Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i Rugby World

ENGLAND WERE playing Ireland away for the Grand Slam in 2001 and my job was to arrange the travel and other logistics for the team, writes David ‘Elton’ Beaumont. I owned a people carrier that I took to Dublin and I was asked to take the kickers to the training pitches. Kyran Bracken, Austin Healey, Dave Alred and Jonny Wilkinson were in my car that day. There was a handheld remote for the stereo system and the lads started mucking about with it, wanting their choice of music and to raise the volume. Austin decided it’d be funny to recline my seat, which meant I was driving with no seat back and hanging on to the steering wheel. Jonny was being Jonny, sitting quietly in the front. My concentration compromised,…

“My biggest influence was my college coach Chris Hyndman, who used to play for Northampton. I still keep in touch with him.” “(New head coach) Alex Codling has been brilliant at Newcastle. He’s got a vision for the club and he’s got everyone on board. Staff and players are all working together to push the club forward.” “At Newcastle, we went to Mauritius for the World Club 10s in 2018-19. It was class. They put us up in an unbelievable hotel. We got to stay out for another week after playing for two days, drinking, fishing and doing watersports.” “Alex Tait is one of my most entertaining team-mates, he’s recently retired. Joel Matavesi, too, who is now at Northampton. Those two are right up there for most entertaining.” “I didn’t…

“I LIVE near Brisbane and work in medical sales for Johnson & Johnson, in their surgical support department, which means dealing with doctors. It’s a buzz and you use skills you used in rugby, like communication and teamwork. A few former players have gone into it. “I retired because of a back problem in 2011 and went back to New Zealand. For years I worked at a rugby academy in Mount Maunganui, in their S&C programme, and helped to place players at clubs. I wanted my weekends back though, to see my wife and daughter, and after we went on holiday to Australia’s Sunshine Coast we wanted to stay. That’s when I got a job in the medical field. I still helped out at my wife’s gym, which we sold…

AUSTRALIA 35 15 GEORGIA Saturday 9 September Stade de France, Paris. Attendance: 75,770 In this match Ben Donaldson scored 25 points against the error-strewn Georgians as the Wallabies ended a run of five losses. Taniela Tupou won his 50th cap. Magic moment Only magic for Aussies – the 14-point swing on 56 minutes. Davit Niniashvili broke through with support but threw a wild offload that was snaffled up by Tupou. He put Donaldson away. Winners’ podium Full-back Ben Donaldson: “Kicking was part of our plan. For me, it was just providing a loud voice and a big boot at the back.” And the losers… Coach Levan Maisashvili: “We don’t just scrummage. We score a lot of tries with our backs and today we created good opportunities.” AUSTRALIA B Donaldson; M…

SPOTLIGHT ON Age 32 (10 Mar 1991) Born Edmonton, Alberta Position Second-row Club Ealing Trailfinders Height 6ft Weight 12st 10lb Canada debut v England, 2013 PHYSICALITY IS at the heart of Canadian second-row Tyson Beukeboom’s game and if fans didn’t know that before the World Cup semi-final against England last November, they did afterwards. Beukeboom came on in the second half and made her presence known. She made a sparkling line break, beat two defenders and, while she was being hauled to the ground by Sadia Kabeya, offloaded to keep the attack going. Four rucks later it was Beukeboom who scored. Canada went on to lose that match 26-19, but Beukeboom’s physicality remains in the memory and it was the element of the game that made her fall in love with…

INEVITABLE, REALLY, that Manuel Ardao would create carnage for opponents at this World Cup. From a young age, he was all about the mischief. “I was a brute as a kid. A little devil,” he tells Rugby World. Against Italy, he was on a rampage and a key reason why los Teros went in at half-time leading 17-7. Forty-five minutes in and Ardao had produced the ultimate pincher’s performance, turning over Italy five times. According to rugby data specialists Oval Insights, Ardao won a whopping nine turnovers across the competition, being a ‘defensive nuisance’ at the ruck 14 times and making ‘effective defensive ruck entries’ 48.6% of the time. So almost half the time he went into a defensive ruck, he was disruptive. A devil indeed. After that performance, Italy…

