Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2024 i Rugby World

NETFLIX HAVE signed on for a second series of Six Nations: Full Contact. And by some accounts there has been a loosening of the shackles by teams who were, shall we say, less than charitable with access in year one of the show. The news emerged at around the time of the Women’s Six Nations launch for this season, and so naturally there were questions as to whether the women deserve their share of the spotlight as well. Growth, as ever, is the watchword. But then something else was raised and this is the intriguing talking point: should the laws of the women’s game diverge from those for the men’s game? Six Nations CEO Tom Harrison had some thoughts on it. “I think there are really exciting opportunities for the…

1 Fiji Fiji Sevens legend Osea Kolinisau, who captained the side to historic gold at Rio 2016, has replaced Ben Gollings as the men’s coach. Fiji haven’t won a series leg since May 2022. Kolinisau said: “My criteria aren’t based on experience and talent alone but fitness and training to the standard Fiji is renowned for. It’s the Olympics and we want to take the best players we have.” 2 South Africa Tickets for the Test-series opener between South Africa and Ireland at Loftus Versfeld sold out in less than 24 hours. A crowd of more than 50,000 is being projected for the clash on 6 July. The Springboks will also welcome Ireland to Durban before hosting Portugal in Bloemfontein on 20 July. Then it’s into the Rugby Championship, with…

WHAT’S THE funniest thing you’ve seen on the pitch? I’m so childish that I laugh my head off when someone’s bum comes out. Which happens a lot. What really annoys you? Bad drivers. If your house was on fire, what one item would you save? My ‘teddy’, a little dragon that my partner bought me for the Six Nations. I call him Drew and he’s my new prized possession. Best gift you’ve received? Can I say my niece, Connie? She’s seven and she’s my pride and glory, I love her to bits. A lot of what I do is for her and my family. Who’d be your three dream dinner party guests? I’m mood-dependent. Right now I’d have Kevin Hart for the laughter, Chris Hemsworth for a bit of eye…

As well as Harrow lifting the Continental Tyres Schools U18 Cup (see P26), Hove-based Newman College won the Plate at the StoneX Stadium and Richard Hale School, from Hertford, bagged the Bowl. In the U15s game, Radley College won the Cup, Cranleigh got the Plate, Beechen Cliff collected the Vase and Reading Blue Coat won the Bowl. Hartpury College defeated Exeter College 41-5, with Abigail Pritchard scoring a hat-trick, in the U18 girls colleges cup final. Also played at Twickenham was the girls’ U12 Love Rugby Showcase Festival, with 30 teams involved. Blackrock College defeated St Michael’s College 28-12 at the RDS to win the Leinster Schools Senior Cup for a remarkable 71st time. Presentation Brothers College sealed back-to-back Munster Schools Senior Cup final wins, while Sligo Grammar won their…

HENRY WEEKS Current season ticket holder at Bath Rugby “I HAD a half-season ticket last season but I’ve got a full season this year. It’s good value – I paid about 400 pounds and it works out at 35 quid a game, with Champions Cup games as well. I wouldn’t go unless I bought a season ticket though, I couldn’t afford it – my equivalent seat for any of the games was 50 pounds plus a booking fee. “They have just introduced a dynamic ticket pricing system and some of the one-off tickets have been over 100 quid and that makes people angry. The only complaints I hear are about tickets on a match-by-match basis, which are exorbitant. Thankfully the Bath product at the moment is quite good! “The food…

THE COVERAGE of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations on TV has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. The BBC became the exclusive broadcaster for the competition in 2021, seeing England games featured on their main channels, and there are more matches on TV now than ever before. All of the games across the competition are available to watch for fans, but some fixtures are put on iPlayer rather than on terrestrial TV. It’s good that supporters can watch and engage in matches that they would not have been able to a few years ago. However, with the impressive viewing statistics we’ve seen over the last few years, all of the games should be shown on a channel as opposed to the iPlayer. In the UK the 2023…

“I could play Browny in the second row and he’d do a job. He’s the ultimate competitor” IT MAY be six years since the last of his 72 international caps but like some craggy mountain range, Mike Brown stands – unbowed and eternal – as a sentinel of the English game. He could become the oldest player in Premiership history, with overtaking the record of 40 years, 109 days held by Brad Thorn a distinct possibility. It is mind-bending to think that when he made his Harlequins debut, Andrew Mehrtens, a 1995 World Cup finalist, was in the same team. Brown, 38, was part of the furniture at The Stoop for so long that the club named a bar after him. When he moved on after 16 years, only to…

