Innholdsfortegnelse for Nov-2018 i Rugby World

“Less IS more in international rugby” WORLD RUGBY’S Brett Gosper stirred the proverbial pot last month, suggesting that rugby’s big unions were playing too many Tests. Next month all four home nations are playing Tests outside the official international window – with England v South Africa, Ireland v Italy and Wales v Scotland being staged on 3 November. Yes, a ‘fourth autumn Test’ can be an important money-maker for unions, a big crowd boosting coffers, but at the same time it flies in the face of the continual talk of putting player welfare top of the rugby agenda. Take Ireland v Italy at Soldier Field in Chicago, site of the famous Irish win over New Zealand. It should spark interest in the sport in the USA, but crossing the Atlantic…

FRI 5 OCTOBER Gallagher Premiership Bath v Exeter (7.45pm) TV Live on BT Sport Guinness Pro14 Edinburgh v Cheetahs (7.35pm) TV Live on Free Sports Glasgow v Zebre (7.35pm) TV Live on Premier Sports Ulster v Connacht (7.35pm) TV Live on Premier Sports/eir All-Ireland League Div 1A Clontarf v Lansdowne Celtic Cup Ospreys A v Ulster A Munster A v Scarlets A Principality Premiership Merthyr v Bridgend SAT 6 OCTOBER The Rugby Championship South Africa v New Zealand (4.05pm, Pretoria) TV Live on Sky Sports Argentina v Australia (11.40pm, Salta) TV Live on Sky Sports Americas Pacific Challenge Argentina XV v Samoa A Tonga A v USA Select XV Uruguay A v Canada A Gallagher Premiership Northampton v Leicester (3pm, Twickenham) TV Live on BT Sport Sale v Newcastle (3pm)…

1 South Africa  Springboks Handré Pollard, Eben Etzebeth and Tendai Mtawarira (below) will line up for the Barbarians against Argentina on 1 December at Twickenham. Australia scrum-half Will Genia will also join up with the invitational side for the fixture and Rassie Erasmus will coach the team. Tickets are available from £20 for adults and £15 for kids – see ticketmaster.co.uk/barbarians for details. 2 Russia  Russia won the Rugby Europe Women’s Grand Prix Sevens Series for a third straight year. With captain Alena Mikhaltsova (above) to the fore, they pipped France to the trophy on points difference. Both sides finished with one silver medal and one tournament title. Ireland finished third in the series rankings with Scotland fourth, England sixth below Belgium and Wales eighth. Germany and Portugal were the…

YOU MAY have heard about it at the time. The date was 21 February 2016, Olney v Bletchley in a table-topping women’s match. At 2.26pm, Bletchley prop Grace Matthews carried the ball up and was tackled after passing to her fly-half. Instant agony. It took an hour and a half for the ambulance to arrive – “I was getting quite agitated,” says Matthews – and then came the hospital surgery. A lot of it. First, an arterial graft, taking artery from high up the leg to repair the damage further down. Then a fasciotomy, slicing the back of the leg from knee to ankle to reduce the swelling. Next, a second arterial graft because they didn’t use a big enough blood vessel the first time. Finally, a conversation. “We’re going…

THE CHALLENGE Cup has some excellent clubs in the line-up for 2018-19, but the overwhelming problem in forecasting a winner lies in their attitude to the tournament. Will they be flat out to win? Or will they use the tournament as a development vehicle for some back-up players? French clubs, in particular, can be notoriously feeble in the Challenge Cup. Shame. Here’s a look at the pools… Pool One Clermont Auvergne, Dragons, Northampton Saints, Timişoara Saracens  Clermont, now charging after a poor and injury-wrecked season in 2017-18, could just be the best team this season in either tournament – if they want to be. Saints are likely to give it a crack but neither Dragons nor Timişoara have the power in depth to compete. Pool winners: Clermont Also to qualify:…

ALUN WYN JONES spent a couple of hours rummaging in his loft during the UK’s summer heatwave. It wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences but then again, the Ospreys, Wales and Lions lock is used to putting his head in enclosed spaces. The reason for this search in an inadvertent sauna? He had been tasked with bringing the shirt that means the most to him to the WRU’s ‘For The Jersey’ ad campaign shoot. As he doesn’t have any of his shirts on display in the house – “It’s not that I don’t enjoy rugby clubs, but I don’t want to live in one,” he quips – that meant heading into the loft to look through his rugby haul. Having won 117 Wales caps and played in nine successive Lions…

