Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2021 i Rugby World

As 2020 drew to a close, the dramatic twists coiled their way around the rugby world – and not all of them were related to Covid-19 either. At the start of the current season, Leicester for some reason decided it was the right time to part ways with director of rugby Geordan Murphy. It started something of a trend. In December we got the interesting double whammy of Sale Sharks ending their alliance with their own DoR, Steve Diamond – a name that had become synonymous with the North-West club – and then globally-renowned playmaker Danny Cipriani severing his ties with Gloucester. He left his deal early, with Adam Hastings signed as his replacement. Other transfer rumours are still fizzing away. We’d already been discussing the true value of a…

1 Sweden Stockholm Exiles are looking to win their tenth straight Swedish title this year, which would equal Pingvin’s accomplishment between 1991 and 2000. It’s Enköping, however, who hold the record with 11 wins in a row as part of a run of 16 titles from 1973 to 1990. The Exiles’ most recent title came after beating Norrköping Trojàn away (23-3) and home (21-7). Trojàn also impressed, with Alex Melander (below) a standout. 2 South Africa South Africa haven’t played a Test since winning the World Cup final in 2019 (above), but this year’s schedule is taking shape. As well as the series against the British & Irish Lions and the Rugby Championship, the Springboks will also take on Scotland (13 Nov, BT Murrayfield) and England (20 Nov, Twickenham) as…

CHRIST COLLEGE Brecon have joined forces with Cardiff Blues to offer further education opportunities for ambitious young players. The school has also recently done work to improve its gym, strength and conditioning coaching and investment in performance analysis equipment. Scottish Rugby recently announced 90 players for the Stage One and Two intake of this season’s FOSROC Regional Academy programme, which seeks to develop young players via four centres based in Edinburgh, Aberdeen/Dundee, Ravenscraig and Galashiels. The IRFU revealed a long-term development strategy with Ireland Touch Association. Touch will be used to broaden participation options in the IRFU’s Strategic Plan 2018-2023. “Clubs, schools and colleges will all benefit from having access to a wider rugby offering to help with recruitment and retention,” said ITA president Aidan Sweeney. JARGON BUSTER Overthrow When…

LIAM NAPIER RUGBY’S RED card sanction needs to change. It is too regimented and outdated. Everyone agrees safety must be paramount to counter concussion, and the head must be protected. But such a stance doesn’t have to come at the cost of a genuine, fair contest. Rugby is complicated – rapid at Test level especially, requiring athletes to make split-second decisions in contact. At some point, there has to be common sense to recognise that dangerous collisions will, in some form, always happen because of the different shapes and sizes in our game. How you treat complex, varied situations preserves the integrity of the contest. Currently, red cards allow no differentiation between clear and obvious malicious intent or slightly-mistimed tackles that frequently occur. Do red cards ruin games? Not always.…

I WATCH club rugby, Heriot’s mainly, on most Saturday afternoons and also professional rugby on television. I took out a subscription on Amazon Prime for the Autumn Nations Cup. It’s clear the game at the moment has a problem. There is no space to play attacking, fluent rugby. We’re not going to get bigger pitches, so to create more space the obvious answer is to have fewer players. Unlike in my playing days, the game now involves 46 players rather than 30. If you have 46 people expending 100% energy in a limited space, there’s obviously a lot more energy being generated than there would be by 30 people. That is a major argument for reducing the number of players and I think having 13 players in a team makes…

JONO GIBBES knows a thing or two about what makes a handy loose forward and La Rochelle’s director of rugby says Kevin Gourdon is up there with the best of them. In his playing career, Gibbes wore the No 6 jersey for Waikato, the Chiefs and the Maori All Blacks, and with coaching stints at Leinster, Ulster and Clermont he has encountered some of the best back-rows in the business. Few have stayed as loyal to a club as 30-year-old Gourdon, now in his ninth year at La Rochelle. He arrived from Clermont in 2012, with whom he won two Academy championships, and is contracted until 2022. He’s become a cult hero among the raucous La Rochelle fans. “He’s coming up to 200 matches and he brings a genuine pride…

THE FIRST time I got concussion on the rugby field I was 17. I went to the side of the pitch to get attention from the physiotherapist, then I decided to run back onto the field. The only problem was it was the wrong pitch and my dad ended up chasing after me. Over the next 20 years I’d get knocked out a few times, to varying degrees. What normally followed would be time off playing and a gradual return. That’s where the game was at understanding concussion. As a coach and a PE teacher, I could see strides being made to gain greater understanding and create a safer landscape. CogSport was introduced to allow teams to get baseline tests done when players were fit and healthy to compare after…