THE SPORTS marketing world has become fiercely competitive over the last decade with the explosion of social media and new sports. No longer is Premiership Rugby just competing against the established, top-tier sports such as Premier League football and Formula 1, which continue to take market share. There are challenger sports taking a big chunk of the market. Women’s football is a great example – look at what has happened with Arsenal Women, with sell-out crowds at The Emirates. There is no doubt we’re in a more competitive marketplace but we’re also underpinned by a really established, core group of Premiership Rugby fans. And then we have a large number of people who are interested in the sport, like we have seen with the Six Nations. With a strong supporter…

YOUR GAME. It demands talking about. There’s always so much going on. There’s usually some unifying discussion point – something to rail against or lend weight to. And it’s a sport that, on any given day, can be deemed too prone to tinkering and change or in need of an overhaul. It really can be tiring to consider, but perhaps that’s because so much of us do this as a thought exercise. We’re role playing. We all love a ‘what if?’ in rugby. So we set out to ask what players think, in several different pockets of the global game. In years gone by we’ve done a ‘Players’ Issue’ where we sent out questionnaires, months in advance, and took on wrangling whole swathes of an elite echelon. However, we’ve all…

THERE ISN’T a fisherman at sea with a net as big as the one used by Scotland when trawling the world looking for players who qualify for the national team. Every year seems to bring a new catch, the latest being a pair of props, the little-known Elliot Millar-Mills, who joined the squad in January by dint of his Scottish mum, and the more recognisable Alec Hepburn, who played six times for England and who is now back-up to Nelspruit’s Pierre Schoeman, because of his Scottish dad and World Rugby eligibility rules allowing the switch. Every team is entitled to tap into the ancestry rule and every team, pretty much, does. Scotland does it a lot. Does it matter? Not if you think the son of a Scot is perfectly…

THEY SAY that in life you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, and that was very much the case for Ben Bamber’s rugby career. A rugby league convert, Bamber signed for Bristol Bears at 18 but two shoulder reconstructions by the time he was 19 halted his union progress and left him bereft of game time. Eventually, he grew tired of the grind and jacked it in. “I already had a bad shoulder from playing league, so that got sorted, but then it was the first eight months of my two-and-a-bit years at Bristol gone,” he tells RW. “I came back and got picked in the EPS (England Performance Squad) for U20s, but in one of the last internal games I popped the other shoulder and had it…

IT’S BEEN fascinating asking elite players what they think in this issue. Some topics came up a few times, such as ‘physicality’ and the training issues around it. At Rugby World we care deeply about protecting players – seeing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso rule himself out of a Test for concussion symptoms was important and we underline the message, ‘If in doubt, sit them out’ at grass roots. But another big topic was pride in our sport. That brings Stewart Mustard to mind. Muzzy has played for Heriot’s since dinosaurs roamed the earth. This was his final season and over the past 25 years he’s been the epitome of Club Man. What keeps guys like him on the grass? Love of the game – all of it. He cares about team-mates and…

I REMEMBER WHEN my sister Vicky played for Wales, my dad missed the first half of one of my games against Scotland because she was playing up at Cross Keys the same day. The women’s Six Nations used to be tacked onto the U20s ticket and everyone played the night before or the day after a men’s Six Nations game. Massive strides have been taken just by the women’s Six Nations being in a separate window. It gives them much more exposure, being in a stand-alone competition. And you’ve seen that with Wales they can go from a couple of hundred people watching at smaller Welsh Premiership grounds to selling out Cardiff Arms Park. There has been a huge transformation. Record crowds at Twickenham, with big numbers in France. Ireland…

REGGIE HAMMICK will never forget the day. A last-ditch score to secure a 29-27 win that brought a first-ever national schools cup title? What a moment for the back-row and for Harrow School as they claimed victory in the Continental Tyres Schools Cup final against Kirkham Grammar School at Twickenham. Kirkham Grammar deserve huge credit too. This was two unbeaten sides going full bore at HQ – one of those occasions where the outstanding sides in the country meet in a final. There is talk already that this was the finest English schools cup final in history… It was tit for tat at the start as a Jack Austin try from a Kirkham Grammar maul was matched by a fine Zachary Uduehi try on the hoof for Harrow. Harrow missed…

KEY FEATURES ■ Totally wireless earphones built for those hooked on sport! ■ Ergonomically crafted for comfort and stability, the over-ear hooks give extra security for the most extreme sports, workouts and adventures. ■ Instant connection straight out of the box. ■ Customise your sound and controls with the Boompods App. Choose your subscription PRINT ONLY Print & digital+ FREE GIFT Your subscription will then continue at £23.49 every 6 months* FREE DELIVERY straight to your door NEW Full digital access to 120 + back issues when you subscribe to print!** DIGITAL ONLY Digital magazine ONLY Your subscription will start at just £18.99 every 6 months SAVE money on the shop price PLUS instant access anytime, anywhere Subscribe today www.magazinesdirect.com/C79D or call 0330 333111 3 and quote C79D (Lines are…

