Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2021 i Rugby World

“Can Wales achieve yet another Grand Slam?” SPORT’S UNPREDICTABLE nature is why it’s so engaging and entertaining, why it’s an emotional experience for those watching as well as playing. Wales are a case in point. Before the Six Nations, many were predicting a fifth-place finish for Alun Wyn Jones’s team and discussing why it was a make-or-break campaign for Wayne Pivac’s reign as coach. A few short weeks later, they have lifted the Triple Crown and talk has turned to the possibility of another Grand Slam. Wales’ victories over Ireland, Scotland and England were not without incident, whether red cards or controversial tries, but it would be remiss to summarise those results as ‘fortunate’. They showed resilience to close out the win against Ireland and scored four tries in 80…

FRIDAY 12 MARCH Gallagher Premiership Bristol v Wasps (7.45pm) TV Live on BT Sport Guinness Pro14 Zebre v Leinster (5.45pm) TV Live on Premier Sports & eir Glasgow v Ospreys (8pm) TV Live on Premier Sports Munster v Scarlets (8pm) TV Live Premier Sports, S4C & eir Super Rugby AU Western Force v Rebels (8.45am) SATURDAY 13 MARCH Guinness Six Nations Italy v Wales (2.15pm, Stadio Olimpico) TV Live on ITV, S4C & Virgin One England v France (4.45pm, Twickenham) TV Live on ITV & Virgin One Rugby Europe Championship Portugal v Romania (noon) TV Live on rugbyeurope.eu Gallagher Premiership Exeter v Harlequins (12.30pm) Newcastle v Bath (12.30pm) Northampton v Sale (2.45pm) Gloucester v Leicester (3pm) TV All live on BT Sport Guinness Pro14 Connacht v Edinburgh (7.35pm) Dragons v…

THE RECENT England v Italy game may have given us one of the most debated tries ever at Twickenham. There’s little doubt it was one of the most spectacular, with Jonny May launching himself acrobatically and soaring past Luca Sperandio to score in the corner. After the moment of disbelief passed and the ref awarded the try, we then asked: should it have been allowed? It’s a great question, especially as you see a few of the most-capped referees giving polar opposite views publicly! On the face of it, May does nothing wrong. You’re allowed to dive to score. He did nothing dangerous (per se) and he places the ball down correctly, without going into touch, while evading the cover tackle. Why all the fuss? Probably because it just looks…

DUNCAN BECH PA England Rugby Correspondent YOU’LL PROBABLY expect the case for bonus points to focus on the incentive they provide teams to attack, but recall events at the Stade de France in the opening round of last year’s Six Nations for an alternative perspective. England were overwhelmed in the first half in Paris, a 17-0 half-time deficit signposting a heavy defeat until Jonny May’s two tries hauled them back into contention. But the key moment was Owen Farrell’s stoppage-time penalty that secured a losing bonus point. It was only February but that effectively won England the championship at France’s expense. Yes, bonus points encourage teams to reach for the jugular, providing the try-scoring fireworks essential to protect the game’s appeal in a crowded marketplace. And yes, they can add…

IT’S THE old boy down the pub reminiscing about Wales in the 1970s, wondering why “they can’t just express themselves”. An ex-player laughing at modern diets compared to his old habits. Sometimes it’s just a family member saying the game’s gone soft. The trouble with all of these criticisms is they’re a fantasy. It’s rose-tinted rugby where the good is loudly celebrated and any negatives are met with a mumbled “Well, yeah, some things have improved.” The improvement in the quality of all sport over decades of professionalism is stark when you watch back more than the highlights. The modern workout regimen of amateurs would put some old pros to shame and you have players from an era of 10st wingers talking about people now being “soft”. It’s similar to…

FOR TWO years Gregor Townsend has searched for a solution for his problem at No 8. He’s had his six sorted for a while – Jamie Ritchie is the undisputed one at blindside – and he’s just as well off at seven, where Hamish Watson is as immovable from the team as he is when crouched over ball at a breakdown. The guy between them, though? It’s been a long road, put it that way. This time two years ago, Ryan Wilson was the man. Then it was Josh Strauss, then Magnus Bradbury, then Blade Thomson, with a little bit of Gary Graham thrown in from the bench. Five different players wore the shirt in 2019 and three more in 2020 – Nick Haining, Cornel du Preez and Matt Fagerson…

