Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2022 i Rugby World

“Here’s who to watch as sevens grabs the attention again” YOU CAN call it ‘Covid Memory’ but, in my mind, the Olympics doesn’t seem too long ago. And perhaps the most dramatic action and gripping sporting stories in Tokyo were on the sevens field. Okay, I’m biased, but the wider Olympic broadcasting teams and media were astounded at the athleticism, resilience and ferocity of the game’s shortened version. I’m already excited at the prospect of sevens grabbing the attention again, this time at the Commonwealth Games. Sixteen men’s and eight women’s teams will play across three days, 28-31 July. In the men’s event, Fiji are synonymous with entertaining. They also have two Olympic golds. However, since Tokyo, there’s been almost a complete overhaul of their squad, with England stalwart Ben…

BACK IN 1991, Ireland went on tour to Namibia – and it was quite an experience. “I walked around the grounds of the hotel in Windhoek with Simon Geoghegan and we nearly got killed by creatures who appeared out of bushes,” says Neil Francis in the book No Borders. The rugby was something of a surprise, too, and they lost the first Test 15-6. Brendan Mullin says: “Nobody had done the fine analysis. By going to Namibia you go to altitude, which is wonderful for the first three days because we were running around like champions, but then the altitude kicks in. I still have a recollection of the first Test and we could hardly finish the warm-up. We were knackered before it started.” Things got worse following a barbecue…

WINNER EARL Saracens flanker Ben Earl (right) pipped George Ford to the Premiership Player of the Season award. NEW WHEELS Hexham Priory School, for kids with severe learning disabilities, has been given a minibus funded by the Stay Strong Stu foundation and Northumberland Wooden Spoon. COACHES’ CALL Yorkshire-based charity UK Coaching has launched a nationwide drive to encourage more people to become coaches. See ukcoaching.org/born2 coach for details. BOKS WATCH Welsh language channel S4C is showing extended highlights of Wales’ three Tests v South Africa at 9pm on the day of each match. TUNE IN TO U20s Italy is hosting a men’s U20 Summer Series that concludes on 12 July. Watch games via the Six Nations Rugby U20 YouTube channel. ATLANTIC ROW Former Ireland A lock Damian Browne and pal…

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BACK IN New Zealand after a two-year stint in Japan, Brodie Retallick is entering the final chapter of his career. A broken thumb disrupted his return to the Chiefs but the World Cup-winning second-row is sure to be a key figure for the All Blacks against Ireland over the coming weeks. He’s also on track to reach the 100-cap milestone later this year before bowing out of Test rugby after the 2023 World Cup. Here the 2014 World Player of the Year talks locks, longevity and lattes… This was the first time you’ve played Super Rugby since 2019. How much has it changed? I think it’s always changing. It seems more stop-start the way it’s being refereed. It used to be that we got a lot more free-flowing games and…

1. SAMU KEREVI It says everything of his impact for the Wallabies in 2021 that he was nominated for World Player of the Year, having played only five Tests. Now based in Japan, Kerevi’s mix of power running and skilful offloading helped transform Australia and saw them knock off the Springboks back-to-back. He is a ‘Giteau Law’ pick for Dave Rennie (the clause that allows the Wallabies coach to pick three players from outside Australia). 2. LEN IKITAU The impressive Brumbies No 13 has been a first-choice Wallabies midfielder for the past two years. Armed with a stout defence, an incisive running game and an all-important left boot, he is one of those ultra-reliable centres in the mould of Jonathan Davies, who do their job well all night, then pop…

THE LAST time we saw Huw Jones in a Scotland shirt was in Covid times, when stadiums were empty and atmospheres were non-existent. It was in Paris in 2021, a famous away victory marked by a lot of shouting on the pitch and the sound of one man clapping in the vast acreage of the Stade de France. Jones came on as a substitute that night. Since then, not a look-in. There’s been nine Scotland Test matches, eight different Scotland centres and eight Scottish centre combinations. There’s been Chris Harris and Sam Johnson, Mark Bennett and Sione Tuipolutu. Matt Scott played against South Africa. Cam Redpath played against Wales. Adam Hastings filled in at 12 for a spell against Australia and Finn Russell did the same against Ireland. Jones has…

1 MOVIE THE KEY to sevens performance is to prep for high-speed, explosive movements, writes England and GB Sevens star Tom Mitchell. That starts with mobility between games. You have the potential to stiffen up a bit and your range of motion gets limited. So you’ve got to get back into a full range of motion again. That’s the starting point, and then getting the blood flowing around your body. Doing this allows you to warm up in the 12-minute flurry before a game, to prime your body for those explosive movements. You might also prime it with a few jumps for height, then one or two sprints into the warm-up. The other side is prep for contact, which varies from team to team. South Africa are probably leading the…

