Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2025 i Rugby World

THE ACL injury set to keep Antoine Dupont sidelined for the next six to nine months will have a drastic impact on Toulouse’s European Champions Cup hopes. The reigning French champions are the bookmakers’ favourites to retain the Champions Cup, which returns for the Round of 16 on Friday 4 April when Northampton host Clermont Auvergne. However, they will have to continue their title defence without their talismanic scrum-half, who sustained the injury in Ireland during the Six Nations. Toulouse qualified as second seeds for the knockout stages – behind Bordeaux-Bègles – and now entertain Sale Sharks in the Round of 16. Dupont’s absence will see head coach Ugo Mola look to either Paul Graou or Naoto Saito to fill the nine shirt. Another option is back-three star Ange Capuozzo,…

I LONA MAHER was just five when Rugby World first put a female player front and centre of our cover, writes Alan Pearey. Paula George was the England women’s captain in 2002 as they prepared for a Rugby World Cup in which the Black Ferns were to thwart them 19-9 in the Barcelona final. George now lives in New Zealand and has spent five years in remission from ovarian cancer. Lawrence Dallaglio, named as England men’s captain for their summer trip to Argentina, shared the cover of the June 2002 issue that featured interviews with three coaching greats: Clive Woodward, Steve Hansen and Warren Gatland, the latter enjoying a new lease of life at Wasps having been sacked by Ireland. France won a Grand Slam that year and they and England…

WHAT’S THE club called then? Warley RFC. Where is home? Tat Bank Road, Oldbury, Birmingham. Come off the M5 Oldbury Interchange and they’re next to the 4G football pitch and opposite Montracon Truck and Trailer Parts Sales. If you hit Pasquill Roof Trusses, you’ve gone too far. When and how did the club start? Warley was founded in 1970 to provide for a community hitherto lacking a rugby club. The West Midlands is quite football-centric, as you can imagine. It was an idea from Richard Caldicott, who became the first club captain, assisted by staff from Smethwick Hall School, including Pete Ryan, Brian Jones, Gary Wyke and Kevin Jordan. There were enough players to field one side but not two, leaving some wishing to play rugby unable to do so.…

NICK PUREWAL “RUGBY NOT only needs more characters, the sport needs to generate the kind of safe platform that will allow suitable freedom of expression. “What a coach or player thinks in their head invariably differs greatly from what they will say on the record, in public and for wider examination and dissection. “Any time a coach or player responds to a tricky press-conference question with a pause, their next move is instructive on the sport’s levels of comfort with true public candour. All too often that pause is followed by an answer that preserves the political status quo and avoids controversy. When instead they shoot back an answer to a tricky question, it tends to represent the kind of response that people really want to hear. “Coaches and players…

ON FRIDAY 14 February this year, five young women in their mid-twenties decided to spend their Valentine’s Day evening together in West London. They took a train out to Twickenham from the centre of town and had a few pints in a pub on the high street before wandering down the A316 to The Stoop. There they scanned their tickets, bought some chips and another drink, and sat in the stands with 6,775 other people, mainly women. All but one of those five were there to watch their first-ever game of women’s rugby. The other was watching their first-ever game of rugby, period. At the end of the match, all five left as newly loyal and engaged fans of women’s rugby in what is arguably the biggest year in the history…

GLOUCESTER 34 19 SARACENS Sunday 16 March. StoneX Stadium, Hendon. Attendance: 7,848 Did we ever doubt them? Eyebrows were raised when Gloucester-Hartpury lost three of their first seven matches, but a galvanising Christmas dinner fed their soul and they powered on to their third successive PWR title – the first English side to achieve a ‘three peat’ since Richmond in 2012. The final at the StoneX had shades of 2024, when Gloucester-Hartpury rallied after a ten-point half-time deficit to Bristol. Tries by Jess Breach and Lotte Sharp, plus a penalty try that saw Mo Hunt sin-binned for collapsing a maul, had Saracens ahead 19-15 at the break. At which point Sean Lynn, dubbed the King of Hartpury, fired up his warrior queens with some choice words. Hunt and Lleucu George…

FRUGBY had a heart, it would beat Welsh. And while I’m not sure whether that actually means anything, what I do know is that rugby is the life and soul of the nation of Wales. While other nations may like rugby or be very good at it, few actually revolve around it. Speak to Welshmen and women about why this country has such a bond with the sport and most will fail to put their finger on a specific reason but just know that when you are born, rugby is in your bones. Ultimately, the sport of rugby union is deeply engrained in Welsh society, with some even describing it as helping to sculpt Welsh nationhood in the 20th century because of what it represents. Whereas other nations have seen…

