🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR Round 5 I truly feel bad for the Tigers. They are so spirited and passionate on attack, but their defence is full of holes and are SO outclassed. They are improving BUT. Loughborough looked like they where chilling half of the match, increasing the tempo a few times & it was more than enough.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR Round 5 Wasn't expecting this one to be so one sided. Good defence by Trailfinders but Kévin Rouet influence over Sarries is more and more noticeable. Their pace and ruck speed has improved so much the hosts had barely any time to play their own game. This Saracens are championship material.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR Round 5 At Sale a tough fight in the mud ends with a draw, 2nd of the season for the Chiefs. Twice did the Sharks get a 2 try lead, and twice did Exeter got back on their feet. Sale maybe deserved the win a tiny bit more, but both teams can be equally (un)happy with how it ended.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR returns. Sale has gotten a bonus on every match. Let's see if they can keep it up. Trailfinders are on a high after smashing Bristol, but Saracens may be too much for them. Loughborough receives Leicester, who have yet to get any table point. And Bristol have a tough weekend ahead of them.

In today's newsletter I talk about how tiny my hands are and how that informs my view of the move by World Rugby towards a smaller ball for women. open.substack.com/pub/alicesoa...

My thoughts on the size 4.5 ball change. There's lots of diverse thoughts, and arguments for and against. Here is my two cents. With a special mention for @huwgriffinrugby.bsky.social irish-womens-rugby-supporters-club.ghost.io/new-balls-pl...

We wrote more... scrumhalfconnection.com/2025/11/26/s...

🇫🇷 #Elite1Rugby Round 5 Bobigny gets their 1st win of the season. A big surprise at Lille as they defeat Montpellier on a really low score game. Toulon keeps struggling to get the machine working. 3rd win in a row for Bourdeaux, finally inside the top 4. And ASM remains unbeatable at the top.

#Élite2 Les Rennaises subissent leur première défaite, c'est à la maison et c'est face aux très solides promues du Racing. Le Stade rochelais prend la tête du classement.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 #ArnoldClarkRugby Round 12 Intrigue at the bottom will last a bit longer. Cartha vs Garioch has been postponed due to a frozen pitch and will now be played after the last round, on December 6. For the rest, the top teams all got bonus wins while none of the losers managed to get one.

🇭🇷🇦🇩🇷🇴🇨🇿🇧🇬🇳🇴🇬🇪🇦🇹 #RugbyEurope Conference Austria returns to XVs scoring 1 point for every year they where away. The Czech last played on the 22/23 Trophy, so hoping we begin to see them both more.

Toulon Vs Toulouse live. Game has just started

The 3-Länder-Cup ends with a great comeback from HK. The Belgians got an early try and held onto it in what looked like a close match. But after Hong Kong got a try at 55' things changed and the rest of the match was them sieging the Belgian 22 until they scored another 2 to get the win.

🇭🇷🇦🇩🇷🇴🇨🇿🇧🇬🇳🇴🇬🇪🇦🇹 #RugbyEurope Conference Georgia gets a solid 7 try win on their 1st ever test. Romania easily defeated Bulgaria one year ago (66–12) but looks like the Georgians where a bit too much for them and could barely hold onto the ball today.

A chance to see the French champions in action

There's still 3 teams with no wins on the 🇫🇷 #Elite1Rugby. Bobigny has a chance against the Amazones, but Lille and Lyon face Montpellier (3rd) and leader ASM. Toulon will have a tough match vs undefeated Toulouse. And Stade Bordelais will try to get into the top 4 defeating also 3rd placed Blagnac.

Belgium, with great defensive pressure, starts the 3-Länder-Cup with a comfortable win despite their handling stopping many of their attacks. The Germans decent on defence but predictable on attack advanced at snail pace, did a mess on their lineouts & didn't score even with 1 more player #TestRugby

1/ South Africa Secures SVNS 3 Qualification; Black Ferns Search for New Coach | WRR 224 Open for the week's 🧵. scrumhalfconnection.com/2025/11/17/w...

