Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2025 i Rugby World

The Henry hype train HENRYPOLLOCK’S rise to the top of rugby union has been so meteoric that it was no longer a surprise when he was unveiled as the youngest member of the Lions squad to tour this summer. The fact the 20-year-old got by far the biggest reception at the live event held at London’s O2 to announce the squad is reflective of his already loyal following. Andy Farrell insisted he needed no convincing about Pollock, even before his dynamic Dublin display which downed Leinster in the Champions Cup semi-final. That standout performance meant that even your most old-school rugby critic had to accept that Pollock is walking the walk in the biggest of games. It’s not just hype and bluster. The young Saint may have gone from still…

1 AUSTRALIA Les Kiss will replace Joe Schmidt as Australia’s head coach next year and will lead the Wallabies in their home World Cup in 2027. “It’s the honour of a lifetime,” said Kiss (below), a former Ulster DoR and London Irish coach. Schmidt had been set to depart in October but has extended his stay to facilitate the handover. Kiss will remain Reds’ head coach until midway through 2026. Wallaby Len Ikitau joins Exeter from Brumbies for next season. 2 CHILE Chile will host the World Rugby U20 Challenger Cup in 2026, a cross-regional competition. This year’s U20 World Cup is in Italy from 29 June to 19 July, but no U20 World Trophy is scheduled while a review takes place. Chile’s men will prepare for RWC 2027 qualifiers…

What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen on the pitch? It involved Mike Brown when he was playing for Newcastle against Quins a few years ago. Matas Jurevicius stripped the ball off him but Browny was shouting: “My knees are down, my knees are down!” The ref looks at him, Matas goes “what?” and then just hands the ball back to Browny on the floor. The look on his face. Everyone was creasing. Do you have any phobias? I’m not the biggest fan of spiders like tarantulas, but I’m not that squeamish with anything. What annoys you? People who try to get on the train or the tube when they’re supposed to wait for everyone to get off first. That rattles me. Also, when you’re driving and someone is flashing you from behind, trying…

1 WILL KNIGHT AGE 18 (3 APR 2007) // BORN GLOUCESTER // POSITION CENTRE // CLUB GLOUCESTER // COUNTRY ENGLAND When did you first play rugby? At around five or six at my local club at Longlevens. My dad, uncle and grandad got me into it. I moved to Matson at U10s. What attracted you to the sport? Playing with friends and having family involved made me want to start and ever since I’ve kept falling in love with the game. My dad was the U6 coach and that helped me week in, week out and gave me some accountability! Did you play other sports? I was in the Gloucester City football academy as a centre midfield. I picked rugby over football at 14, 15 mainly because of my school team St…

IF YOU were to look at Aaron Cruden’s career on paper, it sounds like something you would wishfully think up with your mates over a few pints in the pub. Fifty caps for the All Blacks at fly-half with a Rugby World Cup and five Rugby Championship winners’ medals, played against the British & Irish Lions, captain of the 2009 Junior World Cup-winning New Zealand team and named Junior World Player of the Year, two Super Rugby titles with Chiefs and over 100 games in the tournament, sabbaticals in Japan and France, and you’re a Barbarian. It almost reads as too perfect to be true and it’s made even more unbelievable when you then realise the circumstances in which Cruden’s career began. “Rugby took off for me in high school,…

JACK YEANDLE’S longevity in the game means he is old enough to be the father of his youngest team-mates, although that doesn’t make his dad jokes any more tolerable for those who share the Exeter changing room. Fellow hooker Dan Frost has spent plenty of time with Yenz, as he is known, in their units. Frost says: “He’s a good bloke to have around the group. He’s obviously a club legend. He’s good to have, good to work with and it’s good to pick his brains as well. He’s a bit of a joker around the team. His dad jokes are horrendous! But I’ll let him off. “He’s great to have around, especially for the younger lads who are learning. He just talks so well in and around huddles, he…

THE YEAR is 1864. The Union has begun to make great advances against the Confederate Army in the American Civil War as President Abraham Lincoln is elected for a second term. After unifying Italy three years earlier, Giusseppe Garibaldi takes a city break to London, which is celebrating the grand opening of Charing Cross Station. Isambard Kingdom Brunel smashes a bottle of bubbly against the newly-opened Clifton Suspension Bridge and a small brewery called Heineken starts filling bottles with lager over in the Netherlands. And on a chilly afternoon, Richmond invite recent Football Association exiles Blackheath to Richmond Green for an unratified game of “rugby-style” football. Played on 2 January 1864, it was an all-timer that finished 0-0. More than 161 years later, on a sun-dappled afternoon on 26 April…