RENCH RUGBY used to produce such terrifying rugby players that they would earn nicknames to evoke the fear they instilled in opponents. There was Alain Estève, ‘The Beast of Béziers’, Olivier Merle, ‘L’homme et demi’ (one-and-a-half men) and Gérard Cholley, known as ‘The Master of Menace’ by Welsh rival Bobby Windsor. In the modern era, with dozens of cameras picking up every indiscretion, it’s hard to imagine any current player forcing their way into an updated list of the most frightening French players of all time, like the one published by The Sunday Times in 2006. But in terms of a nickname, ‘The Butcher of La Rochelle’ would fit right in alongside those sobriquets of the amateur era. Paul Boudehent certainly has the build to match some of those fiercely…

RETURNING TO club rugby has given Scott Steele a new lease of life. New opportunities and a fresh perspective, too. At the end of last season, the former Leicester, London Irish, Harlequins, Edinburgh and Scotland scrum-half didn’t know if he would ever set foot on a pitch again. Didn’t even know if he wanted to, truth be told. But after years of hip trouble forced him to call time on his professional career at the age of 30 and left him wondering what he was going to do with the rest of his life, Steele has settled into a fulfilling new routine either side of the white line. During the week, he teaches secondary school pupils employability skills as part of the effectivenow business set up by Mark Blair, the…

SOMETIMES UNLIKELY combinations work. Like a Shaun Edwards defence and France. There just needs to be a reason for them to come together. On paper, Rugby World and Marie Claire UK should not work. But I guess that’s the power of Ilona Maher. This month’s cover story has been created in collaboration with the world-renowned women’s brand because we were brought together by the most important person in rugby today. Maher has caught the attention of the wider world by how she is redefining what it is to be a woman in sport through her bold, honest and inspiring personality. She is the reason new people are taking interest in our game, men’s and women’s. She can be the reason rugby has a bright future – we just need to…

“It’s no longer crucial to be starting to make the Lions” HOOKER IS a really interesting position when it comes to the Lions squad out on 8 May. It’s a really competitive area. Dan Sheehan would have been a bit nervous after he got injured with an ACL and then was out for nine months. All of a sudden, he comes back and he’s absolutely class and scoring tries for fun. Rónan Kelleher came in and played some fantastic rugby but also got injured. Both of them are in the Lions mix. If you look over at England, Luke Cowan-Dickie was the starter in South Africa for the Lions in 2021 and we got on really well. He saw me as a father figure and started calling me Dad, which…

WHEN IRELAND centre Garry Ringrose was sent off against Wales, those in red would normally have dared to dream of glory. With Ireland only 10-3 up in the 33rd minute at Principality Stadium against the hosts, who were showing renewed vigour in interim coach Matt Sherratt’s first Test, the game was in the balance. Such is the laborious protocol we must now endure, Ringrose’s head-on-head clash with Wales No 12 Ben Thomas was deemed to meet the threshold for a yellow card by referee Christophe Ridley, who passed it onto the bunker. The TMO bunker correctly adjudicated that Ringrose, who had rushed up too fast and was out of control, should be shown red with no mitigating factors. Ireland only had to play nine minutes with a man down (to…

T’S HARD not to think of the 2025 Six Nations as a failure for France, the team which finished top of the table. This year’s vintage wasn’t just a championship-winning team. Their round-four demolition of Ireland, with all Ireland’s lofty aspirations, showed France for what they really are: a Grand Slam team and one of the very best Test sides in the world. Rugby World briefed me to write about how the championship was won. I’d like to propose a counter: how the Grand Slam was lost. The two are inextricably bound together on a wet second-round Saturday at Twickenham. France had made an ominous start to the Six Nations with a Friday night whitewash of Wales in Paris, 43-0. Wales were in the dark, declining days of Warren Gatland.…

“GENERATIONAL” IS a word that Conor O’Shea, England Rugby’s Director of Performance, has been touting for a while when questioned about the current crop of young men’s talent coming through the English system. The reigning U20 world champions had to settle for second place in this year’s U20 Six Nations after a shock defeat by Wales on the final day handed France the title. Nevertheless, O’Shea is labelling this bunch as “very special players” who could go on to be “generational talent”. Even after Rugby World has spent five minutes in camp with the U20s, the word “generational” has been used in conversation without irony or disbelief more than once. So if you’re an England rugby fan looking for an article on how they could become the best team in…

