Always a Wasp

Inside World Rugby?s ?law labs? ? where the future of the game is shaped

Two UK universities and one in South Africa currently serve as testing grounds for rule changes before the start of in-match trials
Ben Coles, Rugby Reporter 10 May 2024 ? 1:47pm


Tucked away in World Rugby?s announcement on Thursday regarding a number of new law trials being rolled out from the start of July ? including 20-minute red cards and 30-second clocks for scrums and line-outs ? was the news that ?rugby laws labs? are being set up ?to test out new law innovations?.

Telegraph Sport can reveal that the locations for rugby?s laws labs so far include two universities in the United Kingdom and one in South Africa, with scope for another location in France.

The move to set up the labs comes from Phil Davies, the former Wales international and head coach of Leeds Tykes, Scarlets, Cardiff and Namibia, who was appointed as World Rugby?s director of rugby in 2022.

Law ideas have previously gone straight from meeting rooms to in-game trials before being passed or discarded. Creating the law labs, Davies explains, offers a middle ground to test out law variations on the training field, rather than dropping them straight into competitions.


In recent times the trials have been signed off by a number of World Rugby committees with referees Wayne Barnes and Hollie Davidson, coaches Andy Farrell, Jacques Nienaber and Gregor Townsend and former players Jamie Roberts, Rachael Burford and Conrad Smith all involved, along with a number of executives including the RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney and chief financial officer Sue Day, plus World Rugby?s chief executive Alan Gilpin.

Working with universities was previously a key part of World Rugby?s research into the rollout of instrumented mouthguards, used to measure the frequency and intensity of head acceleration environments to monitor concussions, which were first trialled with Cardiff Met University. The labs, according to Davies, will essentially try ?to take theory and turn it into practice a little bit quicker?.

Davies explains: ?It was a bit of a missing link ? you had brilliant research going straight into match practice, rather than having an opportunity to try it in coaching practice and then move forward with a bit more data from a practical point of view.?
?Astonishing amount of data?

Coaches at the universities involved will record video footage of specific drills which will then be sent back to World Rugby for analysis.

The labs will focus initially on scrum forces, while also assessing the responsibilities of the tackler at the breakdown. That area was first discussed four years ago by Richie Gray, the breakdown coach who has previously worked with South Africa, Scotland and Fiji as well as NFL franchises, and Joe Schmidt, who is now head coach of the Wallabies and previously worked as World Rugby?s director of rugby and high performance.

Davies explains: ?Rolling east and west immediately, what does a legal jackal look like, what is the ball carrier?s responsibility ? it?s all those types of experiments which we can try with the assist tackler, or the jackaler if you like.

?I?m not sure how it would look practically, but it?s things like that which we can trial and see what it looks like in a training environment. Then, if we feel there is validity around it, we can take it into a closed trial.?


Through Rhys Jones, World Rugby?s game analysis manager, there are 80 games ?coded? each weekend around the world, giving World Rugby an ?astonishing? amount of data, as Davies puts it. Understanding that information and putting it into practice is the challenge.

?If you look at the breakdown, on average at the moment there are 187 breakdowns in a game, and the referee is blowing their whistle 4.4 per cent of the time. If someone tells you that you have 95 per cent success rate in a certain area of your business, you would be pretty happy about that. It?s about how we apply the data and what story that data tells us in relation to how we improve the game.

?When you think how technical rugby union is, the number of contests and level of technical skill at speed and force in play, it?s incredible, you know? That?s why at some times it?s important to look at the data and paint a wider picture, to give it a bit more perspective. Instead of ?ah, there is too much kicking, too many scrum resets? ? sometimes we will look at the data and it?s not necessarily the case.?

Coaches including Exeter?s Rob Baxter have not held back in their criticism of the sport trying to change too much too quickly, with goal-line dropouts, 50:22 kicks, shot clocks for kicks at goal and the instrumented mouthguards all recent innovations.

The key for Davies, and World Rugby, is finding the right balance between improving safety and spectacle while trying to avoid unnecessary tinkering.

