NEW YORK, NY – This is what it must feel like to defend a fort under siege. You repel wave after wave of attack and just when think you can take a breathe, it starts all over again. We relaxed that there was no Women’s 7s to cover, but it was replaced by Las Vegas 7s and Super Rugby. In addition to those two events, there was also the Aviva Premiership and Guinness Pro 12, two of Europe‘s three top leagues, to cover. All of this was on top of our 6 Nations, Women’s 6 Nations, U-20 6 Nations and 6 Nations “B” aka European Nations Cup coverage. Now before we can even touch on that information, we have to deal with Transfer Rumors, Player Transactions, USA Rugby and World Rugby news. With no further delay, let’s get to the Global Rugby Recap:
Las Vegas 7s: Vegas was the 5th leg of HSBC Sevens World Series and it can only be described as magnificent. It had record attendance on all 3 days, a great performance by team USA and a great final between Fiji and New Zealand. Expect to see plenty of footage and reports from our dynamic duo of Matt McCarthy and Johnathan Wicklow Barberie over the next few weeks. Check out our Team USA analysis and tournament review by clicking here.
Player Transactions:
We begin with the Top 14 and news that Pau (currently 1st in the French Pro D2 and likely for promotion to the Top 14) will be the landing place for All Black legend Conrad Smith. According to reports by French newspaper Midi Olympique, Richie McCaw has been offered in the region of €750,000 a year in salary to join Smith. We can assure that Our Top 14 rumours specialist will discuss these rumors in his Top 14 preview, later this week.
In the Aviva Premiership, London Irish have confirmed that former England fly-half and journeyman professional Andy Goode will join the club from Wasps for next season. The exiles also announced the signing of Andy Short from Bristol on a short term loan deal until the end of the season. At the end of the season, Short is set to join the Worcester Warriors as he has already agreed to terms with the Warriors… Bath have confirmed that former Irish international scrum-half Peter Stringer will leave the club at the end of the season.
In the Guinness Pro12, Munster and the IRFU have confirmed that winger/fullback Ronan O’Mahony and scrum-half Duncan Williams have signed two-year contract extensions with the province. Both O’Mahony, this is his first pro contract, and Williams will be signed through 2017. In addition to re-signing two of their own, Munster has also recruited Leinster academy player and back-row forward Jordan Coghlan on a development contract…Glasgow Warriors announced the signing of a two year contract by Scotland international Adam Ashe keeping him at the club.
USA Rugby News and Updates: According to TIAR.com, Adam Siddall has notified head coach Mike Tolkin and U.S.A. Rugby that he will be sitting out 2015. Siddall, who is back in New Zealand with family, said that “after discussions with my New Zealand doctor and my family it is my intention not to play rugby in 2015. The decision is based on the numerous concussions I have incurred including the last one in the game against Romania.” We are glad he put his health first but this comes as a massive blow to the USA RWC 2015 effort. To read more please click here.
World Rugby News: The pools for the Hong Kong 7s leg of the World Rugby 7s series have been announced, click here.
As for the weekend’s fixtures:
Super Rugby: The glee and sounds of joy emanating from the Southern hemisphere are because Super Rugby has returned. No one is more excited than our resident Kiwi and Super Rugby Expert . He has a compiled a complete report of all the matches in the first round, including which are worth watching. For his full report, click here.
RBS 6 Nations: The second week of the 6 nations witnessed two exciting and tense matches out of three. Very much similar to the first round. Our Top14 expert is also our and European Rugby expert and he has a review of all the weekend’s action, just click here.
RBS Women’s 6 Nations: Not to be outdone by her husband, our newly crowned women’s rugby expert Scheenagh insists on flexing her 6n coverage skills. Scheens, as we call her, has put together a great review of Women’s 6N and you can check it out by clicking here.
RBS U-20 6 Nations: It was a home team sweep in the second round in the U-20 Six Nations. The rising stars of European rugby faced off and it all went the way of the host nations. Scotland barely edged out Wales, Ireland snuffed out a tough France side and Italy were crushed on the road in Ireland.
Here are the weekend’s results:
Fri – 13th Feb 2015
Scotland U20S 36 – 34 Wales U20S
Ireland U20S 37 – 20 France U20S
England U20S 61 -0 Italy U20S
European Nations Cup: The ENC, or the 6 Nations “B” is the premier tournament for the second-tier nations of Europe. In second round action, Germany took a beating from Russia. Georgia found themselves lucky to be victorious against Portugal as they gave him all they could handle. Romania did not have an easy time with Spain, but they were still successful.
Here are the weekend’s results:
Sat – 14th Feb 2015
Germany 22-46 Russia
Romania 29-8 Spain
Georgia 20-15 Portugal
Aviva Premiership: Despite an already crowded fixture list, the Premiership did have a round of rugby to play. Our Midlands rugby man, Nick Hall will have a full report, later this week.
As for the weekend fixtures,
Northampton scraped past London Irish, as did Leicester against Gloucester. On Valentine’s day, Exeter showed no love to show Newcastle as they thumped him. On Sunday, a match that would have been mouth-watering lost some edge as both Saracens and Bath were missing key players due to injury and national team commitments. Saracens won in the battle, then Sale thrashed the London Welsh and Wasps made short work of Harlequins.
Here are the weekend’s results:
Fri – 13th Feb 15
Northampton 15 – 9 London Irish
Leicester 18 – 15 Gloucester
Sat – 14th Feb 15
Exeter 46 – 17 Newcastle
Sun – 15th Feb 15
Saracens 34 – 24 Bath
London Welsh 12 – 52 Sale
Wasps 37 – 6 Harlequins
Guinness Pro 12: Similar to their English counterparts the Pro12 had a full round of games. Teams were weakened by the 6N call-ups but there were still good matches on display. Friday saw Ulster destroy Treviso and Edinburgh were too much for the Ospreys. The mighty men of Munster were too much for the Blues of Cardiff. Sunday saw Connacht go down on the road to the Scarlets, Zebre were crushed by Glasgow, and Newport-Gwent found a way to win Dublin by edging out Leinster.
Here are the weekend’s results:
Fri – 13th Feb 15
Ulster 43 – 3 Benetton Treviso
Edinburgh 24 – 16 Ospreys
Sat – 14th Feb 15
Munster 33 – 16 Cardiff Blues
Sun – 15th Feb 15
Scarlets 32 – 14 Connacht
Zebre 10 – 54 Glasgow Warriors
Leinster 14 – 16 Newport Gwent Dragons
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.
