Romania

The scoreline ended heavily in favour of France, but their performance left much to be desired, with scenes of a demonstratively furious Philippe Saint-André in the change room at half time underlining the frustration of the head coach. Romania exerted their dominance early at the scrum and piled into the …

Predictions take 2… a? As the ’rounds’ start to mesh in with each other, we’re going to have to break up our week into two parts, so here are the mid-week matches from Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Before we get into it, a quick review of what happened last round. …

Romania will make their World Cup entrance on Wednesday against France at the Olympic Stadium. Head coach Lynn Howells has selected his strongest possible side for the Pool D match-up, making only one change to the run-on side that faced Tonga in the final warm-up match in Bucharest earlier this …

French Head Coach Phillipe Saint-André has made thirteen changes to his team that faced Italy on Saturday. Only no8 Louis Picamoles and left winger Noa Nakaitaci remain from the side which sees veteran hooker Dimitri Szarzewski named as captain. Szarzewski will join the Belgium born Vincent Debaty and New Zealand …

For some teams the second round of Rugby World Cup matches will begin on Wednesday and Thursday while for others these days will mark their first fixtures. Such is the complication of having pools of five teams that one team per pool must begin last. Those to do so on Wednesday …

The Up and Under is a weekly feature on Americas Rugby News which reviews the best and worst from games involving the Americas teams over the previous week. UP Japan A spectacular, brilliant, unforgettable win against all odds by the world’s leading Asian nation over the best from Africa was …

A popular topic of debate heading into the World Cup is that of eligibility, particularly that resulting from the residency method. Americas Rugby News takes an in-depth look at the foreign-born players in each squad, where they were born and how they are eligible. An interesting fact – only Argentina …

Just a week away from the biggest show in the rugby-verse, let’s take a look at some of the interesting numbers for you trivia-minded folk heading into the Rugby World Cup. BIGGER IS BETTER There will be some seriously tall timber on display during the tournament. Five players top 205cm …

Following international matches this weekend the Final World Rankings have been posted before the Rugby World Cup. Confirmed as the world’s top four are New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and England in that order. This means that only Pool D lacks a side ranked among the best heading into the …

Italian winger Angelo Esposito has been ruled out of the Rugby World Cup and has been replaced by a back-rower with the surprisingly excluded Simone Favaro now set to play in the tournament. Favaro had initially been excluded because of ‘injury’, but competed in Canada with Glasgow Warriors on Saturday …