June Internationals (without threads)

[Highlander35]

Loser still gets the Repechage, and while we'd all prefer that to be a selection of minnows, it'd be difficult to see them coming up against another Asian, PI, African or even American side most of them couldn't beat, even without some French based players.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

^^^^^^^ true but if you're coaching Samoa or Tonga you'd rather be playing other T2 opposition to build depth & combinations than to qualify.

 

[Highlander35]

Scotland up 26-13.

Not watched it, but Japanese apparently went down to 13 men, including a deliberate knock down so obvious World Rugby should use it in the referees instruction book.

 

[Scooter]

Nations Cup Results
9 June
Argentina XV 44 defeated Spain 8
Emerging Italy 26 defeated Uruguay 24
Romania 20 defeated Namibia 8

13 June
Argentina XV 40 defeated Emerging Italy 30
Namibia 34 defeated Spain 32
Romania 40 defeated Uruguay 0

18 June
Uruguay 16 defeated Spain 0
Namibia 38 defeated Emerging Italy 26
Romania 20 defeated Argentina XV 8

Pool A
Argentine XV 10
Namibia 10
Uruguay 5

Pool B
Romania 13
Emerging Italy 5
Spain 2

Romania retain the Nations Cup.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Italy 24-20 USA

http://www.planetrugby.com/news/italy-squeeze-past-usa/

Argentina v France appears to be 0710 tomorrow AEST.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

FIJI v GEORGIA
Date: Friday, June 24
Venue: ANZ Stadium, Suva
Kick-off: 15:00 local (13:00 AEST)
Referee: JP Doyle (England)
Assistant Referees: George Clancy (Ireland), James Leckie (Australia)

Fiji: 15 Benito Masilevu, 14 Savenaca Rawaca, 13 Adriu Delai, 12 Eroni Vasiteri, 11 Patrick Osborne, 10 Ben Volavola, 9 Nemia Kenatale, 8 Eremasi Radrodro, 7 Mosese Voka, 6 Naulia Dawai, 5 Tevita Cavubati, 4 Savenaca Tabakanalagi, 3 Taniela Koroi, 2 Sunia Koto (c), 1 Peni Ravai . Replacements: 16 Viliame Veikoso, 17 Campese Maáfu, 18 Mesake Doge, 19 Nemia Soqeta, 20 Malakai Ravulo, 21 Henry Seniloli, 22 Seremaia Bai, 23 Vereniki Goneva

Georgia: 15 Merab Kvirikashvili, 14 Giorgi Pruidze, 13 David Kacharava, 12 Merab Sharikadze, 11 Sandro Todua, 10 Lasha Khmaladze, 9 Giorgi Begadze, 8 Beka Bitsadze, 7 Giorgi Tkhilaishvili, 6 Shalva Sutiashvili (c), 5 Giorgi Nemsadze, 4 Giorgi Chkhaidze, 3 Irakli Mirtskhulava, 2 Jaba Bregvadze, 1 Karlen Asieshvili
Replacements: 16 Shalva Mamukashvili, 17 Zurab Zhvania, 18 Nikoloz Khatiashvili, 19 Nodar Cheishvili, 20 Lasha Lomidze, 21 Vazha Khutsishvili, 22 Lasha Malaghuradze, 23 Saba Shubitidze

 

[KevinO]

In slightly irrelevant news, Cooper Vuna has gotten his switch to Tonga approved by World Rugby, so will play for the Sevens in Monaco tommorow amd Sunday, before flying out to play for the XVs in their final mid year international. Well done him.

Hows that possible?

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

 

[Highlander35]

Hows that possible?

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

Olympics only requires Citizenship/holding a Passport for that country. World Rugby provided a loophole for players already aligned with one country to represent another country they are eligible for, that involved a stand down period from all international Rugby (18 months this time around, supposedly increasing to 36 months in the future), then playing for the Sevens squad in Olympic qualification. Tim Nanai-Williams switched to Samoa (having previously played for NZ Sevens) after playing 4 events in the 2014-2015 Sevens Series. I think someone switched to Japan in the Asian Regional Qualifying Series, and now Vuna for Tonga in the Repechage. Think there were 1 or 2 others who did so too.

 

[Lindommer]

As long as this is confined to Tier 2 nations it's all well and good. In fact I think the iRB/WR (World Rugby) should encourage such representation for T2 teams and maybe set a different set of qualifications for them.

