European Rugby
Toulon (15) 32 / 20 (10) Exeter (Final score)
Toulon and Exeter Chiefs did battle in the Heineken Cup at
Stade Felix Mayol, at 15:35 SA Time (14:35 France Time, 13:35 GMT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 8, SH8 on TV in SA.
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The proposed exhibition match between Super Rugby champions the Chiefs and European Cup champions Toulon will not take place this season.
The Chiefs released their pre-season schedule on Friday, which sees them face the Reds and the Blues and not Toulon after both teams failed to get clearance from their national bodies.
Ireland prop Cian Healy looks set to miss the start of next year’s Six Nations tournament after undergoing surgery on an ankle injury.
New Zealand international lock Ali Williams said on Thursday he is on the verge of prolonging his stay at European champions Toulon beyond the end of this season.
A Scottish international rugby player has appeared in court charged with assaulting another player in Glasgow’s west end.
The Irish teams will be looking to back up their clean sweep last week when the second half of the European Cup double-headers get underway this weekend.
All four Irish provinces were on the winning side last week, and the challenge now is for them to repeat the feat against the same opposition at different venues in Round Four.
Bryan Habana’s thigh strain has proved more serious than initially thought and will require surgery which will rule him out for two months.
Springbok World Cup-winning prop CJ van der Linde has signed for Premiership club London Irish for the remainder of the season.
English Rugby Football Union (RFU) CEO Ian Ritchie is confident that the game has not been affected by spot-fixing.
Ritchie was speaking at a conference where ministers and MPs were discussing corruption in sport.
London Irish are set to announce a takeover of the club by a group of Irish businessmen on Thursday. The club have called a news conference at their training ground in Sunbury for 10:30 GMT, where they will announce further details of the takeover.
Former Junior Springbok wing Wandile Mjekevu is hoping to represent the French national team in future.
South Africans Craig Joubert and Jaco Peyper have been appointed by the International Rugby Board (IRB) to referee in next year’s Six Nations.
Leigh Halfpenny’s stunning 12 months continues after he was named Wales Sports Personality of the Year on Monday night.
Struggling Racing-Metro have been given a boost with news that Welsh centre Jamie Roberts is finally ready to play again after a 12-week injury absence.
The barn-storming back sustained a ligament tear in his left ankle, and has had to watch as his team has struggled despite a raft of big-name signings including Ireland fly-half Jonathan Sexton and Welsh teammates Dan Lydiate and, more recently, Mike Phillips.
Bath director of rugby Gary Gold has left the Premiership club. The 46-year-old South African took over at the Rec in May 2012, replacing Sir Ian McGeechan.
The Wallabies have agreed to play the Great Britain rugby league team in a $10 million hybrid-game spectacular at Wembley Stadium next year. London’s most famous football venue has been booked for December 6, a week after the Wallabies’ last game on their 2014 spring tour.
Racing Metro’s dire performance in Saturday’s 8-32 Heineken Cup thrashing by English side Harlequins prompted the directors to announce that they had switched the mouthwatering Top 14 clash with European champions Toulon away from Stade de France to its own more modest stadium.
Springbok wing Bryan Habana will be sidelined for around three weeks after suffering a thigh strain in Toulon’s 14-9 European Cup win at Exeter on Saturday.
The teams, kick off times, venues and match officials have been announced for this weekend’s Heineken Cup third round clashes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Should weather conditions or travel difficulties prevent matches from going ahead as scheduled, ERC will work with the clubs and match officials to ensure that fixtures are completed as close to the original kick-off time as possible.
The Sharks will play a warm-up match against English Premiership club Saracens at Allianz Park in London on January 25 next year.
Ireland will tackle South Africa and Australia in next year’s November international Test series, the Irish Rugby Football Union announced on Friday.
British and Irish Lions hooker Richard Hibbard and Wales flyhalf Rhys Priestland have joined the exodus of Wales players leaving the Welsh regions and joined the growing contingent of Wales internationals playing in England.
Lions hooker Hibbard has agreed to join Gloucester at the end of this season while Scarlets pivot Priestland has agreed to move to Wasps.
English clubs are set for at least one season without any European rugby after they confirmed their refusal to take part in a revamped Heineken Cup next season, despite last week’s decision by their French counterparts to return to the fold.
The chairmen of the 12 Premiership clubs, as well as representatives from Leeds and Bristol, met in London on Thursday.
Wales will have an opportunity to break their SANZAR bogey when they face the world’s top three sides in next year’s November internationals.
The International Rugby Board’s (IRB) top three ranked sides, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia will visit the Millennium Stadium along with Pacific Island nation Fiji.
Wales coach Warren Gatland has confirmed that he would be interested in coaching the British and Irish Lions when they tour his country of birth New Zealand in 2017.
Wales dropped out of the top five on the IRB World Rankings following their 26-30 loss to the Wallabies in Cardiff on Saturday.
With only three international fixtures over the weekend, the focus was on the pulsating encounter between Wales and the touring Australians at Millennium Stadium.
England’s Premiership Rugby teams could miss out on playing European Rugby next year following the latest developments in Northern Hemisphere rugby row that has gone on for over a year.
Premiership Rugby bosses will meet this week to try and find a solution after French teams back tracked and pulled out of the proposes Rugby Champions Cup.
On the European and UK rugby front preparations for the Six Nations tournament of 2014 is gathering momentum, with news trickling through of injuries at this stage ruling some players out of the start of the Six Nations whilst others might miss the whole tournament.
England fullback / wing Ben Foden will likely miss only the start of the Six Nations, with a knee injury suffered for Northampton on the weekend against Newcastle.
England and Wasps wing, Christian Wade is out for 6 months after suffering a foot injury against London Irish over the past weekend.
Wales scrumhalf and “naughty boy” who was axed by Bayonne, Mike Phillips has reportedly signed a two and a half year deal with Racing Metro in France and will be available from Tuesday 3 December 2013.
A rip-roaring contest and magnificent entertainment it may have been, but Welsh faces after yet another defeat by Australia spoke only of more misery and another missed opportunity.
Wales (16) 26 / 30 (17) Wallabies (Final Score)
Wales and the Australian Wallabies did battle in the End Of Year Tours at
Millennium Stadium, Cardiff at 19:00 SA Time (17:00 GMT, 04:00 Sunday AEDT).
This was the live match discussion Article.
The match was broadcast LIVE on SuperSport 1, SHD & CSN on TV in SA.
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The New Zealand Rugby Union, via the All Blacks coaches, high performance unit and player’s association, look to have given the green light for the Chiefs to head to France in February to play Toulon.
The fixture, now looking increasingly likely to go ahead, will see for the first time the Super Rugby winners play the European Cup champions.
Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie is calling Wales’ bluff, saying the Six Nations champions are ”worried” about falling to their ninth straight loss to Australia in Cardiff this weekend.
Australia’s overseas-based rugby players will have to put country over money if they want to play in the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie said he would not consider for World Cup duties any player who was not signed with a Super Rugby club from the start of the 2015 season.
The Premiership clubs have been dealt a huge blow in their quest for a new European competition as the French clubs today agreed to stay in the Heineken Cup for another season.
Wallaby flyhalf Quade Cooper will become Australia’s 40th player to reach the prestigious 50-game Test milestone.
He will achieve this in Saturday’s final year-end tour and James Bevan Trophy contest against Wales at Millennium Stadium.