AS NIC WHITE mulls over what has changed at the Brumbies since his previous stint from 2011-15, he flips the Zoom camera round to show Garry ‘Quinzo’ Quinlivan, the octogenarian who has volunteered as team manager for 25 years. Point made: while it is a different team and he is a different player, much at the club has remained the same. Here the Wallabies scrum-half talks past, present and future… We only got a house a few weeks ago. We got back to Australia in July but myself, my wife and my two little boys were living out of suitcases. Lachie McCaffrey let me live in his granny flat for Super Rugby, then with the Wallabies you’re in hotels, while my wife and the boys were staying with her parents and…

STRONG RUGBY teams are vibrant, resilient, innovative and powerful; just like good military units. That sentence features in the Army Rugby Union’s ‘Narrative’ (think mission statement). Other words jump out too, words that can apply to the oval-ball game and the Army – respect, integrity, loyalty, courage, discipline… Rugby and the Armed Forces may not be as intrinsically linked as the days when Rob Wainwright, Tim Rodber and the Underwood brothers were serving their countries both in the military and on the rugby field, but the two are still very much connected. If you have the attributes to be good at one, you’ll likely be good at the other is the thinking. Take Lewis Bean. Currently part of the Northampton Saints squad in the Gallagher Premiership, he will switch to…

SCORING TWO tries against Saracens is not the worst way to get your name in the papers, but Ealing Trailfinders hooker Alun Walker is confident recent headlines will not be the last generated by the ambitious club. Ealing knocked over the former European champions 27-26 at their home ground in January, with Walker touching down twice, and last month they repeated the dose at StoneX Stadium, running out 39-26 winners. Ealing have come a long way since being relegated from the Championship in 2014. Walker has been with them ever since and says they’re ready to take the next step up to the top flight, whenever that may be. And if it does happen sooner rather than later, they won’t be cannon fodder – just ask Saracens. The Scot faced…

MORTON’S MISSION Suzanne Morton has not only become the first female president in the 161-year history of Manchester, a North One West club, but is clearly on a mission. She was initially involved at Grove Park 15 years ago when her son, Aaron Grahamslaw, picked up a ball aged five. Morton said: “I was his team’s admin person.” Fast-forward and her appointment – spanning the next three years – runs parallel with being club secretary, a post she has held since 2009. Aaron, a prop, made his Birmingham University and Manchester first-team debuts last year. Morton added: “We’ve ambitions to be the best amateur club in England. My goals are practical. I want to get more volunteers involved and greater cohesion between the three sections of the sports club, rugby,…

DON’T MISS THIS MONTH We have the lowdown on all the contenders in our Women’s Six Nations team-by-team guide on P59-65 WORDS LIKE ‘respect’ and ‘teamwork’ are regularly bandied about as cornerstones of rugby – but are people off the pitch held to the same account as those on it? Are those who choose to abuse players, referees and pundits on social media, especially those who @ them directly, showing respect? Yes, people are entitled to opinions and plenty in rugby causes debate, but there is no excuse for such abuse. Be kind! Are the administrators running the game really working together to take the sport forward? The one supposed benefit of the pandemic was the time it gave rugby to sort out bigger issues, like the global calendar. Yet…

What’s life like in the team bubble? The SRU have done a great job on that. There’s lots to do in our downtime. All sorts of games, a golf simulator set up in a squash court. We have our own room as well, which is nice. You can retreat into your own space when you need to. Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with? Some supermodel. Actually, no. My missus would kill me. I’d say David Attenborough. I’d love to have a chat with him. I grew up watching his programmes. It’s why I’ve got a lot of knowledge about some weird animals. Who would you not like to be stuck in a lift with? Zander Fagerson. He’s got stinking breath. I’d pass out in minutes.…

“I didn’t see Wales winning beforehand but I see it now” I DIDN’T SEE Wales winning the Six Nations beforehand, but I see them winning it now. Scotland have been the surprise package and I see France as the best team in the competition, but it’s going to be challenging for them with Covid write-offs. In a normal year, without the pandemic, France win a Grand Slam because they are the best side and play the best rugby. But Covid could scupper that. Wales built through the autumn and have been under a lot of pressure. It’s not an easy place to be when you’re under the pump, trying to get results. Alun Wyn Jones epitomises all that’s good about Wales – he’s incredibly passionate, incredibly competitive and sometimes when…