SPOTLIGHT ON Age 47 (17 July 1976) Born Brisbane Position Head coach Playing position Prop Teams played for Souths, Wicklow Teams coached Leicester, Brumbies, Red Hurricanes, Australia HUMANS DON’T like too much change. That’s something Dan McKellar was aware of as he came into the Leicester Tigers set-up in the summer. Having served as a Wallabies assistant coach, and as Brumbies head coach from 2018 to 2022, he knows all about jobs under the strongest spotlights. But whatever the expectations or reputation you are coming in with, you have to be aware of where you’re heading to. “I spoke to both staff and players from day one around change,” McKellar explains to Rugby World. “Change creates a little bit of stress. It creates a little bit of anxiety. And I wanted…

BIRTHDAY PRESENTS don’t come much better. Barely an hour after the Boks won their fourth Rugby World Cup, Eben Etzebeth turned 32. He had the trophy in his mitts. It’s been some year for the enforcer. Having come back from his own injury troubles of the past to being a true leader for this outfit, he barely had much time to make an impact for the Sharks before he was needed in green. Recently former locking icon Victor Matfield said Etzebeth was “probably the best player in the world”, and he was finally, finally, shortlisted for the World Rugby men’s Player of the Year award. You doubt there will be any acting gongs in his future after a truly wooden cameo in the Afrikaans soap opera Binnelanders, but out on…

IT IS nearly 2,000 days since Danny Cipriani last pulled on an England shirt but his status as one of the country’s most recognisable rugby players shows no sign of diminishing soon. That is largely due to his off-field escapades and high-profile romances which returned to the public sphere with considerable force during an explosive serialisation of his new autobiography, which was released in September. There’s no shortage of salacious quotes in what is a raw and revealing memoir written in the present tense. Cipriani reveals that “threesomes became the norm” and accuses Eddie Jones of behaving like a “horny teenager”, something he then denied. Ironically, Cipriani has the public profile which rugby union craves but finds himself at odds with certain aspects of the game. While many have labelled…

1 Practise in stages Morgan must avoid being in front of Tompkins when he eases off his run to pass. Walk through the play, simulating the effect of the movement on the defence. Progress to full speed with defenders behaving as planned. The centres must look like they’re going to get the ball. In anticipation of a line break, channel work for the final execution is effective. Start with the pass back inside to seven from a standing start. Get support runners to pour through, with the last defender entering the channel and scramble defenders running back to disrupt the play. 2 Kicking tuition Encourage back-rows to join in a backs kicking session, particularly at the end of training. They can help the kickers by being a catcher and kicking…

Email your letters to rugbyworldletters@futurenet.com or write to our editorial address ⋆ STAR LETTER ⋆ Going the extra mile I’m a long-time reader of Rugby World. I’ve got some remarkable ‘international’ news from the Netherlands about Jordan Paterson, who joined Tovaal Rugby Club from his town of birth Stevenston in Scotland. Jordan, 25, ran 120km from Leiden, the town of his current club DIOK, to Goes, where he started his Dutch career at the Tovaal club in 2017 at the age of 19. On one of the hottest days of the year, he hoped to complete the run in 13 hours, but in the end it took 20.5 hours due to tough conditions. The brave Scotsman raised €3,235 for Stichting Mind, a foundation that is committed to helping people with…

1 HENRY POLLOCK Age 18 (14 Jan 2005) Born Banbury Position Flanker Club Northampton Saints Country England When did you first play rugby? I’ve been playing pretty much my whole life. My parents took me to my local club Banbury at about five or six and then I moved to Buckingham a few years later. What attracted you to the sport? The team culture was quite a big aspect. The social side was good and I enjoyed the physicality; I got stuck in at an early age. Did you play other sports? Triathlon, I was quite a good runner. Positions played? I used to play nine because I was a bit small. I played there for a couple of years before the coach said I was too gobby and moved…

ENGLAND 26 23 ARGENTINA Friday 27 October Stade de France, Paris. Attendance: 77,674 In this match The only repeat game of the tournament saw England claim bronze for the first time. Owen Farrell, on his 100th Test start, became top scorer at France 2023 with his final penalty. Sam Underhill was Man of the Match in his first RWC appearance since the 2019 final, Tom Curry won his 50th cap, and centurions Courtney Lawes and Ben Youngs bid farewell to Test rugby. A strange decision to ignore Lucio Cinti’s forward pass in the build-up to Tomás Cubelli’s try helped the Pumas, who would have taken the match to extra-time had Nicolás Sanchez slotted a late penalty. It was his first miss in 13 kicks. Agustín Creevy notched up his 22nd…

