NEW YORK, NY – We hope everyone recognized and enjoyed the importance of International Women’s Day. Its importance is not lost on us as we all are thankful for the women in our lives… As for rugby, the 6 Nations on a bye week but it was a weekend of unpredictable results in Europe‘s three premier domestic competitions; the Top 14, Aviva Premiership and Guinness Pro 12. In the Southern Hemisphere, Super Rugby had its own interesting weekend, with coaches finding themselves squirming in the hot seat. Before we discuss the matches, though, we will get to the Transfer Rumors, Player Transactions, USA Rugby and World Rugby news. That said, let’s delve into the Global Rugby Recap:
Player Transactions:
#Top14: Fly-half Nicolas Bezy and hooker François Da Ros have agreed to contract extensions with Brive through to the end of the 2016/17 season, while David Smith – who scored four tries for Toulon against the Correze side at the weekend to take his tally to 12 tries in 13 games – has today told local French newspaper Var Matin that he will leave the club at the end of the season.
Aviva Premiership: Newcastle Falcons academy graduate full-back Simon Hammersley has now agreed to an extension to his first professional contract to stay with the club until June 2016 on a full-time basis.
USA Rugby News/Updates: As per the USA Rugby website: “Tickets for the first Pacific Nations Cup match day in the US – July 18 at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, Calif. – will go on sale to the public Friday, March 13, at 10 am PT. Single tickets and group tickets (up to a maximum of 19 per order) will be available via Ticketmaster at this time. Ticket prices for this event begin at $15“…
With the Hong Kong and Toyko legs of World Rugby HSBC World 7s Series coming up, Eagle’s 7s head coach Mike Friday and staff are holding the latest High Performance Camp on March 8-14 at the Olympic Training Center… Click here to read more.
World Rugby News: On International Women’s Day, yesterday, March 8, the IRB announced that 1.77 million women and girls now playing Rugby around the world. Click here to read more… World Rugby has announced that Sydney will be the venue for the Australian round of the World Rugby Sevens Series from 2015-16… In the wake of the recent violence in the Northern part of Pakistan, World Rugby has a heartwarming story to share of rugby making a difference. For more on this story, Click here.
As for the weekend’s fixtures:
Super Rugby: Our resident Kiwi and Super Rugby expert Jamie Wall has had himself a long and hectic weekend on the other side of the globe. Mr Wall’s weekend was not too dissimilar to the weekend’s matches in Super Rugby. Make sure you check out his fantastic review, which is here.
Top 14: It was a quiet joy to read the headline of our Top 14 rugby expert ‘s piece. The star of the weekend was European class of 2014 nominee, Jules Plisson. To recap all the action, which featured two dramatic finales, and the constantly changing table, click here to read more.
Aviva Premiership: Our Midlands rugby scholar, Nick Hall will be back later this week to discuss the key points of the weekend’s action later this week. It kicked off, appropriately enough, with Bath outkicking Sale. The next day, Harlequins hung on for dear life to defeat London Irish, while Exeter demolished the London Welsh. Gloucester and Northampton could not be separated at the end of a thriller in the westcountry. Wasps unbeaten home run since moving to Coventry came to an end at the hands of Saracens and Leicester won a tough slug-fest at Newcastle.
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
Fri – 06th Mar 15
Bath 12 – 3 Sale
Sat – 07th Mar 15
Harlequins 26 – 20 London Irish
Exeter 74 – 19 London Welsh
Gloucester 33 – 33 Northampton
Sun – 08th Mar 15
Wasps 17 – 26 Saracens
Newcastle 12 – 16 Leicester
Guinness Pro 12: The chaotic race for playoff places in the PRo12 is not getting the press it deserves – which is a shame as it’s very tight. The weekend kicked off with Zebre falling to Glasgow Warriors, while Connacht can kiss their playoff chances good-bye after a narrow loss in Cardiff to the Blues. Ospreys upended Munster while Scarlets shocked Leinster. After Italy won the Six Nations clash against Scotland last time out, the Scotland v Italy club face-off went Scotland’s way after Edinburgh made light work of Treviso. Newport-Gwent did enough to get by Ulster to complete a sweep for Wales in the Welsh Regions v Irish Provinces challenge.
Here is the weekend’s schedule:
Fri – 06th Mar 15
Glasgow Warriors 26 – 5 Zebre
Cardiff Blues 18 – 17 Connacht
Sat – 07th Mar 15
Ospreys 26 – 12 Munster
Scarlets 23 – 13 Leinster
Benetton Treviso 8 – 29 Edinburgh
Sun – 08th Mar 15
Newport-Gwent Dragons 26 – 22 Ulster
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, James Harrington, Jamie Wall, Nick Hall, DJ Eberle, Jake Frechette, Scheenagh Harrington, Jamie Loyd, Cody Kuxmann, Karen Ritter and Declan Yeats, respectively.
And as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.
