Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2019 i Rugby World

Last person you phoned My cousin, who I’m picking up from the airport, to check his flight was on time Most important person in phone Obviously my wife Music app Spotify. I’ve been a big fan for a while now Last person texted My cousin again! Last song played Shoota – Playboi Carti featuring Lil Uzi Vert Favourite social network I’ll have to say the Gram. I’m not on Twitter or Facebook News app I don’t have an app but look at Sky Sports, BBC rugby and stuff.co.nz websites Last app downloaded One for conference calls that I needed to log into a Scotland meeting Last photo taken Of my aunty with my daughter to show family that she’d arrived safely Favourite WhatsApp group My NBA fantasy group. It’s good…

1 JOE HEYES Age 19 (13 April 1999) Born Nottingham Club Leicester Country England Position Tighthead prop When did you first play rugby? When I was 14, after I quit football. I’d had an interest before but I was a goalkeeper in the Nottingham Forest Academy. My dad’s a former professional footballer for Forest as a goalkeeper and my granddad had been a goalkeeper for Leicester City, but I didn’t want to do it any more. It was quite a hostile environment. I quit and across the road was a rugby club called Nottingham Moderns. Did you like it immediately? I loved it before I’d even played a game! After my first training session, my mum said I had a massive smile on my face. There was a brilliant bunch…

SOON AFTER Ian Robertson started working for BBC radio in the 1970s, he was asked to commentate on Rosslyn Park v Coventry with the actor Oliver Reed, a Park fan who had bought the club a set of floodlights, as a special guest… Five minutes into the game, there was no sign of the great actor, writes Robertson. There were plenty of rugby stars on show but none of the cinematic variety. “He’ll be there,” the sports desk assured me. “And when he arrives, give him the big build-up.” Another five minutes went by – and suddenly there he was. He had chosen to smother himself in a full-length mink coat and bright yellow Wellington boots. He was swaying and stumbling and lurching. What was more, he couldn’t find his…

FIJIAN BASE Suva will host next month’s Pacific Challenge tournament, which involves Fiji Warriors, Junior Japan, Samoa A and Tonga A. Matches take place on 8, 12 and 16 March. TOP GONG Johnny Sexton has been voted the Rugby Union Writers’ Club Personality of the Year for 2018, receiving the Pat Marshall Trophy. SCHOOLS DRIVE England Touch are applying for touch rugby to be included in the GCSE and A Level PE curriculum. DINNER TIME Matt Hampson (with Manu Tuilagi, left) holds his annual Six Nations Dinner on 27 Feb in Battersea. Tables are available from £2,495. See matthampsonfoundation.org for info. SHARK BUSINESS Springboks No 9 Faf de Klerk will stay at Sale until 2023 while the club has signed Jake Cooper-Woolley. His fellow Wasp, No 8 Nathan Hughes, joins…

THE OPENING games of this year’s U20 Six Nations reminded us about the earnest young players setting off on the next stage of their desperate bid for rugby glory. And every year I feel the same – good on them, enjoy yourselves. Yet the whole thing often offends me, so does much of the crazy development programmes for young players. So much is bogus elitism; it is unfair, often damaging to the wider world of participation and painful for the elite players with false illusions. The general process of identifying talented players who have the potential to become elite irks me, and not just in England – in Wales, Scotland and Ireland too. The well providing almost all new professional players is a very, very small range of schools –…

STUDENT PRIZE Applications are open for Old Elthamians’ groundbreaking partnership with St Mary’s University, Twickenham. As part of the five-year arrangement, Elthamians are offering scholarships for talented players that will cover the full cost of tuition and accommodation fees, including meals. It’s worth around £50,000 for the duration of a player’s studies. The first beneficiaries are centre Ciaran McGann, fly-half Oli Hobman, wing Aaron Grandidier and prop Bobby Bratton. Grandidier has already made some National One appearances. Former England scrum-half Peter Richards and James Brooks, ex-Wasps, Northampton and England Sevens, are overseeing the academy project. DEVON CREAM Plymouth Albion, of National One, are also running a new high-performance programme, this time alongside Marjon University. Several Marjon students were chosen for the first Plymouth Albion Development team to take the field.…

