Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2020 i Rugby World

EUROPEAN FINALS weekend served as a timely reminder of why rugby must not become a closed shop. Ten years ago Exeter beat Bristol in the Championship play-off final to secure promotion to the English top flight. Now the Chiefs are European champions and the Bears have lifted the Challenge Cup. These are the stories that make sport so special – but without promotion and relegation they would not be told. There must also be the opportunity for teams to advance on the international stage. Fiji and Georgia have long been clamouring for more meaningful Test programmes, for inclusion in elite competitions outside the World Cup. Over the next few weeks they will get the chance to prove their worth in the Autumn Nations Cup. It’s these types of matches that…

1 Tonga World Rugby, the Tonga Rugby Union (TRU) and the Tongan government have signed a tripartite agreement. A new Joint Management Committee will overhaul TRU operating and governance structures, as well as lay out a high-performance roadmap. The reinstatement of funding after it was suspended in May will be crucial for Tonga’s men’s team (below) as they look to qualify for the 2023 World Cup. 2 India India’s national teams have received a big boost with the news that the government of the state of Odisha will sponsor them for the next three years. Odisha is aiming to develop sports outside of hockey and football. Former India player Rahul Bose (above right, with fellow Bollywood actor Siddharth Malhotra) said: “Thanks to this sponsorship, national rugby players (women and men) will,…

THE MIND was willing but the body, unfortunately, was not. Not every player gets to pick the perfect time to bow out of the game, but have you ever considered what happens when an elite referee struggles to go on? Glen Jackson hung up his whistle earlier than expected. “I was very keen to do one more year after the Rugby World Cup and I’d signed with New Zealand, who were great around that,” says Jackson, 45. “Then the body sort of gave way. “I recently had a hip replacement. That was sort of catching up with me in terms of everything on the field. So instead of trying to do one more year of reffing and running, I decided it was a good time to sort the body out…

WHILE SOME teams are still looking to book their spot at next year’s Women’s World Cup, others are starting their build-up in earnest. The pandemic has disrupted the qualification process and only nine of the 12 countries who will compete for the trophy in New Zealand next year will be known when the pool draw takes place in Auckland later this month. Yet there are some significant fixtures on the international women’s rugby calendar over coming weeks, including two Tests between England and France. The Red Roses beat France 19-13 in the Six Nations back in February and will be looking to make it a hat-trick of victories in 2020 when they meet on French soil on 14 November and then at Twickenham a week later. England coach Simon Middleton…

FEW OF rugby’s aficionados will forget the first time they saw Gaël Fickou. It was October 2012, a pool match in the Heineken Cup, when the 18-year-old centre dashed half the length of the field to score a try as Toulouse beat Leicester 23-9. The try capped a good match for Fickou but it wasn’t a display that warranted the OTT reaction in much of the media. Rugby’s next global superstar, declared one British paper, piling pressure on the teen’s shoulders that Guy Novès tried to brush off. Asked by a French journalist if Fickou had the potential to be a world-class player, the Toulouse coach said: “I don’t know, we’ll see.” Within six months Fickou had his first cap, off the bench against Scotland. But the next few years…

NICCOLÒ CANNONE isn’t used to hanging around. The Italy lock only took up rugby at the age of 14, but almost immediately was thrusting towards a place in the FIR academy, from where he progressed to Petrarca Padova and became an Eccellenza champion at the first attempt. The now 22-year-old was an obvious choice for Benetton to take on as a permit player, an arrangement that saw him split his time between the Guinness Pro14 and top tier of Italian club rugby. Cannone did well but still wasn’t a full-time contracted pro with the Treviso franchise when Franco Smith called him up to the Azzurri squad for this year’s Six Nations. Things seem to happen quickly where this young man is concerned, and he is desperate for the theme to…

