Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2025 i Rugby World

“Beauden Barrett wants Japan to return to Super Rugby” THE RETURN of Super Rugby Pacific for 2025 has prompted All Blacks fly-half Beauden Barrett to call for Japan to be reinstated in the competition. Japan were part of Super Rugby from 2016-20, when the Tokyo-based Sunwolves were playing in a league that at its 2017 peak had 18 teams from four continents. Since then, Super Rugby has shrunk, with the Sunwolves, Argentinabased Jaguares and South African sides all leaving. In 2025, the league will host just 11 teams split across New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and the Pacific Islands. Meanwhile, rugby in Japan continues to thrive; the Japan Rugby League One pro league has become a hotbed for some of the world’s best players. Barrett, who returns to the Blues, the…

1 Uruguay Uruguay’s men were the toast of the Perth SVNS after beating both Fiji (24-17) and New Zealand (17-12). Having overcome a 17-point deficit to stun Fiji, Uruguay downed the Kiwis for the first time to trigger euphoric scenes. Juan Manuel Tafernaberry kicked the winning points. “It was an incredible effort,” said coach Gabriel Puig. Argentina won the tournament to top the standings alongside Fiji and Spain. 2 USA History was made as Los Angeles took on Fijian Drua in January in the first clash between a team from Major League Rugby and Super Rugby Pacific. The match in Lautoka, Fiji was a fundraiser for victims of the LA fires. Puma Gonzalo Bertranou (above) was one of four LA try-scorers, with three conversions by marquee signing Christian Leali’ifano. Drua won…

WHAT’S THE funniest thing you’ve seen on the pitch? Keira Bevan’s hair sometimes falls out in a game. And there was a picture in the World Cup (2022) where she looked like Faf de Klerk! We compared the pictures and it was hilarious. She played a couple of phases where her hair was all over the place. What really annoys you? Lazy people. In rugby, you’ve got 15 players fighting for each other, so if one doesn’t pull their weight it really affects the team. If your house was on fire, what one item would you save? My mam’s earrings. What’s the best present you’ve ever received? A car that my parents gave to me. It was my first car and I crashed it. I aquaplaned on the motorway on…

DURING THE pandemic, it was the done thing to clap outside your house to show your appreciation for all the NHS staff going above and beyond the call of duty. Thankfully, Covid has now loosened its grip on society, but registered nurse Carys Cox has still been going the extra mile to juggle 12-hour shifts with playing top-level rugby in different countries. A feat that is worth a round of applause. The growth in the women’s game means that Cox has, for now at least, transitioned into full-time rugby with Trailfinders in the Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby league and Wales. When she qualified as a nurse from Cardiff University, Cox worked part-time, meaning 12-hour shifts on a Sunday and Monday in the Welsh capital before jumping in the car and…

ANYBODY THINKING that this year’s Six Nations is a conclusion is Women’s foregone mistaken. Sure, England may be unbeaten in their last 20 Tests and have won the previous six championships, five of them with emphatic Grand Slams, but this is a World Cup year, so everyone will raise their game. France have always been there or thereabouts and Ireland are knocking on the door. Wales, Scotland and Italy are all on upward trajectories. Over the next dozen pages, we dive into the nitty-gritty of the six countries and tell you everything you need to know ahead of what is a momentous year for the women’s game.…

FROM PLAYING rugby for St Olave’s Grammar School to winning gold for France in Paris, Aaron Grandidier Nkanang’s path to the top is certainly unconventional. Although the name may be unfamiliar to the wider rugby audience, the English-born Olympic champion is starting to make waves across the Channel. “It’s awesome over here,” he tells Rugby World. “In my opinion, the Top 14 is by far the best domestic league in the world and playing week in, week out against the biggest players in the game has definitely helped me improve.” Currently plying his trade for Pau in the French Pyrenees, Grandidier may go under the radar alongside the likes of Joe Simmonds, Théo Attissogbe and Émilien Gailleton, but the kid from Bromley is definitely dreaming big. “I’m an ambitious person…

BACK IN September, Ireland stunned world champions New Zealand in their first-ever WXV1 match. Two 21-year-olds and a 20-year-old were vital in securing that victory. Aoife Wafer pilfered two tries and was named Player of the Match, while Dannah O’Brien slotted the last-minute conversion to make it 29-27. Erin King, the youngest of the trio, crashed over for two tries in 13 minutes after being sprung from the bench for the closing half-hour. Two years ago, former Ireland captain Ciara Griffin stated that the women’s senior side had hit “rock-bottom”. Having failed to qualify for the previous Rugby World Cup, they sank lower when they finished the 2023 Six Nations without a single point. Few would have argued with Griffin, who was not alone in making the point. Ireland felt…