FAMILY PRIDE It was a big day for the Musgrave family, of Bridgwater & Albion, when brothers George and Jack started together for the first time in the 44-30 defeat at St Ives in One West, shortly after joining the club. Blindside Jack, 23, had appeared off the bench in the 61-16 loss to Okehampton the previous week, but the St Ives game marked his first game in the No 6 shirt. George, 26, was making his debut in that match and they were watched by their parents. He said: “They were proud to see us playing together.” SURPRISES AT DEVIZES Unusual circumstances led to Sherborne winning the Dorset & Wilts Senior Cup and a Southern Counties South game on the same day – without even taking the field against…

THIS IS the 20th edition of the Six Nations, five becoming six when Italy joined the party back in 2000. And during that time many championship traditions have been retained while facets of the modern world have been embraced. That balance of old and new is always a delicate one – so have the Six Nations got it right? I’d say not quite. The age-old rivalries remain, with the passion of fans and players alike evident, and the tournament reaches a huge audience via free-to-air TV, with the technological advances in those broadcasts a big plus. However, the Friday night kick-offs give little thought to travelling supporters, the women’s event is still without a main sponsor and the organisation’s subborn refusal to consider how to help the growth of other…

POOL STAGES FRI 20 SEP Japan v Russia (11.45am, Tokyo) SAT 21 SEP Australia v Fiji (5.45am, Sapporo) France v Argentina (8.15, Tokyo) N Zealand v SA (10.45, Yokohama) SUN 22 SEP Italy v Namibia (6.15am, Osaka) Ireland v Scot (8.45, Yokohama) England v Tonga (11.15, Sapporo) MON 23 SEP Wales v Georgia (11.15am, Toyota) TUE 24 SEP Russia v Samoa (11.15, Kumagaya) WED 25 SEP Fiji v Uruguay (6.15am, Kamaishi) THU 26 SEP Italy v Canada (8.45am, Fukuoka) England v USA (11.45am, Kobe) SAT 28 SEP Argentina v Tonga (5.45, Osaka) Japan v Ireland (8.15, Shizuoka) S Africa v Namibia (10.45, Toyota) SUN 29 SEP Georgia v Uruguay (6.15, K’agaya) Australia v Wales (8.45am, Tokyo) MON 30 SEP Scotland v Samoa (11.15am, Kobe) WED 2 OCT France v USA…

AN INDEPENDENT review made 31 recommendations to improve New Zealand secondary school rugby. The report found that the way some schools recruit players is leading to a fall in playing numbers at that level. The report talks of “widespread concern” over player recruitment and describes “the pooling of talent into a few strong rugby schools as a significant factor in the decrease of numbers playing the game because of flow-on effects, for example uneven competitions”. New Zealand Rugby are going to prioritise six of the 31 recommendations over the next 12-15 months, including recruiting a secondary schools manager and reviewing the governance at that level. Elsewhere, Leicester Tigers have paired up with the National Literacy Trust to help primary schools in Leicestershire inspire pupils to read through their Rugby Reading…

Age 27 Position No 9 Teams Oxford Uni, Yorkshire Carn, Quins, Newcastle, England 7s “I STOPPED playing the season before last, when I was at Newcastle Falcons. I stopped for many reasons centring on it not making me happy. I had a job offer with a law firm to start my training, and a girlfriend in London doing the same. “It was a brave call quitting a 20-year way of life but the right one. The chance of me making it to playing week in, week out didn’t seem worth waiting for. “I began writing a psychological thriller set in a near-future left-wing dystopia. It was only 20k words, just a first foray. This was just before I was to start the Legal Practitioners Course in London. “Well, I delayed…

FUNNIEST “Bradley Davies (above). Gareth Anscombe, Ross Moriarty and I would go out for dinner with him a lot on the Argentina tour and just let him talk!” BEST DRESSED “I’ll have to go with James Davies. I think he’s pretty stylish.” WORST DRESSED “Ken Owens. He’s a big fan of polo shirts.” BEST DANCER “The worst is Gareth Davies. Michael Tagicakibau is a good mover.” MOST INTELLIGENT “John Barclay or Rhys Patchell. They’re people you want to take to pub quizzes.” IF YOU COULD BE ANY TEAM-MATE “Probably John Barclay. He seems switched on and is doing really well.” MOST SKILFUL “Johnny McNicholl – great sidestep.” BEST SINGER “Ken Owens (below). I did You’re the Voice by John Farnham after my debut.”…

