Bullscot
As reported last week, the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy (JWRT) is currently taking place in Salt City,Utah, in the USA.
The third and final round of games in the pool stage of the tournament are scheduled for today, Tuesday 26th June. These games will take place during the night SA time.
All the attention for Junior rugby has been focussed, quite rightly, on the Junior World Championship being held in Cape Town, which culminates in the final tonight. However, let’s not forget the smaller rugby playing nations.
The IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy is currently taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
Australia and Wales play each other in the 3rd test match of the current series in at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney on Saturday, 23rd June. Kick off is at 07.00 SA time.
There are few changes to the teams following the 2nd test last week that Wales agonizingly lost following a last minute Australian penalty. Wales outscored the Wallabies by two tries to one in that game.
The All Blacks play Ireland in the 3rd test of Ireland’s Summer Southern Hemisphere tour in Waikato on Saturday, 23rd June. Kick off is at 09.35 SA time.
Both sides have announced their teams with various changes in both the All Blacks and Ireland’s teams from the 2nd test match, that Ireland were very unlucky not to draw or perhaps even win.
The Scotland team that will start the match against Samoa this Saturday, 23rd June, has been announced. The match is set to take place in Apia. Kick off time will be 04.30 SA Time.
Scotland’s opponents for this year’s Autmun International Test matches have been known for some time now. However, the venue of the final game, to be played against Tonga, was only confirmed yesterday. Scotland will also play against the All Blacks in the first of the tests and against the Springboks in the second test match.
This is the third article in our series looking at players from the northern hemisphere who may be lesser known on the international stage. Previously we looked at two wingers, Harry Robinson and Tim Visser, who at that time had yet to start an official test for their country.
We now feature a forward, England flanker Tom Johnson. The other difference is that by now Johnson has actually played two tests for England, against South Africa.
England play the second of their midweek games on their tour of South Africa against the SA Northern Barbarians team today, Tuesday 19th June. The game will be played at Profet Olen Park Potchefstroom, home of the Leopards. Kick off is at 19.10 SA time.
Fiji (11) 25/ (24) 37 Scotland (Final Score)
Fiji played against Scotland at Churchill Park in Lautoka this Saturday, 16 June. The match Kick off was at 04.00 SA time.
This was a one off test match between the teams as part of Scotland’s three test match tour of Australasia.
The match referee was Jaco Pyper.
New Zealand and Ireland meet in the 2nd test of Ireland’s tour down under at Rugby League Park, Christchurch, this Saturday, 16 June. Both teams have been announced for this game.
Australia and Wales meet in the 2nd test of Wales’ tour down under this Saturday, 16 June. Kick off 12.00 SA time. Both teams have been announced for this game.
Scotland have made two change to the starting line up of their team to play in the test match against Fiji in Lautoka this Saturday, 16 June. Kick off is at 04.00 SA time.
Today’s article about northern hemisphere players who may be less well known, at this stage, focuses on the 2011/2012 RaboDirect Pro12 Players player of the season, winger Tim Visser. He is currently touring Australasia with the rest of his Scotland team mates.
Australia have named their team to play in the second test match against Wales in Melbourne this Saturday, 16 June. Kick off is at 12.00 SA time. Coach Robbie Deans must be satisfied with his team following their 27-19 win over Wales last weekend as he has named an unchanged team.
Former Welsh star winger Shane Williams had previously announced his retirement from rugby. It was widely expected that his recent game for The Barbarians against would be his last.
In this, the first of a planned series of articles on players from the northern hemisphere who may be less well known, we look at young Welsh winger Harry Robinson.
Jon Welsh, 25 year old prop, who has one Scotland test match cap to his name and is on tour with Scotland in Australasia has to return home. Welsh is suffering from a recurrence of a shoulder injury.
There have been various references made to the inexperience of the Springbok lock pairing for this Saturday’s test match in Durban against England since the announcement of the team.
Scotland will be playing the first of their test matches on this years summer tour tomorrow, Tuesday 5th June, against Australia. The game will be played at Newcastle, seemingly this is the heart of rugby league country in Australia. Kick off is at 11.30 South African time.
The England tour of South Africa has already been given a considerable amount of ‘air time’ on this site, and no doubt will continue to feature heavily in the coverage over the coming weeks. This article provides some information on the tours down south of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
In the second of their three fixtures the Barbarians take on an Ireland XV tonight at Gloucester’s Chisholm ground. The match is due to kick off at 20.45 SA time.
Welsh regional team the Ospreys won the final of the RaboDirect Pro12 2011/2012 season, played at RDS Dublin. The match was a highly charged tense affair and the Ospreys hung on defiantly in the end to win by a mere point, after hero Shane Williams, playing in his last game for them, scored two excellent tries.
Harlequins captain Chris Robshaw was the proud man who was able to hoist the Aviva Premiership trophy following Harlequins victory over Leicester in the final not long completed at Twickenham. England captain Robshaw played a big part in the win and was good value for the super try he scored.
As reported earlier in the week the finals of the Aviva Premiership and the RaboDirect Pro12 take place this weekend. They should both be really high intensity games with the teams competing quite evenly matched.
John Smit has not minced his words in commenting on the ‘special attention’ he expects England’s South African born players to receive on their upcoming tour of South Africa.
It seems at the moment as if we are reaching saturation point with the amount of knockout rugby that we have had of late on these shores. This coming weekend is no exception as we look forward to the finals of the Aviva Premiership and RaboDirect Pro 12 as well as the Barbarians game against England.
The Heineken Cup Final, to be played later today at Twickenham, will be Pedrie Wannenburg’s last game for Ulster, as reported on this site yesterday.
The Heineken Cup Final takes place at Twickenham this Saturday between Leinster and Ulster, kick off 18.00 SA time. Both teams have now been announced.
The Final of the Amlin Challenge Cup will be contested between French teams Biarritz Olympique and Toulon. The game will take place at the Twickenham Stoop on Friday night, kick off 21.00 SA time.
This season’s Heineken Cup culminates in the final between Irish sides Leinster and Ulster this weekend. The match takes place this Saturday, 19 May, at Twickenham, kick off 18.00 SA time.
This weekend saw the semi finals of the two competitions being played. The final scores were fairly close in all but one of the matches.
The two competitions have reached the knockout stages with the battle for final spots taking place this weekend.
The Aviva Premiership ‘dream team’ for the season 2011/2012 has recently been announced. On Tuesday evening, in London, various awards for this season were handed out with the accolade for player of the season going to Harlequins, and England, captain, Chris Robshaw.
The RaboDirect Pro12 ‘dream team’ for the season 2011/2012 was announced last week. There is a fair mix of representation of players from Irish, Welsh and Scottish clubs with no Italian clubs having any players in the team. On Sunday evening, in Cardiff, various awards for this season were handed out with the accolade for player of the season going to Edinburgh try scoring machine Tim Visser.
There were no surprises in Saturday’s final round of the RaboDirect Pro12. All the results were as expected with the only real issue being the margins in some of the games being a little different than perhaps expected.