Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2023 i Rugby World

“Let’s hail the excellent academies of fallen clubs” THE RUGBY Football Union acted swiftly when London Irish fell out of the Premiership in June. They announced that the RFU “intends to take on the running of the London Irish DPP (Developing Player Programme) and Academy for the U18, U17, U16 & DPP age groups.” A similar move had been pulled in the Midlands when Wasps and Worcester dropped. A step needed because so much talent has come through the academies of these clubs. If you look beyond just Irish’s young stars in the top ranks – the likes of Henry Arundell, Ollie Hassell-Collins, Tom Pearson and Chandler Cunningham-South – there are forever new heroes coming through. As recent academy forwards coach at Irish, Jonathan Fisher tells us: “My hope is…

SATURDAY 24 JUNE Allianz Premier 15s Final Gloucester-Hartpury v Exeter (3.30pm, Kingsholm) TV Live on BBC & BT Sport Super Rugby Pacific Grand final TV Live on Sky Sports U20 World Cup Argentina v Italy (10am, Paarl) England v Ireland (12.30, Paarl) France v Japan (1, Stellenbosch) Wales v New Zealand (3, Paarl) Australia v Fiji (3.30, Stellenbosch) SA v Georgia (6pm, Stellenbosch) SUN 25-TUE 27 JUNE European Games Rugby Sevens Henryk Reyman Stadium, Krakow THURSDAY 29 JUNE U20 World Cup Australia v Ireland (10am, Paarl) France v NZ (12.30pm, Paarl) Wales v Japan (1, Stellenbosch) South Africa v Italy (3pm, Paarl) Arg v Georgia (3.30, Stellenbosch) England v Fiji (6pm, Stellenbosch) Pacific Four Series Australia v New Zealand (Kayo Stadium, Brisbane) TUESDAY 4 JULY U20 World Cup Italy v…

1 Switzerland EPCR, the Lausanne-based body that overseas the elite European club competitions, have revealed that the Champions Cup will revert to a multi-pool format next season, with 24 clubs in the Champions Cup playing in four pools of six. And there will be 18 clubs in the Challenge Cup comprising three pools of six. The finals will be at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on 24-25 May. 2 Ghana Herbert Mensah, the Rugby Africa president based in Ghana, recently attended a conference in Morocco. He told the audience: “The talent drain is one of Africa’s most significant sporting challenges. We need World Rugby to increase its investment on the continent and also require African governments to invest in rugby so we can create more opportunities for African athletes to remain in…

TEN YEARS ago we featured rugby scout Clive Martin, then working for Northampton Saints. Given the ‘next generation’ theme of this issue, we got back in touch with Martin, now 71 and on the books of Harlequins as a part-time talent-spotter. A lot has changed since 2013. Whereas Martin was once free to roam the country – he even drove to Swansea to watch Dan Biggar as a teenager (the Welshman decided to stay put) – now he’s restricted to watching schools and clubs in Sussex and Surrey, the counties affiliated to Harlequins. When we ring he’s just returned from a poignant London to Paris cycle ride in aid of the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation. His friend Chris Matthews, a former Buckingham RUFC team-mate, died from MND shortly before Martin…

IT HAS been so long since France won their second successive World U20 crown in 2019 that Ethan Dumortier has gone from No 26 that day to les Bleus’ first-choice winger ahead of a home World Cup. Not bad. Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic has robbed us of the global display of the world’s best young talent for the last four years. It feels like one of the last things to return to normal, but hopefully it should be worth the wait. The World Rugby U20 Championship is already underway in South Africa as France go for a hat-trick over five years. The hosts showed their might at the Six Nations U20 Summer Series last year but as is the nature of the beast, form counts for little at this…

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TALK ABOUT the next generation of superstars and we can marvel at rookies in the top pro league and the kids boldly smashing through Tests. But for this special edition, Rugby World wanted to shine a light on our game’s greatest hothouses: the schools with incredible programmes for student athletes. So here it is, our top 12 from around the world. Congratulations to the schools who made it. Our ranking will return next year too. The future is indeed bright… 1 Hamilton Boys HS New Zealand Perhaps the easiest position to settle on in our top 12, given that in the last seven months Hamilton Boys High School have collected two international titles, the 2023 Sanix World Rugby Youth Invitational – their fourth such title since 2010 – and the 2022…