Ellis Genge “I feel my face didn’t fit. I’m not white middle-class — I’m working class. There’s that private-school mould in rugby. It’s stopping the game from progressing.” Tadhg Furlong “Coming from the non-traditional route, I had something to prove. I remember, and I hope they don’t mind me saying, posh, private-school lads from Dublin I was competing against. You put that chip on your shoulder to drive on.” Mike Brown “There’s the state school v private school thing. I’ve been through it. A long time ago I went for a trial, had to fill in a form. What school did you go to? Who was your rugby master? I didn’t have ‘a rugby master’. I thought, ‘Why are they asking these questions?’” Christian Wade “To get kids into private…

IT IS utterly inevitable. As soon as we look at the beach on Ouaisné Bay, I can feel the sand between my toes and envision a future of nagging as wet grains cling to every item of clothing in the washing machine days later. But there is something drawing us from the handsome L’Horizon Hotel to the waves… Maybe it is the dog. Maybe it is the harder-than-Charles Bronson swimmers shaming us from the freezing water. Maybe it is the promise of a coffee at Wayside Café if I behave myself and paddle about a bit. Either way, we are here in Jersey, to see a Championship clash with Nottingham. After snuffling through some lobster pots, of course. Hey, if it’s good enough for Superman, it’s good enough for us.…

New coach Canadian Lesley McKenzie is Japan’s new 15-a-side coach, having been an assistant with the country’s sevens team. Teen dreams This year’s Black Ferns Sevens squad features three teenagers who recently finished school – Jazmin Hotham, Mahina Paul and Montessa Tairakena. Paul (below) and Tairakena were part of New Zealand’s gold medal-winning team at last year’s Youth Olympics. Italian job Belluno is hosting the European Veterans’ Rugby Festival from 5-8 September and they are looking for women’s teams to take part. Email Greta De Gennaro (greta@dege.it) for more details. Fab five Spain scored five tries when beating Scotland 29-24 in Madrid in a Six Nations warm-up for the Scots. María Losada, María Garcia, Laura Delgado and Patricia García (two) crossed for Spain.…

ONSIDE INSIDE UCS Old Boys enjoyed a memorable match when the Herts-Middlesex One club’s second XV stepped inside HMP Feltham Young Offenders Institute for a game that they lost 34-25 to the inmates there. The prison team was formed last September as part of the Saracens Sport Foundation’s ‘Get Onside’ programme. STOKED After some crisis-torn seasons, Basingstoke are on a high. They were seeking additional third-team fixtures after playing numbers rose. The first XV, who lost every league game last season, made it 14 wins from 14 by defeating Sandown & Shanklin 20-17 in Hampshire Premier. HAT-TRICK HARRY Rochford Hundred, of One North, won all their first 17 games and had an invincible 23-match run in 2018. Back-row and captain Harry Hudson said: “We want to get promoted, go through…

“The ball drop is very important. I like to kick it right under the ball, on the tip, while other guys kick it further up. I’m unorthodox in that I drop the ball with two hands rather than one and I’ve had to work so it falls in the correct position. If you drop it with one hand you have more time to correct as your hand is on the ball longer.” “Your blockers are generally forwards around the ruck, so you need to have an understanding with them too. A lot of teams now make the ruck really long to take the pressure off as defenders are further away. Blockers must be aware of what’s in front of them, so that guys don’t run through, and not get in…

1 Binding contract Binds are of paramount importance in the security of a successful drive. Both lifters will remain quite upright post lift, form an arrowhead beyond the catcher and bind low on the waist. George Kruis and Ben Moon will bind with short arms (elbows bent) and heads to the outside of the lifters. Other arriving players whose job is to protect the ball and ball-carrier bind onto two players, with heads on the inside to help counter-balance the drive and get it steering forwards. 2 Steering the boat The maul’s success is very much a team effort. Everyone has to understand their role. Any individualism will allow the defence to splinter the set-up and either get to the ball, hold it up or sack it to the floor.…