1 OLLIE SMITH Age 21 (7 Aug 2000) Born Prestwick Position Full-back Club Glasgow Warriors Country Scotland How did you get involved in rugby? I was taken by my dad at seven years old. He’d failed to get my brother into sport a couple of years before me, so I was the next one! I played for Marr all the way through primary school and a bit of secondary school, then I moved to Ayr. So your dad is a big rugby fan? He got me involved and took me around to games. Now I’m playing for Glasgow there are probably only one or two games he’s missed. He’s sacrificed quite a lot, to send me to boarding school, Strathallan, and travel to games. One of the reasons I enjoy playing…

“The funniest thing I’ve seen was when a team-mate got tackled so hard they had to change underwear. Not in the current squad!” “I listen to a lot of worship music and love house music. We have a team speaker but the DJ changes between a couple of guys. It’s smart to collect a few songs from each player, so that everyone has contributed.” “The last picture I took was of Big Ben. Our recent sevens leg in London was great. For the captain’s photo shoot we were sitting on a big red bus with the open top, so we were able to go around London and see the sights. The weather was quite good that week too.” “If I could have one superpower it would be to read minds.…

“I RETIRED at 35, in 2012, which was pretty good. I had always been worried about what was next. When you come to the end of your career you’re scared because your body is falling to pieces. “Thirty seems to be the age when most players start fretting, so that season I was doing three days a week in the City, two training at Saracens and match day if I was needed. George Kruis and those guys were coming through, so I did some mentoring with them too. “When I hung up my boots at Saracens I worked as their commercial director. Then I worked at Pitch International, a company that dealt with broadcasting rights. I looked after the rugby and cricket sales team. I helped do the Premiership Rugby…

THERE IS one thing you can say for sure about the torrent of international rugby tours taking place in the southern hemisphere – they will do nothing whatsoever for the environment. Let us not become too alarmist or forget that there will be millions of other pollutants around, but the carbon footprint of Test rugby is absolutely monstrous, super-sized. From the home nations alone, Ireland are touring New Zealand, England are in Australia, Wales in South Africa and Scotland in Argentina. There are myriad other international fixtures when players will be conveyed on thirsty aircraft and there will be hundreds of boots on the ground alongside those giant carbon prints. If we can take the sport in isolation – not easy, I know – then there will be entertainment and…

Age 32 (26 Feb 1990) Born Dublin Position Fly-half Club Sale Sharks Height 6ft 1in Weight 14st 13lb USA caps 30 Instagram @ajmacginty THE NIGHT before chatting to Rugby World, AJ MacGinty spent an hour and a half on a Zoom call with Gary Gold. “Over the last three years I’ve got to know him so much better,” says MacGinty of his USA coach. “I enjoy spending time with him, his insight into the game and experiences. He’s got such passion for the game and really wants to push the sport in America, to get the best out of us. I’ve definitely learnt a lot from him. “He was asking how I am and how the family are, and we’re also bouncing ideas off each other, talking about the game.…

HOW DO you follow a fifth-place finish in the Six Nations and a first-ever home defeat by Italy? For Wales, you take on the world champions by heading on a three-Test tour to South Africa – a place Wales have never won. There are surely easier ways to regroup! Still, those players travelling in Wayne Pivac’s squad are eager to prove they are a better team than they showed in the championship. Amongst them are Dragons locks Ben Carter and Will Rowlands. The pair’s rugby journeys are somewhat different – Carter has worked his way through Wales’ age groups and made his Test debut a year ago aged 20, while Rowlands didn’t win his first cap until 28 having studied economics and management at Oxford before taking up a professional…

LEINSTER’S FIRST trophyless season since 2017 doesn’t detract from their breakdown work. Their ball-carrying and ruck speed has blown sides away, most notably Toulouse in the Heineken Champions Cup semi-final. So impressive is their execution, both in terms of rucks won and efficiency rate, that Andy Farrell has adopted a similar style with Ireland, switching the point of attack with multiple options. Ireland’s average ruck speed in the Six Nations was 2.88 seconds, with 71% of their own ball being 3 seconds or less. That is the sort of speed we associate with the All Blacks, with Aaron Smith moving the ball quickly and waves of runners penetrating the line to create space out wide. With Ireland now well versed in fast ball, this summer’s series between the countries will…

