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 Nick Easter arrived at Chinnor in December 2022, they had won just two games all season, leaving them at the wrong end of the National 1 table. In his first game in charge, they beat the league leaders, beginning a climb to a mid-table finish. The next campaign, they took the title and with it a place in the Championship.

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. 

Amid the deciduous woods of Occitanie in southern France you can find butcher’s-broom, a plant that transformed the lives of the people in Castres, bringing with it not only a homeopathic remedy, but also helping a small-town rugby club to become the best in the country.

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.

Once, they dominated Welsh rugby, defeating the greats of the game, from Bath to Australia and the All Blacks. Then, Newport RFC were removed from the game’s top table, eventually losing their home too. But, as they look to mark 150 years with the dawn of a new era, one thing remains the same, they ‘still hate those black and blue bastards’. 

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 first-ever Olympic rugby tournament wasn’t supposed to be won by the Americans, just as they weren’t supposed to win the inaugural women’s Rugby World Cup. But they did. And then? Pipe bombs, Dan Lyle, MLR, expelled champions, bankruptcy, sevens success, fifteens failure, and two Rugby World Cup bids. This is American rugby. It’s anything and everything, but never dull.

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.

The story of Ikeys v Maties goes far beyond your typical student rugby rivalry. Antisemitism, apartheid, blue-chip donors and the presence of many future Springboks have made this grudge match one of South Africa’s most notorious.

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.