Internationals
British and Irish Lion fullback Leigh Halfpenny has signed for European champions Toulon with the deal expected to be made official later on Thursday, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Ministers from both sides of the border have signalled their backing for an all-Ireland bid to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
A meeting to discuss the bid involving the Belfast and Dublin governments took place in Armagh, in the British controlled province of Northern Ireland, on Wednesday.
The 2014 RBS 6 Nations launched in London today as coaches and captains convened at the Hurlingham Club. Wales, led by victorious British & Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton and coach Warren Gatland, will seek to make history by becoming the first side to win a third successive RBS 6 Nations title.
The Scotland squad came together yesterday with head coach Scott Johnson’s first task being to re-focus minds away from Heineken Cup disappointments and on to a Six Nations Championship.
Ryan Jones has been ruled out of Wales’ Six Nations campaign because of a hamstring injury. The 32-year-old back-row forward led Wales in three of their matches in the 2013 tournament as they retained the Championship title.
Hi,
After an Off-season which certainly drove me slightly more batty than I already was, the new Rugby Season is now close at hand.
The coming weekend sees some of Super Rugby’s warm-up matches, with the Lions playing the Leopards on Friday evening 24 January, the Cheetahs playing against NMMU and again against the Kings on Saturday and of course the Sharks playing Saracens on Saturday 25 January in London. In addition there is the HSBC Sevens World Series Las Vegas tournament on the weekend, Saturday and Sunday and slightly into Monday very early morning.
France have suffered a major blow for the Six Nations as Top 14 Rugby club Toulouse have announced that their captain Thierry Dusautoir has been ruled out of the championship.
The 32-year-old flanker – capped 65 times and world player of the year in 2011 – will be out for four months after he tore a tendon in his right biceps, Toulouse head coach Guy Noves said.
Auckland player Akira Ioane has had to withdraw from the team for the Las Vegas Sevens tournament and has been replaced by Manawatu’s George Tilsley.
Chris Robshaw will continue as England captain in this year’s Six Nations, the Rugby Football Union said on Friday.
New Zealand will be without the services of star playmaker Tomasi Cama when they take part in the fourth leg of the IRB Sevens World Series in Las Vegas.
Cama suffered a calf injury in training and will not depart with the team on Sunday – ahead of the Vegas tournament on 25 January and 26.
Kelly Brown has been told the Scotland captaincy is his to keep – if he proves himself as their best openside flanker. Head coach Scott Johnson has named the 31-year-old Saracens skipper every time he has played.
Springbok and Stormers wing Gio Aplon’s preferred destination, if he leaves South African rugby, will be Japan, and not France, as earlier reports had indicated.
Western Province Rugby chief executive Rob Wagner has moved to dismiss reports that Aplon had signed a contract with French team Grenoble.
Uncapped 23-year-old Edinburgh wing Dougie Fife was named in a senior Scotland squad for the first time – ahead of the Six Nations next month.
Fife, a product of Edinburgh’s development system and also nurtured by the Currie club, has been in prolific form for the capital pro-club, scoring five tries in his last seven outings.
The Ireland coaching staff have announced an extended squad of 44 players for the forthcoming RBS 6 Nations Championship and the O2 Ireland Wolfhounds fixture against England Saxons. Ulster’s uncapped former South African duo Robbie Diack and Rob Herring have been included in the squad.
Gethin Jenkins has been included in a 32-man Wales squad for the Six Nations despite concerns over his damaged knee. The 33-year-old prop had a scan on Monday after he was injured in Cardiff Blues’ Heineken Cup defeat by Toulon.
Glasgow 2014 has today (Tuesday January 14) confirmed the teams and pools for the Rugby Sevens competition at this summer’s Commonwealth Games.
Despite their difficult financial situation, Fiji will definitely still take part in the Wellington Sevens tournament next month.
Sevens Wellington general manager Marty Donoghue confirmed that the Fiji team will remain a key feature of the 7 – 8 February tournament at Westpac Stadium.
Scottish Rugby continues to monitor carefully the international pitch at Murrayfield Stadium. The playing surface at the home of Scottish Rugby has been regarded with justifiable pride for many years; therefore its current condition is a matter of understandable concern.
The IRB made the following statement:
The International Rugby Board has confirmed that it is to suspend all direct financial support to the Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) with immediate effect until the Union adopts key financial reporting, administration and governance reforms.
