Rob Webber will captain England for the first time in Sunday’s game against the Barbarians at Twickenham. The Bath hooker leads a youthful side which has nine players aged 24 or under in the starting XV and sees Matt Kvesic and Marland Yarde make their debuts.
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The match at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium might be between two French Top 14 clubs, but on paper it is a truly international clash, with top players from across the globe ready to battle it out for the ultimate honour in northern hemisphere club rugby.
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We are all well aware of the host of South African rugby players who are plying their trade outside of South Africa. For this article we venture into the land of make belief and choose a squad made up entirely of players with South African connections playing in the current season’s RaboDirect Pro12 competition. – The ‘Raboboks’
After 22 rounds and two play-off games, the 2012/13 Pro12 season wraps up on Saturday with the Final at the Royal Dublin Society. It is, appropriately, between first and second seeds, Ulster and Leinster.
The culmination of many English players’ dream is to play at Twickenham and both Leicester and Northampton will be hoping to put on a spectacle in the Premiership final at HQ on Saturday.
English flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson will seek to add a continental crown to his honours when his Toulon take on French rivals Clermont in the European Cup final on Saturday.
Brian O’Driscoll ended speculation about his future by signing a new one-year deal to play on for Ireland and Leinster, the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) revealed on Thursday.
Scotland international centre Joe Ansbro has announced his retirement from rugby today following the neck injury he sustained at the start of this season. The 11-times-capped London Irish back suffered a C1 fracture in his club’s pre-season friendly with Munster in Cork last August.
France coach Philippe Saint-Andre on Tuesday called up eight uncapped players for his 35-man squad to tour New Zealand tour next month.
Munster have announced that current squad captain Doug Howlett will retire from professional rugby at the end of this season.
The head of New Zealand’s Rugby Players Association says international representative players could take strike action “as a last resort” to press claims for an integrated international season with fewer matches.
Leinster (11) 17
This is Saracens fourth successive Premiership semifinal and their fifth overall, however they have lost their last three semifinal encounters in all competitions.
England head coach Stuart Lancaster has named 11 uncapped players in his squad for this summer’s Barbarians game and three-match tour to Uruguay and Argentina.