Keep off the grass Can we prevent the replacements warming up on the field of play when the ball is live? I’m sick of seeing them in the in-goal area when tries are scored. Kieran Balmer, via Twitter Farewell Robbo This Six Nations is tinged with sadness because one of rugby’s most respected broadcasters, Ian Robertson, is not behind the microphone. Robertson was knowledgeable, spoke with authority and was never biased, as well as being blessed with a sense of humour. You could not ask for more. He belongs with the late Bill McLaren in the pantheon of famous rugby broadcasters. David Rimmer, Hertford Heath, Herts Unsung hero honoured Doddie Weir and Bill Beaumont were high-profile contributors to rugby in the New Year’s Honours List. My father-in-law Peter Robertson also…

18th Stuck for ideas to keep the kids entertained during half-term? Head to the World Rugby Museum at Twickenham to see their new exhibition ‘The March of the Groggs’, which charts the history of the sculpted caricatures of famous rugby players. Check out worldrugbymuseum.com for all the details. 20th  Jonathan Davies (right) and Will Carling are holding a dinner at the Parkway Hotel & Spa in Cwmbran in the week leading up to Wales v England to raise money for the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff. A table of ten costs £720 – for further details, call 0845 108 5690 or visit theeventsroom.co.uk 10th  Who will win this year’s Women’s Six Nations? Well, this Sunday match between England’s new full-time pros and defending champions France at Castle Park in Doncaster…

8 Nepal Around 2,500 people took part in a Get Into Rugby festival at Kathmandu’s Tundikhel Park as part of the Rugby World Cup Trophy Tour. The tour heads to South Africa this month, then USA and Canada in March. 9 Italy Zebre will play their Guinness Pro14 fixture against Leinster on 16 February at Viadana’s Zaffanella Stadium. It’s the first time a cross-country game has been played at the ground in seven years. 10 New Zealand Matt Proctor is Chris Boyd’s first signing as Northampton director of rugby. The Hurricanes centre will join Saints next season and Boyd said: “He had the desire for a new challenge on this side of the world.”…

“Italian rugby has an opportunity to make a real breakthrough” I WAS USED to coaching in England and South Africa, so there were differences I saw when I worked with Italy. The first thing was how keen everyone was to learn and engage, because they were so passionate. Sometimes in South Africa they take coaching for granted. In Italy, even senior players are very passionate. But because in Italy they don’t grow up with rugby, there is a difference with the decision-making process. There’s the theory that it takes around 10,000 hours to master something. It’s not exact but it basically comes down to how much you’ve been exposed to. That’s why it’s taken Italian rugby longer under Conor O’Shea to improve – because the backlog was so huge. When…

Kay Bernie Ecclestone’s wading in on rugby now? Melanie Yeah, he said it needed ‘tarting up’ but could be bigger than the NFL if it got ‘into the 21st century’ Clive That probably just means more shirt sponsors, betting ads at half-time and midweek games in Kuala Lumpur Melanie Why the 21st century? Let’s aim for the 22nd century! Andy Yeah! I want hover refs and hologram posts and a virtual stats panel displayed above every player Burt I’ll settle for every league game being available to watch live on TV tbh Clive It could be the 28th century, lads – Exeter will still be doing their driving mauls and pick-and-goes!…

“One of my goals for the future is to do some charity work, like opening a school or an orphanage for kids who aren’t as lucky as we are.” “Everyone at Wasps has been very welcoming. We had a tough period but Juan de Jongh is great at lifting the mood; he’s such a character and full of energy. Angelo Esposito does the same thing for Italy, he’s a funny guy.” “Growing up in Italy, I liked watching players like Dan Carter and Jonny Wilkinson – you look at the best and try to be like them. I did play fly-half for a little while but I’m not a fly-half!” “We need to be realistic about our World Cup pool (which includes New Zealand and South Africa). We will try…

“Five changes I’d like to see happen at the World Cup” AS WE approach the World Cup in Japan, teams will be utilising all the advantages they can muster to get an edge and be just that bit better than the opposition. So I thought it would be fun to have a look at what could be done in the tournament itself to make it richer while retaining its core values. Here are five simple changes that I think would improve the World Cup… 1. A more evolved TMO system. Let’s have a world-class official in the truck who has all the camera angles available to them and can make sure important decisions aren’t missed, acting as a second referee for the match. I don’t think the game is ready…