JANUARY IS prime time to start a health kick, but people can make common mistakes when starting a new fitness regime. So we asked Kevin Geary, the head of athletic performance at Bristol Bears, for his advice on what to do – and what not to do – to help you get more active and stay more active in 2021… Do try yoga A lot of us will have been spending more time on our backsides recently, the pandemic limiting what we can do. So stretching is important before exercising, particularly for loosening up our backs and hips. Rather than traditional static stretches, Geary suggests doing yoga. “We do a seven- to eight-minute yoga routine as part of our warm-up,” says Geary. “Those guys are active relative to someone sedentary…

THE PROP is not even remotely sold on the idea. However neat a metaphor it might be for Scottish and South African cultures unifying, Oli Kebble just does not see why you’d put iconic Scots culinary items on the braai. As he says: “I really enjoy a square sausage, but have you ever put it on a barbecue before? “Keep the haggis and square sausage for breakfast, I reckon!” He has a point. And while it’d suit us to stumble into an awkward line about devouring foes, it’s better to talk about the ‘give it a go’ ethos that’s led the residencyqualified Kebble to Glasgow. The son of a Springbok and the product of Cape Town’s Bishops school, rugby was an inevitability for Kebble. Always solid in the set-piece, he…

ACROSS 1 Adam - - -, Dragons centre who played for Wales in 2012 (6) 4 Dan Carter ascended the - - - Tower on 17 April 2018 (6) 9 London Irish head coach who played State of Origin for Queensland (3,4) 10 Monday - - - rugby, a new element to the 2020-21 Guinness Pro14 season (5) 11 Animal that has traditionally led the Wales team onto the pitch (4) 12 This Worcester and Scotland fly-half let his hair grow long for charity (4) 13 Kicking aid (3) 15 Mat - - -, ex-England centre who’s an analyst for Oakwell Sports Advisory (4) 16 A signed photo of England cricketer Joe - - - was a raffle prize at Rotherham RUFC (4) 19 Ma’afu - - -, Tongan at…

LAST SUMMER, shortly after losing his job as assistant coach to the USA women’s sevens team as the national union filed for bankruptcy, Warren Abrahams told Rugby World that he wanted his next role to be one that “sets my soul on fire”. Six months later and the 37-year-old has found just that as Wales Women head coach. Many factors attracted Abrahams to the role, which encompasses both the national 15s and sevens programmes. “A lot of stuff pulled me towards it,” he says. “The lessons I learnt in the USA and being involved with the women’s game in terms of some of the natural struggles female rugby players have to go through, that was a big one for me. “I knew I could make a difference and wanted to…

DESPITE ALL evidence to the contrary, New Zealand’s Andrew Knewstubb admits he sometimes feels like an imposter on the big stage. In sevens you can go from a moment of brilliance to flailing in open space. But Knewstubb has a knack for rebounding. Perhaps it stems from early days, when he was holding garden shears and dreaming of shredding elite defences. “Straight out of college I moved on to Nelson, for the academy programme down there,” the 25-year-old back remembers. “I actually started working in an orchard, just picking apples. It was s*** work and probably toughened me up a wee bit for the real world. “I was playing sevens for Tasman and a week before Nationals, they dropped me from the team. I moved back up to Kapiti, played…

Head coach Dan Bird has worked wonders for the Pythons within the RFU guidelines and limitations imposed by Covid-19. A full-time teacher in south Leeds, he initially held small group sessions at the Yorkshire Three club alongside S&C coach Pete Davies and ultimately had 40 players training twice a week, as well as gym sessions. Chairman Julian Tatlow said: “By using assistants Dale Breakwell and Al Cawkwell-Brown and being innovative, demanding and fun, Dan has grown our playing numbers. He did all that despite moving house and becoming a dad!” When the Pythons take the field they will be sporting a new, snazzy away strip with a snakeskin design. Also, instead of appointing one captain, they have nine spanning the club, with Bird picking the right man for each match…

