A
It has happened! For the first time a Black Fern will grace PWR playing-fields. Once RWC 2025 is complete, the prop, Amy Rule, will join Exeter Chiefs.
With only part of my tongue in my cheek, I recall commenting on the possibility of ‘disgruntled’ BFs joining PWR clubs. Rule will happily call herself ‘gruntled’; the essence being that players in New Zealand only rarely meet in competitions worthy of their ability.
They have the Super Aupiki (just four regional franchises), the Farah Palmer Cup, the two O’Reilly Cup games against the Wallaroos, WXV, the RWC, plus any other test matches NZR is kind enough to throw their way.
From Chiefs’ standpoint, this is a dramatic step towards winning a first home trophy. As the most ambitious of all the surviving PWR clubs, they have acquired a new head coach, Steve Salvin, along with other male assistants. You may suspect he has been given a single task by the club owner, Tony Rowe.
With his men’s team finishing ninth out of ten in the Gallagher Premiership, he will be intent on seeing the PWR team reach the semis, then going the whole hog.
B
The Rugby Africa Cup is under way. The second-round results (11 June) from Antananarivo:
South Africa 19 Kenya 12
Madagascar 20 Uganda 24
The Boks, the sole African representatives at the 2025 RWC, admit they were well short of their best as they scrambled and fumbled their way to a single-score victory over the Kenyans. It’s concerning that they opted once more for a 6:2 split on the bench. The pack is their strength, but they won’t get far in the RWC if they don’t throw more emphasis on their back-play.
The Lady Cranes of Uganda secured their first win with an exciting, tight game in the Madagascan capital.
We still await a true expansion of rugby through African heartlands. The game is played in every corner of the continent, but still needs careful nurturing.
C
A documentary film, The Founding Four, is complete, bar post-production. It tells the remarkable story of the four women, Alice Cooper, Deborah Griffin, Mary Forsyth and Sue Dorrington, who defied the odds by staging the first ever women’s world cup in 1991, against the wishes of authorities from the IRB (now World Rugby) downwards.
The aim is to present the film in time for the tenth RWC in August, but the producers, Cooper and Nick Heath, need a further £20,000 to complete the job. Crowdfunding is the answer. Contact: https://greenlit.com/project/founding-four.
D
The Red Roses will play Ireland at Twickenham in the 2026 Six Nations. Further details of their programme are still missing.
So the imbalance between the men’s and women’s 6N competitions continues. The RFU has confirmed the venues of only two of the five matches their team will play. Scotland had already announced their intention of staging their game against England at Murrayfield.
The fixtures against France, Italy and Wales still have no fixed abode. The France game will once again ring down the curtain.
For the first time all five rounds will take place on a single day. The dates are: 11 April, 18 April, 25 April, 9 May and 17 May. That opening day comes a full month after the end of the men’s 6N.
E
In the USA Denver Onyx have already qualified for the WER Legacy Cup final after a series of overwhelming wins. Bay Breakers are in the best position to play them, four points head of New York Exiles after nine rounds. The final takes place on 29 June at the TCO Stadium, Eagan, Minnesota.
F
Brazil, the rank outsiders at the coming World Cup, have completed two home matches against the USA Falcons, the back-up team to the Eagles. They lost the first match 26-29, but won the second 15-14.
They have a further fixture against Colombia, due on 14 June. There is huge excitement around the squad as they anticipate their debut at a World Cup.
