Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2021 i Rugby World

“Who will start the Tests for the Lions?” THE MIDWEEK matches are a very big deal and in many ways the essence of a British & Irish Lions tour. But while we were all debating the squad selection, the logic we kept deploying was, ‘Can this person really stand up to the Springboks in a Test match?’ As the tour roars into action we will enjoy seeing the menagerie of South African provincial sides wrestle with the tourists, but many of those Lions face a battle to impress their way into the Big Team. Popular sentiment dictates that some key positions are already sewn up, injury permitting. If we listen to each other, Tadhg Furlong may as well be sleeping in his No 3 shirt now. Skipper Alun Wyn Jones…

FRIDAY 4 JUNE Gallagher Premiership Sale v Harlequins (7.45pm) TV Live on BT Sport Guinness Pro14 Rainbow Cup Connacht v Ospreys (6pm) Glasgow v Leinster (8.15pm) TV Both live Premier Sports/eir Rainbow Cup SA Bulls v Stormers (6pm) TV Live Premier Sports/eir Sport Super Rugby Trans-Tasman Crusaders v Force (8.05am) Reds v Blues (10.45am) TV Both live on rugbypass.com SATURDAY 5 JUNE Rugby Africa Cup Repêchage Burundi v Burkina Faso Gallagher Premiership Gloucester v Bath (2pm) Leicester v Bristol (3pm) Newcastle v Worcester (3pm) London Irish v Wasps (4.30pm) TV All live on BT Sport Guinness Pro14 Rainbow Cup Edinburgh v Ulster (5.15pm) Cardiff Blues v Zebre (7.35pm) TV Both live Premier Sports/eir Rainbow Cup SA Lions v Sharks (3pm) TV Live Premier Sports/eir Sport Top 14 Bayonne v Stade…

1 France The final three Olympic sevens qualifiers – two women’s teams, one men’s – will be determined on 19-20 June at the repêchage event in Monaco. The women’s line-up is Argentina, Colombia, France, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Mexico, PNG, Russia (below), Samoa and Tunisia. The men’s sides involved are Chile, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, Samoa, Tonga, Uganda and Zimbabwe. 2 Brazil South American sides will take the first steps to qualifying for RWC 2023 over the coming weeks. Brazil (above) host Paraguay on Saturday 26 June before Colombia visit Chile a week later. The winners of those matches play in a round-robin tournament, SAR Three Nations, with Uruguay from 11-25 July. The winners of that, most likely Uruguay, will play the winners of the Canada-USA qualifiers…

WORCESTER are supporting Rugby Recycled, an initiative launched by scrum-half Gareth Simpson ten years ago to provide used rugby kit and equipment to underprivileged youngsters. He says: “What started as a small project to collect second-hand boots from school friends has turned into something bigger than I could ever have imagined.” Birmingham Moseley’s academy has introduced football and women’s rugby courses for local teenagers aged 16-plus. Students will achieve an NCFE qualification, the same as they’d receive at a typical college of further education. Courses will begin in September. To apply, see www.wearescl.co.uk/birmingham-rugby Barnard Castle sixth-former and flanker Guy Pepper had a double dose of good news as he was asked to join Newcastle Falcons’ senior academy and received an offer to read sport and exercise science at Durham University.…

DANIEL SCHOFIELD WHILE THIS tour to South Africa won’t involve a 46-day boat trip complete with 300 stoats and weasels for company, as the first 1888 Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand did, it’s an even bigger logistical and coaching nightmare. We knew it would be in South Africa, having briefly looked like decamping to the British Isles or Australia, but we had to wait until mid-May for final sign-off on the tour itinerary. So close to departing, we still had no absolute certainty that the tour would go ahead given the constantly shifting picture created by Covid-19. As we have seen with the tragic images coming out of India, a new variant can wreak devastation in a country with low vaccination rates in next to no time. We…