JONNY HILL manoeuvres his substantial limbs into what looks like a high-tech dentist’s chair on the top floor of the main stand at Sandy Park. It is, in fact, an isokinetic dynamometer. A what? you may ask. Well, it’s a machine (below, right) that offers resistance while players perform exercises. It’s used to generate baseline scores on various tests and highlight any possible deficiencies or weaknesses a player may have in their body. It’s part of a new fitness analysis suite at Exeter Chiefs, launched in partnership with Red Bull, and allows the club’s sports scientists and medical staff to monitor players on site with the aim – as with all teams – to keep players on the field as much as possible. “We used to use facilities at the…

LIFE HAS never been better for Pete Horne. A key playmaker for Glasgow Warriors and Scotland, the “adopted Glaswegian” is due to become a parent in December with his wife Kirsten. He talks Fuzzy Fusaro, Thai food and fabulous Fijians… With Finn Russell having moved, I’ll probably play more at ten for Glasgow. But I still see 12 as my primary position. Adam Hastings (ten) is playing with confidence and looking dangerous, and I’m really chuffed for him. We started the season well, so hopefully it’s something we can grow. I handed over goalkicking duties in the Munster game. I missed a couple of kicks and, especially the first one in front of the posts, I have higher standards than that. Last season I was up to 85% but it’s…

TADHG BEIRNE still smiles at the memory of how everything clicked into place in June, when he came off the bench in Melbourne to make his Ireland debut in a win to level the series with the Wallabies, then came off the bench again a week later in Sydney on the day the series was won and history was made. “Ah, it was unforgettable,” says the current Guinness Pro14 Player of the Year. “There was a funny build-up (to the tour). Joe Schmidt had been trying to get hold of me to tell me I was in the training squad but was calling my Irish number and it was out of date. Eventually he got me and said he’d been leaving messages and had been wondering why I wasn’t getting…

THE MANTRA that Swiss rugby follows is Avancer Ensemble, which translates as ‘advance together’. Watch the YouTube clip of the captain, CEO and kids alike spelling out the importance of respect and discipline, among other qualities, and one quickly realises that this is a different Swiss rugby environment to the previously amateur set-up. Until recently, rugby in Switzerland was amateur in every sense. Dominated by foreigners who had been lured by the riches of the Swiss corporate marketplace, rugby was played with a cheers and beers mentality. There was little Swiss input either in personnel or influence and rugby was very much reserved for the expat community who would throw a ball around on a Saturday afternoon. Fast-forward to the present day and the state and standard of Swiss rugby…

What is different at Zebre this season? We’re a very young team – we recruited 11 new signings over the summer. The positive thing is we know our game plan as we’ve got the same coaches as last year. We’re used to seeing you on the big stage. How have you changed? We feel better with our attacking game plan, mostly because it all passes through our fly-half. I feel comfortable playing this way, but I want to improve during the season. How? I want to improve my penalty kicks and conversions. And then, in open games, I want to become one of the best offloaders and passers… and also carrying too! Can Zebre surprise anyone this season? We want to be more consistent, then more competitive – most of…

A blue-collar club and proud of it – that’s Cinderford in the Forest of Dean. DoR Paul Morris said: “We know who we represent and will continue to work hard. We’re a happy club, well ‘joined up’ from committee, sponsors, players and supporters.” After eight campaigns in National One before relegation in 2016, they not only bounced back last spring but set a National Two South points record of 143. Their forwards scored 95 of their 161 tries in 30 games. Morris continued: “We won all our final 24 matches. The title is among the club’s three historical high spots – the 2001 Gloucestershire Cup triumph and promotion to National One ten years ago are the others.” Adam Balding is head coach with other ex-Gloucester men, Andrew Stanley (consultant) and…

Who are the big jokers you’ve played with? When I was at Bath, Ross Batty and Nathan Catt were very funny. And probably some of the Sandbach RUFC lads when I was at Sale Sharks, although they were more crazy. Any practical jokes you can share? Some of Batty and Catt’s best work was when they called up our kitman at Bath and offered him the British & Irish Lions job. He replied: “It would be an honour and a privilege, thank you so much!” He was nearly in tears. Then there was the time they put his underpants on all the dummies on the training pitch just before our session in Portugal. They really did terrorise that poor man. Do you have any phobias? I don’t like deep-sea water.…

IT’S ONLY when our grass-roots club section returns that a new season feels properly underway. We love shedding light on the rough and tumble of the amateur game and clubs editor Michael Austin will be bringing you all the best stories in the coming months. Each edition sees us choose a Team of the Month for our club cover and last season all four home nations achieved such plaudits, with Deri (Wales), Old Crescent (Ireland) and George Watson’s College (Scotland) illustrating that the award is not just an English affair. In fact, we’ve expanded our parameters and the Team of the Month title is now open to any amateur side in the world. Anything else just wouldn’t be cricket! So if your team is pulling up trees on the pitch,…