FRI 1 JANUARY Gallagher Premiership Bristol v Newcastle (7.45pm) Worcester v Harlequins (7.45pm) TV Live on BT Sport Guinness Pro14 Scarlets v Dragons (5.15pm) TV Live on Premier Sports & S4C Cardiff Blues v Ospreys (7.35pm) TV Live on Premier Sports SAT 2 JANUARY Gallagher Premiership Wasps v Exeter (2pm) TV Live on BT Sport Gloucester v Sale (4.30pm) TV Live on BT Sport Guinness Pro14 Benetton v Zebre (1pm) Edinburgh v Glasgow (3pm) TV Both live on Premier Sports Ulster v Munster (5.15pm) TV Live on Premier Sports & eir Leinster v Connacht (7.35pm) TV Live on Premier Sports & eir Top 14 Agen v La Rochelle Bayonne v Pau Bordeaux-Bègles v Toulon Lyon v Castres Montpellier v Toulouse Carling Currie Cup Pumas v Lions (noon) Sharks v Griquas…

8 USA The USA’s women’s 15s side (above) received a boost with a $50,000 grant from the Mark Cuban Foundation. It contributes to their All In campaign, which aims to generate $600,000 to help with World Cup preparations. 9 Fiji Jerry Tuwai (above), part of Fiji’s gold medal-winning team at Rio 2016, was voted World Rugby Men’s Sevens Player of the Decade. Fiji sevens coach Gareth Baber said: “It’s great to see Jerry entertaining everyone.” 10 Hong Kong The Asia Rugby Women’s Championship will be played from 5-13 March in Hong Kong. The winner of the tournament, which involves Hong Kong, Japan (above) and Kazakhstan, will go into Pool B at the World Cup.…

THE ISSUES around health and brain injury are obviously at the forefront of everyone’s mind at the moment, especially after the stories we’ve seen in recent weeks. Player welfare is always at the top of any player association’s remit. Looking after their wellbeing is paramount. It has also been the busiest year from a player representative point of view I can remember. Negotiating pay cuts and deferrals in a tough time – it’s not easy to do. A lot of decisions made in the last six to nine months affected a lot of people and it felt like a big responsibility. But I’m very proud of what Rugby Players Ireland have built. It’s a very serious responsibility being the voice of the athletes and it’s not one taken lightly. I’m…

HOSTS FRANCE drawn in the same pool as New Zealand for the 2023 World Cup… C’est la vie! The two sides have a long history in rugby’s global jamboree. The All Blacks have twice beaten France in the final to lift the Webb Ellis Cup, in 1987 and 2011, while les Bleus have twice famously knocked the Kiwis out of the tournament, in 1999 and 2007. No team has reached the World Cup final as many times as France (three) whilst never lifting the trophy, so will 2023 be their year? They certainly have the talent looking at their performances under Fabien Galthié over the past year and, with Italy, Americas 1 and Africa 1 the other teams in their pool, you’d expect them to cruise through to the last…

STUART BARNES The former England and Lions fly-half turned analyst IF I was asked to name a World XV today, Maro Itoje would be my only automatic selection from the northern hemisphere. More than that, he would be one of the first selections on the team sheet. There are taller locks in the world and there are certainly more physically intimidating ones. Just think about the impending Lions tour to South Africa, the land of the towering colossus. Yet I cannot fail to reiterate what I have been writing for a number of years. This is the man who not only should – but will – lead the Lions. This would place him in the pantheon of leading Lions locks. Willie John McBride is too far in the past to…

THE CLIP of Tom Dunn phoning loved ones after finally earning his first England cap was shared far and wide. It was a genuine moment for a guy who’d turned perseverance into an art form. Here the Bath hooker tells us how he got there… I picked up rugby by accident. It was my dad’s 40th, I stayed at a friend’s house and he played. I was about 11 and had never picked a rugby ball up in my life. My mum and dad were always football mad – supporting Swindon Town. At training I thought, ‘This is fun’. My friend was a year younger than me, so I trained with them, then played at secondary school, at Sheldon. I also played at his club, Corsham, for six months and…

WEST YORKSHIRE may not be twinned with Central Florida, but Luke Menzies talks as if he was always destined to end up grappling in Orlando. “Coming from a northern town, you either have a trade or play rugby league,” the 32-year-old says. “My dad had played league so I got ushered in that direction. “But I’d always wanted to try out wrestling and when I ended up tearing my quad, I got released from my contract with Salford Red Devils. I saw a tweet from (former wrestler) William Regal putting over the services of his coach, Marty Jones, who is a legend in Britain, so I went over and had my first wrestling session with him. “I just remember standing in the ring and it was a lightbulb moment. I…

