Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2025 i Rugby World

WHAT SHALL we call this month’s grass-roots club? Old Priorian RFC. Often shortened to OPRFC. Or sometimes on special occasions, just OPs. And where is home for them? Their home ground is St Benedict’s Playing Fields in Perivale, West London, a short walk from the Ealing Trailfinders Sports Ground. When and how did the club start? The club in its current iteration was founded in 2008, off the back of the success of St Benedict’s School in the Daily Mail Cup in the mid to late 2000s. A number of old boys banded together to propel the club into existence, joining the RFU league pyramid in 2009. What teams do the club currently have? They run two senior sides – known as the Twisters and the Saints – as well…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH www.classicrugbyshirts.com IMAGINE, FOR a moment, a parallel world in which England win the 1991 World Cup. David Campese does not slap the ball away from Rory Underwood, who runs in for a try. England squeeze the Wallabies and eke out a win. It’s Will Carling lifting the William Webb Ellis trophy from Queen Elizabeth II in front of a packed-out home Twickenham crowd. It’s Sir Geoff Cooke and Carling is a CBE rather than an OBE. Richard Hill is team captain on A Question of Sport. Do we get that team of 2003, with Woodward, Wilkinson and Johnson, or does the success of 1991 set English rugby on an entirely different course pre-professionalism? It’s fascinating to go down the rabbit hole of ‘what-ifs’ from that fateful day…

IRELAND’S SIX NATIONS FIXTURES VITAL STATISTIC In last year’s Six Nations, Ireland completed 59% of their rucks in 0-3 seconds. They have the best win percentage (68%) in the 6N era SIX NATIONS HISTORY History beckons the Irish, who are seeking a third successive title for the first time. Only three times (1948-49, 2014-15 and 2023-24) have Ireland managed even back-to-back outright titles, so you imagine the carrot of immortality is being dangled in front of the players in team meetings. Ireland’s consistency this century is remarkable for a country laden with 25 Wooden Spoons across the championship’s entire span. They’ve achieved a top-half finish in all but two of the past 25 editions, with five titles and two Grand Slams snared since their fifth-place finish in 2013. FORM GUIDE…

WALES’ SIX NATIONS FIXTURES VITAL STATISTIC Tommy Reffell had by far the most breakdown steals (eight) in last year’s 6N. The flanker also topped the stats for defensive ruck arrivals (59) SIX NATIONS HISTORY The glory days seem a distant memory after last year’s Wooden Spoon, the first for Wales in 21 years. As the graph below shows, Wales have have a shocker in the past five years, except for 2021 when they cashed in on opposition red cards and helpful refereeing to land a surprise title. But that is Wales all over – they go from rags to riches and back again. The common denominator is Warren Gatland, the first coach to win three Six Nations Grand Slams (2008, 2012, 2019). Wales’ first, in 2005, came under Mike Ruddock.…

GIVEN THAT his first taste of an England camp came under Eddie Jones in 2021, Saints flyer Ollie Sleightholme has had to wait patiently for a go at Test rugby. Luckily for England fans, their man’s favourite pastime means patience is not a problem. Sleightholme’s uncle introduced him to fishing and now, pardon the pun, Ollie is hooked. “I try to get away from rugby, so I go once or twice a week if I can,” says Sleightholme. “I don’t actually mind if I don’t catch anything, it’s more just being able to reset myself after a long week or if it’s midweek, just take myself away. I was using it when I was injured and trying to rehab and stuff, just something else to focus on and be able…

THOMAS RAMOS has tremendous versatility as a fly-half and full-back. His skills and game awareness make the Toulouse star a vital player for the French national team. There’s no doubt that he thinks like an outside-half, but Ramos combines style and substance in the way that he plays the game. His kicking is exceptional. His ability to accurately find touch, clear under pressure and split the posts off the tee is crucial. Ramos’s kicking game relieves pressure on his team but also ignites it because he has such an array of kicks and sometimes in the boldest of circumstances, such as a soccer-style kick pass across his own goal-line. He’ll chip or cross-kick into space at any time, including on turnover, as he did against the All Blacks in November…

CANTERBURY BRITISH & IRISH LIONS HERITAGE JERSEY £80 canterbury.com British Vogue has declared casual rugby shirts ‘in’ for autumn/winter 2025, so rugby is finally cool! It’s as good a reason as any to nab yourself this old-school Lions jersey from Canterbury. ROAM BEEF PROTEIN BARS £3.10 PER BAR roamfood.com Anybody else seen that TikToker on the carnivore diet who eats whole sticks of butter from the packet? Terrifying. GUINNESS X UN:IK ‘LOVELY DAY’ HOODIE £60 unikclothing.co.uk Six Nations season means pubs up and down the country packed with rugby fans asking for pints of Guinness, pork scratchings and the rugby on, old chap. LUMI POD ICE BATH £99 lumitherapy.co.uk You’ve gone head first into the Wim Hof method. Upgraded from a tepid shower to a blow-up ice bath that only fits…

