Dan Carter's performance for New Zealand against the British & Irish Lions in the 2005 2nd Test. Breathtaking.

The Australian

Will Kelleher

Spain’s grand plans to become a top rugby nation include joining European cup competitions, the United Rugby Championship and pushing for Six Nations inclusion.

The Spanish, who will be in Australia next year after qualifying for the Rugby World Cup, are frontrunners to host the 2035 tournament, ahead of South American nations and Japan, and have declared they want the 2037 women’s tournament, too.

They are also in talks with the French Ligue Nationale de Rugby to stage the 2029 or 2030 Top 14 final at the new 105,000-seat Nou Camp in Barcelona when the stadium rebuild is complete. That match would break the record for a modern-day club crowd if it surpassed the 99,124 who attended the 2016 Top 14 final at the old Nou Camp.

All these moves are part of Spain’s vision to dine at the top table of rugby. “You cannot think about competing if we don’t do things differently,” Spanish Federation president Juan Carlos Martin Sanchez, said. “The only way we can be competitive is by playing at the maximum level.”

Asked about the men’s and women’s Six Nations, Sanchez said he was interested in pushing for inclusion. “First we have to become serious players.”

The men’s Six Nations has remained a closed shop since 2000, when Italy joined, and has consistently resisted Georgia as an expansion country. However, Spain are part of the under-18s Six Nations festivals, and they may find the door ajar to join the women’s tournament – which they were part of between 2001 and 2007 before Italy usurped them. “We’d like to organise the Women’s 2037 World Cup in Spain,” Sanchez added. “For us, investing in our girls is critical both across sevens and XVs.”

In the club game, Spanish executives have met the URC and European Professional Club Rugby, who run the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, to discuss joining those competitions soon. It is most likely their union-run professional team, Castilla y Leon Iberians, who were established in 2021 and play in Palencia, north of Valladolid, would first form part of the second-tier Challenge Cup.

Spain had two sides regularly competing in the Challenge Cup between 2001 and 2005, and 2007 and 2013. EPCR already has two guest teams in its second-string competition – Georgia’s Black Lion and the Cheetahs from South Africa. Bilbao hosted European Cup finals weekends in 2018 and last May.

“Spain is indeed a serious candidate for future editions,” an EPCR spokesman said. “There is considerable momentum following the fantastic finals in Bilbao and, of course, after Spain qualified for the 2027 Rugby World Cup, and are bidding to host in 2035.”

They would need to prove their competitiveness quickly, as neither EPCR nor URC wants to hand a spot to a weak team. The Times understands that while the URC is not actively looking to expand, if the Welsh Rugby Union gets its wish and one of its regions is sacrificed in 2029-30, there would be a spot free in the 16-team competition.

Source - Rugby Stats Nerd (Instagram)

rugbystatsnerd England have plenty of back-row cover, but loosehead is stretched: three of the five primary options in the 2025/26 pool carry reported injury labels.

We’ll refresh this guide every month or two. Spotted a missing player or an error? We’d really appreciate your feedback so we can put it right in the next update.

Checked 20 October 2026.

People assumed your Red Roses involvement would lead to a role with the England men’s team?

I had a conversation with the boss of the (men’s) team six weeks ago and was told they’re happy with the staff they have and the way things are going. You have to respect that. I make no secret that I’d like to represent England and I’d love to win a Six Nations. Maybe two or three. That would be something else.

Source - https://www.rugbyworld.com/news/i-want-to-go-to-the-world-cup-argentina-was-the-first-team-to-offer-me-a-contract-shaun-edwards-on-his-new-coaching-role-with-argentina-and-his-england-ambition-186128

Johnny Sexton knew how to make things happen on the pitch 🪄 Here are some of his highlights from the Lions' 2013 Test Series against Australia.

1 orange card, 2 red cards

A couple that jump out at me

Tomos Williams at Saracens - I don’t think he fits as a personality or as a player, and would be much better suited to a team like Harlequins in both aspects

Anton Lienert-Brown at Chiefs - as someone who doesn’t watch heaps of Super Rugby, he just feels like the blueprint for a Crusaders centre to me, and I would never had said he was a Chief if I didn’t watch him play there.
I’m equally surprised that he didn’t move to Japan until 2025

Ollie Sleightholme at Saints - perhaps not necessarily the ‘wrong’ club, but I feel that he is one of the most Perpignan-coded players I’ve ever seen

Please tell me how wrong I am, and who you would place in a similar categor

even added former Toulouse-man Tekori for good measure and to make up for Meafou's absence. He took care of the appetizers it seems (all of them).

Specifically for the women's game, because of the much greater extremes in body size for the men, male 7s exponents frequently find themselves ragdolled by elite 15s forwards so there is less transfer. All Blacks 7s average back's weight is around 92-95kg compare to the 115-120+kg in 15s front and second row. The only position in 15s that is of comparable size to 7s is the scrum half and that's only one position out of 15.

However for women, the very biggest woman is not that much stronger than an average sized woman even when both are trained elite athletes so female 7s players seem perfectly able to play in the 15s and still cope with forwards' size and power. Specifically for 7s, since there is nowhere on the field to hide and every player is in almost constant motion the entire match, it also ruthlessly trains your gas tank/anaerobic endurance.

Example : Canada and Black Ferns. Not familiar with Canada setup but arguably the best 15s players for the Black Ferns in recent times are all primarily 7s/started in 7s : Jorja Miller --starting open side flanker in WRWC 2025, Stacy Waaka starting centre/winger for 15s and WRWC winner, Sarah Hirini starting flanker for the 2021 WRWC winning side, Risi Pouri-Lane starting scrum half for 2025 WRWC. Perhaps they receive more one on one individualized attention on agility, speed, explosivity training during 7s camps?