FRANCE 27 13 NEW ZEALAND Friday 8 September. Stade de France, Paris. Attendance: 78,680 In this match Mark Telea scored the first try of RWC 2023 after 92 seconds. But Thomas Ramos kicked 17 points to help inflict a first-ever pool defeat on the All Blacks – after 31 successive wins. Will Jordan received the tournament’s first card for an in-the-air tackle on Ramos. Magic moment Damian Penaud launched himself for the line on 52 minutes. A certain try – until Richie Mo’unga hurled himself at the winger and got his fingertips to the ball. Winners’ podium Full-back Thomas Ramos: “It was very hot and the ball was slippery. In terms of desire and attitude, we were there. We’re really happy.” And the losers… Coach Ian Foster: “It was a…

SO THAT was France 2023. What did you think, either travelling around the country or following it on the television? Personally, I thought it was sometimes terrific, sometimes definitely not. Some of the rugby on show and the contests within them were supercharged and from the quarter-finals onwards everyone threw caution to the winds. The ceaseless boredom of box-kicks was thankfully replaced by running rugby and it seemed to leave everyone feeling elated. At half-time in the brilliant France-South Africa game, I turned to the next seat, occupied by young Alex Bywater of the Mail (I was talking him through the game) and we both agreed that it had been one of the most brilliant halves we’d ever seen. The tournament was also uneven, sometimes a little annoying. The barrage…

HE HAD a World Cup final to forget, sure, but the numbers are still staggering. Will Jordan finished this competition as the top try-scorer of the lot, with eight tries to his name. The next down the list was France’s Damian Penaud with six. But Jordan also has this frankly ludicrous return of 31 Test tries in 31 matches for the All Blacks. As our own Stuart Barnes wrote for The Times: “His work-rate is spectacular but it is the capacity to spot space that marks him as statistically the greatest finisher in the history of the international game. Nobody seems to ease through a defensive gap quite like Jordan. The best attackers see the space before the defence realises it exists.” The occasion got the better of him as…

JIMMY BARTEN is part of Rugby Club Hilversum, while wife Marielle is the chair of the famous Amsterdam Sevens. So it’s safe to say that rugby means a lot to the family from the Netherlands. No surprise, then, that they couldn’t wait to tour France for the Rugby World Cup. In fact, they were part of a staggering number of fans who journeyed from the Netherlands to see the top Test sides play ball. “We travel because we don’t have big games in our area and you always have to travel,” says Jimmy. “But for France you can jump in your car and be there in five or six hours. And then you get to see the best games in the world. “Most of the group (travelling fans) are a…

STUDENT ENGLAND CLASS/YEAR 2023 SUBJECT: Gold star For all the external criticism, England could not be knocked for a lack of effort. From the sending-off of Tom Curry to scraping bronze against Argentina, England gave this competition every ounce of energy. In that way, they were a credit to the rugby nation. Commitment seems to be bred in the English bone, together with a cussed streak which shows in their delight in proving doubters wrong. They may not receive marks for aesthetics but are willing to do exactly what they are told. Some may wonder whether this is healthy but it did lead to an outstanding effort in defeat against a more balanced Boks side who looked tired and who struggled in the wet Parisian weather. Steve Borthwick’s game plan…

1 MOVE I WASN’T a goal-kicker when I was younger but I’ve always been adamant about having strong legs, writes Ulster scrum-half and kicker John Cooney. Generally the stronger your legs, the stronger you’ll kick a ball. The longer your levers are, generally the longer you’ll be able to kick a ball, so smaller players should try to have strong legs, working on their squats and hamstring exercises. One thing I can struggle with is focus. So if I go out just to kick for the sake of it, I’ll sometimes lose concentration and start missing. So I like to keep it to a ten-kick or 12-kick challenge. If I’m not kicking that well, I tend to start on the 15m line and work my way out to the five,…

