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.

At the crossroads between Europe and Asia, where history’s most powerful empires fought their wars and the world’s first grapevines were cultivated, Georgia are challenging rugby’s world order, powered by 130kg props and the spirit of a three-century-old game of their own.

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.

Some of the children didn’t know where they’d come from, the names of their parents, or how they’d ended up at the railway station, but through rugby, they’d not only find food, but also education, and maybe even international rugby.

The new season kicked off, but the side who’d finished the previous one with a record win, were nowhere to be seen. London Scottish, for the second time, were missing from professional rugby.

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.

“I had a dream the other night, The strangest dream of all, I dreamed I was in heaven, away from life’s hard call, It was just as I’d imagined with the silver stars beneath, Seven there from Treorchy, thousands from Glynneath.”

– Max Boyce: Live at Treorchy

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.

When the British & Irish Lions came to Brazil in the 1930s, it should have kickstarted rugby in the Portuguese-speaking nation. Instead, the Second World War broke out and they’ve been playing catch up ever since.

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.

Before he’d even turned 30, with no Premiership playing experience to his name, Tom Harrison was charged with giving Dan Cole and the Leicester forwards help with their scrummaging. Just two seasons later, he is coaching England at a Rugby World Cup.

On the grounds of the former Mohawk Institute, where colonists would force Indigenous youth to speak another language, change their clothes, shave their hair and suffer unimaginable cruelties, many ending in death, a truly remarkable rugby session took place. 

Almost seven years after being brutally cut from the women’s top tier, Lichfield are back in the top flight, helping to power an icon of English rugby as Leicester Tigers make their Premiership Women’s Rugby debut.

Jutting out from the southernmost tip of Spain, the unreservedly British Gibraltar shares many things with its mother land, not least a passion for rugby. Their ground would be the envy of international sides, if only they got to showcase it on the global scene. Instead, they find themselves in rugby’s no-man’s land.

After nipping at the heels of the men’s Premiership to no avail, it’s in the women’s game that Ealing will finally get to taste top-flight rugby. Gaining entry before they’d even played a single game of rugby, Trailfinders Women could prove to be the making of the west London club.

For almost a year, the future of Worcester Warriors, a club that had risen up through rugby’s pyramid, hung in the balance. Fans, players, office staff and coaches could do little more than watch as the incredible rugby legacy of Cecil Duckworth was torn apart.