FRANCE ARE back. It’s been a dismal decade for les Bleus, but a new coaching staff and a new generation have transformed their fortunes. Scrum-half Antoine Dupont is the face of the new France, aided and abetted by captain Charles Ollivon and fly-half Matthieu Jalibert. The power of the scrum, however, is supplied by the muscle of two men who rarely hit the headlines, Bernard Le Roux and Paul Willemse. A couple of strapping South African second-rows in a side brimming with Gallic panache. At 31, Le Roux is the old man of the squad, the only forward the wrong side of 30 in the starting XV that beat Ireland in Dublin last month. Yet he is improving with age, now playing the best rugby of his international career. Fabien…

D KRAWIECKI had a typical English upbringing. Born and raised in Warrington, his first rugby experiences were with the Lymm club just east of the Cheshire town. There was nothing English about his surname, however. And as he grew up, the mementoes and medals he’d seen in the house began to make more sense. His great-grandfathers had proud war records. Boles Kozubowski fought in the defence of Poland in 1939. He was active in the Polish Underground Army, became a head of counterintelligence, was arrested by the Gestapo. Sent to a concentration camp in 1944, he was eventually liberated and came to Britain as a refugee. He became president of the Polish Association in Manchester and it was there that Ed’s grandparents met. Jurek Krawiecki had fought the Russians in…

ACROSS 1 Moves on to the outside attacker whilst defending in the line (6) 5 - - - Cox, pro referee – not to be confused with a famous radio DJ! (4) 8 The venue for the final game of this year’s Guinness Six Nations (5,2,6) 9 Ben’s sorry, awkwardly, for Irish international (4,5) 10 - - - Blacks, pride of New Zealand (3) 11 David - - -, Edinburgh hooker who made his Scotland debut in last month's Calcutta Cup triumph (6) 13 Mental - - - charity LooseHeadz was founded by three rugby guys in 2017 (6) 16 La Seyne sur - - -, near Toulon, is the birthplace of France centre Gaël Fickou (3) 17 “One’s a crocodile and one’s an - - -,” said Connacht coach…

MANUELA FURLAN only recently returned to the Italy team after almost two years of injury struggle, but she’s honest enough to admit that the end is in sight. The 32-year-old Azzurre skipper, who has 75 caps, says it was the prospect of leading her country to another World Cup that kept her going during the darkest days of her long recovery from a complex shoulder complaint, and that if Italy do make it to New Zealand later this year, she will bring the curtain down on her career thereafter. Should Andrea Di Giandomenico’s charges fail to reach the promised land via a long-delayed qualification tournament with Ireland, Scotland and the winner of the Rugby Europe Championship, Furlan intends to finish up at the end of the domestic season with her…

1 Belgium Belgium will face the Netherlands in a promotion/relegation play-off to determine who plays in this year’s Rugby Europe Championship (REC). Belgium (below) had to forfeit their final 2020 fixture against Romania, so finished bottom of the table. They now have to play the Netherlands, who won the Rugby Europe Trophy, before 13 June. The winners will play all their REC 2021 fixtures in July and November. 2 New Zealand NZ Rugby is hoping its weight-restricted competition will draw more entrants this year. Covid-19 restrictions in 2020 meant only a limited number of teams could take part in the NZ Barbarians National U85kg Club Cup, which was won by Auckland’s Eden Lizards (above). This year there is a full calendar of community rugby in New Zealand and more teams…

THIS IS a Six Nations like no other. Fans, such an integral part of the championship, are watching the action from their sofas rather than the stands; trips by plane or train to Europe’s capitals have been replaced by short walks to the fridge. Not having to queue to use the toilet may be a benefit of Covid-related restrictions, but not one that outweighs being there and experiencing the match live. Running out in stadiums devoid of atmosphere may have been a reality for players for more than six months now but the absence of certain traditions is accentuated at Test level. Mascots are of the virtual variety, anthems are performed standing metres apart and celebrations are somewhat muted. Yet perhaps the biggest changes have come in the team camps…