STAR LETTER Lions greatness A nice calendar as usual to start the New Year, thanks for that. But the greatest British & Irish Lions of all time? No Tony O’Reilly, record try-scorer on two successive tours, no Barry John, no Mike Gibson, a five-time Lion, no JPR Williams, a hero of the two most successful tours ever, no Paul O’Connell, no ‘Broon o’Troon’? Yes. Finlay Calder, Mike Teague, Ieuan Evans and Andy Irvine were all great players no doubt. But were they greater than all of the above omissions? Hardly. On another note, I also liked your note on the possible revival of Wasps. Rugby needs that club of great tradition back again. I hope those “local pressure groups” – so often with their wokey obstructionism to all modern development…

IF EVER there was a year to get a friend into rugby, it’s 2025. On the menu for their viewing curiosity, we’ve got a bumper British & Irish Lions tour to Australia, a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in England, the Rugby Championship, HSBC SVNS, Women’s Six Nations, the Champions Cup, electric domestic leagues and so much more. And for starters we have the Men’s Six Nations which kicks off with France v Wales under the Friday night lights. All incredible spectacles for fans new and old that would be best enjoyed with a lovely takeaway pizza courtesy of Exeter Chiefs forward Richard Capstick. That’s right, Taunton local Capstick is somewhat of a pizza mogul in the South-West having opened a couple of Fireaway pizza franchises. Head to P60 for a…

1 The Rugby Europe Championship, aka Six Nations B, is the second-tier European competition and comprises eight teams split into two pools 2 With the next World Cup being expanded to 24 teams, REC 2025 will act as a qualifier for Australia 2027. The top four qualify directly, with the fifth-ranked side advancing to a qualifying tournament 3 All games will be live-streamed on rugbyeurope.tv. REC teams qualifying for RWC 2027 will also qualify for the World Rugby Nations Championship Division Two, set to launch next year 4 There will be no one-venue Finals Day like last year. Instead, games for first, third, fifth and seventh place will be played on 15-16 March on the grounds of the best-placed teams at the end of the pool stage 5 Relegated Poland…

WHO WAS your rugby hero and did you ever meet them? Ally Hogg. He was the man. When I was at school, I was a back-row and I wore a scrum cap like him and tried to play like him. He was so free and skilful. There was one game when he did this charge-down and caught the ball at the same time. I thought that was amazing. When I started out at Edinburgh, I crossed over with Ally just for a little bit, which was great. What was your first Scotland game as a fan? Scotland v South Africa in 2004. We lost 45-10! I remember thinking, ‘this isn’t particularly enjoyable’. What was the best piece of advice you received as a player? It was from Grant McKelvey, my…

ENGLAND’S SIX NATIONS FIXTURES VITAL STATISTIC England were the only team to score a drop-goal in last year’s Six Nations, with fly-halves George Ford and Marcus Smith bagging one each SIX NATIONS HISTORY Remarkably, England still hold the record for the most Six Nations titles with seven, one clear of Wales, Ireland and France. Three of those titles came in the opening four years. In recent memory, it’s a solitary Covid Six Nations in 2020 in which England has claimed the silverware. Alongside Ireland, England are one of two sides to have never finished bottom of the championship. FORM GUIDE After five consecutive defeats to New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, the form book could hardly be worse. Granted, the margins were narrow but it still racked up to be…

ITALY’S SIX NATIONS FIXTURES VITAL STATISTIC Italy captain Michele Lamaro made a tournament record 103 tackles in last year’s Six Nations – 24 more than any other player SIX NATIONS HISTORY Last year brought Italy’s best-ever campaign. Hard-fought and expertly crafted wins over Scotland in Rome and Wales in Cardiff were supplemented by a dramatic draw in France, when the ball inexplicably fell off the kicking tee as Paolo Garbisi prepared to nudge a decisive penalty with the clock deep in the red. Another couple of points would have taken them above the Scots in the final table, and with three home matches this time around, Gonzalo Quesada’s charges will believe they can finish higher than fifth. That would be some going, considering those eight successive Wooden Spoons between 2016…

Rugby’s most outspoken and influential journalist HERE IS a prospect to delight or dismay, depending on your nationality: Scotland to have the biggest representation on the British & Irish Lions tour to Australia. With the greatest respect, Scottish players have been either peripheral or largely absent on most Lions tours of recent vintage. There have also been tours when their contingent hardly figured as Test contenders at all. But let us look at the Six Nations to come, as always the proving ground. It’s a plain truth in any Lions season that the prospective party changes after every weekend of the Six Nations, and it is also a must that current form must be massively taken into account, so the best team in the tournament should get a hefty representation.…

