Rugby Journal's Best Reads of 2023

Written By Eleanor Bradley
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Plymouth Albion RFC
Plymouth Albion RFC

They had fixtures against rugby’s elite, including the All Blacks. They produced players for England and even had the tenacity to have a level playing field. Albion, a side made up of dockyard workers in the city of Plymouth, never knew their place. And they still don’t.

Jersey
Jersey

Just west of France on an island stretching nine miles by five, you’ll find one of the ten oldest buildings in the world, deserted Nazi war tunnels, a booming financial centre, two languages and the best rugby side outside of the Premiership, the Jersey Reds.

Lichfield Ladies
Lichfield Ladies

In the summer of 2017, Lichfield Ladies had their ‘heart ripped out’ by the RFU’s decision not to give them a ticket to the Premier 15s party. The team that had produced Emily Scarratt and Sarah Hunter was sent into oblivion. Almost everyone left. But one team is not a club and Lichfield Ladies have roared again, loud enough for Leicester Tigers to come knocking.  

Portugal
Portugal

The first time Portugal qualified for a Rugby World Cup in 2007, the campaign had included 83-0 defeats, having guns pulled on them in Uruguay, and then getting drawn against the All Blacks at the main event. This time around, for France 2023, they did it the hard way.

Henry Arundell
Henry Arundell

When the world shut down, a seventeen-year-old Henry Arundell got to work. Borrowing weights from his neighbours, he made himself 6kg bigger, stronger and fitter. Even though a six-month injury intervened, he’d still paved the way to a try-scoring England debut after just two league starts. 

Waisale Serevi
Waisale Serevi

The sport had never seen a player like him. For Waisale Serevi time seemed to stand still. A game-changer unlike any other, he changed not only the game, but also his country. And the reason he played? The 1977 Lions.

Rugby Towns #3 Clontarf
Rugby Towns #3 Clontarf

A meadow of bulls where a thousand years has seen two battles with the barbarians, the birth of Bram Stoker, and lots of rugby silverware. Welcome to the Parish. Welcome to Clontarf.

Louis Rees-Zammit
Louis Rees-Zammit

At sixteen he was told he wouldn’t play for Wales. At seventeen he played for Gloucester and trained with England. At eighteen he was called up by Wales and, at nineteen, he scored for them.Now, at twenty, he’s about to become a British & Irish Lion.By 21, Louis Rees-Zammit might just be completely unstoppable.

David Flatman
David Flatman

In a café full of fisherman on the Devon coast, a 20-stone man that looks a bit familiar rocks up on a Triumph bike. He’s here to share stories of gun-wielding hardmen in dark alleys, chainsaw-toting vigilantes, taking uppercuts from Francois Pienaar, the friendliest divorce ever and having ‘Bob in Luton’ trying to brand him racist on Twitter. David Flatman is more than just a pretty face.

Polly Barnes

A former player and now co-founder of the Women’s Rugby Association, Polly’s early rugby education included Lydney bloodying the nose – literally – of Pienaar’s Saracens and neglecting her job to sneak into Twickenham. Later, she tried the trick herself in an attempt to bloody the nose of a certain Welsh scrum-half. She’s also the wife of a former ear-pierced, curtain-wearing, ‘mega loser’ called Wayne. Who happens to be the best ref in the world.

 
 
Eleanor Bradley
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