Five things to watch out for in the new rugby union season

1. WATCH AND WEEPU

London Welsh return to the Premiership in place of relegated Worcester and a shopping spree of 25 players includes All Black scrum-half Piri Weepu, who arrives from Auckland Blues with 71 Test caps and a World Cup winner’s medal. Former England fly-half Olly Barkley has been signed from Scarlets.

2. MOVERS AND SHAKERS

As well as Weepu, watch out for Sam Burgess at Bath from October. The rugby league forward, currently with South Sydney Rabbitohs, has been bought out of his contract by Bath for £270,000. Could he make the England Six Nations squad? In other moves, Freddie Burns has switched from Gloucester to Leicester and former England forward Luke Narraway moves from Perpignan to London Irish.

3. EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS CUP

After plenty of wrangling and the threat of an English/French breakaway, the European clubs have replaced the 24-team Heineken Cup with a 20-team tournament. England supply seven teams, France six with the rest coming from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It kicks off on 17 October; BT Sport and Sky Sports share live coverage.

4. PRO12 SHIFTS TO SKY

Sky Sports begins a deal to show the Guinness-sponsored 12-team competition in Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The first game in a new Sky slot of 2.40pm on Saturday is the game between Scarlets and Ulster.

5. WORLD CUP COUNTDOWN

There’s barely a year to go until the tournament opener between hosts England and Fiji on 18 September 2015, throwing extra emphasis on this season’s Six Nations and autumn internationals. World Cup tickets will be on general sale from 12 September with an Olympic-style ballot to determine who gets what.

Article source: http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/Bath-Rugby-bolster-Academy-ranks-new-players/story-21747471-detail/story.html

Five things to watch out for in the new rugby union season