NO ONE ever starts out as a professional rugby player. Those of us lucky enough to have picked up an oval ball got into it due to a love of the game and what it can do for you. For the very few who are good enough, committed enough and lucky enough, a professional career is a possibility and that brings money into it. But that has its own perils, as Scott van Breda found out the hard way. The South African made Jersey his home and played for Jersey Reds under compatriot Harvey Biljon. He had a spell as club captain and in 2022-23 was part of the Championship-winning squad. It was a fairytale story covered in these pages, but it all came abruptly crashing down. In September 2023,…

I WAS at London Bridge recently and saw two teenage girls walk past me with red-and-white football scarves on. They were Arsenal fans and on their scarves were portraits of players. One had Alessia Russo, the other Leah Williamson. Both were off to join 34,300 other fans at Stamford Bridge to watch Arsenal face Chelsea in the Women’s Super League. When the Lionesses won the 2022 Euros at home in Wembley, women’s football changed forever in England. This year, the Women’s Rugby World Cup final takes place at Twickenham on 27 September. If England’s Red Roses lift that trophy, which they are heavy favourites to do, I believe we will see a similar effect to what football experienced. Women’s rugby will change forever, and for the better. No pressure, girls.…

SCOTTISH RUGBY was in fine fettle in 1990, as our April edition that year reflected, writes Alan Pearey. Narrow wins in Ireland and Wales, and a 21-0 rout of France, had set the national team up for a Grand Slam showdown with England. Murrayfield was preparing to become all-seater after the Taylor Report into the Hillsborough disaster, while The Corries’ ballad Flower of Scotland had been adopted as an anthem. Finlay Calder had an OBE for leading a winning Lions side and Welsh legend Phil Bennett was extolling Calder’s fellow flanker. “Wales had no answer to John Jeffrey – the ‘White Shark’ was everywhere,” he said. As we know, on a day of high emotion in Edinburgh, Scotland got their Slam – the third and most recent in their history.…

ENGLISH RUGBY through the 2010s was defined by one team – Saracens. amassed five Premiership They titles and three European Cups in a decade that ended with relegation to the Championship as an investigation by Premiership Rugby found the club to have breached salary cap regulations. At the centre of it all was Nigel Wray, an investor and businessman who for a quarter of a century invested his own money into the club he was a fan of. Rugby history will have you regard Wray’s Saracens as one of the most dominant forces that club rugby has seen. But often forgotten is the reality of Wray’s tenure, which endured a lot of rough experiences in its early days. This jersey, from 1999, signifies those darker days. Before the days of…

HREE BEARS walk into a room. It almost sounds like the start of a corny joke but 2025 is no laughing matter for Bristol’s Red Rose trio that are sat in front of me. Forwards Sarah Bern and Abbie Ward bear the scars of World Cup final losses to New Zealand in 2017 and 2022. Fly-half Holly Aitchison only carries the baggage of that agonising loss last time out, when Lydia Thompson’s red card meant England played with 14 players for 62 minutes. As it happened, the game was alive until the dying embers and even then it looked like England, lauded as set-piece Queens, would maul over to claim the trophy at the last. Instead, the lineout went awry and Eden Park crowned the Black Ferns champions. That was…

THE LINE between confidence and arrogance is fine. Confidence is knowledge of one’s self-worth and ability regardless of external validation, while arrogance is a superiority complex born from exaggerated ability and/or achievement. The subtle difference between the two is important in defining how we see someone and often the two can be confused for one another. You may think Junior Kpoku is arrogant but he is not, he is just confident. And that is what he would tell you, too. “Having a personality in this sport can take you far, at least I think that! Maybe that’s what the current England team is missing? Someone who is outgoing and says it how it is. It marks your territory and shows that you’re enjoying playing rugby. Maybe they’re missing something in…

EVER SINCE I was a little boy, I was fixated by Toulouse. My formative rugby years were spent idolising Freddy Michalak and Jean-Baptiste Élissalde, Yannick Jauzion and Florian Fritz, Clément Poitrenaud and Vincent Clerc, William Servat, Thierry Dusautoir, Yannick Nyanga and the Maka brothers. A side etched into rugby folklore. Multiple European Cup winners, a wallet full of Top 14 titles and a free-flowing playing style that would make even the most fervent romanticist of push and shove in the mud go weak at the knees. The ever-crouched Guy Novès silently at the wheel of a coach full of whimsical warriors who played the game in a style so unique to them. In the days of dial-up broadband and MySpace, my love of this team was crafted through a heady…