THERE MUST be something in the water at Crewe & Nantwich RFC because the club has produced not one but two sets of rugby-playing identical twins. Sale Sharks flankers Ben and Tom Curry are more widely known, but Georgie and India Perris-Redding also developed their oval-ball skills at Crewe. The pairs of siblings know each other well and India still plays for the club, while her sister is in the Firwood Waterloo side competing in the Tyrrells Premier 15s. Although the Perris-Reddings have previously spoken about having a telepathic-style understanding when playing together, Georgie admits there are some benefits to being at different clubs now. “It’s hard to explain but because we’re twins, I’d be worrying if she was alright, what had happened and so on,” says the wing-turned-centre. “Now…

“The World Cup final was just the cherry on top of the cake” IN JULY, Michaela Blyde was a blur of activity as she scored a hat-trick to help New Zealand win the Sevens World Cup final. Having negotiated seven months in which New Zealand’s women were runners-up in the World Sevens Series and won golds in the Commonwealth Games and then in that San Francisco final, she has enjoyed a deserved rest. “I don’t think I’ve done exercise for two weeks!” Blyde tells Rugby World over Skype. “I think as professional athletes, you start to feel a little bit guilty. It’s in our blood that we have to do something. “I’m looking forward to training – I need to get my butt back into gear.” After visiting Otago to…

Unique is a word to be treated with caution but it applies to this club. Dickon Moon, the Cornish DoR, chief executive and webmaster, tells all: “There is no other exiles’ club based on a county. We don’t own our own ground, don’t possess our own clubhouse, nor pay our players. Yet we give away match-day programmes free and provide pasties and Tribute bitter.” Now in his 16th season, Redruth-born Moon is among the longest-serving DoRs in England. He was schooled in Penzance, broke his arm on his debut for Cornish, aged 34, and fractured it again in five places on his comeback a year later. A natural go-to club for those from the West Country, Cornish play in One South, train once a week and have an impressive new…

A circuitous route has taken Neil Bayliss to deepest Cornwall and to guiding Liskeard to a league and cup double last season. The new challenge of the Devon-Cornwall League and sustaining their status is uppermost. He said: “Our fitness has paid dividends in the past year, in which we conceded less than 200 points overall in more than 30 games. We also scored some really good team tries. Our player base is local. We get lots from primary schools and Liskeard School & Community College.” The former prop moved west when he and wife Suzi, now the club’s webmaster, bought Fran’s Pantry Pasty and Pie Shop in Lostwithiel, which they still run. He joined Cornish All Blacks for six seasons and now heads the Liskeard coaching team. It features centre…

Former hooker David Harrison knew the feeling of success on the field in ten years as Heath’s captain that featured the treble-winning 2001-02 season. In that campaign his Halifax-based club won Yorkshire Three, the Yorkshire Silver Trophy and the Powergen Junior Vase at Twickenham. Now in his fourth season as coach, he said: “I’m driven to see success in terms of the first team. But equally important is improving the seconds, thirds and juniors. Commercially and socially, the club is flying – it’s time to fly on the field!” Harrison has coaching assistance from rugby manager Mark Mattock, No 8 Rich Brown and Mark Sales. Back-row Ian Downsborough, who has played for the RAF and Combined Services, leads the Yorkshire One side. North One East is in their sights, Harrison…

EVEN THOUGH Chris Ashton has yet to play for England under Eddie Jones, the Australian may yet consider the prolific winger for the autumn series, despite a seven-week ban for a pre-season tip tackle for new club Sale against Castres. The timing of the suspension is hugely disappointing for Ashton, particularly after his scintillating performance for the Barbarians against England at the end of last season. Ashton is not everyone’s cup of tea, what with his swallow dive and antics towards referees. But you cannot deny his try-scoring record and ability to light up a crowd with searing interventions in matches. He has made the transition from rugby league seamlessly and is one of the few players who has been able to transfer many of his league skills to the…

CHRISTIAN WADE has pretty impeccable timing on the pitch – a step here, a try there, a burst of pace everywhere – and while his Wasps team-mates question his punctuality off the pitch, he is never actually late. “Everything happens on Christian Wade time,” explains Jimmy Gopperth. “You’ll see him a few minutes before a meeting and he’ll say, ‘I’ll be there’, and he walks in with one second to go. He pushes the boundaries on timekeeping, but that’s Wadey. He’s just Mr Cool.” The 27-year-old is famous for his laid-back nature and ready smile – and you need those characters in a squad. Joe Simpson, who has known Wade since he first joined the club’s academy, tells a story from a pre-season camp in Portugal this summer that highlights…