WHEN OWEN CONNELLY, a full-back for the Kent club Swanley, decided to start a women’s team at the club in 2019, he had a concern. “The vast majority of the players had never played rugby, and some of them not even any sport. My worry was that it might become a bit disjointed and cliquey,” admits Connelly, a project manager. “I couldn’t have been more wrong. They’ve bonded incredibly well. The moment any of them have any issues, any troubles, have to self-isolate, it’s ‘Anything I can do?, I’ll pick this up, drop this off’. They have a great team spirit. I don’t know what other rugby teams are like but I think I’ve been lucky. “They just buy into everything you ask them to buy into. And do it…

PLAYERS UNDERSTAND that, from the outside, it sometimes looks over the top and a bit childish. But I know why celebrating penalties and scrums began. Like all the best stories about nights out, the practice has grown arms and legs over time. When I watched rugby as a kid you didn’t see it at all. I also remember in the Nineties watching someone get smacked for giving it the big one after a Test try. It just wasn’t done. But the more professional rugby has become, the more that psychologists and culture experts have come into it. With them came the push to celebrate your little wins. If you add up all the little victories in the different areas of rugby – a scrum penalty or a turnover – we…

SHOTA HORIE is a hugely popular figure in Japanese rugby, having played for the Brave Blossoms for more than a decade and been part of both the famous win over South Africa in 2015 and the historic World Cup campaign on home soil four years later. He is also part of the Panasonic Wild Knights squad coached by Robbie Deans that features a couple of familiar faces from the UK in George Kruis and Hadleigh Parkes. Ahead of the Top League’s return this month, the hooker gives us an insight into his life… How do you feel about Japan playing the British & Irish Lions this year? It’s a huge privilege, a massive privilege. It will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I’m not sure what the Japan squad will be like…

THE ADVENT of the pro era and more televised rugby saw, in 1995, the addition of the Television Match Official, or TMO. After flirting with it for a few years, it was in 2000 that the southern hemisphere really ran with it. Over the last 20 years, the role and responsibilities of the TMO has ebbed and flowed. In the first instance, they were available only to help directly when looking at the act of scoring and many would agree that this met with mixed success because the camera can lie. However, with better processes, practice and upskilling, the outcomes improved and the role of the TMO was expanded. But just how far do you go? The current protocol allows the TMO to go back two phases of play to…

IT’S TEMPTING to say that you wouldn’t notice a rugby club chaplain as he or she goes about their business quietly and unobtrusively, offering words of support to any in need of comfort. But it’s difficult to miss the 6ft 7in former second-row that is Martin Lewis, chaplain at Cardiff Blues. He is an imposing figure in many ways. Lewis, 57, played 400 first-class rugby games over 12 years – for Penarth, Bridgend and Abertillery – before a snapped ACL ended his playing days at the age of 42. He had a Christian faith from a young age, so when he was asked if he’d like to replace Ian Rees as the Blues’ chaplain, he accepted the challenge with alacrity. He recently passed ten years in the voluntary role. What…

AS THE calendar flips to 2021, all eyes turn to the British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa. And we envisage Maro Itoje being integral to that series. He is already a star of the world game, but over the next 12 months expect his profile to reach stratospheric levels. He’s been highly praised by Warren Gatland in Rugby Word and is being hotly tipped to captain the Lions. Regardless of whether the 26-year-old is given that honour, he will be a central figure in the touring team as they target a first series win over the Boks since 1997. Just as he will be key to England’s goal of lifting another Six Nations title and part of Saracens’ bid to return to the Premiership. On the following pages,…

BRITISH & IRISH LIONS tour to South Africa, an Olympics in Japan, a World Cup in New Zealand… There’s a lot on the rugby calendar in 2021 and that’s without mentioning all the domestic competitions or the upcoming Six Nations. So we’ve compiled a list of those we think will be making headlines over the next 12 months. From the men’s and women’s games, sevens and 15s, and even a referee, these are the names to look out for… DUHAN VAN DER MERWE Scotland We are in that frenzied period when name after name is thrown into the Lions hat. So why not throw in the Scotland winger? As Lion No 752 Tommy Bowe tweeted: “I think van der Merwe could be starting 11 on the Lions.” Two-time Lions captain…