Best mate? SAM MAUNDER. We came through the academy together when we were 13 or 14. We made our debuts in the same year. He’s opening a second coffee shop 100 yards down the road from my pizza place! First on the dance floor? Some of the uni lads or lads that have come through uni. The likes of Dan John. WILL HAYDON-WOOD is always up for a night out. Tightest? A lot of the older boys would probably say Olly Woodburn. I’d say HARVEY SKINNER. For a lad that’s earning alright, he never seems to buy a drink. And he always shoots before there’s food after a round of golf. Best future coach? Harvey (Skinner) would echo our coaches. I don’t think there’d be many original thoughts! I’d say JACK…

1 Fiji Super Rugby bosses have been slammed for the shoddy treatment of Fijian Drua (below) ahead of their clash at Hurricanes. After their bus failed to arrive at Wellington airport, the squad travelled nearly 200 miles in a luggage truck to their hotel. They were also denied a late hotel checkout before the 4pm kick-off. “It’s ridiculous,” said ex-Wallaby Lote Tuqiri. “They’re a pro outfit and should be treated accordingly.” Canes won 38-34. 2 New Zealand The All Blacks will aim for a fourth British & Irish Grand Slam next autumn. Scott Robertson’s team face Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales on successive Saturdays in a bid to emulate the Grand Slam sides of 1978, 2005 and 2008. The opener against Ireland on 2 November has been dubbed ‘The Rematch’ as it…

WHAT’S THE funniest thing you’ve seen or heard on the pitch? I’ve heard Faz (Owen Farrell) get stuck into Hugh Tizard, and that’s when they’re on the same team. During the week they were talking about how Hugh wasn’t hitting the highest GPS top speeds, and in the game (at the weekend) Faz was screaming at Hugh at a box kick, “Get six! Get six!” Meaning six metres per second, which isn’t actually that quick! What really annoys you? The people at airports who just stand there waiting to check your bag because they can’t wait to catch you out. It’s really satisfying when you put it in the bag sizer and it just sneaks in! Seeing their face. I bet they get commission out of catching people. If your…

AWHIRLWIND WEEKEND watching three Autumn Nations Series games in person in as many days? Yes, please. So courtesy of TNT Sports – the new broadcasters of ANS action, taking over from Amazon – Rugby World signed up for what was misleadingly labelled a road trip… More on that later. First destination, Dublin. After hopping over on a flight from London Heathrow on Friday afternoon, we jumped straight in a cab to the Aviva Stadium, soaking up the atmosphere that comes with Friday night lights. Half-and-half scarf sellers tried to lure us in as fans hot-footed it from work to the pub for some pre-game looseners. Ireland v New Zealand normally needs no added build-up but Johnny Sexton’s book revelations about Rieko Ioane’s spicy send-off – “Don’t miss your flight home…

AS DUBLIN thaws, beyond the doors of Farmer Browns, Jamison Gibson-Park sits by a fireplace that has a stove ticking over to keep us going. Less than five minutes from the Leinster training ground, in Clonskeagh, Gibson-Park has already covered law changes, Finn Russell, the upcoming Lions tour and who puts the bins out. Sam Prendergast’s name is mentioned. His eyebrows raise. “Sam has been brilliant,” says Gibson-Park, 33. “Full of confidence, even for a young fella. I enjoy playing with him. He has a great feel for the game and it’s fun playing alongside him. He’s young and is only going to get better. I’m looking forward to seeing him grow, and playing with him, over the next few years. “Sam came in around 18 months ago. Got some…

“It may be the only 15 minutes you get to wear a Lions jersey!” THE BRITISH & IRISH LIONS tour does not start until 20 June, with a ‘warm-up’ match against Argentina. But for many players it’s already alive and kicking. You know how when the squad is announced in May, they already have all of the headshots and imagery of the selected players wearing a shiny new Lions shirt ready to go for all the newspapers, magazines and TV? That’s not somebody with a keen eye for photoshopping the head of Caelan Doris or Duhan van der Merwe onto a model. No, it’s because earlier in the year, each and every player in the England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales squads will have had their picture taken in the jersey.…