Under the Posts – Week of September 9, 2018

This week our women’s news coverages includes a quick look at all the upcoming November Internationals, WPL standings after week 4, the first stop of the HSBC Sevens Series in Denver, CO and Liza Burgess of Wales being inducted into the 2018 World Rugby Hall of Fame.

Also this week was the draw for the 2018 Oceania Tournament, the first ever Women in Rugby Conference in Charlotte, NC, USA Rugby begins their search for a replacement Women’s Sevens Head Coach and WPL and college match videos.

Can’t wait a week? Join us on Twitter, Facebook page or Instagram (NEW) as we will be posting daily. Give us a shout!

ScrumQueens gives us a quick look at the November Internationals…those that have been announced so far. The list as of publication is thirteen matches involving nine different nations in eight different countries.

South Africa will undertake a three test tour of Wales and Spain, which will also include two other fixtures.

Spain will also host Hong Kong.

New Zealand are going on a two-country three-test overseas tour, playing a test in the United States for the first time before travelling to France for two tests

After hosting New Zealand the United States will also travel to Europe to meet England and Ireland

Canada are also visiting Europe with tests against England and Scotland

Scotland will also travel to Italy, and England will play Ireland at Twickenham. In addition Scotland will play Spain in January.

England announced their November matches this week as well as newly appointed forwards coach Richard Blaze who arrives with the national set up from Leicester Tigers. England will play USA, Canada and Ireland.

Week four of the USA Rugby WPL was a bit of a whirlwind with two previously undefeated teams suffering their first losses of the season.

We start with Twin Cities Amazons who got their first win of the season as they dismantled a tough New York team 39-10. Also in the red conference, Beantown leapfrogged the DC Furies 52-3.

In the blue conference, the closest match of the weekend was Chicago NS who hosted San Diego. San Diego went out to a 24-0 lead at the half but NS came barreling back in the second but couldn’t close the gap, losing 24-10. In the other match of the day, Glendale hosted Berkeley and while the scoreline says 46-21 both teams indicated that the match was the closest and most physical they’ve had all year.

World Rugby has confirmed the six men’s and six women’s teams that will participate in the rugby sevens competitions at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 13-15 October.

The women’s competition will comprise Canada, Colombia, France, Kazakhstan, New Zealand and Tunisia.

Nanjing 2014 proved to be an important stepping stone for the participating players with the likes Hannah Darling and Charity Williams (both Canada women) graduating to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and became regulars on the women’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. Yan Meiling went from winning bronze with China’s women in Nanjing to captain her country at Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 in San Francisco.

The first stop of the HSBC Sevens Series is in Denver, CO on October 20-21 at Infinity Park. We’ve secured our transportation plans and we’re eagerly awaiting the schedule announcement!

Denver is also searching for 2018 World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series Colorado Event Liaison Officers. Applications are due October 1.

This is a great way to see the behind the scenes of the tournament and the teams participating in the event.

Ireland Women’s Sevens players Eve Higgins and Kathy Baker are currently in Australia on a development placement with Bond University that will see them compete in the Aon University 7s over the coming months.

We’re seeing more and more players visiting other countries to develop their game.

Liza Burgess of Wales was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame this week. She is inductee #142.

Liza Burgess has been at the forefront of Welsh women’s – and international rugby – for nearly three decades. During an illustrious playing career, ‘Bird’, as she is known, played in Wales’ very first international against England in 1987 where she led the side from number eight.

Twenty years later and with 93 caps to her name, including six appearances for Great Britain prior to the development of the Welsh national side, she finished her test career on the concluding day of the Women’s Six Nations in 2007.

The 2018 Oceania Rugby Sevens Championship pools were drawn this week. Pool A includes Australia, PNG, Samoa and newcomer Nauru. Pool is New Zealand, Fiji, Cook Islands and another newcomer New Caledonia.

The highest placed teams in both the men’s and women’s grades, excluding the prequalified teams will qualify for the World Sevens Series leg in Hamilton and Sydney.

Both highest placed teams will also qualify for the World Sevens Series qualifier in Hong Kong next year.

The Fiji 7s team and the Fijiana 7s have pre-qualified and are part of the World Sevens Series 2018/2019 to begin later this year.

A new-look French championship gets underway this weekend as the Top 8 becomes the Elite 1 for the Six Nations Grand Slam champions. Part of France’s plans to develop women’s rugby in France, the top flight has doubled in size, with the league split into two pools of eight.

We’ve also booked our flights to the first ever Women in Rugby Conference put on by the Women’s Rugby Coaches & Referees Association (WRCRA). We hope you’ll join us and others December 1-2 in Charlotte, NC.

From our #RugbyJobs arena, USA Rugby has posted the opening of their Women’s Sevens Head Coach. Richie Walker resigned last month unexpectedly and quite puzzlingly as he was just seen recruiting at USA Rugby Club 7s National Championships.

With Denver occurring in just over a month, the team isn’t rudderless as Assistant Coach Chris Brown has stepped in as interim head coach. Will we see the psat repeat itself where he will take over?

Julianne Zussman of Canada has retired from International rugby.

We’re adding a new section to our weekly post, we’ve always provided the WPL videos but we will try and add all the match videos we can find. We generally search for “wrugby” or “women’s rugby” on Youtube so if you’re not using one of those tags, consider adding it!

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