FINDING SOMEWHERE good before and after a game for a pint is gold dust. So often you find yourself hauled up in some chain pub that is pumping out headless Guinness in plastic cups and microwavable meals for the price of a small hatchback. It can make the concept of enjoying hospitality before and after a rugby game unbearable. So when you find somewhere good, it’s special. Now I’m not sure how many of you are regulars at Toulouse these days, but if you find yourself knocking around the home of these European giants, we have a tip for you and it comes in the form of Trevor Brennan’s bar. You remember Trevor Brennan, right? The double-hard Irish lad who played for Toulouse and Ireland in the back row. An…

I’LL HOLD the British & Irish Lions chat for next month in lieu of another favourite topic of mine – middle-aged, male podcasting duos. They are my guilty pleasure. I listen to David Earl and Joe Wilkinson on Chatabix, Top Flight Time Machine with Andy Dawson and Sam Delaney and Jake Farrell and Jacob Hawley’s Screen Rot Podcast. I like to feel as if I’m in the room with them and that comforts me. The latest unlikely duo are England’s most-capped male rugby players, Ben Youngs and Dan Cole. My initial reaction to their For The Love Of Rugby podcast was ‘Great, another rugby podcast, just what we need’. Yet their warm friendship, clear knowledge of the game and ability to shoot straight opinions means I now listen every week.…

What’s the club called? Lytchett Minster RFC Where do they call home? Old Watery Lane, Lytchett Minster, Poole, Dorset. The address having two references to water is quite apt as the road gets flooded more than you would imagine. Just off the A35 if you’re referring to your A to Z. When and how did the club start? It was started by Gordon Glover, a schoolteacher at Lytchett Minster School in 1981. The school provided changing rooms and the Lee’s Estate allowed the use of a field, with St Peter’s Finger pub being the clubhouse. Initially it started with U19 matches. What teams does the club have? The club has a first and second XV, along with all age groups from U7 tag rugby all the way up to colts.…

WITH A combined 245 caps for England, it’s fair to say Ben Youngs and Dan Cole know what they’re talking about when it comes to rugby. And their listeners agree. The nation’s two-most capped men have capitalised on their profiles and vast experience in the game by spearheading their very successful For The Love Of Rugby podcast. The Leicester Tigers duo only entered the rugby podcast space just over a year ago but are already front and centre thanks largely to the fact they’re both still playing (for now). That offers unparalleled insight into the modern professional game and to have two such high-profile stars branching out on their own in this way would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. “I think things have changed,” Cole tells Rugby…

A 4,724-TONNE FREIGHTER ship, its bow torn to shreds and half-strewn across a road, is one of the resounding images from the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami. A 9.1 undersea earthquake just 72km off the Japanese coastline triggered one of the most destructive tsunamis in modern history that left 19,759 dead, 6,242 injured and 2,553 missing. It was in the port town of Kamaishi where the ship had been thrown onto land and where a whole community had been devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake. With 888 people dead, more than 400 missing and 3,656 homes destroyed, the city had been torn apart to its very foundations. And it was a city that was rebuilt by its rugby team. Rugby heritage has always been rooted within the local community. The team…

JORDIE BARRETT has taken Leinster to another level this year, even if it wasn’t enough in Europe. The All Black is physically gifted but his work-rate, skill and game intelligence stand out for me. For someone of 6ft 5in, he has a tool kit that very few players can match, being able to break the gain-line, pass, offload or kick at a world-class level. He would be my choice as Investec European Player of the Year. I’ve looked at just three of his qualities here… 1 DEFENCE & WORK-RATE Defensively, Barrett brings a level of physicality and decision-making that anchors the midfield. His timing in the tackle and dominance in contact regularly disrupts structured attacks. Off the ball his work-rate is unbelievable – he always seems to be reading and…

