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Feb 12, 2025 | 
therugbyjournal.com | Eleanor Bradley |Alex Mead
Whether earned or not, Brixham’s reputation has occasionally gone before them. “I took a bunch of lads up to Twickenham once,” explains Len Harvey, a club stalwart who’s arrived to add his book of clippings to the piles being sifted through, “and one of them got into an argument in the stands, and somebody shouted, ‘typical bloody Brixham’ – that was from some bloke in London!”Whichever rugby clubhouse you’re in, at whatever level, wherever in the world, tall tales get taller as time passes.
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Jan 6, 2025 | 
therugbyjournal.com | Eleanor Bradley |Alex Mead
Born in Montevideo, his mum was a diplomat, which meant he moved to Chile – where he first played rugby, aged four – then back to Uruguay, to Argentina, then back to Uruguay, playing for Carrasco Polo Club, the most successful club side in the country, with 28 championships. He started playing for the national side when he was eighteen, and it was during a tour with Uruguay to Wales that he first had an opportunity in France.
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Dec 6, 2024 | 
therugbyjournal.com | Eleanor Bradley |Alex Mead
Despite being happy with the call-up, it wasn’t without drawbacks. “The first time [I got called up], I actually didn’t really want to go, I was so scared,” she admits. “I had been watching the girls play for Wales, and the thought that I was about to go into the Wales squad and actually train with them, was a bit overwhelming.
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Dec 4, 2024 | 
therugbyjournal.com | Eleanor Bradley |James Price
Hannah is only 25 years old, but she has been part of the furniture of this England side for what feels like forever. First capped in 2017 against Canada when she was only eighteen, she was one of the original players offered a full-time RFU contract just over a year later, so she’s been an ever-present figure in the modern, fully professionalised Red Roses.
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
therugbyjournal.com | Eleanor Bradley |James Price
Three years later, in 1963, Newport had their greatest day. The All Blacks were coming back to Rodney Parade, eleven years on from Brian’s first meeting with them. “I got a call from a Western Mail reporter a few days before the game and he said, ‘do you realise if you win on Wednesday, you will be only the second Welsh player to beat New Zealand, Australia and South Africa in Wales?’ I said, ‘no pressure then’.
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Oct 23, 2024 | 
therugbyjournal.com | Eleanor Bradley |James While
One of the features of the Portugal World Cup campaign was how the rugby-watching public embraced the colourful and impressive personalities of their team. The likes of Nicholas Martins, Jeronimo Portela and Raffaele Storti became rugby household names, as did Mike. “For sure, we had players that attracted the attention of the media and became quite relatable as people,” he says.
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
therugbyjournal.com | Eleanor Bradley |James Price
When Worcester Warriors went into administration in late September 2022, Matt Kvesic was lost. He’d played over 260 professional club games, he’d been capped by England, but now he was facing redundancy at thirty years old. He didn’t have the safety net of youth. The likes of Ted Hill and Ollie Lawrence were rich with suitors when the Worcester party came to an end; still in their early twenties and with England potential, they were the tastiest morsels for the vulture clubs circling.
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Sep 23, 2024 | 
therugbyjournal.com | Eleanor Bradley |Ryan Herman
But in any major sporting event there is usually a standout rivalry, and in Varsity Cup there is one that goes beyond rugby. The University of Cape Town v Stellenbosch (aka Ikeys v Maties) has a history that takes in apartheid, antisemitism, Britain’s most infamous imperialist, as well as some of the best players and coaches in the history of the game.
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Sep 16, 2024 | 
therugbyjournal.com | Eleanor Bradley |Alex Mead
In the 1800s, in an attempt to stave off persecution for their language and culture, a group of 150 intrepid Welsh folk made the unlikely decision to head across the Atlantic and settle in Patagonia, South America. Today, depending on who you believe, there are still some 5,000 or so Welsh speakers living in Patagonia, and from a population of 150,000, a good 20,000 have ancestry that hails back to the Principality.
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Sep 16, 2024 | 
therugbyjournal.com | Eleanor Bradley |Alex Mead
There’s one street in Gorseinon, a small town just north-west of Swansea,that stands out from the rest. It’s not the high street, it’s not because it’s the main road in or out, or because it’s home to great architecture, and it doesn’t, for the moment at least, have any houses adorned with a blue plaque. Yet, in recent times, it’s become the most famous in the town. It’s a road where houses and cars have yellow ribbon flowers on doors, gates and hoods.
