Bullscot
The Olympic Stadium will stage matches during the 2015 Rugby World Cup if the fog over the venue’s post-Games future clears by the end of the season.
Champions Harlequins will be out to extend their unbeaten start to the English Premiership when they take on Sale Sharks this weekend. Quins currently head the standings after two rounds, but with five teams still unbeaten there is plenty of pressure to continue their winning ways.
After just two rounds there are only three teams left with 100 percent winning records in the Pro12, namely, Munster, Scarlets and Ulster. One of those will go this weekend, as Ulster host Munster at Ravenhill on Friday. Whilst Munster have the better record in this fixture, Ulster have had the better of their opponents at home, so it really is anyone’s game.
It was reported earlier in the week that telecommunications company BT had secured the exclusive broadcast rights for the English Premiership rugby starting from the 2013/14 season in a complex deal involving rights to broadcast various other rugby matches. The contract is set to run to the 2015/16 season and was reported to have been worth up to a whopping £152m.
Former Blue Bulls, and now Northampton Saints, number eight Gerrit-Jan van Velze has been handed a four weeks ban for a ‘tip tackle’ having been cited after Northampton’s game against Exeter Chiefs last weekend.
The second round of the 2012/2013 season’s Aviva Premiership was completed this weekend. In the first match of the weekend London Welsh were comprehensively beaten by Harlequins, who scored six tries to none. In the last game, which was played on Sunday, Northampton Saints managed to scrape through against a brave Exeter Chiefs outfit.
The second round of Aviva Premiership games take places this weekend and while it may only be Round Two, Saracens have laid down an early marker in the 2012/13 Premiership season.
The second round of the RaboDirect Pro12 competition is scheduled for this weekend. Four of the games will be played on Friday night with the remaining two games taking place on Saturday.
At this year’s London 2012 Paralympics, the most popular sport is bound to be wheelchair rugby. Sports fans in the United Kingdom are already rugby-mad, and they’ve embraced wheelchair rugby in the lead-up to the Games. But besides hard hits, what can wheelchair rugby fans expect from teams at the London 2012 Paralympics?
International Rugby Board (IRB) Chairman Bernard Lapasset believes that Wheelchair Rugby will capture the imagination of sports fans around the world when the Paralympic competition begins today 5 September.
New British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland is on his way to France on Wednesday (today) to chat to a number of potential tourists for his squad for next Northern Hemisphere summer’s tour of Australia.
New Zealander Warren Gatland was appointed coach of the British and Irish Lions on Tuesday for their tour of Australia next year. The role is the most prestigious in northern hemisphere rugby but comes with numerous challenges.
The RaboDirect Pro12 2012/13 season kicked off on Friday night with Welsh outfit Newport Gwent Dragons hosting tournament newcomers the Italian team Zebre. The Dragons slayed Zebre, outscoring the visitors by four tries to none.
The tournament organizers couldn’t have wished for a better start to the season with an action packed game between London Wasps and Harlequins at Twickenham. Harlequins secured a narrow victory after being more than twenty points behind with twenty minutes left to play. Ten tries were scored in total in this match.
This weekend sees the start of the RaboDirect Pro12 for the 2012/2013 season. In what could arguably be the pick of the fixtures Edinburgh, last year’s Heineken Cup semi-finalists, face Munster. Defending champions The Ospreys will be away to Treviso, while Leinster, consistently Ireland’s best team for the last few years, travel to face Llanelli Scarlets.
The Aviva Premiership gets underway this weekend, with the first match kicking off at 1500 South African time on Saturday at Twickenham. There will be a further four matches on Saturday with the final game for the round due to kick off at 1500 South African time on Sunday.
Scotland and London Irish centre Joe Ansbro has suffered a broken neck while playing in a pre-season match against Munster. This news follows that of fellow Scotland star backline player Stuart Hogg also being ruled out of rugby for a while, having undergone a foot operation.
Various pre-season friendly matches have taken place this weekend, ahead of the start of the Aviva Premiership and RaboDirect Pro12 competitions. Furthemore, there has been news of player injuries as well as some player transfer news.
