In the days of the British Empire, Nottingham was the epicentre of the world’s lace trade. It was then that a lace baron by the name of Birkin sewed the first stitch in turning the city’s rugby club into one of the nation’s finest.

At a Rugby World Cup where the Russians tried to fund themselves by selling contraband, the French barely made it at all, and England and New Zealand were favourites, a USA team featuring the ‘locks from hell’, the ‘mother of rugby’, a stunt woman hand-picked by Burt Reynolds, and coached by a Welsh PE teacher, pulled off one of the sport’s greatest shocks.

Aged nineteen, Jimmy Gopperth walked into a changing room with Jonah Lomu, Christian Cullen and Tana Umaga. All he had to do, he was told by the All Blacks’ captain, was ‘be loud and push us around the field’. That was the easy bit. What wasn’t so easy, was displacing Dan Carter.

Negotiating with naked head coaches, bartering shares in Cardiff airport, finding dates with pop stars, there’s little rugby agents haven’t had to contend with in the relatively brief era of professionalism. But in an industry where there are just 700 professionals being served by 115 agents, it’s little wonder they’re always willing to go the extra mile.

George Kruis freely admits he was crap at rugby. A late developer, he joined his local club for the beers and barbecues rather than trophies, but ended up winning them by the shedload. Even in Japan, he’s on course for back-to-back titles. But there won’t be one last tilt at a World Cup. Aged 32, he’s finishing. On a high.

They were the pioneers in women’s rugby. They attracted the best players in the world. They won leagues and cups. They broke records. And then, it stopped. They lost a visionary coach, a squad of players, their place in the top flight, and then, eventually, their second and third teams. But the Richmond story isn’t over yet. Just ask Kapo.

On a mountain in Alaska, having seen her Olympic dream come to an end, in her mind Alev Kelter battled everything. She questioned celibacy, her sexuality, her life goals, her purpose. And she found answers. Then, back at the lodge, rugby found her.

In the South Hams, the prettiest of places you’ve probably never visited, the women of Ivybridge RFC are challenging for honours. At the helm? Possibly rugby’s only husband and wife team, Georgie and Ben Gulliver. 

On 6 August 2021, Old Elthamians announced the club would not be fulfilling their fixtures in National League One. A team that was founded 110 years ago would have to start the season without a first team. This is the story of how it happened, what happened next and the rebuilding of a proud rugby club…

In the Bricklayers Arms they flicked a coin to see which way they would go, to a man committed to the result. Heads, amateur dramatics. Tails, rugby. The Queen landed face down and the Shoreditch creatives headed for Hackney Marshes.

In 22 seconds, the ball went from one end of the pitch to another, passing through the hands of eight Barbarians, with jinks, dummies and attempted decapitations in between. It was the try, one that will never be forgotten, just like the man who scored it, Sir Gareth Edwards.

In the City of London, in the shadow of the financial world’s buildings, amid the thick-set urbanity of the metropolis, is an oasis of pristine green, complete with what looks like a castle and, more importantly, a pair of rugby goalposts. This is the Honourable Artillery Company.

One of Charles Windsor’s early jobs as King was to head north to Doncaster and give it a fresh new title of its own. After 800 or so years as a town, it was now a city. All it needs now, is for the local rugby club to gain the premier status it so richly deserves.

When Jonny Wilkinson was at his zenith in 2003, sessions with his kicking coach Dave Alred quite often turned to farce. Literally. As well as sketch comedy, satire and one-liners from Naked Gun, Dave knew how to keep Jonny in the zone. Just as he knew how to improve Stuart Barnes’ spiral bombs, Jonny Sexton’s drop goals and Beauden Barrett’s restarts. For rugby’s kicking coach to the stars, every day’s a school day.

England were a shambles. A quarter-final World Cup defeat to Wales, fifth place in the Five Nations and without a title for almost a decade. The new coach Geoff Cooke was part of the answer, the other came in the form of a 22-year-old son of a Lieutenant Colonel called Will Carling.

Over the years, the players and members of one London merit table club have helped Rugby World Cups happen, captained and coached their country, and had games attended by politicians, Lords and dignitaries. But for London Japanese all that matters is one thing: ‘tasty beers’.

On the Promenade des Anglais, a huge curve of golden beach in Nice, where the English have  been welcome ever since the days when Queen Victoria wintered there, Steffon Armitage is enjoying a homecoming to the city where he first fell love in with rugby.

In the space of just one week last year, Claudia MacDonald managed to produce a career-defining performance against the Black Ferns, while also suffering from an injury that almost brought her career to an end.

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. 

Rejected by Leicester as a teenager, even the slightly longer route he took to professionalism, still saw Tommy Freeman break into Eddie Jones’ England squad aged just 21. Now, all his coaches have to do, is not coach him too much.