WANT TO improve your diet? Keen to make sure you’re taking in the right nutrients? Need to know what the best snacks are? Here are my top ten tips… 1. Get moving early doors! If you’ve indulged over the festive break, begin to shift those extra pounds with morning walks before breakfast, which can increase the total step count pre-training. A 15-minute walk five days a week can be an extra 15,000 steps a week and can seriously help increase total daily energy expenditure, especially during periods of isolation. Even better, if you can turn this into a morning run then more calories will be burnt per session. Follow this with a high-protein breakfast. 2. Aim to consume a minimum daily protein content of 1.6g per kg of your bodyweight,…

2010 CORNER STOP “This was an interesting week. I was called up to train with Wales, then got released to go to Dublin to play this game (against Leinster). I hadn’t had much time with the boys but we’d spoken about filling the field. “From a scrum, Rhys Priestland put in a chip kick, Andy Fenby picked up the ball, then there were a couple of offloads, hands, hands, hands, we moved the ball. “I managed to get on David Lyons’s shoulder, I thought he’d show and go but he gave it to me. I only had ten metres to run, I’d not done any of the hard work, but I got Try of the Season.” BADGE OF HONOUR “Unbelievable. This was my first game for the Lions (against the…

2021, THE return of the Lions, Happy New Year. Prepare for repeats of epic moments from 2017 and feverish talk about the make-up of the squad to stare down South Africa. Seán O’Brien’s first-Test try in Auckland four years ago could run on continuous loop. In discussions about the greatest Lions tries, his name will always feature. But a contender for this year’s squad? At almost 34 and with his injury history? The man himself is not giving up. “If I play week in, week out with London Irish and play to my potential, I could be in with a shout,” says O’Brien. “There’s a lot to come between now and then. There’s a lot to be done, it’s a shot in the dark but one which I’ll keep in…

BUDGETS HAVE tightened, squads shrunk. As New Year approached, clubs still awaited vital Government funding to assist with the Covid testing required to run a league programme. There’s been talk, too, that the RFU Championship will take the form of a two-conference system. Whatever happens, England’s second-tier clubs should be back in action this month… AMPTHILL LAST SEASON 5th. PREDICTION 8th Ampthill were strangely secretive about new signings, confirming only the player departures. Those include highly-rated wing Kwaku Asiedu to London Scottish and two Tongan international forwards: Soane Tonga’uiha has joined Chinnor as a player-coach and Maama Molitika has retired at the age of 45. The Beds club finished fifth last season, their first at that level. It was a fantastic effort but do they have the depth to back…

Growth spurt This year’s World Cup will be the last with just 12 women’s teams. From 2025, it will expand to 16, with World Rugby chairman Sir Bill Beaumont saying: “This is a milestone moment. Expansion of the World Cup creates added incentive for unions worldwide to continue to invest in their women’s programmes.” Top gongs France full-back Jessy Trémouliere was voted Women’s 15s Player of the Decade at the World Rugby Special Awards, while Portia Woodman (above) picked up two honours. The Black Ferns star was named Women’s Sevens Player of the Decade and topped the vote for the Women’s 15s Try of the Decade for her score against the USA at RWC 2017. Ref honour Amy Perrett, the first woman to officiate a Super Rugby match, was named…

Under coach Gareth ‘Gaz’ Evans, a Colour sergeant in the Royal Marines, the ‘Okes’ do things their own way. Evans said: “We play attractive rugby and want to make the town proud of us.” They’ve achieved that with fourth place in South-West Premier last April after their One West title the previous year. Evans said: “I’ve been in the Marines for 18 years and try to instil the Royal Marines values of excellence, integrity, self-discipline and humility.” A back-row forward turned hooker, Evans has played for Plymouth Albion, London Welsh, the Royal Navy and Combined Services. He still features sometimes in Okehampton colours, alongside fellow coaches Richard Bolt and Bevon Armitage. Evans added: “Our goal is to enjoy what we do. We don’t pay players and it was only last…

Email your letters to rugbyworldletters@futurenet.com or write to our editorial address Losing respect I extolled the virtues of Pablo Matera after he led the Pumas to their first win over New Zealand and a dogged draw versus Australia. Then he was suspended after some racist tweets surfaced. They were posted when he was a teenager on tour in South Africa. His apology recognised he had done wrong, but it was still worded in a way that almost suggested it wasn’t his fault. I hope Pablo and his team-mates learn from this, I hope they take action to show they have. There is no room for racism anywhere, let alone in the sport I love. There are no excuses. Pablo talks about respect on the field. His actions and apology have…