ACROSS 1 Edinburgh - - -, Scotland’s oldest club having been formed in 1857 (10) 8 - - - Pocock, ex-Harlequins and England back-three player who works as a personal trainer (5) 9 Colby - - -, Aussie flanker who joined Lyon from Connacht this year (7) 10 Land of the free where Chris Robshaw will soon be playing his rugby (7) 11 Profession of Esportif’s Duncan Sandlant, for example (5) 12 Now is not the time for Welsh rugby to be playing musical - - -, said The Times in August (6) 14 Position played by Welshmen Sam Parry, Ryan Elias and Ken Owens (6) 17 Name shared by Georgia stalwarts Kacharava and Kubriashvili (5) 19 Marc - - -, France back of the Eighties who remained tryless in…

FOUR YEARS have passed since Spain beat Scotland to claim the final spot at the 2017 World Cup. Ten years have passed since the Scots competed in the pinnacle event for women’s 15-a-side rugby, as they also failed to qualify for the 2014 tournament. So it’s little wonder Lisa Thomson and her team-mates have a clear goal of being part of RWC 2021 in New Zealand. “It’s something we have been building towards since 2016 and those games against Spain,” says the Scotland centre. “We all know the goal is to go to New Zealand next year and that’s our focus.” Sunday 6 December will be ringed in the calendar for that is when Scotland face Italy in their final postponed Six Nations match, which is doubling up as the…

“The Springboks shouldn’t work but in their environment it just does” YOU KNOW you’re playing against more than a rugby team when you face the Springboks. It’s hard to describe. New Zealand is a rugby nation but with South Africa it feels like more than that. Consider the type of people they are. Proud, loud, abrasive, aggressive… You’re basically getting a pumped-up version of rugby. Athletes who are huge, physical and stern – and arrogant in some ways. They want to tee off on you like Bryson DeChambeau after a lifetime in his home gym. Those rugby types are direct, even verging on rude. But it’s just who they are: confrontational. And that reflects in the way that they play rugby. It’s those horrible exchanges that let a few of…

THIS has been a crazy year and Covid-19 will continue to present challenges for rugby. But the arrival of fresh faces on the international scene should put us on the edge of our seats as we head into a busy month of Test matches. Those seats may be of the armchair rather than stadium variety for now, but these are players who are sure to raise excitement levels wherever you’re positioned, who can cause you to shout at the television and jump off the sofa. Discovering whether players can deliver on their potential is what creates anticipation for the spectator – and there are new names to look out for on both sides of the equator. Looking to the South, Caleb Clarke provided those ‘wow’ moments on his first Test…

SAT 31 OCTOBER Six Nations Wales v Scotland (2.15pm, Parc y Scarlets) TV Live BBC, S4C & Virgin One Italy v England (4.45pm, Stadio Olimpico) TV Live on ITV & Virgin One France v Ireland (8.10pm, Stade de France) TV Live on BBC & Virgin One Tri-Nations Australia v New Zealand (10.45am, ANZ Stadium, Sydney) TV Live on Sky Sports Allianz Premier 15s Bristol v Wasps (tbc) Top 14 Bordeaux-Bègles v Agen Brive v Clermont Castres v Racing 92 Lyon v Montpellier Super Rugby Unlocked Pumas v Sharks (3.30pm) Bulls v Stormers (6pm) TV Both live on Sky Sports Mitre 10 Cup Wellington v Tasman (3.05am) Northland v N Harbour (5.35am) Auckland v Waikato (8.05am) TV All live on Sky Sports Bermuda World Tens TV Live on Sky Sports SUN…

THE RECENT Premiership semi-finals didn’t disappoint, yet one incident in the Wasps v Bristol game stood out for the wrong reason. One thing that referees learn before their first game is to “always keep your eye on the ball”, which is meant metaphorically rather than literally! Referees lose credibility when they miss things and you can’t be consistent if you don’t see everything. It’s fair to say the match at the Ricoh Arena offered us a real ‘schoolboy’ refereeing error. With 20 minutes to go, Matt Carley awarded Wasps a penalty (and correctly so). It was roughly eight metres out from the Bristol goal-line and eight metres in from touch, and the mark for this penalty should be the ‘place of infringement’. Carley gave it, then stepped a pace or…