TJ PERENARA is not mucking around. He may be making his first steps back into active rugby after his Achilles tendon rupture in late 2022, but he is aiming high. Specifically, he’s thinking about taking the Hurricanes’ No 9 jersey and winning the competition. And he is driven by regaining a spot in the All Blacks. That’s the mark of the man. He’s a competitive beast. No skirting around the topic or saying he only has eyes for getting back on the field with the yellow-and-blacks. After all, with Aaron Smith and Brad Weber no longer eligible, the door is ajar for Cam Roigard, Finlay Christie, Folau Fakatava and Perenara. Two All Blacks half-backs from the Hurricanes is very possible. “The All Blacks are a massive driver for me and…

BENETTON, THE overnight success that was years in the making. Marco Bortolami’s team have been one of the stories of the season, powering up the URC table with an attractive, abrasive brand of rugby which also delivered them to the knockout stage of the Challenge Cup as pool winners. By the turn of the year, the Treviso troupe had already notched up seven league wins – only one fewer than they managed in the whole of last season. Louis Lynagh and Matt Gallagher will arrive from the English Premiership this summer, following in the footsteps of the likes of Paolo Odogwu, Jacob Umaga and Malakai Fekitoa as high-profile, energising additions to a squad bursting at the seams with native talent. In men such as the Cannone brothers, Niccolò and Lorenzo,…

ABOUT 14 years ago now, I travelled to Bloemfontein to hear André Venter’s story. The former Springbok flanker outlined the events that had led to a diagnosis of transverse myelitis, and spoke about how much his life had changed since he’d been confined to a wheelchair. However, the warrior spirit that had defined Venter as a Test player between 1996 and 2001 was still prominent. “I haven’t given up, I truly believe that I will walk again,” he said. After elaborating on the condition and his quest for a cure, he spoke about the philosophy that he was passing down to his children, André-Hugo and Annabel. At that stage, André-Hugo was the captain of the U9 C team at Grey College – the South African rugby factory that has produced…

LLANEDEYRN’S LUCHIA LEARNS LYRICS FOR SPECIAL DAY OUT Luchia Ellul-Alimikhena is a 13-year-old from the Llanedeyrn district of Cardiff. She’s not currently a Welsh speaker but is in the process of learning the national anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, for a very special reason. Twelve months ago, through a collaboration between Community Interest Company Be.Xcellence – whose aim is to raise representation of the Welsh language among ethnic minorities in Wales – and the Welsh Rugby Union, Luchia’s journey to learn the anthem began. “Although I’m not a fluent Welsh speaker, I’m hugely proud of our language and culture and wanted to be able to join in with the incredible singing at the home of Welsh rugby one day,” she said. The WRU also arranged singing lessons with Wynne Evans,…

IT’S FUNNY how history repeats itself. At times there has been dismay about the style of rugby played by Steve Borthwick’s England. But in a post-Five Nations mag in 1994, Rugby World was strewn with similar consternation. In an 18-14 win against France, England kicked and kicked and kicked (sound familiar?). And the justification? They were a team that barely knew each other and had a fragile confidence. Then-editor Peter Bills said of that Paris victory, “Alas, there was one significant drawback. By returning to the strictures of ten-man, percentage rugby, England strangled the lifeblood out of a game that has so dazzled and delighted rugby supporters, especially in Paris.” Captain Will Carling talked of how criticism of their style hurt them. They showed it in the final game. When…

FRIDAY 29 MARCH Gallagher Premiership Newcastle v Leicester (7.45pm) Northampton v Saracens (7.45pm) TVBoth live on TNT Sports United Rugby Championship Dragons v Zebre Parma (7.35pm) TVLive on BBC Wales & Viaplay Leinster v Bulls (7.35pm) TVLive on Viaplay Super Rugby Pacific Crusaders v Chiefs (6.05am) Waratahs v Rebels (8.35am) TVBoth live on Sky Sports U18 Women’s Festival All Colwyn Bay, 35-min matches England v Ireland (noon) Italy v England (1pm) Ireland v Italy (2pm) France v Scotland (3pm) Wales v France (4pm) Scotland v Wales (5pm) SATURDAY 30 MARCH Guinness Women’s Six Nations Scotland v France (2.15, The Hive) Eng v Wales (4.45, Ashton Gate) TVBoth live on BBC/iPlayer RE Women’s Championship Spain v Portugal (3pm) Gallagher Premiership Gloucester v Bristol (3pm) Harlequins v Bath (3.05pm) TVLive on TNT…