IT’S FAR better to trial law variations with elite teams instead of students, if it can be done. The Rainbow Cup, hastily tacked onto the end of the Pro14 season for no good reason, was the ideal place to do it. However, none of the three variations in play there has been an unqualified success. The goal-line drop-out for a ball-carrier held up in-goal or defenders grounding the ball clearly favours defences instead of attack, and there’s much too much of that in rugby already. The 20-minute red card replacement has not led to a spate of cheap shots, as some feared. But neither have we seen a heinous incident that really merited losing a man for an entire game. The jury is still out on that one but if…

STEVEN KITSHOFF Morné Steyn may have clinched the 2009 series with his penalty at Loftus Versfeld (see P86-89), but the more discerning rugby supporter would argue that the Lions were doomed by what Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira did to Phil Vickery in Durban a week earlier. Twelve years later, Kitshoff is a 47-Test Springbok and, according to some, the best loosehead in the game. A one-man wrecking crew, he will be tasked with unhooking the anchor to the Lions scrum, which remains central to the contest for possession – and for physical and psychological dominance. The ginger juggernaut is primed to power into the Lions’ set-piece. CHESLIN KOLBE Kolbe needs no introduction in a piece about match-winners. He did a disappearing act on Owen Farrell in the World Cup final, and…

HOW TO describe Courtney Lawes in three words? “Relaxed, self-assured, father – I love being a dad,” comes the response from the man himself on the Zoom screen. When it’s put to him that none of those words would likely be used if opposition fly-halves were asked the same question, he chuckles. The second-row, whether playing for Northampton Saints, England or the British & Irish Lions, is known for his relentless nature in defence, with those wearing the No 10 jersey often on the receiving end. There are YouTube videos dedicated to his tackles, collections of his greatest ‘hits’. These few snippets of commentary highlight how big an impression Lawes can make as a tackler… “What a tackle from Courtney Lawes. He just lined him up and cut him in…

ATONEMENT COULD be the name of the game for Ireland at Rugby World Cup 2023. An enticing draw sees them return to Bordeaux and Paris, each the scene of unhappy memories during their Rugby World Cup 2007 campaign that ended in elimination at the pool stage. The only other occasion that Ireland failed to make the quarter-finals followed a surprise defeat in Lens in 1999, so Andy Farrell’s team will be hoping it’s third time lucky in France at RWC 2023! And what an experience it will be, with Ireland’s pool fixtures including a first Rugby World Cup encounter with South Africa and a reprisal of the pool clash with Scotland from two years ago. They kick off against a European qualifier in Bordeaux. Known as La Belle Endormie –…

In the 36th minute of the first Test between the Lions and All Blacks at Eden Park in 2017, Liam Williams launched the attack (left) that led to a famous try for the tourists. Receiving the ball from Anthony Watson deep in his 22, he burst through NZ’s defence and reached the halfway line, where he found Jonathan Davies in support. Davies released Elliot Daly on the wing and the ball came back to the centre, who popped it up to Sean O’Brien to power over from close range. So what are Williams’s memories of it? “I remember getting passed the ball and shouts of, ‘He’s coming’, then instinct kicked in,” he says. “I stepped Kieran Read and from there it’s a blur to be honest. Of course, I’ve watched…

ADESPERATE TRY in the corner, a conversion from the touchline and a 52m penalty. That is what decided the 2009 British & Irish Lions series in South Africa. The final score in the second Test at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria was 28-25 to the Springboks, giving them an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-Test series. The aggregate points tally was actually 74-63 in the Lions’ favour after they comfortably won the final fixture, but that could not alter the result of the series itself. That middle Test was brutal and intense, dramatic and controversial. Turn over for the memories of three members of the South Africa set-up who played a significant role in conquering the men in red… THE COACH Before looking at the second Test of that Lions series…

WE’LL NEVER know if Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could have made it in rugby. But we can pinpoint the moment the Liverpool midfielder’s chance of being a London Irish great evaporated. “I never went to the trial!” he tells Rugby World. “We didn’t play football at my school (St John’s College) until sixth form, so it was all rugby and cricket. “I played rugby until I was 15. That’s when football got more serious… And the size of the rugby boys got more serious too! Southampton (FC) weren’t too keen on me playing rugby at that point. But I came back for the Hampshire Cup final. I got Man of the Match from full-back!” Football was destined to win. Still, a scrum-half who could also play full-back, Oxlade-Chamberlain knew how to put…