NIK SIMON RUGBY’S COURTROOMS are the equivalent of the bargain bin in the corner of your local convenience store: 50% off all year round. Unless you are a terrorist, murderer or equivalent, there is a good chance the independent panel will find a mitigating factor to reduce your sanction. Look at Owen Farrell’s hearing in September. Irrespective of your views on his high tackle on 18-year-old Charlie Atkinson, the disciplinary process that followed reduced the game to a laughing stock. His red-mist moment was judged to be a top-end offence worthy of a ten-match ban. That would have ruled out the England captain for the start of the upcoming Test campaign. Yet Farrell walked away with a reduced five-match ban. Why? Because he had a positive testimonial from a charity,…

OF ALL the attempts to make the game safer, it still boggles the mind that World Rugby have not done more to clamp down on players sliding in with their knees as a try is being scored. Brian O’Driscoll summed it up well when he said: “It’s not football, you can’t slide tackle.” Yet two years later, nothing appears to have changed. It has reached the stage now where it’s difficult to know what exactly we are waiting to see happen before such reckless acts are punished appropriately because it is not as if players have not been injured by this already. The incident O’Driscoll was referring to occurred in Castres in 2018 when Benjamin Urdapilleta slid in knee-first as Andrew Conway attempted to regather the ball shy of the…

IT’S SAID that Ireland are spoilt for choice in the back row, and rightly so. But how’s this for a glittering all-English cast: Willis, Vunipola, Underhill, Curry, the other Curry, Simmonds, Dombrandt, Ludlam, Hughes, Mercer, Hill, Shields, Harrison and perhaps even Alfie Barbeary, a hooker masquerading pretty effectively as a flank-forward. And then there’s Ben Earl. With three caps from off the bench launching his Test career at the start of the year, the 22-year-old is near the front of the queue. He started last season with a bang and never let up, rampaging around the field in a style reminiscent of his days as a centre-threequarter for Tonbridge School. Busting the tackles isn’t so easy nowadays but he still scored 11 Gallagher Premiership tries, the joint highest tally at…

BACK IN 2017, James Lowe talked to Rugby World about being diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis when he was 14. The Kiwi teenager went from being extremely active to “pretty much bedridden when I was at my worst”. Finding the right medication allowed him to not only play sport again but go on to have a career as a professional rugby player. And now he’s on the brink of international honours with Ireland. He qualifies on residency this month, having left New Zealand’s Chiefs to join Leinster three years ago, and the fact that Andy Farrell included him in last month’s training camps would suggest he is likely to make his Test debut in the Autumn Nations Cup. Here we talk to those who have known Lowe, now 28, at…

TALKING EXCLUSIVELY Trugby on a podcast would not float Joe Marler’s boat. Well, that’s putting it without colour. Ask the man himself if he’d considered starting a rugby pod and he says: “You know there are certain things you have to do, like taking the bins out. But if you do a podcast, I wanted to do a podcast that sort of made my d*** hard.” And like that, we are off and rolling. Yes, we can talk to the England and Harlequins loosehead prop about joining up with the national squad for reconditioning before the Six Nations resumption. Or the Autumn Nations Cup. Or the end to the Premiership season. Or how his view of his own game has evolved over time. And some of those things do come up…

FROM THE fields and mills we rise. That slogan, shortened to #WeRise on Twitter, has become the rallying cry at Mitcham & Carshalton. Having been on their knees three years ago, the Surrey club are prospering – despite the pandemic. “Losing match-day revenue is a concern but lockdown has been a blessing in its own way,” says chairman and flanker Keir Waller. “It reignited us. Some people on furlough found themselves with time to help build the player base, work our social media and develop our facilities. They were able to add that layer of paint to the changing rooms or help clear out the garden. It’s let us take stock of what we have and how to move forward.” One player, Jacob Williams, took the lead in generating new…

