When Ollie Chessum saw his foot at an angle it wasn’t supposed to be, he thought his dream was over. He knew the long grind of rehab was ahead, but what he didn’t yet know was whether or not he could make it back in time for the World Cup. 

After suffering a third ACL tear by the age of 24, Tatyana Heard lost her Red Roses contract and, with it, the job she’d always wanted. As the pandemic hit, instead of representing her country, she was getting up at 3am for another shift at the local Asda.

Just two caps is scant reward for a former choir boy turned ‘New Zealand number six’ who’s been as consistently excellent as Ted Hill. Perhaps he played for the wrong club: Ted never thought so. He’d not been paid for four weeks when his agent persuaded to him face the reality of the situation. He eventually left, hoping that one day there’d be a club to return to...

He hadn’t seen the jersey for decades, but it still bore the scars inflicted by opponents’ studs over sixty years before. Now reunited with his beloved red shirt, the memories come flooding back for Irishman Noel Murphy, British & Irish Lion #404.

When the message came that her grandad had died on the day of the World Cup final, Hannah Botterman had to push it out of her mind. On the other side of the world, and sporting an injured knee that had ruled her out of the tournament, she could only watch on as England’s World Cup destiny slipped away. 

Dean Richards crept up to the telephone box unnoticed. The man inside had a sawn-off shotgun he was threatening to use on a former lover, but the number eight took him by surprise, pinning and disarming him in the process. This was life as a ‘bobby’ in the 1980s, so no wonder professional rugby was a breeze.

When Gwenllian Pyrs was offered a professional contract with Wales, there was only one response. But, once the dust settled, it dawned on her she’d have to leave home: leave the village, the farm, her family, and, more importantly, Dot and her four siblings.

When Pat Lam needed cover for the world-class Charles Piutau, he didn’t look for yet another galactico, but instead turned to Rich Lane, a part-time landscape gardener from Bedford with a point to prove in the Premiership.

Of all the kickers who lined up in France, it wasn’t the Sextons, Farrells or even Pollards that truly captured the imagination; it was the sixteen-stone Portuguese hooker. Mike Tadjer was the hero the Rugby World Cup needed.

The tape had run out, the medical supplies were low, and then the bailiffs wheeled away the Wattbikes; Matt Kvesic’s return to his boyhood club Worcester Warriors wasn’t quite what he expected. A long-term contract was cut short, and he was forced to leave his family behind and head to Italy.

More than fifty years ago, Rob Baxter was introduced to Exeter rugby. A life spent with the club, as man and ball boy, shows no sign of coming to an end. Even though his first golden generation are almost entirely gone, a new breed have emerged.

As he lined up to take the kick, the ground of his childhood dreams fell silent. All around were fans who’d cheered for and against him. The silence was broken by one man, ‘I hope your wife dies.’ For all his brilliance in every shirt he wore, at every game, there was always one.

Before she took to the field against South Africa, it all became too much for Natalia John. The tears flowed, she broke down. She wasn’t just playing for her country, it felt like she was also playing for her livelihood, her family and, specifically, her nephew Morgan.

Paula George wasn’t just the only black person in her village, but the only black person in her family. At twelve, she was forced into foster care, at fourteen she left home for good. At nineteen rugby saved her life. But then, at fifty, cancer threatened to take it, within a matter of months.

When they finally gave James Hook a Six Nations start in the Wales number ten jersey, he showed them what they’d been missing. A full house. A try, conversion, drop-goal and four penalties. Twenty-two points. Victory over England. It was rugby Roy of the Rovers stuff for the boy from Port Talbot.

When 17-year-old local boy Josh Matavesi made his debut for Camborne, few expected it to lead to a career featuring two Rugby World Cups for Fiji, and playing for some of the most iconic clubs in Europe, before returning to exactly the same place where it all began, some fifteen years later.

Weeks after making his under-21 debut for Australia, the teenage wing stepped up to the senior side, against the All Blacks in Christchurch. He didn’t blink, he didn’t even know who Stu Wilson was, so why worry? They lost, but he scored, and David Campese’s reign had begun.

After once ruling the age-grade roost, taps on shoulders, key departures, and criticism from all angles, has meant England’s pathway has come under fire. But now, England’s youth might finally be coming of age.

Mo Hunt walked into the room filled with the people that had both built and broken her, with emotions still raw after a World Cup she couldn’t even bear to watch. She’d reached a pivotal moment, and there was only one way it was going to play out.

As women’s rugby in England enters a crucial stage in its development, Premiership Women’s Rugby was launched with Belinda Moore as employee number one. An average ice skater, but with every professional credential you could want, she might just be the game changer the sport needs.