?Modern society is running at 200 miles an hour, let alone 100 miles an hour. Things are evolving so quickly, it?s only right and proper that you address things in the game to improve the safety and the spectacle,? adds Davies.

?I think the balance is right, it?s there. A lot of the time the data can give you that balanced perspective in order to make changes, or to go back and reaffirm what is in the law book rather than making change for change?s sake. It?s a fine balance, but we do well in the respect that we are always looking at how we can improve.?

Premiership?s richest club Bristol Bears? spending to fall well short of salary cap

Director of rugby Pat Lam explains that club will move forward with smaller squad after Premiership clubs adapt to new financial landscape


Bristol Bears will be well under the increased Premiership salary cap ceiling next season despite the riches of Steve Lansdown, their billionaire owner, because of a forecast reduction in central funding to follow the new broadcast deal.

Pat Lam will bid farewell to 17 players over the summer, including Kyle Sinckler, as part of what he called a ?re-setting? process that will lean on experienced leaders such as Ellis Genge, Steven Lutatua and AJ MacGinty to guide a relatively young group.

Lam explained that a 10-team league has left him unable to assure players of game-time. However, another factor has been the renewed broadcast deal with TNT Sports. As things stand, it is expected that clubs will be around ?1 million worse off from television money over the next two seasons, with a view to a more lucrative, longer-term broadcast deal being secured after that period.

The shortfall will be offset by enhanced support from the Rugby Football Union as part of the new professional game partnership, as revealed by Telegraph Sport last month, but Lam said that Bristol, historically regarded as big-spenders in the days of Charles Piutau and Semi Radradra, have reassessed and plan to be some way short of the ?6.4 million salary cap.
?I don?t think we?re going to be up to ?5 million ? that?s fine?

?We?ve got a really exciting group coming through and we?re definitely going to be a smaller squad,? Lam explained on Tuesday. ?We won?t spend to the cap either. At the moment, I don?t think we?re going to be up to ?5 million ? and that?s fine.?

Lam labelled the approach as one of consolidation, stressing that Lansdown was still willing to commit funds.

?There?s no doubt Steve could put more money in if he wanted to, buy why would you?? Lam said. ?The product is really good, but the other side has to pick up as well. If anything, the money that he committed to us is still there. It hasn?t changed. The same amount. What has happened is that it?s the other side that has fallen down ? the TV deal. Every club is going to feel it.

?I believe Steve is testing us; saying ?can you run the club properly?? We?ve been doing that now. It just makes us get everything in order. We?re consolidating when, sure, he could add more money to it. Remember, this decision was made when news of this deal came around Christmas time. If anything. it?s sharpened our focus to make sure it?s not about the individuals, it?s about the right people to play as a team, the right people in the organisation to be efficient and purposeful, and get your jobs done really well.
?We?re no different to the other businesses Steve has?

?We?ve got too much fat on all the different edges ? and we?re no different to the other hundreds of businesses Steve has, or is looking to invest in. That?s why he?s very successful in what he does. I?ve found it really liberating working with Gavin Marshall [Bristol Sport CEO] and Tom Tainton [Bears COO], to work it through. It?s a great exercise for us.?

Over-reliance on a single benefactor has been shown to be fraught with danger and Bristol are evidently eager to avoid that; or at least to work towards a more sustainable approach.

?Sometimes it is ?oh this?ll be ok as Steve will put money in?,? Lam continued. ?He looked after us very well in Covid, and now it?s our turn to make sure that we look after his investment. I think we?ve shown in the last 10-11 weeks, we?re making huge improvements. That will continue next year.

?It has made us look at recruitment, bringing in the right people, let?s look at some gems. We?ve proven ourselves to be able to find gems in the Championship and in BUCS [British Universities and Colleges Sport] ? guys who are hungry.?
?We have a responsibility to make sure we make good decisions?

The decision to raise the salary cap from ?5 million to ?6.4 million for the 2024-25 campaign has divided the Premiership. While some clubs have voiced opposition, Rob Baxter, the Exeter Chiefs director of rugby, outlined his support, even if his club will also be below the limit. Lam, used to skinnier budgets from his time at Connacht, insisted that clubs would need to be disciplined.

