TRY TIME
“My first (and only) try for Wales, against France in the 2021 Six Nations. I ran the length of the pitch! No, kidding, it was just a pick-and-go. I’d been close a couple of times previously but they’d been disallowed for a knock-on or something similar.
“I’d give up that one try to have won another Grand Slam. It was a game that we let slip. I remember coming off with ten minutes to go and we ended up almost losing the championship, but thankfully Scotland did us a favour against France. I definitely owe them one!
“Some decisions didn’t go our way and our game management could have been a bit better. It was like the Grand Slam was slipping out of your hands as you watched. It’s small margins but that’s international rugby for you.”
BLUE BOY
“This was my first start for Cardiff against London Irish in the LV Cup. I was coming up against Steffon Armitage, who was also playing at seven that day.
“He was a couple of years older and I always thought he was a wicked player.
“I was 19 and it was a good test for me coming up against him, which was amazing.
“The blond bits in the dreadlocks are because I’d been too lazy to redo them. I usually do them one summer to next. My ‘guy lights’, I called them. You know what it’s like when you are younger.”
TEST DEBUTANT
“This was my first cap for Wales on tour in Japan and it’s fair to say I didn’t have the best of starts to my international career.
Esta historia es de la edición July 2023 de Rugby World.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición July 2023 de Rugby World.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
"I stress-test my coaches' ideas but ultimately you have to let the bakers bake"
Northampton Saints' director of rugby explains how to be an effective coach
REMEMBER WHEN...WE HAD A HOTLINE ON RUGBY GOING PRO
RW readers could ring in to have their say on the amateur-pro debate
RUGBY RANT
Editor Joe Robinson on why rugby needs to take kit launches more seriously
WHAT IT'S LIKE TO...BE A SEVENS REFEREE SELECTOR
Irish official David Keane lifts the lid on his role behind the scenes
“You can still be fully professional and enjoy yourself"
The Wales great who also represented the Lions and Scarlets with distinction
CLEVEDON RFC
Giving grass-roots rugby the love that it deserves...
Downtime with... Jacob Umaga - "Best player in my family? I have to say Uncle Tana"
The Benetton fly-half on Italy, basketball and talented kinsmen
SHANE MCDONALD
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
100* Not Out
RW charts a century of Samoa's flagship national team, including its dramatic rebirth in the late 1980s
Chunk
More than a decade since his retirement, we caught up with Allan Jacobsen, the larger-than-life former Scotland prop