SCOTLAND’S LINEOUT against Ireland in the Six Nations is still fresh in the memory, particularly in the memories of the Scots on the field and those in the coaches’ box at Murrayfield that day. Both Irish hookers were off the field, Josh van der Flier was the stand-in thrower, the opportunity to dismantle the Irish lineout was real and the possibility of going on to win the game was on the cards. We all know what happened next. By the time Scotland forced errors from the flanker out of touch, Ireland had already secured the victory. In terms of crisis management and problem-solving on the hoof, Ireland gave a masterclass in Edinburgh. Sure, some of van der Flier’s throws were possibly claimed inside the 5m line. Yes, it could be…

THE 2003 World Cup. A sea of gold jerseys decorate Australia’s stadiums as the Wallabies reach the final. Melbourne hosted seven games in the tournament back then – including a Wallabies pool match – in what was one of the biggest showcases of rugby union in the state of Victoria to date. A glance at those green-and-gold Wallabies fans in Melbourne then would lead you to believe that this is a country – and state – that is mad for the game. Victoria has a battle on its hands when it comes to rugby union, though. The sport is an underdog in the nation’s second-most populated state, not featuring in the top ten sports for participation. Victoria – and Melbourne especially – is one of the most saturated sports landscapes…

DON’T MISS THIS In honour of rugby’s great talent factories, we have teamed up with NextGenXV to bring you our definitive list of the best rugby schools in the world. Who will be at No 1? FOR MY fourteenth birthday, my mum got me a subscription to Rugby World. I was giddy, that month’s cover star Lee Mears was maybe tempted to reach off the page and calm me down. Fourteen years to the day, I’m writing an editor’s letter for the same mag. Surreal. I might not be a teenager anymore, but a quick skim through this issue brings back a bohemian optimism. For every sin and controversy that eats up headlines, rugby produces many reasons to fall back in love. Be it the magnificent explosion in the women’s…

9th GLOBAL STAGE Ireland score against Romania at Wembley in 2015 – they meet on the opening weekend of RWC 2023 POOL STAGE FRI 8 SEPT France v New Zealand (Pool A, 8.15pm, Paris) SAT 9 SEPT Italy v Namibia (Pool A, noon, Saint-Étienne) Ireland v Romania (Pool B, 2.30pm, Bordeaux) Australia v Georgia (Pool C, 5pm, Paris) England v Argentina (Pool D, 8pm, Marseille) SUN 10 SEPT Japan v Chile (Pool D, noon, Toulouse) South Africa v Scotland (Pool B, 4.45pm, Marseille) Wales v Fiji (Pool C, 8pm, Bordeaux) THU 14 SEPT France v Uruguay (Pool A, 8pm, Lille) FRI 15 SEPT New Zealand v Namibia (Pool A, 8pm, Toulouse) SAT 16 SEPT Samoa v Chile (Pool D, 2pm, Bordeaux) Wales v Portugal (Pool C, 4.45pm, Nice) Ireland v Tonga…

DOUG WRIGGLESWORTH Chairman of Bath Supporters’ Club “IT WILL work. And without doubt one of the biggest attractions is that we will be able to see more of our international players available for the Premiership. If you look at the results of clubs who have their big players out on Test duty, you can always see a dip. From a sports point of view you want your best team playing, and that will help the marketing side of things week in, week out. “We have regular meetings with the club and it seems fairly clear that a ten-team Premiership is something they have been working towards and if it gives stability to the financial side, I think we’ve got to say that’s a good thing. “If another club went mid-season,…

IN THE three-and-a-half years since Cheslin Kolbe skated through England’s defence like an Olympic-standard penguin, no player has delivered as much excitement as Chile’s Rodrigo Fernández. Quick, skilful and blessed with the big-moment magic, Fernández is vamos made flesh and last year collected the World Rugby award for Try of the Year. It was a glorious solo score: 70m, pitch a quagmire, entire population of Kansas tripping and slipping off him during his nation’s biggest-ever game, a huge World Cup qualifier against the USA. Watched live, in a game less open than Bernard Laporte’s bank account, it was even more remarkable. Yet how did I watch that game? On a dodgy 420p livestream with no sound because no official means of watching live existed outside the USA and Chile themselves.…

THERE’S A multiverse dimension out there somewhere in which Henry Arundell is not a defence-dizzying international outside back, but rather standing at the foot of the corporate ladder. Had he leapt at another chance, maybe things would be very different. As he explains to Rugby World, he’d tried the university thing, briefly taking history at UCL, but he couldn’t balance it with rugby commitments at London Irish. So he switched to an Open University course. But there was one other way. “I had options to possibly get a scholarship to go to America,” he says. “Because they want the game to grow. There was a genuine conversation of: ‘Is that an option you should take?’ If you go to an Ivy League university and play rugby, you get your fees…