 

[Highlander35]

It's not. Everybody can use it. So far, the nature of the switch (18 months without internationals, playing in Qualification) has largely confined it to former Sevens and a couple of Test caps players switching Nations, particularly since they'd have to be genuine Sevens players (4 tournaments are a lot). And World Rugby has final veto.

Of course for example, if Semi Radrada's French deal fell through, he extended to the 2018 Season then said, I wanna have a crack at the Aussie Sevens, I think World Rugby would have a very hard time denying it, assuming that he got citizenship in that time.

I'm also not a big fan of some rules being for one set of people and not for the other. I think that anything which would allow or encourage players to switch teams after receiving caps would actually be counterproductive, instead depriving Tier 2 Nations of players deciding to commit earlier in their careers, who'll turn around and hang around longer for that elusive ABs/Wobblies/England cap. It would also end up stacking the team with older former Internationals who decided to move to France for a paycheck rather than mid and late 20s blokes you see now, where teams can be built for the nsxt World Cup.

What I would like to see is a few changes to the current eligibility system. Not necessarily in terms of ere you/your parents/your grandparents were born or even the 3 year residency, but a move to a more Football like system. So, we scrap the current system of having a 3rd fully international side (A teams whom go largely unused by most, U20s by others).

And what we do is replace it with the concept of limited international capping. In that; playing for the a Nation at the level below full internationals (full sevens and full XVs) doesn't lock you to that team, but it instead prevents you from gaining new Nationalities,

So, for example, a Nation would automatically nominate its National U20s side, and would have the opportunity to nominate up to 3 further "open age" sides to this system, either 7s or XVs. The likelihood/hope is that this won't deter players from playing at these levels, particularly U20s and for tier 1 Nations, what it would instead prevent is a player of PI or other origin turning out for Australia, New Zealand etc. then failing to make the grade there, and decided to spend 3 years gaining Italian/Irish/Scottish/Japanese eligibility, rather than turning out for their other Nation. I don't particularly give a crap about Scotland "stealing" Josh Strauss and WP Nel, who were consistently overlooked and told they were unwanted by Springboks management, and came to Scotland with no other ties to speak of. I'll feel particularly bad however if Nasi Manu decides to turn out for us after 3 years rather than represent Tonga.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Georgia 14-3 Fiji

http://www.planetrugby.com/news/georgia-get-the-better-of-fiji/

Highlights:

 

[Scooter]

Japan v Scotland 2nd test live on Eurosport tomorrow at 8:15pm.

 

[Scooter]

Other results over last two or three weeks :
Hong Kong 41 Korea 15
Bermuda 30 Bahamas 13
Argentine XV 87 Chile 12
Argentina 30 Italy 24
Madagascar 24 Zambia 15
Senegal 54 Zambia 3
Argentina 30 France 19
Georgia 23 Tonga 20
Canada 46 Russia 21
Kenya 18 Brazil 17
Cayman Islands 47 Bermuda 11
Senegal 30 Madagascar 24
Barbados defeated Jamaica on forfeit

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Japan v Scotland 2nd test live on Eurosport tomorrow at 8:15pm.

@ Ajinomoto Stadium, Tokyo
Referee: Marius Mitrea (Italy)
Assistant Referees: Ben O'Keeffe (New Zealand), Brendan Pickerill (New Zealand)
TMO: Ian Smith (Australia)

Japan: 15 Rikiya Matsuda, 14 Male Sa'u, 13 Tim Bennetts, 12 Harumichi Tatekawa, 11 Yasutaka Sasakura, 10 Yu Tamara, 9 Kaito Shigeno, 8 Amanaki Mafi, 7 Shoukei Kin, 6 Hendrik Tui, 5 Naohiro Kotaki, 4 Hitoshi Ono, 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama, 2 Shota Horie (c), 1 Keita Inagaki. Replacements: 16 Takeishi Kizu, 17 Masataka Mikami, 18 Shinnosuke Kakinaga, 19 Kotaro Yatabe, 20 Ryu Kolinasi Holani, 21 Keisuke Uchida, 22 Kosei Ono, 23 Mifi Poseti Paea

Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Matt Scott, 12 Peter Horne, 11 Sean Maitland, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Henry Pyrgos (c), 8 Ryan Wilson, 7 John Barclay, 6 Josh Strauss, 5 Jonny Gray, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Moray Low, 2 Stuart McInally, 1 Rory Sutherland. Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Willem Nel, 19 Tim Swinson, 20 John Hardie, 21 Greig Laidlaw, 22 Huw Jones, 23 Sean Lamont

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Argentina vs France
@ Stade Monumental José Fierro, Tucumán
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Assistant Referees: Johnny Lacey (Ireland), Luke Pearce (England)
TMO: Johan Greeff (South Africa)

Argentina: 15 Joaquín Tuculet, 14 Santiago Cordero, 13 Matías Moroni, 12 Jerónimo de la Fuente, 11 Manuel Montero, 10 Nicolás Sánchez, 9 Tomás Cubelli, 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Javier Ortega Desio, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomás Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Agustín Creevy (c), 1 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro. Replacements: 16 Julián Montoya, 17 Santiago García Botta, 18 Enrique Pieretto, 19 Tomás Lezana, 20 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 21 Martín Landajo, 22 Matías Orlando, 23 Lucas González Amorosino

France: 15 Maxime Médard, 14 Xavier Mignot, 13 Gaël Fickou, 12 Rémi Lamerat, 11 Djibril Camara, 10 François Trinh-Duc, 9 Baptiste Serin, 8 Louis Picamoles, 7 Kevin Gourdon, 6 Loann Goujon, 5 Yoann Maestri (c), 4 Julien Ledevedec, 3 Uini Atonio, 2 Rémi Bonfils, 1 Jefferson Poirot. Replacements: 16 Clément Maynadier, 17 Lucas Pointud, 18 Rabah Slimani, 19 Paul Jedrasiak, 20 Kélian Galletier, 21 Sébastien Bézy, 22 Jules Plisson, 23 Julien Rey

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Samoa vs Tonga
@ Apia Park, Apia
Referee: Pascal Gauzère (France)
Assistant Referees: Nick Briant (New Zealand), Samuela Tuidraki (Fiji)

I can't find team lists anywhere which is a bit shit, really, as we're meant to be a global game these days......

@H35 I like your ideas re eligibility & as you probably know the new WR (World Rugby) 2IC has said he wants reform. To me the key is protecting/ enhancing the ability of the PI & next-level Euro & African nations to access players. We don't want to go back to the days of, say, Samoa being made up of residents & expats, they need those heritage players too.

I'd love to see a situation whereby someone in Malakai Fekitoa's situation can say "yes, NZ made me the player I am but Tonga made me, I'm playing for Tonga" without it being portrayed as settling for second prize or, worse, "turning his back on/ snubbing" NZ rugby (which it likely would be anyways, we're a parochial lot ). If that means living with the occasional Sean Maitland, Gareth Anscombe or Thomas Waldrom, so be it.

 

[Bardon]

Scotland scraped a win over here against Japan. Didn't see too much of the game due to the clash with the Aus v Eng game but it wasn't a vintage performance.

If I were Scotish I wouldn't care as it's a win. For a long time they've been putting in "brave performances" and "being unlucky" but in reality they were losing. No one likes losing and when it happens most times the dressing room isn't the happiest place to be.

There's only so much "you showed great heart" and "we just need to cut out the errors" that you can listen to before the players switch off.

Come over to Japan and get a 2-0 series win and suddenly everyone is buzing and you've got something tangible to build on rather than the quicksand that is the "brave defeat".

 

[Highlander35]

100% correct Bardon.

Hopefully getting Taylor, Bennett, Dunbar, Russell, Gilchrist, Dicko, Ford, Welshy and the flying Dutchman fit will help come November. Obviously we can't squeeze them all in, but Gilchrist, Dicko and Russell will make a big difference, the rest are very good players who'll all be in and around the 23 improving the bench and pushing for starting spots.

It was a tour that nobody really seemed to want to do. 2 matches instead of the standard 3. Tiny squad, mostly with the fit incumbents. Performances filled with sloppy handling and structures, and if the stuff the SRU put out was any indication, there was significantly more touristy stuff going on from the playing group than you see touring the RC Nations.

 

[Lee Grant]

There is a blog on the tests involving NZ, Boks and Argentina on the weekend here:

​

http://goo.gl/CZbePx​

Give it a click.
.