9th With You Every Step by English defence coach Kevin Sinfield and Rob Burrow is published this Thursday. This gift book brings heartfelt words to life with illustrations of their friendship. It costs £10 and Macmillan will split 50p from every copy sold between Leeds Hospitals Charity and the MND Association. 28th The Rugby Inheritance Podcast will host a live show at Kingsholm where special guest Jonny Wilkinson joins co-hosts Sam Roberts and Ed Slater, the former Gloucester lock. Tickets are £30 or £25 for club members, with money being raised for the 4Ed fund. 3rd This Friday sees history made in the United Rugby Championship as the Ospreys become the first Welsh side to stage a home league game in London – they welcome South Africa’s Sharks to the…

ZOMBIE WAS everywhere. The Cranberries song became the soundtrack of the first half of this World Cup as Ireland built up a head of steam. Every win they had, the stadium DJ raced to get the tune on and the Irish fans – and every neutral in the ground, including the French – gave themselves over to the Nineties anthem. The Irish players loved it too. Veteran scrum-half Conor Murray said as much ahead of the quarter-final date with New Zealand. Before adding: “Bundee (Aki) thinks they’re singing ‘Bundee, Bundee’, but they’re definitely not!” They may as well have, such was the level of performance from the centre. The Connacht man was a locomotive on loose wheels, speeding ahead but never seemingly on the track opponents expected. He was dangerous going…

WHAT A Test turnaround. He came off the bench against Scotlandand Italy in the Six Nations and that was it – Ben Earl was exiled from the England set-up. That is until it was time to prep for this World Cup. And then Earl was elevated. Back in the groove in white. In France he was England’s best player, demonstrative of course but also utterly dynamic off the back of the scrum and in midfield. “Ben Earl deserves all the accolades he gets,” said team-mate Jamie George after England claimed third place against Argentina. “He’s had a really tough journey in international rugby. “Us at Sarries have known for a long time that he’s something special. He’s different to what we’ve ever had in an England shirt. His dynamism and…

NO REST for the wicked. Just one week after the bewildering, brilliant win against Fiji, Portugal’s Player of the Match Nicolas Martins was back to the day job, whacking folk for Soyaux Angoulême in France’s ProD2. He will have been walking on air – and hitting like a Beyoncé banger – when he went back to his club, following his impressive displays at the World Cup. In a team full of neutrals’ favourites, he stood out. In their opening match, Martins got the most pleasingly sneaky score from a trick lineout play when the ball was plopped off the top diagonally to him at the front and he eased past the Welsh defence to score. But it was the openside’s efforts in defence that earned him the most plaudits. It…

SPOTLIGHT ON Age 35 (12 Oct 1988) Born Palmerston North Position Lock Club Pau Height 6ft 8in Weight 18st 6lb NZ caps 153 (7T) Instagram handle @samuelwhitelock BY THE barest of margins, Sam Whitelock fell short of the one record that really mattered. He was just two points short of ending his storied New Zealand career as the first man to win three Rugby World Cups after triumphing in 2011 and 2015. South Africa’s 12-11 win in a pulsating Paris final ensured the Springboks joined Whitelock as back-to-back champions after retaining their 2019 title. However, it meant the great lock finished his 153rd and final All Blacks match, and 26th RWC appearance – both new records – on the losing side for a change. “Sport can be pretty cruel,” he…

JAC MORGAN has emerged as the new sweetheart of Welsh rugby for his immense performances and modest demeanour. A back-row mainly playing in the No 7 shirt, he has developed in similar vein to one of his predecessors as Wales captain, Sam Warburton. Like Warburton, Morgan has taken to Test rugby like a duck to water, with the ex-Lions captain even labelling Morgan “Wales’ Antoine Dupont”. But unlike Warburton, Morgan can be used in ways that allow him to show his footballing ability, passing range, footwork and acceleration – all skills that add value to his position. He’s extremely consistent and his knowledge and thirst for the game make him an ideal captain. Morgan’s performances at the recent World Cup typified this. His light shone brightest in the 40-6 rout of…

“The timing of the injury can be important. Maybe you are in contract negotiations or maybe it happened at the start of a run of games you really wanted to play in. The first thing to think about is what you need to do to get back to fitness.” “Don’t come back until you’re ready. Give your body every chance of being healed, repaired and strengthened. Whether it’s a contact injury or a ligament or a break, take the time to get yourself right. That will get you in the right headspace to return to that first contact session confident that you’ve done everything you can to be ready.” “We are very lucky as professional players to have access to the best physios and doctors and people who work incredibly…