AFTER THE late drama of France and Italy drawing 13-13 in the Six Nations, Paolo Garbisi was very mature and fronted up in his TV interview. “I take full responsibility for that,” he said of his missed penalty to win the match. However, many fans were left asking if the fly-half should have been allowed to retake the kick. Many took to social media to discuss the moment when the shot clock was running down and Garbisi hastily replaced the ball after it fell off the tee and took a snapshot kick that hit the post – all while French players were in motion. Some people were bemoaning shot clocks, some consoled Garbisi about his misfortune, and others queried if he was hard done by. There was so much going…

THREE YEARS ago, Great Britain’s Covid-delayed, gold medal-winning campaign in Tokyo – their first Paralympics medal in the sport – sparked joyous scenes, their sense of achievement heightened by the sacrifices they had made amid savage funding cuts after the Rio 2016 Games. Forward-wind and there is a serenity about GBWR that bodes well for the Paris Games that start on 28 August. That’s in part down to a squad that features proven, experienced athletes like Aaron Phipps and Jonny Coggan, both survivors from London 2012, along with Ryan Cowling and Stuart Robinson. “We’re very fortunate that we’ve got people like Aaron and Jonny and Ryan. Stu and Gavin (Walker) are the captains,” says GB coach Paul Shaw. “These are people who have experienced it all and can pass that…

A HARSH CALL would be to say Ireland’s Six Nations tournament ended not so much with a bang as a whimper. There’s nothing hollow about these men. But there’s also no disguising that the back-to-back Six Nations champions tailed off as the competition reached its final two rounds of action. In the game against Scotland, the Irish – with their Grand Slam hopes gone up in the Twickenham smoke after a 23-22 loss to England – didn’t think about all the necessary points permutations which only those who have never been inside a changing room will understand. The Six Nations title wasn’t something to be left to risk in the hands of 23 Englishmen in Lyon in the last game of the final match day. It was to be won…

INTERROGATING THE heroes of the past? What a chance to pick up some pointers, ask the burning questions or the obvious ones – or throw something new at a familiar face. We love the idea of an up-and-comer putting queries to a legendary figure. So we’ve introduced this new regular feature, Meet Your Hero, in which some talented kid gets to sit down and ask a famous figure in rugby anything they want. And we found a bright young thing in Northampton full-back George Hendy, with plenty to put to World Cup winner and Lion Jason Robinson… George Hendy: What influenced the big decision to transfer from rugby league to union when you did? Jason Robinson: “I didn’t really know much about rugby union if I’m honest. I had a…

QUICK HANDS helped Raffi Quirke become one of the youngest nines ever to play for England – but they’re also helping him earn some pocket money outside the game. The Sale Sharks livewire took up the scissors in lockdown and now charges team-mates a very reasonable £15 for a post-training trim. His barbershop is the academy coaches’ changing room and he is often very high in demand. Luckily for us, he has managed to slot me in. While I sit in the chair, he tells us: “I got into barbering in 2020. I was just training with Tom Curtis and (Tom) Roebuck at a local rugby club. I always wanted to take up barbering. I always thought it was a cool little skill to have.” With the Covid restrictions forcing…

SPAIN IS on the rise, with the U20s earning a spot in the next Junior World Cup, and the men’s and women’s senior teams keeping their spots in the HSBC SVNS Series. The union shows signs of growth and has turned the leaf after one of its worst moments, when the men qualified for World Cup 2023 only to be booted out. It was not the first time. With the growing success of the emerging nations scene, rumours started to spread of a Spanish bid to host the men’s and women’s World Cups in the 2030s, a rumour now confirmed by federation president Juan Carlos Martín Sánchez. “We have the utmost interest in hosting a Men’s and Women’s Rugby World Cup in the near future,” he said, “as we believe…

WITH THE huge advances made in the elite game, fitness coaches like Aled Walters, Nic Gill and Bobby Stridgeon have become integral to international sides. But without the resources afforded to the professionals, what is the secret behind the longevity of 65-year-old Russ Price, still going in what he makes to be his 55th straight rugby season? “I have to credit my personal dietician Arthur Guinness and my two personal trainers, Messrs Benson & Hedges.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek, very grass-roots quip about enjoying pints and a smoke but does go some way to helping to explain what would possess someone to stick around for 40 years at a club. The social side of a rugby club has always been a draw and although the advent of other distractions and things…

THE NATURE of being a team-mate is really fascinating. You’re a gang but no one is more savage to each other. I’ve had a lot of good moments on the field, but things that stick in your head are very different – I remember one colleague had s*** his pants in a match and was half-jogging, half-sliding off the field so that he made it onto the sidelines before it ran down his leg. It may seem cruel to laugh about that, but you cannot help what sticks in your head… And our game is cruel. I remember being toyed with in a game by Alun Wyn Jones; I couldn’t land a swing on him and my own team-mates found the whole thing absolutely hilarious. Now those were my mates.…