Jean-Pierre Rives, a former France rugby player and now a world-renowned sculptor, will reportedly create massive iron creations in Newman, a remote mining town in Pilbara.

According to media reports, Rives work will be around 2.3 meters high, 0.9 meters wide and 0.9 meters deep. The work is untitled as of the moment but it will be made out of steel and the structure is currently being made.

The artwork will be made as part of the efforts to beautify mining towns, thanks to the program managed by BHP Billiton.

BHP will be obtaining a building license for this structure and so far everything is going smoothly as officers from the Shire of East Pilbara have submitted a recommendation for this project to proceed provided that the sculpture will be free of graffiti.

The 56-year old sculptor played for France in 59 games and has achieved fame for his courageous performances.

The National Rugby League (LNR) announced on Friday that seven players and the coach of the Castres team, a French rugby league team, have been diagnosed with the swine flu (H1N1) virus which led to the cancellation of a championship match. The dates of the highly anticipated matches between Castres and Albi had been postponed until further notice.

This is the first professional sports event in France that has been delayed because of the H1N1 virus. To date, there are twelve reported cases of swine flu within the French rugby league.

Earlier this week, three players from Stade Francais were diagnosed with the swine flu and were advised to stay at home and rest for at least five to seven days.

The Castres players were also advised to rest and should not be in contact with other players for at least seven days starting August 26. This is to ensure that the spread of the virus will be stopped and that the upcoming championship matches will take place.

France rugby team Biarritz has reportedly closed a two-year agreement with England International’s Iain Balshaw. The Gloucester wing will reportedly start next season.

There have been a number of players leaving the England rugby these past months. Notable exoduses include Riki Flutey, Tom Palmer and James Haskel of the Wasps, Bristol’s Shaun Perry and Newcastle’s Jamie Noon.

Another Newcastle player Jonny Wilkinson is in talks of closing an agreement with Toulon, who already got Joe El Abd of Bristol, Kris Chesney of Saracens and Tom May of Falcons.
Gloucester had an embarrassing defeat against Wasps last weekend (3-34). There have been rumors that Balshaw won’t be the only player leaving the team.

Olly Barkley, a new player for Gloucester, may also jump into another opportunity soon. He used to be part of the Bath team but left last year for Gloucester. However, his presence did not seem to make any significant changes in the team’s performance.

Balshaw moved to Gloucester three years ago after his former team Leeds was relegated to the Guinness Premiership. He also played for Bath.

The developments of this purported transfer to France Rugby are going to be announced in the coming weeks.

France Rugby is represented in rugby union by the France National Rugby Union Team. The players of the national team have matches and compete annually against Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and Italy in ever famous Six Nations Championship.  The France Rugby team has already won 14 championships and is proud to have already completed eight grand slams.
The France Rugby team is currently the 7th in the world ranking for rugby teams. This team is also considered as the strongest and most powerful rugby nation in the continental Europe. In fact, six players from the France Rugby team have already been inducted into the well-renowned International Rugby Hall of Fame.

The sport rugby was first brought and introduced to France by the British in 1872 and in 1906, New Year’s Day; the national side of France played their first test match. They played against New Zealand in a match held in Paris.
The team played at irregular intervals against the British Home Nations until they finally joined the British team in 1910 thereby forming the Five Nations tournament which is now called the Six Nations Championship. Since then, there have been many players in the country eyeing to join the France National Rugby Union Team.

Rising rugby star Danny Cipriani is saying that he is not taking is return to the English Rugby squad lightly. The 20 year will be playing full back for the English Rugby Union. He was taken out of the game several months ago because of a serious ankle injury. Now the young man is back and doing the best that he can.

Cipriani played for the Wasps for more than 50 minutes on Wednesday evening’s Game against Bath. That was his first match since his ankle injury in last May. His recovery was a fast one and as a result, he has been considered healthy enough to play for the English team in their upcoming test against the Pacific Islanders this November. Cipriani would be taking the place vacated by Jonny Wilkinson. Wilkinson suffered a knee injury a few days ago.

“It is very disappointing for Jonny obviously because you can’t wish an injury on anyone,” said Cipriani. “Whether I get picked for England or not, I need to be playing well for Wasps first. So I can’t be thinking too much about that. I need to be thinking about playing European Cup rugby and getting my match head on.”

Rugby is on

e of the most popular contact sports in the world and it has a huge fan following in the whole world. There are two forms of Rugby which are very famous all over the world. One form is known as the Rugby league which is practiced in Europe and New Zealand and Australia. France also has its rugby setup on the lines of the Rugby league. The Rugby league is a professional setups and clubs and franchisees form a very integral part of this Rugby League setup. France was a strong contender on the Rugby scene before World War Two. The Vichy government banned the game and put some obstacles in its path.

French Rugby has always been considered as one of the best in the World. In France, Rugby is known as Rugbya treize which roughly translates as rugby with 13 players. The French Rugby association has encouraged youth rugby and recently French teams were invited to participate in elite club competitions in England and one of the teams the Catalans Dragons managed to reach the Challenge cup final. France has a top division which has been named as the Elite one Championship. Most clubs are based in southern France and have recently begun to attract a bit of popularity and public awareness is growing.