?Put [the cap] at ?10 million; it doesn?t mean we?re going to go to it,? he said. ?The onus is on financial directors. Where I used to work I would say ?can I get this?? and they went ?no we don?t have that money? or ?yes you can, but this is all you?ve got?, rather than ?yeah buy that, we?ll find that money somewhere else?.

?All those clubs that went bust, I would look at the financial people, and the decision to spend money they didn?t have. Gambling. Put the cap at ?10 million, and if a club wants to go there, sure, but most clubs won?t if they?re clever as they?ll go bust.

?We have a responsibility to make sure we make very good decisions to be a successful rugby club and work in the means we can afford. What that means is we, not Steve. Our goal from the beginning was to be less reliant on a financial backer. Steve has been brilliant for us, and we were tracking [well], which has earnt us the trust and reputation to look after us during the Covid time.

?Now we?re getting back it?s ?let?s consolidate, look where we?re at?. Who knows what is around the corner so let?s focus on what we do, and be efficient in what we do and still try to be successful in what we do.?

Saracens? work hard, play hard culture is much lauded, but now feels tainted

Insider adamant that despite Billy Vunipola?s conviction, the team bonding sessions have fuelled their era of unprecedented success
Ben Coles, Rugby Reporter 8 May 2024 ? 6:57am


During an interview last week following his arrest after a drunken disagreement in a Majorcan bar, the Saracens No 8 Billy Vunipola, clearly remorseful for his actions after being tasered twice at half four in the morning by Spanish police, made the following remarks during a lengthy apology. ?I caused a huge amount of embarrassment and put a spotlight on the club when they were trying to do something nice for us... I ruined it for myself and for everyone else.?

Those comments help convey how important Saracens? team socials are to their players, aware that a negative spotlight was now shining on their mid-season trips abroad with the positive benefits pushed to one side.

Twice each season ? once during the campaign and another during the off-season ? the Saracens squad have gone abroad for similar trips, seen as valuable chances to bond off the field.

To be clear, Vunipola had splintered off from the rest of the group and was accompanied by one other player, prop Marco Riccioni. Based on the account provided by the owner of the Epic bar in Palma, Riccioni conducted himself impeccably and tried to assist as much as he could, albeit to no avail. Vunipola, drinking for the first time in months and continually refusing to put his shirt back on, was tasered twice and then arrested, sedated, bailed, fined by a court and released with a suspended four-month prison sentence.


Building a strong culture has been an integral part of Saracens? rise to the top over the past two decades, from the creation of the Wolfpack defence to the introduction of the Tiki Tonga celebration, around the same time of the first Saracens trip to Cape Town all the way back in 2009, which was markedly different to how Vunipola?s night finished.

The squad trained, did some community work building houses in a township and, yes, had some nights out. As the team became more successful in the early 2010s, the time available to make those trips happen decreased and they instead became mid-season events; finding weekends in the schedule, or Sunday-Monday trips if the squad had played on a Saturday.
?You get to know them on a deeper level?

?They became more like blowouts,? as one source who has been part of previous trips put it to Telegraph Sport, before adding that the ethos from the original idea to Cape Town remained the same. ?The basic principle was that you spend time together away from your families, your worries, just the boys together. You have some drinks, it does relax people, you become closer and more connected. You understand their motivations, what inspires them, anything that goes on in their family life ? you get to know them on a deeper level.?

Players would be given conversation cards which had to be kept on them at all times; some light-hearted, some deeper, from what superhero they would be to their greatest fear. There would be group lunches with other players they did not know as well, spending time with younger players in the squad but also the club?s coaching staff.

The source adds: ?If you have that increase in motivation and deeper respect for each other, that brotherhood, then in those toughest moments you will fight for that person even more. That?s the difference between winning and losing the biggest moments.?