FRIDAY 28 FEBRUARY United Rugby Championship Munster v Edinburgh (7.35pm) TV Live on Premier Sports Zebre Parma v Dragons (7.35pm) TV Live on BBCW & Prem Sports Super Rugby Pacific Moana v Highlanders (6.05am) Waratahs v Drua (8.35am) FRI 28 FEB-SAT 1 MAR Premiership Rugby Cup QFs SATURDAY 1 MARCH United Rugby Championship Lions v Sharks (12.30pm) Bulls v Stormers (3pm)  TV Both live on Premier Sports Leinster v Cardiff (3pm)  TV Live on S4C & Premier Sports Ulster v Scarlets (5.15pm) TV Live BBCNI, S4C, Prem Sports Connacht v Benetton (7.35pm) Glasgow v Ospreys (7.35pm) TV Both live on Premier Sports French Top 14 Std Français v La Rochelle (1.30) Lyon v Toulon (3.30pm) Montpellier v Castres (3.30pm) Racing 92 v Pau (3.30pm) Toulouse v Vannes (3.30pm) Perpignan v…

“IN THE latter years of my career, before retiring in 2024, I was acting as an “ introducer for Gallagher. I had been invited to do that by Hugh Vyvyan, who I knew through the Saracens network, and when he moved to a different role I was working with Nathan Hines, who had taken over (from Vyvyan). I was trying to figure out where I wanted to land in insurance and did some exams with the work experience. “It was a busy time. I would get home from training, put some smart clothes on and get into London to attend meetings, or I would be there on my day off managing it around recovery. “From around February 2024, it was about getting into London and meeting as many people as I…

WARREN GATLAND’S time as Wales coach may have officially come to an end by ‘mutual agreement’, but I think that was just the union trying to save face and it was Warren’s call. It is sad. What he brought to Welsh rugby you can’t argue with. The fans are still full of admiration for Warren and thankful for all the success he brought. We are also impatient and expect results, but that in turn is only down to the success he brought first time around. Before he left, there was still support for him as the majority of rugby people get the situation that Wales are in. There were also other people with their own views and agendas, which was tough. After it was announced he was leaving, there was…

IS 2025 the biggest year ever for women’s rugby? For eyeballs, for funding, for opportunity to grow the audience, yes. In years gone by, it was more about building the sport and embedding foundations, developing a game into professionalism. But those moments could pale into insignificance if you fill Twickenham with 80,000 people, England lift the World Cup and these girls become household names. I can say, hand on heart, the game changes forever. When people ask what the difference between winning and losing can have in terms of impact for women’s rugby in England, the only thing they can do is win. If the men lose in a final, it’s still amazing but for us it’s never good enough. In 2010 when we lost the World Cup final at…

HELEN NELSON is one of the wisest heads in the Scotland camp. With 65 games under her belt, she’s in the top ten capped women’s players for her country and boasts experience from the 2022 World Cup and almost a decade of Six Nations campaigns. Add to that two seasons in France’s Top 8 and half a decade in the PWR and there’s not much Nelson has not seen. And yet despite this wealth of lived experience, the 30-year-old from the Highlands is still trying to process the overwhelming sense of opportunity that 2025 holds. “As clichéd as it is, as a team we’re looking at 2025 one game at a time and that opening Six Nations game against Wales,” she tells Rugby World. “But for someone who has experienced…

Food Cassoulet is the local dish, a slow-cooked stew with haricot beans and duck. I’ve had it twice in a restaurant called Le Colombier and both times it was fantastic. The Market Victor Hugo is also great pre-game, although it does shut on Mondays. Wine No 5 Wine Bar in central Toulouse has been voted the best wine bar in the world on three occasions. It’s also well-priced and not that hard to secure a reservation, so we suggest a little post-match visit. Culture An hour away by train is the fortified medieval citadel of Carcassonne. With its turrets and narrow alleyways, it’s well worth the journey should you be in Toulouse for longer than a day or two.…

HOOK AND FLANKER SIX NATIONS FLEECE, £45 hookandflanker.co.uk Pop this on, get yourself a cup of tea and a big bag of crisps, then settle down to watch the Six Nations. You’ve earned it. FRANCE ADIDAS HERITAGE RUGBY SHIRT, £55 adidas.co.uk From now on, we’re entering every situation with the presence and confidence of François Cros in this leather bomber jacket, classic France shirt and cream roll neck. BREITLING LIMITED-EDITION CHRONOMAT SIX NATIONS WATCH, £4,950 breitling.com It’s believed that eight in ten doctors wear their watch face on the inside of their wrist. And that ten in ten doctors have illegible handwriting.…

“It’s no surprise that Netflix has pulled the plug on the Six Nations” HAS ANYBODY watched series two of Six Nations: Full Contact on Netflix yet? It’s fair to say we were all a bit underwhelmed by it all, don’t you think? It was the same production team that created Formula 1: Drive to Survive and Tour de France: Unchained, which were smash hits and propelled those sports into completely new audiences. And Netflix knows what it’s doing when it comes to documentary series, doesn’t it. The NFL Quarterback documentary, for instance, is fantastic. All of those examples were in-depth and personality-led with unparalleled access to welcome you into a sport you might not know. Rugby was incredibly lucky to be picked for the Netflix treatment, it wasn’t a divine…