Rugby World

“World Cups can’t keep coming back to the same countries” WE ALREADY know England will host the women’s World Cup in 2025, before Australia stage the men’s World Cup in 2027 and the women’s in 2029. Then everything moves to the US in 2031 and 2033. However, in recent weeks, the Japanese union has laid out plans to bring the World Cup back to their shores in time for 2035. The Italians, in slightly less detail, have made noises about 2035 and 2037 as well. Japan 2019 was a booming success. According to financial analysts Ernst and Young, the JRFU made £259m in ticket revenues. They also estimated that around 242,000 tourists visited Japan. All told, EY reported that nearly £4.3bn was generated in economic output during the 2019 Rugby…

IT’S NOT quite a case of getting the embroiderer on speed dial and buying a whack of red baseball caps. Because while we’d love to ‘Make Europe Great Again’, there is no denying that semis and finals time is fun as hell. The same goes for the Premiership run-in, through May. As the sun is finally coaxed out from behind some clouds and we get to see some tense yet gripping winner-takes-all rugby, it’s hard to top these weekends. Seeing Sale Sharks roar through in the Premiership has been great and Tom Curry speaks well on their run (P32). But we’ve had weeks of amusement. Sarries. Glasgow. Chiefs in Europe’s quarters. Now is a good time to celebrate the best of what we’ve seen on the club scene. Because soon…

25th England coach Kevin Sinfield’s autobiography The Extra Mile is released this Thursday. Read all about the rugby league superstar’s illustrious career and his heroic pursuit to raise money for motor neurone disease in honour of his pal Rob Burrow. 26th The Bournemouth 7s Festival, coined the ‘sporting Glastonbury’, takes place over the Bank Holiday weekend. Elite and social sevens and tens competitions, as well as touch rugby, are on offer for men and women on the south coast. 13th The third and final round of the Inter-Services Championship sees the Army and Navy do battle at Twickenham for the Babcock Trophy. The men kick off at 2pm with the women’s fixture following at 5pm. The Army, with England’s Semesa Rokoduguni on the wing for the men, won both matches…

SATURDAY 29 APRIL Women’s Six Nations England v France (1pm, Twickenham) Italy v Wales (3.30pm, Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi) TV Both Live on BBC & RTÈ Scotland v Ireland (7.30pm, DAM Health Stadium) TV Live on BBC & Virgin Media Champions Cup semi-final Leinster v Toulouse (3pm, Aviva Stadium) TV Live on ITV, BT Sport & RTÈ Challenge Cup semi-final Scarlets v Glasgow (5.30pm) TV Live on BT Sport & S4C Super Rugby Pacific Drua v Blues (3.05am) Moana v Rebels (5.35am) Chiefs v Crusaders (8.05am) Reds v Force (10.35am) Rugby Europe Conf 1 North Latvia v Czechia (noon) Rugby Europe Conf 1 South Bulgaria v Slovenia Israel v Malta Rugby Europe Conf 2 North Andorra v Norway Rugby Europe Conf 2 South Bosnia & Herzegovina v Serbia FOSROC Super Sprint Series Boroughmuir v Heriot’s…

WHAT’S THE funniest thing you’ve seen or heard on the pitch? We were defending and one of my team-mates at Worcester, hooker Isaac Miller, was calling out one of the opposition and had a pretty horrendous voice break while he did it. He then got sat down horribly in the tackle which was quite funny. A pretty poor ten seconds. Any phobias? I don’t really like rats. What really annoys you? People who are quite judgemental seem to annoy me; judgy people get on my nerves. If your house was on fire, what one item would you save? It would probably be my phone, I’m pretty addicted to it unfortunately. I’ve been trying to learn how to play chess on it as well. I’ve figured out the rules and got…

1 Ireland Players at the men’s and women’s Six Nations U18 festivals have taken a collective stance against doping in rugby. ‘Keep Rugby Clean’ T-shirts were on display in the warm-ups at Energia Park in Dublin at the men’s event (below, France’s Thibaut Motassi scores against England) and the day before at Wellington College, in Berkshire, during match-day two of the women’s festival. 2 Cuba Rugby Americas North have announced the inclusion of Federación Cubana De Rugby (FCR) as RAN’s newest Associate Member. RAN president George Nicholson said: “Cuba has always been one of the athletic powerhouses in the Caribbean, so they were an obvious target as we sought to grow the game in our region.” Rugby first took root in Cuba back in 1992 at Havana University and is now played…