SOUTH KOREA’S dream of going to the Rugby World Cup was dashed by Hong Kong in the Asia Rugby Championship final, but the nation will still have a representative. Kobe Steelers and Japan fly-half Seungsin Lee, 22, is ethnically Korean and became the first player to star for the Brave Blossoms having attended a Korean school when he made his debut against Uruguay in June 2022. Lee’s grandfather, Yeongchul Kim, brought the family over to start a new life, presumably never envisaging that his grandson would represent their adopted nation on the rugby field. And while Lee is adamant his future lies with Jamie Joseph’s side, having idolised legendary Japanese wing Hirotoki Onozawa as a youngster, he is more than happy to do his bit for the game he loves…

WHAT’S THE funniest thing you’ve seen or heard on the pitch? Ryan Wilson grabbed a hold of Hamish Watson’s crown jewels in a Glasgow-Edinburgh derby game. That didn’t go down well! They are best mates and after the game Ryan found Hamish in the back corridor trying to get him cited. That was funny. Do you have any phobias? Claustrophobia. Not good for being stuck at the bottom of rucks. What really annoys you? Snorers. We have to room together a lot in camps, so that’s a tough one. Sam Johnson is not great; Matt Fagerson is horrendous. If your house was on fire, what one item would you save? Probably my PlayStation. I play a fair amount of Apex Legends. It’s quite key living on your own to pass…

“Alun Wyn set the tone. You just wanted to follow him” BECAUSE HE is a year older than me, and he tended to play a year up as well, I only played against Alun Wyn Jones once or twice growing up. So I think the first time I properly met him was early on in my professional career, at Llandovery College. Instantly he had a presence about him. Obviously he’s a big man, at 6ft 6in, but you could tell this was a serious guy. Then when I was first in a Wales camp, apart from the Scarlets there weren’t many guys I knew and he made a point of introducing himself, and that is the side people don’t see. They see the intense figure and what he’s like on…

“Will losing London Irish be the final wake-up call?” THE WARNING signs have been flashing for decades. Covid may have brought things to a head, but a crisis in the Premiership was inevitable. The problems were baked in as PRL was never envisaged as a regulator and was not designed as such. From the outset it was compromised, with the executive answering to the clubs rather than acting in the interests of the league. It was easy for a small number of clubs – as few as three on major issues – to block reforms. Alliances of convenience became common. Very few owners were experienced in sports business. They tended to be successful entrepreneurs. Intuitively they distrusted regulation and believed the market forces that served them so well would work.…

KNOWN AS the game for all shapes and sizes, sadly that does not preclude those in rugby union from experiencing issues with body image and eating. Far from it. “Eating disorders are more common among athletes than in the public,” explains Dr Anne Kehoe, the president of the Psychological Society of Ireland who works with Rugby Players Ireland. “Rugby is for all bodies, so people sometimes make unfair comparisons with team-mates and can set up unrealistic ideas or expectations. “We call it cognitive distortion. People can become very anxious then that can help perpetuate disordered eating.” The UK’s eating disorder charity BEAT estimates that 1.25million people, in a population of just over 67 million, have an eating disorder. Around 25% are male. Many struggle with irregular eating but may not warrant…

ACROSS 1 Garry - - -, Ireland star who helped launch Children’s Hospice Week (8) 7 Jack Nowell wore Munster kit at Thomond Park on his - - - weekend (4) 8 England lock Rosie - - - missed the Six Nations due to a hamstring injury (8) 9 Pumas boss Michael - - - coached Lebanon at the RL World Cup (6) 10 Nemani - - -, former Leicester and Fiji wing who recently retired (6) 11 And 13 Down. Shame Tony muddled up young Sale Sharks scrum-half (3,6) 12 Sam - - -, Saints’ head coach (5) 14 - - - Rowland, Wales international who suffered from bulimia in her teens (5) 16 They have exclusive UK audio rights to broadcast the 2023 World Cup (1,1,1) 18 Under…

“Modern rugby is about getting as many cheap wins as you can” THE BEST version of game-shaking tactics is when somebody exploits a quirk in the law book. So I remember, for instance, a time when you got pick-and-go plays going for the try-line and the player that was welded onto the ball-carrier’s back could do whatever he wanted. So actually, if you were stopped short on a pick-and-go, the guy behind you could keep driving, while you were there like a dead fish. And you would get scrunched over the line by the bloke behind you. Now I’m not sure if that’s an ‘innovation’ but you do get those eureka moments when something actually works and you think, ‘why haven’t we done this before?’ Then really quickly, once you…