Even before the guns stopped firing, and the new country had fully emerged, a Croatian rugby team had formed. A few years later, led by a man who would become a priest, they faced Italy in an incredible World Cup qualifying run.
The biggest star on the pitch wasn’t Italian however, it was a Croatian rugby rock star by the name of Frano Botica.

Within months of his rugby career ending with a little help from the hip of Tim Visser, Chris Cusiter moved to LA. Since then, he’s done everything you’re not supposed to do, all at the same time, including losing a $6,000 bottle of vintage Cognac.

In the farming lands of north Norfolk, where Sirs Benjamin Britten and James Dyson went to school, in a town that was once burnt to cinders, a 91-year-old former boxer has found a home unlike any he’s ever known, at Holt RFC.

In a forest where the trees can stop a foreign invasion and not even dancing bears can walk safely, Tykes and Titans continue to be slain, and it’s all down to the rugby men of Cinderford, refusing to know their place.

Literally half a world away from where the sport first began, and with a national side on the periphery of rugby’s top table, Hong Kong is the epicentre of the sevens world, the spiritual home of the abridged game. The Hong Kong Sevens is a must for every rugby fan the world over, and this is why...

It’s been played by the greats of the game, from Lomu and Campese to Habana and Serevi, its atmosphere is the stuff of legend, and then there’s the food, the nightlife, not to mention the ancient history right on its doorstep – it’s for good reason that the Hong Kong Sevens is rugby’s true bucket-list event.

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.

Eileen Dallaglio walked up to Jack Rowell, and tapped him on the shoulder. “Who are you?” asked the England coach. “I’m the mother of the number eight you brought on 25 minutes too late ... he needs to start.” The coach walked off saying nothing, but Lawrence Dallaglio started the next game.

What follows a 28-5 half-time lead, and a personal haul of three tries in a semi-final, is usually a final. But that wasn’t the case for Max Malins. He still doesn’t have closure, but you wouldn’t know it. A try-scoring record of 34 tries in 33 games doesn’t exactly give the impression of a man with worries.

A waterlogged training ground around the back of the old stand used to force Bristol to train on the car park. Struggling to stay in the top division, they forever lived in the shadow of their neighbours. But now, the biggest shadow is cast by them, from an £11.5m high-performance centre.

The reverend had just wanted to try and keep youngsters on the straight and narrow, but using a pitch near a monkey house, bandstand and a bear pit, in a town perfumed by beer, he instead started a rugby club that would go on to conquer Europe.

Fifteen-year-old Malakai Fekitoa was only supposed to be helping carry water on for the Tongan side. Instead, he beasted them in a fitness test, and earned himself a fast-track to the national squad. Aged just sixteen, he was going to wear the red of his homeland for the first time. More than a decade later, he made his second debut for the Tongans as captain, and now he’s aiming to go one better, and take them to the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

Stories of resistance attacks against the Nazis, Soviet showtrials and the hell of war-time Poland filled their heads. They didn’t need to understand every word spoken by their Welsh coach. This was the team talk to end all team talks. Germany never stood a chance.

Shaunagh Brown searched for her opponent’s name. If she was going to fight for the first time, she wanted to know who she was facing. Google told her nothing. The gym she supposedly trained at knew nothing. Then, into the ring walked a European silver medallist. She’d been stitched up. 

He’s not as fast as his dad, but Adam Radwan, the half-Egyptian wing from a village near Sheepwash, was quick enough to score three tries on his England debut. Luckily, he’s got a cap to prove it, otherwise he’d never believe it happened.

More than a decade ago, Steve Hansen told Bill Sweeney that England would never win another World Cup. England just weren’t set up for it. When Bill got the chance to prove him wrong, he had just a few problems to overcome, starting with 119 redundancies and a global pandemic.

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.

Merthyr Tydfil was once a global capital of industry, a master of steel, iron and coal, the envy of the world. And then, it wasn’t. New industries came, but then went. Television shows even began to mock them. But, the people of Merthyr are made of stronger stuff, and, through rugby, a new generation has been inspired, with the help of Sir Stanley and a man known as ‘Chief’.

After a year playing with Japanese forklift truck factory workers and taking spiritual visits to Hiroshima, Freddie Burns has returned with a new perspective. He won’t be the ‘laughing stock of world rugby’ anymore. And, ask him anything, and you’ll get a straight answer. Especially when you ask about Bath.

Less than a year after signing a peace agreement, the United Arab Emirates and Israel met for a rugby match, the first sporting event between the two. At the heart of it, is a man famed for hospitalising three Welshmen and laying waste to a nation’s hopes thirty years ago. Apollo Perelini, aka The Terminator, is the most unlikely of peacekeepers.