FLYDING HIGH The coaches, Ben and Dave, worked wonders putting a senior colts squad together at Fylde – the first time the club has fielded such a side in years. The challenges of school rugby, representative matches, injuries, work and travel have seen hills become mountains. It was all traversed with commitment, resilience and laughter. Winning both the Senior Colts League Plate and the Lancashire U18 Trophy, beating Preston Grasshoppers 17-15, was the culmination of a fabulous season. Charlie, Fylde, Lancashire SCOTTISH COVER? It’s disappointing to see front-cover content which only seems to profile English rugby/players and not from all of the home nations. As a proud Scot, I feel your magazine doesn’t represent the whole picture of rugby in the UK. Do you plan to profile Scottish players in…

TUESDAY 20 MAY Asia Women’s Championship Kazakhstan v Hong Kong THU 22-SUN 25 MAY Sevens Tournament Melrose Sevens FRIDAY 23 MAY Challenge Cup Final Bath v Lyon, 8pm, Principality Std) TV Live on Premier Sports Pacific Four Series Australia v Canada (Brisbane) Super Rugby Pacific Crusaders v Highlanders (8.05am) Reds v Hurricanes (10.35am) RFU Championship Nottingham v Hartpury Uni (7.45) FRI 23-SUN 25 MAY Sevens Tournament Bournemouth Sevens SATURDAY 24 MAY Champions Cup Final Northampton v Bordeaux-Bègles (2.45pm, Principality Stadium) TV Live on Premier Sports Pacific Four Series New Zealand v USA (N Harbour) Super Rugby Pacific Chiefs v Moana (8.05am) Force v Waratahs (10.35am) RFU Championship Doncaster v Cornish Pirates (2.30) Ampthill v Cambridge (3pm) Bedford v Chinnor (3pm) Ealing v Coventry (3pm) London Scottish v Caldy (3pm) SUNDAY…

I STUDIED POLITICS and history at school and university. I grew up with a very political and trade unionist background. My grandparents were both party members, local county and town councillors and trade union leaders. I obviously used that in my rugby career and the experience that I got from there with the Welsh Rugby Players Association, International Rugby Players Association, and the importance of not just workers’ rights but players’ rights. It’s something that has always interested me. I’d love to say I want to stay in rugby but I haven’t had the right opportunity. For various reasons, they’ve been hard to come by. Even when I played for Scarlets and Wales, it was all about public service, doing the right thing and representing my area. When I finished…

WHEN IT all kicked off, on 31 October 1995, there were just 3,000 fans in Constanta to see Toulouse beat Romania’s Farul Constanţa 54-10 in the first game of the then Heineken Cup. English and Scottish clubs didn’t enter the tournament, which consisted of 12 teams from five countries. This season marks the 30th edition of what is now known as the Champions Cup and it’s been illuminated by men who’ve performed heroics in the nearest thing you can get to Test rugby. The dozen players we’ve chosen here have all made their mark and deserve to be listed as icons… GUY NOVÈS Toulouse Novès coached Toulouse to four European titles, including the first one in 1996 and victories in 2003, 2005 and 2010. The former France wing hit the…

01 Which French city will host the 2027 Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup finals? A. 02 Why were Munster justly miffed at being reduced to 14 men in a recent URC match against the Bulls? A. 03 Which 2025 British & Irish Lions coach won the Charles Tyrwhitt Rugby Book of the Year award? A. 04 And which Lions tourist has played every single minute of England’s last 30 Six Nations matches? A. 05 Recently named European School of the Year, what school did ex-England captain Will Carling attend in the 1980s? A. 06 Why was the Italy v Wales Women’s Six Nations match moved back to Sunday 27 April? A. 07 What did former All Black Stephen Donald say that riled people involved in the URC? A. 08 A record defeat led to which English…

What’s the first match you remember going to as a youngster? Oh, that would have been down at my local grass-roots club, FARNHAM, where another bloke called Jonny Wilkinson is from. But we all know that it’s known for being where Ryan Wilson is from – not! And the first professional match you went to as a fan? It would probably have been a London Irish game at the old MADEJSKI STADIUM in Reading. They had an affiliation with Farnham rugby club. I was born in 1989 so add ten on, it was probably around 1999 or 2000. Who was your first rugby hero? I mean, I’ve got to say it was probably JONNY WILKINSON even though I’m a true Scot. It’s Jonny Wilkinson from Farnham rugby club, he was someone that…