The 3-Länder-Cup continues as Germany, after losing narrowly to Hong Kong China Select XVs, hosts Belgium. Head-to-had is 5 wins for the Germans, 1 draw, 1 for the Belgians. Last March on the European Trophy Belgium won 19–23. Tomorrow at 18:00 CET live on SolidSport (pay-per-view) #TestRugby

#Élite2 Les Rennaises toujours invaincues, première victoire pour Colomiers.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 #ArnoldClarkRugby Round 11 With 2 round to go, Watsonian win secures their place on the final and leaves the reigning champions, Corstorphine, out of the fight for the title. And at the bottom, Garioch gets 2 bonus and manages to overtake Cartha on their run to avoid the relegation playoffs.

🇪🇸 #IberdrolaRugby Round 6 1st round without bonus for El Salvador. Getxo proves they can fight against them but also need a bit more if they want to win. Cisneros, with just 20 players gets a great win at Sant Cugat. And victories for Cocos and Majadahonda, with defensive bonus for CRAT and Pozuelo.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR Round 4 4 home bonus wins this weekend. GH continues on the lead and Sale gets their 4th bonus on 4 matches. Trailfinders jump 4 positions after all the unforced errors committed by Bristol. Saracens flatten Tigers. And Exeter takes advantage of Harlequins inconsistency.

🍀 #EnergiaAIL Round 6 UL Bohemian takes the lead as the only undefeated team, while Galwegians saves the bonus to remain close. 3rd win for Ennis with Aoibhín Donnelly scoring all their 4 tries. And bonus wins with big scores for Blackrock, Old Belvedere, and Railway.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR Round 4 Quins finally has learned how to tackle, but at the same time their attack lacked some punch except for a few moments at the start of the 2nd half and the end of the match. Exeter going 19–0 to HT managed to do just enough after the break to get the bonus and stop Quins comeback.

Greece played (and lost) their 1st ever #TestRugby They had trouble to keep the ball so Bulgaria had most of the possession, but the Greek defence was just good enough to slow the hosts advances and avoid a bloodbath. This is the 1st time Bulgaria wins a test, having lost their previous 4

The 3-Länder-Cup started with a close win for the Hong Kong China Select. On the 1st half the Germans missed a penalty that could have given them the win, but in the end all points where scored on the 2nd half. Competition continues Wednesday when hosts Germany face Belgium.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR Round 4 Leicester journey through hell continues. Just watched it from the corner of my eye cause 3 matches at the same time is too much, but I doubt anyone expected anything different. 13 tries for Saracens (3 from mauls), 50 points on the 2nd half and Poppy Cleall doing whatever she wanted.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR Round 4 Another week, another try bonus scored on the last minutes for the Sharks. Sale was the 1st to score but GH soon regained their feet and, even though they weren't at full throttle, they easily took control of the game without sweating too much.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR Round 4 A good game by Trailfinders, a not so good one for Bristol. Should have been a 1 score game, but poor discipline, botched passes, and errors on clearing kicks sealed the deal. The Bears gave away too many opportunities and the girls in green where good enough to take them all.

The 󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR continues. GH and Sarries should have easy matches. Trailfinders are on a high after trampling Sale, while Bristol pride was injured by Saracens last week. And on Sunday Exeter & Harlequins, 2 strong teams that are lacking some consistency searching for the 2nd win of the season

The #RugbyEurope Conference has announced the 1st matches for this season After playing 2 friendlies against Kazakhstan, Georgia will play their 1st test against Romania. And Austria comes back to XVs after 20 years to play the Czech Republic. The conference has no fixed format nor table points +

I just learned on Nov 1 Denmark and Norway played a test match on Copenhagen. The Danish won after scoring 7 tries, with a hat-trick for Alba McGibbon. On the rankings, Denmark moved from 44th to 42th while Norway dropped from 43th to 45th. #TestRugby

I recently managed to get my hands on this very cool WRFU jersey (complete with original mud!) signed by the one and only Delyth Morgan. You may be wondering “what on earth is the WRFU?!?”

1/ WRR Episode 223: Global Finals, PWR Thrillers, and SVNS Changes Open for the week's 🧵. scrumhalfconnection.com/2025/11/11/s...