“He walks the walk and talks the talk in the same sentence” THE NITROGLYCERIN nine, that’s Nate Augspurger. Ask his coaches or team-mates out in San Diego about him and they will make it clear that no matter how diminutive the scrum-half may appear, he can be the scariest dude on the whole roster. “Pound for pound he’s the best athlete we’ve got,” says Legion co-head coach Zack Test of Augspurger. “He might be a nine and one of the smaller guys on the field, but when he hits you feel it. He’s probably one of our top defenders. He has a nice-quality chop tackle, putting people to the floor, but he also knows how to put in a stopping shot to the ribs that will drive a forward backwards.…

“I would rather players gave up the ruck than hit someone in the head” THE LAST game I played in the Premiership was ten years ago now. It was Leeds against Northampton, the last game of the season. Our No 8 got knocked out, the stretcher came on, but then before you knew it he was at the back of the next scrum. The game has changed since then and is going in the right direction. Research keeps moving all the time and we will move with it. In recent years concussion has been highlighted massively. You may have seen that Zach Kibirige got knocked out quite badly for Wasps at Sale this season. He actually passed all his tests in the second week, but it didn’t feel right to…

ONE OF the more moving images from the 2021 Six Nations comes from the opening weekend, at the end of the Wales v Ireland game in Cardiff, as Will Connors consoles Billy Burns (left). Emotions are highly-wrought. Burns looks crushed, heartbroken at having sliced a line-kick intended for the left corner, intended to give his team a late, late shot at victory. Connors looks heartbroken, too, but more out of concern for his team-mate. He has a hand on Burns's shoulder and an expression of genuine concern on his face. It's a picture that encapsulates what it means to be a team-mate. "To be honest, there were a lot of other guys who jumped in, I was just caught in the photo," Connors says, in an attempt at self-deprecation. "I…

THE NEW Zealand v Italy 2019 World Cup game was meant to be a Test swansong for Sergio Parisse, Leonardo Ghiraldini and Alessandro Zanni. At the other end of the scale, however, it was also supposed to bring an international debut for Danilo Fischetti. The loosehead prop, 21 at the time, was flown out to Japan after the red card shown to Andrea Lovotti against South Africa resulted in a three-match ban. Fischetti had only two Zebre starts under his belt when he arrived in Toyota, but would have gone straight into the team against the All Blacks had it not been for Typhoon Hagibis. “I began the tournament watching the games back in Parma, but when Lovotti got sent off, I thought, ‘Well, maybe I’ll get the call’, even…

FUNDRAISING IS part of every rugby club’s social fabric, yet there are some who go the extra mile. Cartha Queen’s Park, in Glasgow, are in that bracket. When lockdown began last year, head coach Thomas Davidson split the men’s section into ‘clans’ and asked them to devise some fundraising challenges. The competitive juices were soon flowing. A quiz that earned £500 was the starting point. Then followed online tournaments – Call of Duty, poker, Bonkers Bingo – and sales of branded merchandise that swelled the coffers by £5,000. After a raffle netted a further £2,500, most clubs would have felt their work was done. Not Cartha. “We thought how can we go a bit further?” says Davidson, 28. And so the coach, team manager David Forbes and co-captains Calum Dickson…

WHILE THE parents were doing full-bore drills on the training pitch, the kids were emulating them exactly. But instead of a ball, Martin Iosefo and the other whippersnappers were using anything they could find. This was rugby 101, but with a charming island twist. “I was born in Hawaii and lived there’til I was four,” Iosefo tells Rugby World. “My parents are from Samoa and my father wanted to instil a Samoan culture early on, so he took my older brother (Chris) and me back to Samoa. “I was there until around 15 or 16 and rugby is the national sport. My dad was part of his village club team, in Vaiusu, so we’d all go to training – that was the bond between the three of us, the boys…

EVEN AT the best of times, spending several weeks in a team hotel can be claustrophobic. During my Test career, you’d have lads who got back from training and then spent an entire afternoon – six or seven hours, the day before a Test – playing Call of Duty. That would be their method of escapism with the pressure climbing. I think about the mental torture of waiting for the match to come and I appreciate the need to switch your mind off, but I’m not sure sitting in front of a TV for the time equivalent of a Lord of The Rings trilogy is very healthy! I was always a very enthusiastic part of any coffee club. I needed to bust out, to walk, stretch the legs, meet fans……