4th In two months’ time (4 Sept), ex-Scotland lock Al Kellock will join Sir Chris Hoy (below right) in taking part in Break the Cycle. The 60-mile bike ride stretches from Glasgow to Edinburgh and will raise funds to help end homelessness. Ten per cent of the proceeds will go to a trust for Tom Smith’s family. See breakthecycle.co.uk for details. 18th The Monday after England’s three-Test series against the Wallabies concludes, the team from The Ruck podcast will be delivering their verdict on the tour from Oz. Who impressed for Eddie Jones’s team? How are both sides shaping up for the World Cup? Listen via Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. 1st Will Namibia be playing New Zealand at next year’s World Cup, as they did in 2019 (left)?…

Last person you phoned George Kruis, about the Baa-Baas Most important person in phone I have to say my mother Last person you texted Luke Cowan-Dickie, to tell him I was by the pool Last photo taken Of my lip! I tried to get a pic while it was being stitched as well but it didn’t work Favourite social network Instagram Favourite music app Apple Music Last app downloaded Deliveroo – you can’t get it in Exeter so I always get it in London Last song you played Jack Johnson, Never Know…

CONSISTENCY IS a big deal in refereeing and always has been. And in the modern game, it is scrutinised more than ever. With so many matches on TV and so many cameras at each game, decisions are dissected to the nth degree. Whilst decisions over 80 minutes must be as consistent as possible, what about game to game or country to country? World Rugby has tried to standardise how laws are interpreted around the world, so that a match in England is refereed the same as a match in New Zealand. However, in reality it doesn’t seem to be the case. That shouldn’t be a surprise because it never has been. Now more than ever, there seems to be a divide in the way the laws are applied, but the…

“His skills are just ridiculous. And his work ethic is what sets him apart” PITA GUS SOWAKULA was a part-time pastry chef at the Hideaway Resort on Fiji’s Coral Coast when he was stopped by a stranger as he walked through reception one day. “This guy who was checking out asked if I played rugby,” Sowakula says. “I told him I played for the resort sevens team.” That man was Dion Smith, who worked as a player agent. He asked Sowakula if he wanted to play abroad and if he had ever thought about playing in Taranaki. “I didn’t even know where Taranaki was,” Sowakula laughs. He was about to find out as he was recruited without anyone having seen him play, leaving Michael Collins, who had hatched this outlandish…

Age 28 (29 Oct 1993) Born Buenos Aires Position Hooker Club Leicester Height 6ft Weight 17st 11lb Argentina caps 75 Instagram @julimontoya5 ASK Steve Borthwick to discuss the impact Julián Montoya has had since he joined Leicester Tigers in January last year and he’d rather talk about the person than the player. “He’s a quiet man but when he speaks the whole place falls silent,” says Borthwick. “I think it’s his whole presence. He’s captain of Argentina. He doesn’t have to say a lot, but when he walks into a room you know he’s there. “Everyone listens to him. He’s incredibly intelligent, understands the game and is very tough. If I was a player, he’s the kind of player I’d want to go onto the field with, to follow on…

Age 30 (29 Oct 1991) Born Cape Town Position Lock Club Toulon Height 6ft 8in Weight 19st 3lb SA caps 97 Instagram @ebenetzebeth4 EVEN ON the verge of playing his 100th Test, Eben Etzebeth’s first appearance in the green and gold is etched into his mind. Etzebeth enjoyed a rapid rise to the heights of international rugby. Having impressed in his first season with the Stormers in 2012, he earned his Test debut against Stuart Lancaster’s England that year. Nearly a decade later, he is able to recall the moment he was told he was going to be a Springbok. “We had played the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld and I remember Allister Coetzee telling me and a few of my team-mates – like Jean de Villiers and Bryan Habana –…

1 Latch or clean out? Latching is about decision making. Support players must assess whether to get closer to latch or hold back, assess the threats and lower their height to clean out. In practice, get defenders to try to hold up the ball-carrier some of the time and perform routine tackles with a jackal threat from the inside on other occasions. Mixing it up this way promotes decision making. In the former situations, urge the carrier to fight hard with leg drive and lower their height. 2 Work on the floor Using footwork to create the chance to go beyond the tackle can be replicated in small spaces. Give defenders tackle shields to avoid use of their arms and add one or two tacklers who can tackle only. Encourage…

WIN SOME CASH! The Star Letter winner will receive £20 – let us know your views on the game to be in the running ⋆STAR LETTER⋆ Stop the clock for scrums Whenever there is a scrum awarded, you know you have time to put the kettle on, grab another beer, check on the kids or visit the bathroom. Usually this time is taken up by the forwards assembling, discussions with the referee and the almost inevitable reset. I often watch games with my ten-year-old son and find myself trying to keep his attention (and sometimes mine!) and interest in the game during the whole scrum process. I do understand the importance of player safety, so have no issue with ensuring there are safe, controlled scrums. However, I would like to…