Age 32 (30 April 1986) Born Loeriesfontein, Northern Cape, SA Position Prop Club Edinburgh Height 5ft 11in Weight 18st Scotland caps 26 Points Ten (2T) Twitter @WP_Nel IN SOME ways, it’s a minor miracle that WP Nel became an international rugby player. It was never his dream nor, he felt, his destiny when growing up in South Africa. Here the Edinburgh and Scotland prop talks about the rise of his club, his first sporting love, injury battles and his dad… I never, ever thought I’d become a professional rugby player. If you’d asked me at the age of 16 or 17 what was the one thing I wanted to achieve in sport I’d have said I wanted to compete at the South African tug-of-war national championships. I wanted to win.…

Age 23 (21 April 1995) Born Swansea Club Worcester Position Wing Height 6ft 1in Weight 14st 11lb Wales caps Six Points Five (1T) Twitter handle @JoshAdams951 JOSH ADAMS takes us back to a time in his childhood, sitting on the kitchen floor of his home with his father, the pair of them surrounded by boxes of Playmobil, each piece soon to be connected to another and then another until a giant kingdom had been created and a fantasy world had been entered. “I used to have hundreds and hundreds of Playmobil characters when I was little,” says the 23-year-old Worcester Warrior and Welsh international. “I had dozens of soldiers and we used to build castles that filled the floor of the kitchen. Me and my dad used to put it…

CHILL FACTOR There’s a touch of the Caribbean at One East club Melton Mowbray, with new recruits Franco Mompremier, a front-row forward, and wing Lincoln Outten jetting in from the sunshine islands of Turks and Caicos. Ex-Melton captain Richard Hesford came up with the idea while working there and an exchange was agreed. Now Outten, known as LJ, and Mompremier are adjusting to the chilling conditions at Burton Road. It’s not unusual to see LJ playing there in four or five layers of clothing and gloves. Back home, temperatures ‘tumble’ to the high 20s in their own ‘cool season’. NEW BOSS Midlands Premier club Bournville have made another statement of intent by appointing Phil Maynard, the ex-Worcester, Birmingham & Solihull and Coventry DoR, as managing director. The club recently moved…

DREAM LAND Upwardly mobile Scarborough have contemporary facilities at Silver Royd, their home for ten years that would grace a National League club. Last spring, under new coach Simon Smith, they lifted the Yorkshire Shield and won promotion from Yorkshire One but this season is extra special as they hit the top of One East, with 12 wins from 16 matches. Smith said: “Never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d be leaders at the halfway stage. We didn’t know what to expect but I’m really pleased with the squad’s courage in continuing to play our game regardless of the opposition.” STRONG PAIRING Carlisle led One West, the equivalent league across the Pennines, with 13 victories in 16 games. That delighted chairman David Stout, head coach for two years…

1 MOVE “The art to this is to make your own simple lunch box” TIME: THERE’S never enough of it. We know how hard it is squeezing in all your work and family stuff before working out comes into the equation, and then there’s eating right. But nutritionist James Morehen is here to help you eat well in the time you have. “If someone is mainly at their desk all the time then it’s important to be clever about what time of day to eat what type of food,” says Morehen. “I see this all the time – people wait all day to eat and then when they do they eat loads because they are starving! “The key is preparing healthy snacks or quick foods that can be consumed at…

I have an idea that would allow for more variety and bring in the crowds, generate European excitement, retain the opportunity for local bragging rights, appease the Test windows and help look after the players’ welfare. I’d ditch the European Cups and the traditional leagues, and replace them with this cross-border competition… • 12 teams from England, 12 teams from France and 12 Gaelic teams (four Irish, four Welsh, two Italian, two Scottish), so 36 teams in all. • Two 18-team conferences, each with six English, six French, two Irish, two Welsh, one Italian, one Scottish. • Fixtures to be run on a two-year cycle. Each season you play the teams from your country – or if Gaelic, all the Gaelic teams – in your conference home and away, and…