ACROSS 1 Carl - - -, former Exeter prop who is head coach of Bridgwater & Albion (6) 4 beIN - - -, broadcaster that televised this season’s Champions Cup (6) 9 See 11 Across 10 Up and - - -, contestable kick (5) 11 And 9 Across. Energetically wash in Bali? A 2001 Test Lion emerges (4,7) 12 - - - Stafford, No 8 and the first captain of Premier 15s club Sale Sharks… (4) 13 …while - - - Kuwai was the first Japan player to score a try at the Olympics (3) 15 Pete - - -, Wallaby No 8 who played for Cornish club St Ives as a teenager (4) 16 Ex-Wasp and Dragon Ed Jackson, a recovering quadriplegic, hopes to climb in this mountain range…

TOULOUSE TOOK their celebrations to a new level when winning the Champions Cup, donning ski goggles to protect their eyes from Champagne! Will we see other clubs follow suit in coming weeks? It’s that time of year when players and supporters experience elation or despair depending how their teams fare in the trophy hunt. Four years ago, Lions and All Blacks were on the middle of that emotional spectrum after a drawn series. So what of 2021’s South Africa tour? First, we must cross our fingers it goes off without a hitch as Covid continues to change the landscape. Second, we must accept that this tour is going to be vastly different to the norm, with empty stadiums and pandemic protocols. Having said that, there’s still a huge sense of…

HOW DID you get the nickname ‘Bobby’? On my first day at Wasps, 23 August 2002, I ran on with the water and Phil Greening said, “We’ve got our own waterboy”, like Bobby Boucher in the Adam Sandler film. What do you love most about the Lions? Just being with the boys, the staff and players. It’s fantastic to meet people you’ve never met before as well as old faces. It’s four unions coming together with one goal, and this one is taking on the world champions in their backyard. It’s a fantastic challenge for us. So much camaraderie develops quickly. You have to work hard to make people gel and my forte is getting people to talk to each other. I just love being on tour. The funniest thing…

8 Algeria Algeria (above) and Burundi are now full members of World Rugby having been associate members. Both countries are involved in this year’s Rugby Africa Cup, which is part of the RWC 2023 qualification pathway. 9 Australia Rugby Australia officially launched its bid to host the 2027 World Cup by lighting up the Sydney Opera House (above). Australia’s campaign is called ‘Game On’ – find more information at Australia2027. rugby 10 Japan Kenki Fukuoka (above) bowed out of rugby by scoring a try in Panasonic Wild Knights’ 31-26 victory over Suntory Sungoliath in the Top League final. The Japan wing has retired to pursue a career as a doctor.…

“We want to make the people of South Africa proud” WE’RE VERY excited, not only as a team but as a nation. The chance to play the British & Irish Lions comes once in 12 years and some people don’t even get that opportunity. It’s great for us, especially after the tough times we’ve been through with the pandemic. To now be able to get that opportunity to play against the British & Irish Lions, we as a nation are very, very excited by that challenge. I was fortunate to play against them in a midweek game for the Southern Kings in 2009. It was an honour to play a great team, to play against Ronan O’Gara and those big names, so I know the feeling of how great it…

ILL KNOWS the signs only too well, she knows the body language and how to interpret it even without knowing how her husband has played and whether his team have won or lost. One look at his face as he walks through the door and she gets it. He’s not a lot of fun to be around when he’s performed poorly – and that’s by his own admission. He needs to sit quietly and stew for a while. “That’s just me,” says Stuart Hogg, “and I don’t think I’m going to change now, to be honest.” Exeter Chiefs’ Champions Cup quarter-final defeat by Leinster would have been one of those days. In a recent spell that has brought massive success at his club and enormous progress as captain of his…

