NEW YORK, NY – We know everyone is looking forward to the start of the 6 Nations. However, all three top European competitions had one big round of fixtures to go through before the big tournament kicks off. Beyond these fixtures there are important pieces of news and transactions to go over. So without further delay, let’s get straight to the Global Rugby Recap.
News & Transactions:
Aviva Premiership: Exeter Chiefs have strengthened their pack for 2016/17 after the club announced the signing of Wallaby forward Dave Dennis… Sale Sharks announced the signing of England and Bath hooker Rob Webber on a two-year contract ahead of the 2016/17 season… Webber’s arrival is what likely lead to Sale‘s young hooker Tommy Taylor signing with Wasps for next season.
#Top14: Clermont have signed former All Black Isaia Toeava on a two-year deal. The New Zealander – who has spent the past three seasons playing in Japan – will fill in for full-back Nick Abendanon. The 2015 European Player of the Year has been ruled out for three months due to a groin injury.
Guinness Pro 12: Munster and the IRFU had a very good weekend. They confirmed that Simon Zebo signed a two-year contract extension, keeping him at the province until at least June 2018. They also confirmed that despite rumors of leaving Keith Earls has re-signed with the province as well as influential scrum-half and Ireland international Conor Murray… The Newport-Gwent Dragons announced that they have signed Exeter Chiefs back-row Ben White on loan for the next three weeks as injury cover… Scarlets scrum-half Rhodri Williams will leave the Welsh region at the end of the PRO12 season to join English Championship side Bristol on a two-year deal.
Super Rugby: Australia internationals Stephen Moore and Christian Lealiifano have been named Brumbies co-captains for 2016. Wallabies skipper Moore retains the captaincy for the second year in a row, heading into his final season with the Brumbies. Lealiifano, who recently re-signed with the Brumbies until 2018, will lead the side for the first time and said he was looking forward to learning off Moore as a joint leader this season… The Sharks announced that Keegan Daniel will be making a return to the franchise for the 2016 Super Rugby season after spending two seasons with Kubota in Japan.
USA Rugby: The The Pacific Rugby Premiership kicked off this weekend and USA Rugby has a preview of the season ahead if you click here.
World Rugby: Following the completion of the Wellington 7s, World Rugby released the pools and fixtures for this upcoming weekend’s Sydney 7s. Click here for the pools and fixtures… South Africa 7s, aka the Blitzbokke, have called up the uncapped Tim Agaba for the Sydney leg of the World Rugby Sevens Series as a replacement for Justin Geduld… Japan’s new director of rugby, Masahiro Kunda, has revealed that they will likely be without an interim head coach ahead of their two-Test series against Scotland in June… Former Springbok head coach Heyneke Meyer is reportedly to be in high demand in Japan, with two teams vying to acquire his services. No confirmation on where he will land just yet… World Rugby has announced details of the first-ever official global ranking system for women’s test rugby, with New Zealand the first team to top the rankings. The rankings were introduced after a comprehensive process of obtaining and analyzing every result from the first official women’s international matches dating back to 1987 and are based on the same criteria as the men’s rankings. Click here for the World Rugby Women’s Rankings
The weekend’s fixtures:
Wellington 7s: The third leg of the 2015/2016 HSBC World Rugby Mens 7s Series saw Team USA make the cup playoff round, once again. 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.
Aviva Premiership: The 2015/2016 Aviva Premiership is moving on at an impressive pace. The matches have picked up in intensity and importance since Christmas. This weekend began with Wasps topping Northampton. The rest of the weekend we saw Sale dominate London Irish, Gloucester fall painfully short against Leicester, Saracens coming back to controversially beat Bath, Worcester were not match for Exeter and Newcastle got a huge upset against Harlequins.
Here are the results:
Fri – 29 Jan 2016
Northampton Saints 11-24 Wasps
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 30 Jan 2016
Sale Sharks 38–10 London Irish
Gloucester 18–19 Leicester Tigers
Saracens 19–13 Bath
Sun – 31 Jan 2016
Worcester Warriors 15–30 Exeter Chiefs
Newcastle Falcons 26–19 Harlequins
#TOP14: The 2015/2016 #Top14 season is also hitting its stride with the importance of matches only growing bigger every week. It was Friday night lights as Brive dispatched La Rochelle. Saturday, saw Clermont fall at home to Montpellier, Agen suffered a tough loss to Grenoble, Castres won at home against Bordeaux, Oyonnax were thrashed by Racing and Toulouse unequivocally destroyed Pau. The final match of the weekend was the biggest one as Toulon dug deep to beat title holders Stade Francais.
Here are the results:
Fri – 29 Jan 2016
Brive 28-6 La Rochelle
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 30 Jan 2016
Clermont Auvergne 15–19 Montpellier
Agen 27–33 Grenoble
Castres 19–9 Bordeaux-Begles
Racing 92 26–3 Oyonnax
Toulouse 54–3 Pau
Sun – 31 Jan 2016
Toulon 23–16 Stade Francais
Guinness Pro 12: The Pro 12 season has not been lacking in intensity either as its season goes along. This weekend witnessed a shock as Newport-Gwent upset Leinster. The rest of the weekend saw Zebre fall short at home against Munster, Connacht won easily against Scarlets, Treviso were dominated Ulster, and Cardiff did just enough against Edinburgh. T Final match of the weekend saw Ospreys and Glasgow play to a thrilling draw.
Here are the results:
Fri – 29 Jan 2016
Newport Gwent Dragons 23-13 Leinster
Here is the schedule:
Sat – 30 Jan 2016
Zebre 12–16 Munster
Connacht 30–17 Scarlets
Benetton Treviso 13–32 Ulster
Cardiff Blues 10–3 Edinburgh
Sun – 31 Jan 2016
Ospreys 20–20 Glasgow Warriors
That is 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, Ronan Nelson, Kyle Phillips and Declan Yeats, respectively
And as always, stay low and keep pumping those legs.
