Womens XVs Rugby - Global news & Developments

[Armchair Fan Profile]

Yes, like against Romania and Germany last season.

[johnbirch Profile]

I suppose these are semi-finals and so details of the next round will have to wait.

Yes.
Match 1: SPA - RUS
Match 2: NED - GER
Match 3: Winner M1 v Winner M2
Match 4: Loser M2 v Loser M1
Home team is always the better ranked team
Ranking: 1.SPA 2.NED 3.GER 4.RUS

Interesting, if so, as no Belgium. Maybe they have been relegated to the Trophy after all? Not like Belgium to miss out on 15s.

[Armchair Fan Profile]

Somebody on the men's subforum said Belgium is facing financial struggles and has canned a number of programs, including women's XV, to focus on men's XV and women's 7s.

[johnbirch Profile]

Somebody on the men's subforum said Belgium is facing financial struggles and has canned a number of programs, including women's XV, to focus on men's XV and women's 7s.

A great pity - Belgium always seemed an ambitious union, frequently sending their test team to England for games against club teams.

One other throught on the Euro draw is that home advantage may have been influenced by climate. Unlikely you could reliably play matches in Moscow in February, and even rugby in Germany tends to go into hibernation at that time of year.

[rey200 Profile]

hmm really depends, Rhineland climate is very mild, if you have a nice pitch it should be no problem to play there, under normal circumstances

[Canalina Profile]

Iran ready to step up to international XV (if sponsors help them)

https://www.asiarugby.com/2018/11/18/iran-womens-rugby/

[Armchair Fan Profile]

Great win for Sporting Portugal in the second edition of Copa Ibérica, 26-8. Unsurprising given Olímpico's current form and issues with forwards in recent national games, but nevertheless a big scalp for Portuguese women's rugby and a tragedy from our side:
https://twitter.com/Rugby_femenino/stat ... 0171769857

[Canalina Profile]

I doubt there are many foreign players in Sporting Portugal, so basically they would have a national XV team all ready and performing. I (we) wonder why they don't try to play a test match somewhen

[Armchair Fan Profile]

Because there isn't even a XV league. They play sevens or tens and Sporting assembles a XV team that only plays friendlies and this cup.

Anyway I believe they have three foreigners, two Kiwis (one of them was world champion in 2017, Mata'u) and a Brazilian.

The full game is now available here

[Canalina Profile]

But if they are able to defeat so neatly a Liga Iberdrola team, they must be definitively not bad. I'm pretty sure they could match (and maybe defeat) the Euro Trophy nations. Maybe FPR is just not interested to develop a women XV program but I've always heard that more or less all the women players in the world are eager to play XV and obviously eager to play in the national jersey, so a test match should be a great reward for these portoguese players

[Armchair Fan Profile]

No, they aren't bad. I was already surprised last year when I saw their forwards and I thought they would have their chance this year given Olímpico's form (6th out of 8 teams in Liga Iberdrola, only two wins, lots of injuries). And of course I'd love to see them play test matches, but it won't be that straightforward. Performance may not translate well and they lack depth.

[diegodolan Profile]

They are thinking about playing in the spanish league if nothing change in Portugal. Years ago there was an idea to mix the north portuguese league with the south galician but finally nothing happens.

[Canalina Profile]

6N 2019 Referees' ranking by nation. 5 points for every head referee ("arb" on the image), 2 for every side assistant ("gdl"), 1 for every TMO. "Maschile" means men's, "femminile" means women's
Italy has no one referee in the men's competition, as Scotland, but it's second in the women's one.
To be noticed that this time there are no women referees in the men's tournament

[Canalina Profile]

The 2018 test matches resume http://www.rugby.it/news/2018/12/31/tes ... femminile/

29 nations played at least an international game (116 nations in the men's): twenty-eight from the world ranking plus Zambia.
Some top twenty nations -Portugal, Kazakhstan, Japan, Russia- didn't play neither a match.
Between the various details we see that Spain has the best percentage (four matches played, 100% victories) and that no one game ended in a draw

The 29 nations which played in 2018 are from
Europe 14 (western Europe 13, eastern Europe 1)
Oceania 6
Asia 4
Africa 3
North America 2
South America 0

[Canalina Profile]

An interschool XV tournament should debut in Sri Lanka in february

http://www.srilankarugby.lk/Articles/View/197

[Thomas Profile Website]

England Women announce 28 players on full-time contracts:

Great News

The Rugby Football Union announced it would reintroduce contracts for 15-a-side players. Contracts were previously awarded based on the next major tournament.
In addition to the 28, seven players are on elite player squad agreements.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/46745410

[TheStroBro Profile]

That is a really strong group of women.

[Canalina Profile]

No one XV competition in the first version of the Asia Rugby calendar, but I'm pretty sure there's still room for new fixtures

https://www.asiarugby.com/asia-rugby-calendar-2019/

[johnbirch Profile]

No one XV competition in the first version of the Asia Rugby calendar, but I'm pretty sure there's still room for new fixtures

https://www.asiarugby.com/asia-rugby-calendar-2019/

"ARWC" in May? All men's tournaments are just "ARC" so I am guessing the "W" is "Women's".

[Canalina Profile]

You are right, I hadn't noticed it

[Armchair Fan Profile]

Spain squad to prepare the test match against Scotland:
http://ferugby.es/noticias2.php?titulo= ... %20Escocia

I admit I didn't expect Sevens players to show up and I'm not sure it's wise given their position in World Series...

[johnbirch Profile]

Spain squad to prepare the test match against Scotland:
http://ferugby.es/noticias2.php?titulo= ... %20Escocia

I admit I didn't expect Sevens players to show up and I'm not sure it's wise given their position in World Series...

Yunque pretty much said he needs to defend Spain's ranking in case WR use it for WC qualification purposes (which is what he wants them to do)

Also they just need to avoid relegation in World Series - which they really should do.

[Canalina Profile]

Do you know if Spain v Scotland will be live streamed, this sunday?

There's also Ireland v Wales, I see now
http://www.sareferees.com/News/referees ... 9/2831229/

[Armchair Fan Profile]

Unless things change, it's going to be live on national TV:
- Official streaming: http://www.rtve.es/directo/teledeporte/ or http://www.rtve.es/deportes/mas-tdp/directo/
- Unofficial streaming in case it's geoblocked: http://vercanalestv.com/tv/deportes/teledeporte.html or https://bit.ly/2CoSIzb

During November window FER also offered a streaming here, but it isn't announced yet:
http://canalferugby.tv/

[Armchair Fan Profile]

They just confirmed there will be official streaming on Rugby Europe and World Rugby:
https://twitter.com/DHIberdrola/status/ ... 2998880257