IT’S REMARKABLE how much a line and a circle on a player’s back can signify. For decades, the fly-half has been a tactical, attacking and emotional focal point, carving the unshaped clay of their team-mates into a sculpture made in their own image. Successful teams are remembered by their ten. Sit back and listen to the roll call: Kyle, John, Bennett, Porta, Fox, Lynagh, Stransky, Larkham, Wilkinson, Carter… They inspired a generation of modern fly-halves, as Toulouse’s Zack Holmes remembers: “Larkham, Wilkinson and Carter, they were the big fly-halves when I was growing up. They were the talisman of the team. They touched the ball a lot, probably the most of anyone, and their involvement drew me to the position, the responsibility of it. You just got involved in the…

THE PANDEMIC is unprecedented, and so too is our decision not to select a Team of the Year for our final grass-roots section of the season. Without matches being played, it felt inappropriate. Instead, in a nod to new beginnings, we’ve anointed Colchester as our Team of the Month. A decade after their local council opened negotiations to buy their ground for housing development, the Essex club last month completed their move to the shiny-new, £29m Northern Gateway Sports Park. Colchester now have an all-mod-cons clubhouse and primary use of seven grass and two all-weather pitches. There are capacious changing rooms and function rooms, all set in a beautifully landscaped area. “It’s the Twickenham of Colchester!” says Maggie Whiteman, the club’s first female president. “When people first see it, they’re…

Capital fellow Scotland wing Darcy Graham, 23, will stay at Edinburgh for “several” years after signing a new deal. He has scored 17 tries in 39 games for the Pro14 side and nine times in 19 Tests. Dublin dates Ireland will host Japan (3 July) and the US Eagles (10 July) at the Aviva Stadium next month as part of a reshuffled summer schedule. Their plans to play a three-Test series in Fiji were scrapped as Covid cases in the Pacific island nation rose. Great work Members of Rhiwbina RFC have raised large sums for charity from their 100KForHobbsy campaign, run in the name of club hero Dave Hobbs, who is fighting cancer. The Welsh club presented cheques to Cardiff Mind (£29,214), School of Hard Knocks (£18,890) and City Hospice…

Islanders visit Australia will play a two-Test series against Samoa in July. The first Test will form part of a double header at Suncorp Stadium on 17 July, when the Wallabies play France, then the Wallaroos will also host Samoa at Leichhardt Oval in Sydney on Thursday 22 July. New dates The 2021 World Cup in New Zealand will be played from 8 October to 12 November 2022. The women’s tournament was postponed due to Covid-19 and will now take place over an extended tournament window of 43 days (up from 35) to allow a minimum five days’ rest between matches. There will also be no overlap of fixtures. League plans Both London Irish and Bath intend to launch women’s teams and apply for spots in the Allianz Premier 15s…

SEVENS NEWS All Blacks sensation Caleb Clarke has returned to his sevens roots in a bid to make New Zealand’s team for the Tokyo Olympics. The 22-year-old wing (right) made his international sevens debut in Sydney in 2018. DID YOU KNOW? Perrett’s first sevens event was in Dubai in 2012, on the inaugural official Women’s World Series. She took charge of the final between South Africa and New Zealand.…

There’s a feel-good factor at Stamford Road on the outskirts of Nottingham. Not just because this vibrant club with an adventurous style achieved their highest league status when coming fourth in One East 14 months ago. Welshman Dilwyn Evans, chairman for more than ten years, said: “We’ve not been sitting back during Covid-19. We’ve had a huge drive to enhance our facilities and the next step is improving the floodlights. We’ve already staged some first-team matches on Friday nights that had a great atmosphere but want to repeat that with colts and second-team games.” Bridgford field three regular men’s sides and have appointed Jennifer Mustoe-Castle as their first DoR of women’s rugby. What next? Evans added: “We’ve raised £30,000 for a covered terrace in memory of stalwart Dan Sutton. On…

“I REMEMBER HAVING a discussion with my mates and saying that once we make this decision it comes with consequences. Are you willing to take the consequences?” Gcobani Bobo, the former Springbok centre turned TV pundit, is addressing one of the most unusual questions Rugby World has posed at the start of an interview. Why did you live in a cave? The mates Bobo refers to, twins Oginga and Samora Siwundla, had played rugby with him at Rondebosch Boys’ High School in Cape Town. Bobo, however, was the star; he had captained South Africa U17 to France in 1996, had roomed with John Smit for SA Schools the same year, was being touted to lead the Springbok U19s at a Junior World Cup. This was all not long after South…