EVEN IN a truncated season, the standard of sevens from Blitzbok forward JC Pretorius was undeniable last term. Often compared to fellow Mpumalanga-reared scrapper Kwagga Smith, he outworked opponents to make it into 2020’s Men’s HSBC Dream Team. A work ethic underpins everything he does now, Pretorius tells Rugby World. And though he may hate insinuations he was some kind of boy scout, his résumé of pursuits as a schoolboy is extensive. “I tried to participate in everything I could growing up,” he says. “I’d play tennis, play cricket, I tried out chess, I joined the choir, athletics, I played golf…” Hold on, do your team-mates know you were in the choir? “No, they don’t know!” Better warm the voice up now then! But when did rugby start being the…

1 MOVE INJURY NUTRITION is a huge area for any player, as most will get hurt at some point in their career, writes nutritionist James Morehen. After my own ACL and meniscus reconstruction, the following is how I am attacking my recovery. All of the below is appropriate for the majority of soft-tissue injuries. 1 Take 20g of hydrolysed collagen protein first thing in the morning, with either a glass of orange juice or a 50mg Vitamin C tablet. There is some great work looking at the benefits of collagen protein and without it, your fibres may struggle to build back as strong as they can. Evidence also suggests collagen and Vit C should be consumed an hour before any rehab on the injured limb. “Your protein should contain a…

The British & Irish Lions are the most iconic touring rugby team in the world and now you can join them in South Africa. Their official travel company have launched the biggest range of ticket-inclusive packages and experiences ever. It gives fans peace of mind when it comes to packages that include official tickets, flights and hotel accommodation, with flexible payments, a Covid-19 guarantee and amazing special events. Prices start at £1,595. For details, visit lionsrugby.com/tours…

WHAT’S THE funniest thing you’ve heard on the pitch? I’m not sure I can tell the story but all I will say is that it involved Matt Smith and Stephen Jones! There was quite a bit more talk on the field when I started playing because they didn’t have ref mics back then. Got any nicknames? Lenny. I wish I had a story for it but I’m the youngest of 28 first cousins and we all have the same sort of nickname – Benny became Lenny and it stuck. Everyone calls me that now. Who are the jokers in the Leicester squad? Everyone knows how to have a laugh but the two scheming something all the time are definitely (Ellis) Gengey and Nemani (Nadolo). They’re always in good spirits and…

“England can’t ignore Exeter. They can learn off them” RESULTS IN the Autumn Nations Cup won’t affect seedings for the 2023 World Cup. So this month is an opportunity for coaches to move their cycle on a bit quicker and introduce some players who, if it was a Six Nations or if New Zealand were in town with world rankings involved, you might not take the gamble on. It’s a chance to be progressive. England can’t ignore Exeter anymore. The way they operate is good enough to beat the best in Europe. Their work in the red zone, their ability to score tries, is something England can learn off and use to bolster their pack. Jonny Hill is a standout and if he plays like he did in the European…

“An unbelievable player and all-round good guy” ROB BAXTER is known for making shrewd signings, for spotting players who may be in the shadows at other clubs, bringing them to Sandy Park and seeing them thrive in an Exeter Chiefs shirt. It’s a knack he’s had since taking charge of the club because his first-ever signing was Phil Dollman. The full-back arrived from the Dragons in 2009, helped the Chiefs win the Championship in his first season and became a pivotal figure over ten years in the Premiership before signing off at the belated end of the 2019-20 campaign with nearly 250 club appearances to his name. According to former Chiefs wing Matt Jess, who now runs MSJ Coaching, the key to Baxter’s recruitment policy is that he looks at…

“We’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a long time” EVERYBODY IN Georgia is talking about the Autumn Nations Cup and is very excited. It’s a great opportunity for us and we have to use it. It’s very important for us as players but also the nation as well. People have been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. That puts a bit of pressure on us, but that’s sport and every sportsman needs to know how to deal with pressure. This autumn we’ll have a lot of quality games – we wouldn’t even have this many quality games at a World Cup, with the Scotland match before the Autumn Nations Cup. We’ve never had so many games in Georgian rugby history one after the other and it’s a…