🇫🇷 #Elite1Rugby Round 4 Bonus wins for all. Toulouse the only one keeping up with the leader. Blagnac has no trouble with last placed Lille. Montpellier no longer undefeated despite Romagnat being 1 player down the last quarter. Grenoble survives 2 cards to defeat Toulon. And Bourdeaux keeps climbing

🇪🇸 #IberdrolaRugby Round 5 A surprise in Madrid as last placed Cisneros defeats Majadahonda. Sant Cugat turns it around and gets the win with a try on the last minute. Getxo continues showing how strong they are this year. And El Salvador keeps proving nobody can touch them sending CRAT to the bottom

Women's NC 1 East results round-up from the weekend. Blues & Colchester both maintain their 100% starts to the league season, with bonus point wins.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 #ArnoldClarkRugby Round 10 Watsonian gets the bonus win and is one step closer to the final. Stirling continues their perfect season against the Cougars. Garioch gets a try bonus on Biggar and gets a bit closer to Cartha Queen's Park. While Jordanhill remains top dog of the division 2.

🍀 #EnergiaAIL Round 5 UL Bohemian trash poor Cooke (16 tries!) but remains 2nd as Galwegians also gets the bonus, both remaining undefeated. Railway jumps 3 positions with their 2nd win of the season. Old Belvedere smashes last placed Tullow. And Blackrock holds onto the 3rd place of the table.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR Round 3 A big win for Trailfinders gives them their 1st points on the table. Gloucester-Hartpury remains at the top while Quins saves 2 bonus. Loughborough and Exeter share 3 points each. Saracens win make them the best of the rest while Bristol are the only team of the round without a bonus.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR Round 3 What an ending! A draw at half time and a draw at the end. A constant exchange of punches where Loughborough looked against the ropes at times but kept fighting untill the end. Exeter managing to get on the 2nd half a 2 try lead but unable to hold onto it. The match of the round.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR Round 3 Bristol again with their we-never-kick strategy. When it clicked worked on their favour, when it didn't they ended hurting themselves giving away the ball. Canadaracens using their superior firepower to push back the Bears and being ruthless with the chances they had.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR Round 3 A Harlequins more dangerous than last week managed to put the triple-champions in trouble. Quins where ahead for most of the match while GH struggled to get out of their camp. But you can't defeat the Circus scoring just 1 try on the 2nd half, and the champions ended taking the win.

#TestRugby Colombia utterly defeat Mexico on their first ever encounter. The Mexicans where dead set on using the pick and go slowly grinding meters with little success. The Colombians for their part used their good kickers and their backs with 7s experience to constantly surpass the Mexican defence

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR round 3 Trailfinders used Fiji Style. It's super effective! Sale saves a try bonus on the last minutes on a match dominated by the chaos the visitors brought in. Messy fast rucks and tons of offloads did a number of the Sharks defence and allowed the Trailfinders to score up to 10 tries.

The 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PWR round 3 is here. A good opportunity for Sale to remain between the top teams. The powerful looking Circus visits Harlequins. Exeter, wanting to bounce back from their defeat to GH, travels north to visit Loughborough. And what looks it could be a banger when Bristol welcomes the Sarries.

The 🇳🇿 #FarahPalmerCup will have 1 less team next year. Taranaki will be expelled and the Premiership will go from 7 to 6 teams. That means: 2 teams are relegated from the Premiership, or Otago, winners of the Championship, will be denied the promotion they won this year. A dick move anyway

🇮🇹 #SerieAEliteF Round 3 Neapolis stands up against the Capitolina but gets nothing of it. Benetton trying to catch up with the top teams getting their 2nd W. And Villorba defeats Colorno without bonus, so Valsugana takes the lead thanks to their 6 try win. League takes now a rest until November 30😱

🇫🇷 #Elite1Rugby Round 3 Having the Feleu sisters back is not enough for Grenoble to stop Toulouse. Bordeaux finally get their 1st points after trampling Lille. 3th time's the charm for Toulon, winning their 1st match. 🇮🇹 Giada Franco makes her debut for Montpellier and scores on a match with 5 cards +