Northampton Saints have announced that twenty five year old hooker Brett Sharman, has left the club.
Johann Sadie will start in his first Currie Cup match for the Vodacom Blue Bulls.
The attacking midfielder has been included in the side to face The Sharks at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday and is one of four changes made by coach Pine Pienaar.
The Vodacom Blue Bulls will be hoping for a better medical bill of health on Wednesday morning after their preparations for Saturday’s Absa Currie Cup game with the Sharks were severely disrupted by a massive flu bug that hit the camp.
The launch of the RaboDirect Pro 12 Rugby tournament took place at Glasgow’s impressive Riverside Museum on Tuesday morning with coaches and captains from all twelve teams in attendance.
Springbok centre Frans Steyn will on Saturday play in his 50th Test for South Africa when they take on Argentina in the opening round of The Castle Rugby Championship at DHL Newlands in Cape Town.
England Under 18 were outdone by northern hemisphere rivals France in George, South Africa, losing 20-13 at Outeniqua Park Stadium in a bruising encounter, but Head John Fletcher was satisfied that his side “gave their all”.
The regular rugby season officially kicks off in the UK and Ireland in just over two weeks time when the Aviva Premiership and RaboDirect Pro12 league games start. However, the clubs have been busy with their pre-season preparations and a number of friendly matches were played this past weekend.
The SA schools team started the Under-18 International Series with a win against France in their opening match on Friday. The match was played at the Hugenote High School in Wellington.
Today sees the start of the RBS 2012 Rugby Force weekend which is yet another good initiative by the Scottish Rugby Union to assist grassroots development of the game. Current international players will be heading out to various rugby clubs across the country, from Stornoway in the Hebrides to Dumfries in the far south, to make a valuable contribution to the club game in a practical way.
Pretorius in Walliese klubspan se toergroep teen Vrystaat.
Al is hy eintlik ‘n Suid-Afrikaner, pronk sy gesig nie verniet as een van die Cardiff Blues se sterre op die Walliese spog-rugby-klub se amptelike webtuiste nie.
Die agtsteman Andries Pretorius sal een van die groot trekpleisters wees wanneer die Blues die naweek hier teen die Vrystaat Toyota Cheetahs in n vertoonwedstryd uitdraf.
Early last month Edinburgh Rugby announced they had acquired the services of former England and Lions star flanker Neil Back; as forwards coach.
Yesterday, Edinburgh indicated they had bolstered their hooking options by signing another former Lions player, and one time Sale Sharks stalwart, hooker Andy Titterrell.
We should all be familiar with that old saying ‘ crime doesn’t pay’. I have found an instance, with a rugby connection, in which it does. Thanks to the Scottish Government’s CashBack for Communities initiative, Scottish rugby clubs have already and will receive further much needed ‘donations’ courtesy of the criminals.
The appointment of Australians to high profile positions in rugby has continued with the announcement of Brett Gosper as the International Rugby Board’s new Chief Executive as well as Managing Director of the Rugby World Cup.
A few weeks ago I heard some of what the latest targets were that the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) had set itself but was unable to share this at the time on this website. At the time I did think hats off and good luck guys but also that they were really lofty ambitions. These targets for the next four years include winning a Six Nations Grand Slam and the next World Cup.
Andy Farrell, who coached the England backline on an interim basis during this year’s Six Nations but missed out on England’s tour of South Africa, has been re-appointed to the England coaching team.
The final round of matches in the pool stages of the Junior World Rugby Trophy (JWRT) took place yesterday, 26th June, in Salt Lake City, USA, on fields surrounded by lovely snow capped mountains.
The JWRT now heads into the play off stage, with these games coming up on Saturday 30th June. The matches will take place during the night SA Time.
The Southern Hemisphere tours of the Home nations and Ireland are well and truly over by now with almost all of the players from these teams now able to put their feet up for a bit of rest and recuperation after what has been a very long season.
For what it’s worth I thought it would be interesting to see which team had the best tour.
This could be difficult as each team faced different opponents and some had midweek games while others didn’t. To try and take away any bias and subjectivity we have a look at the results as well as the comparative rankings of the teams according to the IRB.