CHANGE OF DIRECTION “I always knew that I would like to go into coaching but you never know how things are going to pan out. Fortunately, I was given the opportunity by Wasps and Dai Young (in 2013) and I’ll always be grateful for that. “It helped me that I’d only been there as a player for one year – it might have been different (going from player to coach) had I done three or four years as a player. “You have to learn a new skill-set – how you teach, how you coach, how you get your point across – and get comfortable with that. I worked with some brilliant players there. Andy Goode was great to deal with, then there were youngsters like Joe Launchbury, Sam Jones, Elliot…

TO MANY rugby-loving Scots, the Lions are no longer something they feel a part of, not like before. Not like when Finlay Calder and Gavin Hastings captained the tourists. Not like when Tom Smith went from nowhere to immortality in 1997. Not like when Gregor Townsend and Alan Tait were alongside him on one of the most beloved trips of them all. Scottish Lions – and most especially Scottish Test Lions – have become such an endangered species that you half expect Sir David Attenborough to do a documentary on them. Hopes are rising, though. It’s a cautious kind of optimism, but it’s there and it manifests itself in people like Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg, Sam Johnson and Sean Maitland, Rory Sutherland, Fraser Brown, Stuart McInally, Jonny Gray and…

IF YOU look at the Australian emblem, the kangaroo and the emu famously can’t go backwards,” says former Wallabies captain James Horwill when asked if there is a quintessentially Australian approach to competition. That thought process, in the Australian psyche, has pushed through to a sports psyche as well.” Over the years it has been hard to ignore the mythos of the Australian winner in almost all sports: heroes are expected to be fair, dignified, yet bloody hard and willing to do whatever it takes. It’s a hell of a lot to live up to. But in a Test rugby team then, surely you want your forwards pack in particular to embody all of those Aussie archetypes? With this new era of the Wallabies, led by highly-respected Kiwi Dave Rennie,…

DUANE VERMEULEN laughs when reminded about plans that were put in place immediately after the Springboks’ World Cup victory in Japan. The South African franchises were meant to kick on and challenge for the Super Rugby trophy. The Boks, with new coach Jacques Nienaber and director of rugby Rassie Erasmus calling the shots, were meant to use the Tests against Scotland and Georgia – scheduled for July – to blood new players and try new combinations with a view to the future. The Boks were meant to ride the momentum of three Test wins into the Rugby Championship and the subsequent northern hemisphere tour. By early 2021, Nienaber and Erasmus expected to have experienced options across all positions at their disposal. They felt they would be more than well prepared…

ONE AFTERNOON during lockdown, Ali Price ran a half-marathon. Just like that. He’d started a running club with a few Glasgow Warriors team-mates – well, mainly Adam Hastings – while they couldn’t go to the gym and they would clock 10km. But after seeing that a couple of school friends had done half-marathons, Price decided to up his distance to 13 miles. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing; an hour and 32 minutes later he’d done it. While his GPS unit for a match will regularly register 7-8km, it’s a big jump to 13 miles (around 21km) – and to do it all in one go, rather than having stoppages for scrums or injuries and so on. He jokes that he caught the “running bug” when the Covid-19 restrictions were at…

KITTED OUT A set of Southwold shirts, along with last season’s colts captain Henry Ewart, have winged their way to Nairobi, where they were welcomed by community coach John Mudashi. The jerseys have now become the Kamula team’s first playing kit. Ewart, who played for the London Two North-East runners-up last season, opted to spend two months of his gap year coaching schools and clubs in Kenya, although some ‘local’ pitches are more than a three-hour bus ride away. MAKING HIS MARKI Hungary prop Roland Marki also inputted an international flavour when receiving the Old Crossleyans’ Player of the Year award this autumn, with wing Billy Hammond as runner-up. They helped Crocs, as they are known, to climb into fourth in Yorkshire One last season after a final flourish of…