NEW YORK, NY – The chaos of a full rugby calendar returns. The new Super Rugby season is looming – but this weekend we had to cover all of the RBS 6 nations events. By all we mean the men’s 6 Nations, the women’s 6 Nations, the U-20 6 Nations and 6 Nations “B” (European Nations Cup). On top of that, there were the World Sevens Series tournaments, which had to be in two separate locations on the globe, making it a three-day extravaganza of 7s coverage for the men in Wellington, NZ, and the women, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. And, on top of all that, we have to cover the Transfer Rumors, Player Transactions, USA Rugby and World Rugby news. So it may be wise if we just got to the Global Rugby Recap:
Wellington 7s: The fourth leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series saw Team USA top their pool. However, that was the extent of the good news for USA. New Zealand broke their tournament duck and won the whole thing. Between those two highlights there was a lot of great rugby and unpredictable results. Read it all by clicking here.
Sao Paulo 7s: The women held the second leg of their Sevens World Series this weekend, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Once again Team USA struggled with the learning curve. Much to formula and predictions it was New Zealand v Australia in the final. For the full report, click here.
Player Transactions:
We begin with the Top 14. Basement side and 2014 playoff finalists Castres have parted company with forwards coach Serge Milhas, replacing him with former Argentina prop Mauricio Reggiardo, who was a player at the Tarn side for 10 years. He will team up with Matthias Rolland and David Darricarriere for the rest of the season.
In the Aviva Premiership, London Irish second row Nic Rouse confirmed that he has signed a contract extension to remain at the club.
In Super Rugby, The Bulls announced that Springbok locks Flip van der Merwe and Jacques du Plessis will be leaving for France at the end of the season… Western Force boss Michael Foley and his assistant coaches David Wessels and Kevin Foote have all re-signed for two years with the Perth-based outfit… The Waratahs announced the signing of Japanese international center Kotaro Matsushima for the upcoming season… The Sharks have signed former Springbok backrower Jean Deysel, who is coming back to the club after leaving for Japan following a falling out with then-coach Jake White. The Sharks have also signed Michael Claassens from Toulon, where he had been playing after six years at Bath…The Argentina Rugby Union over the last week have signed 13 players to three-year deals as they look toward having a team in Super Rugby in 2016. The list so far includes scrum-half Tomas Cubelli as well as Javier Ortega Desio, Gabriel Ascarate, Matias Orlando,Tomas Lezana, Martin Landajo, Guido Petti Pagadizabal Paul Matera, Matias Alemanno, Rodrigo Baez, Jerome De la Fuente, Facundo Isa and Manuel Montero… Stormers coach Allister Coetzee has confirmed that he will leave the franchise at the end of this season to join Japanese club, Kobe Steel Kobelco Steelers.
In Currie Cup news Netwerk24 reports that Steven Kitshoff‘s agent has confirmed that the 22-year-old prop has signed a two-year contract with Top 14 club Bordeaux. He remains under contract with Western Province until the end of October and is set to depart for France after this year’s tournament.
USA Rugby News and Updates: The pools for the Las Vegas (USA) 7s leg of the World Rugby 7s series have been announced, click here.
World Rugby News: The Super Rugby Sharks edged Toulon 12-10 to claim the Rugby Masters title in a tense battle at the Stade Mayol… The latest world rugby rankings have been released. Please click here.
As for the weekend’s fixtures:
RBS 6 Nations: The 6 Nations kicked off this weekend and it was great to see some traditional rivalries fought out. Our European Rugby expert reviews the action and events of the weekend’s matches, if you click here.
RBS Women’s 6 Nations: The ladies at RWU have made it their goal to provide more coverage of the women’s game. So the fairer half of the Harrington household, Scheenagh has delivered her review of the action in women’s matches this weekend. Check it out by clicking here. Scheens also shares her frustration at the lack of consistent media coverage in this piece.
RBS U-20 6 Nations: The stars of tomorrow in European rugby strutted their stuff this weekend as the U20s for each Six Nations country faced off. Italy were crushed by Ireland on Friday, while Wales avenged the seniors by defeating England and France hammered Scotland.
Here are the results:
Fri – 6th Feb 2015
Italy U20S 15 -47 Ireland U20S
Sat – 7th Feb 2015
Wales U20S 21 – 15 England U20S
France U20S 47 – 6 Scotland U20S
European Nations Cup: The ENC, or the 6 Nations “B” if you like, is the premier tournament for the second-tier nations of Europe. Portugal were easily defeated at home by Romania, Spain dispatched Russia, while new promoted Germany hosted Georgia … and were demolished.
Here are the results:
Sat – 7th Feb 2015
Portugal 10 – 37 Romania
Spain 43 – 20 Russia
Germany 8 – 64 Georgia
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, Jaime Loyd, Karen Ritter , Jamie Wall, Jake Frechette and Declan Yeats, respectively.
And as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.
