A Big Weekend for Rugby in America
While the Six Nations combatants take a week off (with 2 matches remaining), attention switches to the US where the rugby season starts in earnest.
First off, the Major League Rugby (MLR) season starts on Saturday, March 2 and Sunday, March 3 with 6 matches in this first round of Season 7. There have been several changes over the off-season with 2 teams dropping out and 3 new teams being formed or changing their home location. On Saturday, NOLA plays Old Glory DC, Houston plays Utah and Seattle take on San Diego. On Sunday, Miami plays Chicago and RFC LA take on the Dallas Jackals but of particular interest will be the competition between last season’s champions, the New England Free Jacks and the new Anthem Rugby Carolina team in Charlotte, NC. Most matches can be seen on The Rugby Network.
Also on The Rugby Network at 9:00 AM Pacific on Saturday, The Cal Golden Bears play Army at West Point. The teams last met one year ago in Berkeley when the home team won. This is TRN’s Collegiate Match of the Week.
Simultaneously, the World Rugby SVNS tournament plays Round 5 at Dignity Health Stadium in LA. On March 2nd and 3rd, 12 teams representing Ireland, Spain, Argentina and South Africa (Group A); New Zealand, Samoa, USA and Australia (Group B); and Fiji, Canada, France and Great Britain (Group C); will play 2 group matches. The top 8 teams will go to the QFs for the first knockout stage followed by the semi-finals and Final. Argentina are currently top of the Men’s table ahead of Ireland and Fiji (tied for 2nd) and New Zealand. The Women’s tournament will run concurrently with the Men’s event with Australia currently in top place followed by New Zealand and France. After 7 Rounds (the last 2 are in Hong Kong and Singapore) there will a final contested between the top 8 teams in Madrid, May 31 to June 2. The matches will be streamed on Peacock and on Rugby Pass TV.
There is extra spice for players and fans of 7-a-side rugby this year as the Olympics will feature a 7s tournament reintroduced in 2016. The Olympics will be held in Paris between July 24 and August 11 and will feature 329 events! The Rugby will start 2 days before the Opening Ceremony and finish the day after with the winners receiving the first gold medals awarded at this year’s Olympiad. There will be 12 teams in each of the Men’s and Women’s competitions; Fiji will be going for a 3rd gold in a row in the Men’s and hosts France, Australia and New Zealand will be favorites in the Women’s event.
Despite the break in action in the Six Nations tournament and a long break in the English Premiership, there is much rugby being played in Europe. The United Rugby Championship is hard at work with another 8 matches in this weekend’s Round 11 (of 18). On Friday, Edinburgh beat the Ospreys 19-15 and moved into 4th place while Munster beat Zebre Parma 45-29 and moved into 5th. Those rankings could change over the weekend depending on the other results; Leinster (#1) play at Cardiff; Glasgow (#2) play at Benetton; and the Vodacom Bulls (#3) are home to SA rivals the DHL Stormers. The URC is streamed live with replays available on FloRugby.
In France, the Top 14 plays Round 17 (of 26) with Stade Francais Paris (#1) playing Section Paloise - Pau (#5) and Stade Toulousain (#2) playing Castres Olympique (#3). These games are streamed live with replays available on FloRugby.