THESE ARE grim times at Toulon. Humbled 25-9 at home by Racing 92 in their opening match of the new Top 14 season, they lost feebly at Pau and Stade Français on their early travels. Even their sole win in the first four rounds, 28-27 against Castres, was scarred as captain Mathieu Bastareaud was sent off for striking the prone Christophe Samson with his forearm. President Mourad Boudjellal has made clear his displeasure – with his squad and their supporters – in several petulant outbursts, but it’s the fans who have taken the brunt of his ire, with Boudjellal fuming that only once in three years have the ‘sold out’ signs been seen at Stade Mayol. “The people of Toulon have to help us become a real rugby town,” he…

“It’s a tightrope to keep it an enjoyable pastime and avoid it becoming a chore” IF EVER a thief had the misfortune to burgle one house, it would be the countryside dwelling of Tom Wood. The detached house in Northamptonshire doesn’t look foreboding bar one clue – a huge black truck, suggesting an alpha male resides inside – but not since two foolhardy miscreants decided to burgle Duncan ‘Disorderly’ Ferguson’s palatial pad, only to emerge seeking medical attention, has breaking and entering seemed such a hare-brained activity. Wood, at 6ft 5in and nearly 17st, is a slab of sinewy muscle and hair, leading Eddie Jones to label him ‘Rambo’, but if that isn’t intimidating enough, he’s a black belt in jiu-jitsu and knows how to handle firearms. Alarm bells should…

MUDBATH  “Oh my God. Bath at the Rec. Still in the amateur era. It was probably the first time we beat them. The whole week there was a doubt about whether Graham Dawe would play because he dropped a gate on his foot and broke his toe. Of course, Dawesy being Dawesy, he plays. “I think we were level at 12-all when we’re scrumming on the 22 in front of their sticks. We stand up, heads all over the place, I stamp on his bad foot – which he taught me about four years earlier – and he’s in horrific pain so he headbutts me. We got the penalty, we kicked the goal, we won by three. Now that’s fun.” INVITATION ONLY “You know what game that was, don’t you?…

Home Galway. A popular tourist destination on Ireland’s West Coast, this harbour city is known as a cultural hotspot. If you like folk music or festivals, you’re in luck. Team colours The shirt caught the eye of sister publication Marie Claire, who wrote: “Emerald green should always be seen.” Stadium The Sportsground is one of the league’s quainter grounds – and yes, it does also serve as a dog track. Greatest player How can you look past John Muldoon? He made 327 appearances and captained the side to their first title.…

THE MIDDLE East is not a common conversation topic when interviewing rugby players, but it’s one that deserves to be brought up when talking to Hartpury College captain Simon Linsell. The 24-year-old recently finished a degree in Middle Eastern studies at Exeter University, which included nine months living in Jordan, and he can also speak Arabic. “I did Middle Eastern post-war history at A Level,” he explains. “I found it fascinating and wanted to do it more in depth at uni and thought I may as well learn the language too.” When he’s not training or playing for Hartpury, who are in their second season in the Greene King IPA Championship, he volunteers for the Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers charity. He helps Syrian refugees in the area…

Centre Alex Smith sums up Luctonians, a village club in Herefordshire, as having “incredible local support”, to which a membership of almost 1,000 testifies. After eight years in National Two North, they were relegated to Midlands Premier last May despite a valiant 22-21 defeat by champions Sale. Smith said: “We see this season as a massive opportunity to rebuild. We’ve 60-plus senior players training regularly and each game we play we intend to win.” Lucs have welcomed back Drew Cheshire, ex-Rotherham. “He’s very quick and bounces out of tackles,” said coach Ryan Watkins. Lucs run 17 teams and include a lot of youngsters from Hereford Cathedral School and Hereford Sixth Form College. “Some lads from Worcester schools are starting to come across,” Smith added. So the word about the club’s…

“Pro rugby being ultra physical is a horse that’s long since bolted” A FEW weeks ago, my cher ami and fellow legend of the game, Sergio Parisse, was given a straight red card because someone got hurt attempting to tackle him. What. The actual. Flip. In essence, Parisse was first in the baths because he is too tough, strong and aggressive – ie, he was sent off for embodying the fundamental qualities of a good player. He got up from the ensuing ruck, no doubt expecting a celebratory chorus of Ric Flair whoops from his team-mates, only to be confronted by a frantic (and clueless) French ref waving his little card at him. Sergio’s confusion was writ large over his beautiful baldy face. The card was later rescinded but this…