In naming his line-up for Uruguay Australian Head Coach Michael Cheika has shown why it is fine for Tier 1 teams to be asked to back-up and play a second match on a short turn-around. Cheika has made 14 changes to his team with Scott Sio being the only remaining …

Scottish Head Coach Vern Cotter has announced his player roster for Sunday’s Pool B match against the USA Eagles at Elland Road in Leeds. With the Northern Europeans backing-up from facing Japan on Wednesday Cotter has opted for ten changes. Those retaining their places in the starting lineup are Mark …

Los Teros Head Coach Pablo Lemoine has made five changes to his starting line-up for Uruguay’s second Rugby World Cup match. The South Americans will take-on the number two ranked team in the world, Australia in Birmingham on Sunday. Two changes have been made to the starting front-row with the …

Day seven of the Rugby World Cup was the fifth day in terms of games being played. It followed games on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday and like all these previous days London again was involved. The British capital has already hosted five games and will play host to many …

Italy will be without captain Sergio Parisse against Canada, with the world class no8 instead remaining in Paris as he recovers from a hematoma suffered against Wales two weeks before the tournament. Jacques Brunel has also had to replace influential centre Andrea Masi, out with a torn Achilles tendon, and …

The race for the quarterfinalists out of Pool B at the Rugby World Cup is going to be interesting. It could become even more so depending on the outcome of the Samoa/South Africa match on Saturday. With a loss already on their books, South Africa cannot afford another stumble. Samoa, …

The UAR’s Executive Committee has expressed their total support to second-rower Mariano Galarza who was banned yesterday for 9 weeks by World Rugby, thereby ending his Rugby World Cup campaign. Argentina believes firmly that the decision by Judicial Officer Christopher Quinlan QC (England) to have been unjust. Upon banning Galarza …

Tyler Ardron has recovered from a knee injury in time to lead Canada against Italy in their critical Pool D match this Saturday at Elland Road. The Ospreys no8 is one of six changes to the run-on side that fell to Ireland on Saturday, with two more new faces on …

Never say never. Canada’s all-time leading points scorer James Pritchard will play in his fourth World Cup after all. The fullback has been called out of short-lived retirement into the World Cup squad as a replacement for injury-stricken Liam Underwood, who damaged a knee in the 75th minute of the …

Stuart Lancaster and Warren Gatland have named their lineups for Saturday’s must-win Pool A match in London. The winner will all but secure a place in the quarter-finals while the loser will require a win over Australia to have any chance of advancing. Lancaster has opted for a new midfield with …

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 …

The final Pool A team to open its campaign, Australia completed an unconvincing 28-13 win over Fiji in Cardiff. The result came close to mirroring that of England vs Fiji on the opening night with the difference being Australia were unable to seal a bonus point win as the Wallabies …

Looking to back-up from an opening round win over Tonga Georgia will take-on Argentina on Friday with an unchanged lineup. Head Coach Milton Haig now has his sights on bigger things with a win all but securing a first ever Quarter Final’s appearance for Georgia. Reaching the knock-out stage, though, …

In search for a first win at the World Cup Head Coach Daniel Hourcade has made three changes to face Georgia in Gloucester on Friday. All three of the alternations come in the forwards with Matías Alemanno, Facundo Isa and Juan Manuel Leguizamón replacing Guido Petti, Leonardo Senatore and Pablo …

Japan was thwarted in their quest to further shake the chains of the rugby world as they were defeated 45-10 by Scotland at Kingsholm. The score didn’t completely reflect the effort put in by Japan. The Brave Blossoms only trailed 12-7 at halftime and were as close as 12-10 in …

South African Head Coach Heyneke Meyer has made eight changes to the Springboks starting lineup for Saturday’s pool match against Samoa in Birmingham. Having lost first up against Japan the match is a must win for the 1995 and 2007 World Cup winners. Toulon back-rower Duane Vermeulen has been declared …

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. …

With just a little over two months until the opening round of the HSBC World Series, the USA 7s team heads back to camp this week as the squad continues their buildup. With 7s veterans Zach Test, Andrew Durutalo, Folau Niua, and Danny Barrett out on World Cup duty, Head Coach Mike …

Phil Davies has named Namibia’s team for their opening World Cup fixtures against New Zealand on Thursday. The Welwitschias will ride a four-test win streak into the tournament, including two convincing wins over Russia in Windhoek during July. The lineup appears to be largely first choice, with Cheetahs hooker Torsten …

New Zealand Head Coach Steve Hanson has rung the changes with only three players named to start against Namibia who also did so against Argentina on Sunday. Nehe Milner-Skudder, Julian Savea and Sam Whitelock are those retained with Richie McCaw’s replacement Sam Cane also taking over the captaincy. So strong …