IAM WILLIAMS is a busy man. He and fiancée Sophie Harries have just bought a house and are in the middle of renovations. They are also searching for a wedding venue having got engaged last year. Then there is the Level Three coaching course the Scarlets and Wales full-back has undertaken in preparation for life after rugby. Oh, and there’s the not so small matter of being part of the British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa. No wonder it’s taken a while to pin him down for a chat. Let’s start with his off-field schedule. He has a few months left to complete his coaching qualification, which he’s doing with a number of fellow Wales players, including Gareth Anscombe, Rhys Patchell and Elinor Snowsill. “I’m so far behind,”…

WITHOUT PAUSING Steve Tandy says, “I’m definitely not very adventurous!” Straight out the gate, he is self-deprecating. And yet this coach will be embarking on a trip like no other with the British & Irish Lions this summer. His capers roll on. You see, the reason we ask Scotland’s defence coach about his stomach for the unknown is because to arrive here he had to take a leap of faith first. After so many years with the Ospreys, as a flanker all the way up to head coach, he was let go in 2018. And before he ended up in Scotland assisting Gregor Townsend, he threw caution to the wind and went out to Australia to spend some time with the Waratahs in Super Rugby. At first it was just…

THE 2021-22 season will mark the first time in nearly 20 years that Dave Ward is not preparing for a campaign as a professional player. Instead, after a career that has taken in Bath, Northampton, Sale, Cornish Pirates, Harlequins and currently Ampthill, he will embark on a new role as head coach of Allianz Premier 15s side Bristol Bears. Coaching has long been on Ward’s agenda. He did a Level Two course while at Cornish Pirates a decade ago and “loved it”. He’s coached St Just, Guildford and Surrey alongside his playing duties and for the past couple of years has been a player-coach at Ampthill in the Greene King IPA Championship. So what does he enjoy most about coaching? “Inspiring the next generation of rugby players,” says Ward. “Rugby’s…

THE PLAN for referee Amy Perrett was to prioritise the Olympic Games in Tokyo, and not spread herself too thin trying to be at the top of her game in XVs too. Then Covid blew all Sevens Series plans to smithereens. But while life was handing out lemons, Australia got the meringues and Perrett enjoyed an unexpected boost as elite rugby powered on Down Under. “I’ve been given opportunities that I probably wouldn’t have had otherwise, with Super Rugby in Australia,” Perrett says. With cross-border competitions off, she was able to referee in the men’s Super Rugby AU. She continues: “I’m really grateful and I guess one of the mantras I’ve been living with is, ‘Take whatever opportunities are available’. “Leading into Tokyo, I made the decision that I should…

An all-too-brief taste of the high life in London Premier has whetted Chingford’s appetite for more. They reached their league peak by beating Medway in a play-off in 2018. After a single season in that league, in which they won eight of 26 games, Chingford returned to London One North. Founded in 1928 by members of the local congregational church, they have a rich and colourful history. They originally played on a ground adjacent to a reservoir, loaned by a milkman called Mr Soper, and had a double-decker bus for spectators. In 1945, the club was reformed, using an old army hut and later the Rendezvous Café became their changing facilities. Notable players passed through the club, including Barbarians Simon Dear and Ciaran Bird, and London Scottish duo Jan Bonney…

“Nobody in professional rugby chooses how you exit the building” THIS HAS been a big talking point throughout WhatsApp groups for all of my mates from the pro game: the Mike Brown ‘loyalty’ saga at Harlequins. He’s talked of his disappointment, being told he wouldn’t be offered a new contract by the club in a four-minute meeting and how there was no, “Thanks for your efforts, we’ll help you with your future”. Every single one of us knows when we sign our first contract what we’re getting into. You know it’s a business and if you don’t when you’re starting out, 25-year-old team-mates will tell you. If you still don’t get it by the time you’re 21 then you’re blinkered and selfish and you’ve got no self-awareness. There are people…