Quade Cooper’s remarkable return could culminate with him becoming the next Wallaby captain after Ben Mowen’s shock decision to quit Australian rugby.
Mowen on Thursday announced that he’ll join the French exodus at the end of the year, seemingly leaving vice-captain Cooper next in line to lead Australia.
Morgan Parra will make a surprise return to action against Harlequins in the European Cup on Saturday, his Clermont head coach Vern Cotter said on Thursday.
Versatile back Mirco Bergamasco was named in Italy’s pre-Six Nations 30-man squad by coach Jacques Brunel Thursday, for the first time in more than a year.
The 30-year-old has not played for Italy since November 2012 when he broke his knee against Australia in Florence.
opean RugbyUncapped Bath fly-half George Ford has replaced Toby Flood in England’s elite squad (EPS) ahead of the Six Nations.
The dropped Flood, 28, has won 60 caps for his country but is leaving Leicester at the end of the season for an as-yet unspecified French club.
Australia captain Ben Mowen is to quit the country at the end of 2014 and play in Europe, ending his hopes of representing the Wallabies at the 2015 World Cup.
Toby Flood’s 60-cap England career could come to an end on Thursday when Stuart Lancaster names his initial elite player squad ahead of this season’s Six Nations.
The 1994 Springbok team is regarded as the worst Springbok side visiting New Zealand. They were unable to win a single test –losing the first two and drawing the 3rd test- and losing one provincial match out of 11 against Otago (12-19).
In total they lost 3 matches and drew one out of 14 matches. Compared to the 1965 Springboks probably a better overall result; excluding the fact that they couldn’t win a test match. It was nonetheless a disappointing result considering the fact that this team also completed tours -with the same coach, Ian McIntosh- through Australia and Argentina in 1993. They won one test in Australia and both test matches in Argentina with reasonable good margins. In addition they played two test matches against England at the start of the 1994 season losing the first one 15-32 at Loftus Versfeld and winning the second one 27-9 at Newlands in Cape Town. From that backdrop there was understandingly an expectation that SA rugby and particular the Springboks will shed the impact of the isolation years and begin to adjust to the requirements of the international rugby if not win test matches.
Three members of the Springbok Sevens team that won the Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens tournament in December have been included in the SA Sevens Academy team for the George 7sPL tournament this weekend.
The George 7sPL will be played at Outeniqua Park on January 11-12.
The South African rugby season has yet to commence, but Springbok flyhalf Morné Steyn’s form for French Top 14 side Stade Français could be creating pre-season worries for coach Heyneke Meyer as he plots his 2014 campaign.
The International Rugby Board (IRB) is considering stricter protocols to prevent players with possible concussion from returning to the field during matches.
According to a current protocol being tested in some tournaments, a player can return to the playing field if he passes a cognitive test within five minutes. It is called the Pitch Side Concussion Assessment (PSCA) trial – or ‘five-minute test’.
Euan Murray’s hopes of being involved in Scotland’s Six Nations campaign were hanging in the balance last night. The veteran Lions prop will be out of action for another month after suffering Achilles tendon damage during the autumn Test series.
When interim head coach Scott Johnson and the rest of the Scotland management group sit down to select the team to play Ireland in Dublin on the opening weekend of the Six Nations, one name that will not be bandied about is that of Tommy Allan, despite the player having turned out for the Scotland Under 17, 18 and Under 20 teams.
The International Rugby Board (IRB) is set to ditch the ‘YES NINE’ scrum call in favour of a non-verbal, pre-agreed instruction.
The change will take place with immediate effect, and will be introduced at all levels of the game.
Referees will no longer give a verbal instruction of ‘YES NINE’, and instead will issue a non-verbal instruction to the scrumhalf when he considers the scrum to be square and stable.
The non-verbal instruction must be agreed by the referee and both scrumhalves prior to the start of the game and could be in the form of a tap on the back while the referee is on the side of the put-in, or an agreed signal (nod of the head or hand signal) by the referee while he is on the other side of the scrum.
France scrumhalf Morgan Parra is set to miss the Six Nations opener against England after being ruled out for 10 to 12 weeks with a knee injury, his Top 14 club Clermont said.
Stade Francais saw their surging Top 14 form rewarded when a trio of uncapped players were on Monday called up for France’s Six Nations squad, notably fly-half Jules Plisson ahead of the experienced Francois Trinh-Duc and Frederic Michalak.
Wales looks set to be without Jonathan Davies for most, if not all, of the Six Nations.