Women’s Rugby News for May 28-Jun 4

Welcome to the top women’s rugby news in under 60 seconds for May 23 to June 4. Samoa made history by winning the Oceania Championship for the first time, securing their qualification for WXV 2 and Fiji finished as the runner-up, earning their spot in WXV 3.

In the USA, Round 6 of the WPL saw impressive wins for Berkeley, Beantown, and CO Gray Wolves while in the USA Club Rugby National Championships, San Diego emerged victorious over NOVA in D1 and in D2, Knoxville secured a thrilling win over Severn River.

Moving to South Africa, Bulls Daisies continue to dominate the Premier Division and lead the standings. Meanwhile, in France’s Elite 1 Championship, Bordeaux and Blagnac will face off for a new Champion.

Round 18 of Allianz Premier solidified semi-final matches between Gloucester-Hartpury and Bristol Bears, as well as Exeter Chiefs and Saracens.

Over in Brazil, the semi-finals of the BR XV are taking shape with Centro-Oeste vs Rio De Janeiro and Paraná vs São Paulo Capital.

In 7s news, PR 7s announced the Loggerheads, Retriever and Headliner rosters. The first event is June 17 in Austin, TX.

We close out the week with 5 features and 10 media.

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tl;dr: Women’s Rugby in 60 secs for May 28-Jun 4 saw Samoa win the Oceania Championships for the first time ever qualifying them for WXV 2 while Fiji as runner-up qualified for WXV 3.

*Twitter appears to have made a change to their Tweet API that isn’t allowing tweets to be embedded anymore. Until this is resolved we’ll be sharing the news a bit differently.

60 Second Video Update

@yscrugby

Your #wrugby News in under 60 seconds for May 28-Jun 4 saw Samoa win the Oceania Championships for the first time ever qualifying them for WXV 2 while Fiji as runner-up qualified for WXV 3. Watch our video & read the entire update using the link in our bio! #womensrugby #wrugby #rugbyunion #rugbytok

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Top Women’s Rugby Stories

XVs

International

• Samoa made history by winning the Oceania Championship for the first time, securing their qualification for WXV 2 [link]; they beat Fiji at the buzzer with a penalty kick to win 19-18
  • Fiji finished as the runner-up in the tournament, earning their spot in WXV 3 [link]
  • In other tournament results, Tonga beat Papua New Guinea 30-22 [link] while Samoa beat PNG earlier in the week 83-0 [link], and Fiji beat Tonga 45-12 as well [link]
• Brazil and USA U23s tied in their first match of the America Rugby Trophy [link]

Premier & Club

• Round 6 of the WPL saw wins for Berkeley, Beantown and the CO Gray Wolves [link]
• San Diego Surfers won the D1 USA Club Rugby National Championships while Knoxville won D2 [link]
• Bulls Daisies continue to lead South Africa’s Premier Division but are chased by Border Ladies, DHL Western Province and Cell C Sharks [link]
• The Championship is set in France’s Elite 1 with Stade Bordelais and Blagnac fighting for the title [link]
  • Stade Bordelais will be in their first final, while Blagnac were runner-up in 2021 and 2022 but have never won
• Valsugana became the Italian Female Excellence Champions after defeating Villorba 28-3 [link]
• Round 18 of Allianz Premier saw Exeter secure a home semi-final, here are the matchups [link]:
  • Gloucester-Hartpury vs Bristol Bears
  • Exeter Chiefs vs Saracens
• In the Brazil BR XV the semi-finals are set [link]:
  • Centro-Oeste vs Rio De Janeiro
  • Parana vs Sao Paulao Capital

7s

Domestic

• The Loggerheads rosters were announced [link]
• The Retriever’s rosters were also announced [link]
• Headliners also announced their rosters [link]

Women’s Rugby Features

• In the space of six years, Molly Boyne has gone from taking up rugby, to making her Leinster debut, to getting into the Ireland squad! [link]
• CWU’s Tessa Hann goes to the next level [link]
• From long layovers to time away from families, Tonga’s Seli Mailangi told ‘Can You Be More Pacific?’ that every player at the Oceania Championship has shown their dedication to the sport [link]
• Weetbix and New Zealad Rugby couldn’t accommodate Ruby Tui’s request to display a pride flag on her sports card [link]
• Kat Merchant opens up about how rugby and weightlifting saved her [link]

Women’s Rugby Media

• Rewatch the drama of the Oceania Championship [link]
• Rewatch the Asia Championships between Japan and Kazakhstan [link]
• Women’s Rugby Pod episode 151 spoke with Vicky Fleetwood and Ando Herimahefa [link]
• The Good, The Scaz And The Rugby talks about how no one remembered Vicky Fleetwood’s 50th appearance [link]
• Learn Sharifa Kasolo’s rugby story from All In Allianz Premier 15s [link]
• Game On: The Unstoppable Rise of Women’s Sports will debut on Netflix on June 26 [link]
• Stacey Waak was on Rugby Sevens Rollercoaster talking about PR 7s [link]
• Level’s third Up Close interview is with Tatyana Head [link]
• Learn about how Romagnatoise Lina Tuy came to play for ASM Romagnat [link]
• Watch a quick interview with Peris Mukoko, the referee manager for the Africa Cup [link]