NEW YORK, NY – What a weekend in rugby!! And yes that is minus the Rugby World Cup action. We had playoffs in the 3 SANZAR unions (South Africa, New Zealand and Australia), including 2 finals. In the northern hemisphere, the 3 top leagues are getting into the regular season and some sides are making early statements. Combine all of that with the news and transactions and we have plenty to go over. So with no further adieu, here’s the Global Rugby Recap.
News & Transactions:
Top 14: Toulouse confirmed the signing of Fijian international prop Manasa Saulo on a two-year deal from next season. He will arrive from Romanian club Timisoara Saracens next July and joins the club to become one of Toulouse’s tighthead options for next year.
Aviva Premiership: Bath fly-half Rhys Priestland is putting his career with Wales on hold for the next 18 months according to his club coach Mike Ford.
Pro 12: Scarlets confirmed the signing of former Otago center/fullback Michael Collins on a short-term deal… Munster Rugby confirmed that Uruguayan prop Mario Sagario has signed a three-month contract with the province.
USA Rugby: USA Rugby announced that four teams will compete in the inaugural Rugby Gold Cup competition, a premiership level tournament featuring the top men’s’ clubs from the Midwest and Red River Competitive Regions (CRs). The competition will take place in November 2015 and March 2016. The inaugural four teams involved will be
- 2015 USA Rugby Division 1 National Championship Runner-up and Red River CR Champion: Austin Blacks Rugby
- 2015 Red River CR Runner-Up: Dallas Rugby Football Club (the Reds)
- 2015 Midwest CR Champion: Kansas City Blues Rugby Club
- 2015 Midwest CR Runner-Up: Metropolis Rugby Football Club
For schedule and more information, please click here.
World Rugby: Three nations are represented in the nominees for the inaugural World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year. The award replaces the young player of the year award. The nominees are All Black winger Nehe Milner-Skudder, Georgia scrum-half Vasil Lobzhanidze and Scotland center Mark Bennett.
The weekend’s fixtures:
Aviva Premiership: The 2015/2016 Aviva Premiership got into its second week of action this weekend. The second round began on Friday as Gloucester fell to Saracens and Sale Sharks took down Worcester Warriors. On Saturday, Northampton trounced Newcastle, Wasp edged out Bath , and Exeter dominated London Irish. Finally on Sunday, Leicester snuck by Harlequins.
Here is the schedule:
Fri – 23 Oct 2015
Gloucester 15-17 Saracens
Sale Sharks 27-13 Worcester Warriors
Sat – 24 Oct 2015
Northampton Saints 42-16 Newcastle Falcons
Wasps 16-9 Bath
Exeter Chiefs 38-11 London Irish
Sun – 25 Oct 2015
Leicester Tigers 22-19 Harlequins
Top 14: The 2015/2016 #Top14 back in action and gathering momentum as the internationals are returning. This weekend kept it going as big spenders Racing 92 took down crosstown rivals and defending champions Stade Francais. Castres fell at home to Grenoble as did Pau against Brive, meanwhile Toulon absolutely destroyed Oyonnax, Bordeaux scrapped by Toulouse, and Montpellier were too good for leaders Clermont. La Rochelle finish off the weekend with a bonus point win against Agen.
Here is the schedule:
Fri – 23 Oct 2015
Racing 92 27-18 Stade Francais
Sat – 24 Oct 2015
Castres 23-31 Grenoble
Pau 13-18 Brive
Toulon 61-3 Oyonnax
Bordeaux Begles 12-10 Toulouse
Montpellier 24-19 Clermont Auvergne
Sun – 25 Oct 2015
La Rochelle 23-6 Agen
Guinness Pro 12: The Pro 12 season also started up again last week. They also got their international stars back and as expected the action went up a notch. It began on Friday night with Scarlets barely surviving the challenge from Munster, Newport-Gwent beat Treviso, Ulster defeated the Cardiff Blues and finally Leinster were able to take down defending champions Glasgow Warriors. On Saturday, Edinburgh traveled to Italy and became Zebre ‘s first victims this season. and finally we will saw Ospreys come up short versus Connacht.
Here is the schedule:
Fri – 23 Oct 2015
Scarlets 25-22 Munster
Newport Gwent Dragons 19-12 Benetton Treviso
Ulster 24-17 Cardiff Blues
Leinster 23-18 Glasgow Warriors
Sat – 24 Oct 2015
Zebre 19-11 Edinburgh
Ospreys 16-21 Connacht
European Nations Cup:The ENC, or the 6 Nations “B” , is the premier tournament for the second-tier nations of Europe. Believe it or not, 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 1B, 2A – 2D, and 3A over a two-year cycle. Division 1A aka the 6 Nations B is where the six best teams in the rest of Europe reside and there is no promotion to the Europe’s premier international rugby competition, only relegation back to 1B… All 4 sub-divisions of division 2 were in action this weekend. In 2A, Czech Republic fell to Switzerland, 2B saw Hungary were trounced by visiting Lithuania, in 2C Austria had no answer for Luxembourg and finally Bulgaria were the only home team to win as they took down Finland in 2D.
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 24 Oct 2015
2A: Czech Republic 14-20 Switzerland
2B: Hungary 15-37 Lithuania
2C: Austria 6-34 Luxembourg
2D: Bulgaria 34-15 Finland
ITM Cup
: It was finals time in the ITM, if you were curious of our pre-season predictions, CLICK HERE. The Championship (lower division) final saw Hawkes Bay, lift the trophy by winning by slimmest margin possible in an instant classic of a match against Wellington. In the Premiership, it was a battle of traditional rivals. Canterbury and Auckland who have won 15 titles between them and traditionally dominated the ITM (Auckland in the ’90s and early ’00s and Canterbury in late ’00s and ’10s) did battle in an instant classic of their own. Canterbury managed to hold on at the and win the title.
Here are the results:
Fri – 23 Oct 15
Championship Final
Hawkes Bay 26-25 Wellington
Sat – 24 Oct 15
Premiership Final
Canterbury 25-23 Auckland
Currie Cup: The 77th edition of the Currie Cup came to its finale this weekend. Western Province, the province that has won the most Currie Cups over the years and is returning to prominence faced the fun to watch high flying attack of the Golden Lions. The Loins who had no Springboks selected for the RWC squad won the the surprisingly high scoring affair.
Here are the results:
Sat – 24 Oct 2015
Championship Final
Golden Lions 43-33 Western Province
Aus. NRC: Australia’s third tier competition goes into its second year as the National Rugby Championship has kicked off. We took the time to provide a preview and explain the competition, just CLICK HERE. Those with New York Rugby Club ties like me, will be supporting the defending champs Brisbane City since one of their feeder clubs, is New York’s sister club West (Brisbane) Bulldogs. As for the fixtures going into the weekend, Brisbane City and the UC Vikings have topped the table all season. The two sides are the one and two seeds going into the 4 team playoffs. UC Vikings secured their place in the final by way of a dominating performance against Melbourne. Brisbane City managed to fight off an desperate comeback by Sydney Stars in their match.
Here are the results:
Fri – 23 Oct 15
University of Canberra Vikings 50-34 Melbourne Rising
Sat – 24 Oct 2015
Brisbane City 47-32 Sydney Stars
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, Ronan Nelson, Kaitlin McCabe, Rocky Brown and Declan Yeats, respectively.
And remember to stay low and keep pumping those legs!