SPOTLIGHT ON Age 26 (5 Mar 1998) Born Klerksdorp, SA Position Back three Club Harlequins Premiership debut v Exeter (Nov 2020) Height 5ft 10in Weight 14st 5lb Instagram handle @tyronegreen1015 SHOULD STEVE Borthwick decide to add another fresh face to his England squad, an option that will soon be available to him for the first time is Tyrone Green. The Harlequins utility back becomes England-qualified this June, having joined the London-based team in the summer of 2020. Green left the Emirates Lions and his native South Africa and has not looked back since. A Gallagher Premiership title and European Cup semi-final later, the 26-year-old is not ruling out the opportunity to wear the red rose. “I will always try my best and see if I can get an international call-up,”…

01 Which four players have won the most men’s Test caps for Ireland? A. …………………………………………………………….. 02 Harlequins’ Ellie Kildunne set a PWR record for most metres made in Big Match 16. How many metres was it – 162, 262 or 362? A. …………………………………………………………….. 03 What factor helped Bristol’s women notch a record club attendance of 9,240 for a game at Ashton Gate? A. …………………………………………………………….. 04 Who is pictured below scoring for Bath against Clermont in the Champions Cup? And why is his father well-known? A. …………………………………………………………….. 05 How did Scotland fly-half Adam Hastings land a court summons? A. …………………………………………………………….. 06 A neck injury forced which 28-year-old Dragons player to retire recently after 24 Wales caps? A. …………………………………………………………….. 07 Which international team’s nickname is ‘Ikale Tahi, which translates to the Sea Eagles? A. …………………………………………………………….. 08 What got All Black…

1 Space invaders To develop running lines into space, play small-sided games that promote line breaks and overloads. Play two-touch rugby in which for the second touch the attacker must pass the ball or recycle it. The overload means there are more players on one team than the other. This will ensure overlaps and line breaks. Next, put a defender or two in a deep defending zone that they must always occupy. They can only move laterally. This has the effect of attackers facing a last line of defence. 2 Add some noise If practising goal-kicking, add distractions to help simulate a game situation. I’ve known top-end players wear headphones with crowd noise. Some coaches will stop team practice randomly and call up the kicker to kick at goal. They might say,…

1 BEN WAGHORN Age 20 (2 Apr 2004) Born Croydon, Surrey Position Centre Club Harlequins Country England When did you first play rugby? My dad took me to Chipstead RFC, 15 minutes from my house, when I was six or seven. What attracted you to the sport? Just the enjoyment side and the tuck shop at the end! Then making friends and the camaraderie kept me coming back. Did you play other sports? I used to run cross-country, play football and cricket. Positions played? I played ten a lot when I was younger. I played on the wing for England U20 in my first year but since then I’ve played 12 and 13. When did rep rugby start? I played at Chipstead and then picked up rugby league for about ten…

FRANCE’S SIX NATIONS FIXTURES VITAL STATISTIC France made the fewest number of tackles in the 2024 Six Nations (613), while also achieving the highest tackle completion rate (89%) SIX NATIONS HISTORY France’s championship history is one of multiple acts. The 2000-10 period saw five titles and three Grand Slams, while 2011-19 produced zero titles and an embarrassing Wooden Spoon in 2013. Such a rollercoaster of fortunes has helped earn them the reputation of ‘not knowing which France will turn up’. However, in 2020, things changed. Antoine Dupont was given the keys to the scrum-half jersey. Since then, France have finished in the top two of every championship, adding a fourth Slam in 2022. It also coincided with the appointment of former scrum-half and captain Fabien Galthié as head coach. The…

SCOTLAND’S SIX NATIONS FIXTURES VITAL STATISTIC Scotland conceded the most penalties (57) in last year’s Six Nations, 14% of which were from prop Zander Fagerson (eight) SIX NATIONS HISTORY Scotland have largely jumped between third and fourth place during Gregor Townsend’s tenure. Although a major source of frustration for fans that they’ve failed to position themselves as genuine title contenders, it’s still a far cry from those not-too-distant days when they were whitewashed (2015, 2012 and 2004). The Scots are gunning for a fifth successive Calcutta Cup, but haven’t won so much as a Triple Crown in the Six Nations era, and those gags about being perpetual Five Nations champions started wearing thin quite some time ago. FORM GUIDE Scotland’s 2024 was a curious affair, during which we didn’t learn…

WHAT’S THE first pro match you went to? SALE v LEICESTER. Appropriate I guess since I ended up playing for both clubs. It was at Sale’s old Edgeley Park ground in Stockport, the first season they moved there in 2003-04. There were 10,500 there, the conditions were terrible and it was a 3-3 draw! Your first rugby hero? PAUL SCULTHORPE. An all-round brilliant rugby league player. He was Man of Steel in 2001 and 2002 and part of a fantastic St Helens team. What were the first rugby boots you owned? PUMA KINGS. They were black with a white flash down the side and a white tongue. First rugby shirt? It was a ST HELENS RUGBY LEAGUE SHIRT – a thing of red-and-white beauty. I was seven and they were…