had no trouble handling Treviso.
Here are the results:
Fri – 13th Sep 13
Zebre 21 – 43 Munster
Cardiff Blues 21 – 10 Connacht
Ulster 12 – 13 Glasgow
Edinburgh 16 – 13 Newport Gwent Dragons
Sat – 14th Sep 13
Leinster 29 – 29 Ospreys
Scarlets 26 – 10 Benetton Treviso
The Currie Cup: The Cheetahs vs Golden Lions game was a tense contest that the Cheetahs narrowly won. Speaking of narrow victories, the Sharks defeated Griquas by the slimmest of margins and Western Province got back on track as they put the Blue Bulls to the sword.
Here are the results:
Fri – 13th Sep 13
Cheetahs 26 – 23 Lions
Sat – 14th Sep 13
Griquas 24 – 25 Sharks
Blue Bulls 18 – 29 Western Province
The ITM Cup: Wellington and Canterbury opened up some space on Auckland at the top of table. The former two won both of their games over the weekend against Bay of Plenty and Otago respectively, while the latter failed to do so against Waikato. In other noticable action Counties Manukau destroyed Taranaki and Hawkes Bay edged Northland.
Here are the weekend’s results and the midweek schedule:
Fri – 13th Sep 13
Manawatu 27 – 17 Southland
North Harbour 23 – 12 Tasman
Waikato 42 – 24 Auckland
Canterbury 32 – 22 Otago
Sun – 15th Sep 13
Counties Manukau 44 – 7 Taranaki
Hawkes Bay 31 – 26 Northland
Wed – 18th Sep 13
Bay Of Plenty – Southland
Thu – 19th Sep 13
Auckland – Northland
That’s it for now… feel free to comment below, look for and “Like” our Facebook Rugby Wrap Up Page and follow us on Twitter @: RugbyWrapUp, Junoir Blaber, DJ Eberle, Nick Hall, James Harrington, Cody Kuxmann and Declan Yeats, respectively.
And until the next time… stay low and keep pumping those legs.
