A huge week for women’s rugby and we’re featuring the announcement of the 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup match dates. Matches will be September 18-October 16 in New Zealand.
In XVs news, we saw Italy reach fifth in the World Rugby Rankings and USA Rugby has announced their 2020 performance squad. We also catch up with Round 2 of the Six Nations and league results from USA Club Rugby, USA College Rugby and Tyrrell’s Premier.
Only one story in 7s as we look at the effect of the Coronavirus and Chinese Olympic Athletes.
Plenty in the the Misc News category including all the pod casts, features on Phaidra Knight, Heather Fisher, Abdul Baki, Harriet Millar-Mills and Fernanda Vazquez.
Lastly, plenty of #rugbyjobs this week, get applying!
Can’t wait a week? Join us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram as we will be posting daily. We have a bit more dialogue on Twitter if you’d like to join in.
The dates for Rugby World Cup 2021 have been announced:
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) February 3, 2020
18 Sept - Pool matches
23 Sept - Pool matches
28 Sept - Pool matches
3 Oct - Quarter-finals
9 Oct - Semi-finals
16 Oct - Bronze match + FINAL https://t.co/DGqZbWsXmv #RWC2021 pic.twitter.com/WKlMXLMa9U
The pool matches and quarter-finals will be played at Waitakere Stadium and Northland Events Centre
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) February 3, 2020
The semi-finals onwards will be played in Eden Park #RWC2021
Our featured post this week is all about the 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup!
18 Sept – Pool matches
23 Sept – Pool matches
28 Sept – Pool matches
3 Oct – Quarter-finals
9 Oct – Semi-finals
16 Oct – Bronze match + FINAL
Matches will played for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere in New Zealand at Waitakere Stadium, Northland Events Centre and Auckland’s Eden Park. We’re saving our pennies and will be on the ground for a portion of the matches, who will be joining us!?
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1224754712974708737
Italy move up to an all-time high of fifth in the World Rugby Women’s Rankings following their victory over Wales, England edge ever closer to knocking New Zealand off top spot by beating France and Ireland just about hold off Scotland in the opening round of the Women’s Six Nations 2020.
View full rankings.
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1224814933063409664
Anthony Eddy, the IRFU’s Director of Women’s and Sevens Rugby, outlines the plans for Irish rugby this year – one which sees Ireland aiming to qualify for the 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1225841711903051777
USA Rugby announces their 2020 Performance Squad for 15s. The squad also includes an extended squad and watchlist.
Selections for national team camps and competitions can be made from any of the three levels; as well as from the Women’s Sevens player pool pending selections and preparation for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series and Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. The Women’s XVs and Sevens programs run collaboratively and offer athletes the opportunity to compete in both.
Six Nations
Some AWESOME tries in here....can't wait for Round Two! #WomensSixNations pic.twitter.com/FEMRQglGQt
— Women's Six Nations (@Womens6Nations) February 4, 2020
Statement from @SixNationsRugby hopefully a good thing for @Womens6Nations going forward (hopefully) #wrugby pic.twitter.com/LLVp4YQQ95
— Sara Orchard (@Sara_Orchard) February 7, 2020
https://twitter.com/Federugby/status/1226263168013492224
https://twitter.com/IrishRugby/status/1226523442767376385
https://twitter.com/EnglandRugby/status/1226521322257289217
Round two of the Six Nations saw France defeat Italy 45-10 and Ireland defeated Wales 31-12. The England vs Scotland match was postponed to Tuesday due to Storm Clara and 70mph winds. The match will be a closed event at BT Murrayfield.
The Six Nations Council also issued a statement indicating that their sporting and commercial collaboration will be unified alongside the the women’s, U-20, respective Autumn Internationals and other International tests alongside the Men’s. No real specifics but sounds promising?
League Results & Updates
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1224845153736843265
USA Club Rugby is in full swing with action from almost all areas of the nation.
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1225962498433658882
BYU moves into the top spot and are closely followed by Virginia Tech and UCF.
An update has been provided on the #Premier15s three-year league structure covering seasons 2020/21 to 2022/23.
— Allianz Premier 15s (@Premier15s) February 3, 2020
More ➡ https://t.co/qn7EmuhFhp pic.twitter.com/XRGWV5k8My
https://twitter.com/RichmondFC1861/status/1224319935209443334
https://twitter.com/WorcsWarriorsW/status/1224317704846430208
Tyrrell’s Premier has has audited their teams and found that the bottom four ranked teams will have to re-tender for a place in the competition. Richmond and Worcester had strong responses to this and indicated that there is “an obvious shift from the RFU toward favouring women’s clubs who are aligned to a men’s premiership side.”
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1225932386082476032
The Coronavirus continues to grow and Chinese Olympic teams are feeling the pinch. The team was due to return to China after a scheduled training camp in New Zealand but will instead remain there until at least mid-March.
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1224482808443351040
Phaidra Knight is all over the place these days and recently penned a ‘love letter to rugby’ with Global Sports Matters. Give it a read!
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1225207563240775680
The Rugby Journal has done a fantastic feature on England’s Heather Fisher. She reveals her beginnings in sport, rugby and “unfinished business” with Olympics Rugby.
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1225569932206919680
Sarah Abdul Baki talks to World Rugby about her hopes for the future after becoming the first woman to referee a domestic match in Syria.
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1224513046661431301
Radio 1 Newsbeat spoke with young female rugby players in Soweto, South Africa and heard from men’s captain Siya about how he wants to see the sport grow amongst the black majority in the country.
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1224875306588213253
England’s Harriet Millar-Mills has been out of rugby for 22 months due to repeat injuries including three knee surgeries. She’s back on the pitch playing for Wasps and is enjoying being back on the pitch.
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1225600097523838977
World Rugby Women’s Executive Leadership Scholarship recipient Fernanda Vázquez discusses her life in rugby and how her love affair with the game began.
Women’s 6Nations Pod 2 of #rugbyunionweekly #WomensWednesday is live! Myself and @Sara_Orchard discuss all the Round 1 action! https://t.co/dxLofuMt55
— Philippa Tuttiett (@PhilipaTuttiett) February 5, 2020
https://twitter.com/USARugby/status/1225453659418284033
https://twitter.com/BBCScrumV/status/1225326795391733760
NEW POD!
— World Rugby (@WorldRugby) February 6, 2020
➡️ @giteau_rugby gives the run down on Japan and Top League
➡ @allblacks legend Andrew Mehrtens covers all things @SuperRugby
➡ @RachaelBurf12 looks at last weekend's @SixNationsRugby #WorldRugbyPOD
Apple: https://t.co/PsvqFvmwWp https://t.co/1PZ6LpmC1u
https://twitter.com/podwomensrugby/status/1225016728356368384
All the pod casts…give them all a listen!
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1224392257983471622
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1224452519708876806
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1226687274685009921
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1225177298464362502
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1226626867609980928
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1226566475282026496
https://twitter.com/yscrugby/status/1226657088379801603