European Rugby
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.
World rugby’s most experienced Test captain, former Springbok hooker John Smit, will skipper the Barbarians in their match against England on Sunday. Kick-off is at 15:30 SA time.
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 Barbarians Summer Series proper begins this weekend with the Killik Cup against England at Twickenham, and not much has been spoken about it here.
Wallabies and Western Force fullback and wing Cameron Shepherd has agreed to join Aviva Premiership Rugby club Northampton Saints.
Ireland and Leinster fullback Rob Kearney has been named as the 2011/12 European Player of the Year after helping Leinster to win the Heineken Cup on the weekend.
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.
Brian O’Driscoll handed Leinster a major boost after declaring himself fit for the all-Irish European Cup final against Ulster at Twickenham on Saturday.
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.
Jonny Wilkinson will lead Toulon in their hunt for a first trophy in 20 years when they face French rivals Biarritz in the Amlin Challenge Cup final at the Twickenham Stoop on Friday.
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.
Racing-Metro’s Springbok utility back Frans Steynwill be fit to play the Top 14 playoff tie against Toulon on 26 May after recovering from a thigh injury, his club confirmed on Wednesday.
Scotland have named a 28-strong playing squad for their summer tour to Australasia (Australia, Fiji, Samoa) which includes Edinburgh Rugby backs Tom Brown and Tim Visser.
England coach Stuart Lancaster has named a 27-man squad that will prepare for the match against the Barbarians at Twickenham Stadium on Sunday, May the 27th for the Killik Cup.
Ireland have named their squad for the summer tour game against the Barbarians in Gloucester on May 29th made up of players from Connacht, Munster and Ulster.
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.
The Brumbies will keep match-fit in the June Super Rugby break by playing a game against Six Nations champions Wales at Canberra Stadium on the 12th of June.
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 whole Southern Kings and Super Rugby situation in South Africa has gotten me thinking and after discussing it with a avid rugby & Lions supporter in Francois Nell, the following transpired:
Why don’t we have teams playing in both Super Rugby, Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup? We have enough teams to do this and it should strengthen South African rugby. Here are a couple of options SARU might well want to consider in going forward in to the future.
The two competitions have reached the knockout stages with the battle for final spots taking place this weekend.
England Head Coach Stuart Lancaster has named a 42-man squad for next month’s five-match tour of South Africa.
Drawn mostly from the Senior and Saxons Elite Player Squads, nine Aviva Premiership clubs are represented for the three-Test series, with the party captained by Player of the Season, Harlequins’ Chris Robshaw.
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.
Ruan Pienaar’s Man of the Match-performance against Edinburgh in Saturday’s 22-19 Heineken Cup semi-final victory has made the Ulster scrum-half the most talked-about player in European rugby right now.
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.
This weekend sees some big rugby action up north. Firstly there is, as earlier reported on this site, the penultimate tournament of the 2011/2012 IRB Sevens competition in Glasgow. While on the ‘domestic’ front there will be the last round of the league stage of the RaboDirect Pro 12 and the Aviva Premiership.
Six months ago Chris Paterson announced his retirement from International rugby after 109 International caps but now he’s gone a step further and announced his overall retirement from the game, his last game to be played this weekend.
England coach Stuart Lancaster wiill be without six key players including flank Tom Croft and lock Courtney Lawes for the tour of South Africa in June.
The second last tournament of the 2011/2012 IRB Sevens competition is due to hit Scotland this weekend. In a change from previous editions in which the Scotttish leg of the sevens were held in the far larger Murrayfield stadium in Edinburgh the venue will now be the Scotstoun Stadium in Glasgow.
A round-up of the latest news shorts from the weekend’s rugby.
A teenage Scottish club rugby player has made his international debut . . . for Pakistan in rugby league.
England will play 2 mid week games and 3 Tests in a return to more conventional tours.
England hooker Dylan Hartley has been banned for eight weeks after being found guilty of biting Ireland flank Stephen Ferris in their Six Nations showdown at Twickenham.
Last night the ruling in the Calum Clark hearing made, with the Northampton Saints loose forward being suspended from the game for 32 weeks. He will only play again in November.
English coach Stuart Lancaster will now be able to remove less than flattering terms such as ‘caretaker’ and ‘interim’ from his title, with the 42-year-old appointed permanent head coach by the Rugby Football Union board.