Since the trips were first introduced, Saracens? players and management have been to around 20 locations. There has been skiing in Verbier (without much skiing), a music festival in Chicago, spending 36 hours in Barcelona, time training in Florida with the Miami Dolphins.

When the England head coach Steve Borthwick was Saracens captain he was due to attend the 2010 Heineken Cup launch in Cardiff, only to pull out at the last minute to attend what was described by Saracens at the time as an ?important squad meeting?. In Munich. At Oktoberfest. Saracens were fined ?4,240 by tournament organisers; money well spent, they would argue, given that led by Borthwick they went on to win the Premiership title for the first time the following summer.

In the ensuing 15 years since that first squad trip up Table Mountain, Saracens have won more trophies than any other English club with six league titles (having made a further three finals), and three European Cups in the space of four years. When the trips have gone well, which they have almost all of the time, they appear to be a resounding success.
?Usually it is self-policed?

The source added: ?Obviously, there?s been incidents. Of course, there have been times when people have gone too far, but usually, touch wood, it is self-policed ? the boys get the boys home. The golden rule we say on the trips is to look after each other and make sure we get home OK, have each other?s backs.? Hence the sight of Riccioni on the bar?s CCTV, having done what he could, watching Vunipola?s arrest unfold.

The club?s relationship historically with alcohol had been viewed in a positive light ? think Alex Goode?s multi-day session after Saracens? European Cup triumph in 2019, still in his full kit by Monday evening. It is therefore unfortunate timing, to say the least, that Vunipola?s arrest for disobedience and assaulting a police officer comes a year after Kapeli Pifeleti, the Saracens hooker, plead guilty to assaulting someone on a night out in Clapham, resulting in a fine from the courts and a formal warning from the club.

Vunipola?s arrest has been swiftly dealt with and was obviously serious ? give he was tasered twice by police officers ? although it pales in comparison with the 2015 incident involving a fire extinguisher in Budapest which ended up finishing the career of the club?s flanker, Matt Hankin, after a drinking game went too far. Wearing a metal helmet, Hankin received a ?tap on the head?, according to the High Court judgment, from the fire extinguisher delivered by another player and suffered a concussion. He was erroneously cleared to return to play ahead of schedule, diagnosed with sinusitis, before suffering another concussion and being forced to retire. Hankin went on to sue the team-mate who instigated the original concussion, Richard Barrington, the club?s doctor who cleared him, Ademola Adejuwon, and Saracens for ?3.15m. The case was settled out of court, with Barrington and Adejuwon paying damages.

?It was a sad tale about someone?s career. Now, that is one black mark, which isn?t really related to a trip, I would say, because [the issue] was what happened when he got back,? the source adds. ?Yeah, there are times where people might have a fall or stuff like that, but generally no injuries, no issues. The boys appreciate that we?re very lucky to go on these trips. It is what people love doing, it?s really exciting and it?s fun. You do feel really connected.

?[Billy] was a public one, but there are certainly a lot more positives than negatives and players really believe in [the team socials]. It?s very hard to quantify, but they have a huge impact in terms of togetherness, knowing each other better, having fun together, feeling as though you are part of the whole group. Those players who are injured or not involved as much, they feel part of it and train harder, push the team harder, and the whole group moves as one altogether, which is so important.?

After Vunipola?s actions the team socials naturally feel a little tarnished, hence the No 8?s obvious contrition. It?s a feeling which will probably take many incident-free excursions to shift. However the purpose of them, and the ensuing success Saracens have had on the field, despite what happened in Majorca should not be overlooked.

Well best team won. Thank goodness.

I frequently mute the commentary.

Necessary!

Toulouse v Quins (KO 3.00pm Sunday) live on ITV 1.

Will choose whether them or TNT based on how bad the co-commentators are!

Roughly the same from The Telegraph -


Jack Willis turns to Marcus Rashford?s performance psychologist to reach next level

Toulouse?s gain is England?s loss as Willis revels in the pressure of taking his team to a Champions Cup final
Charlie Morgan, Senior Rugby Writer 2 May 2024 ? 6:00pm


    European Rugby Champions Cup, Toulouse FC, Marcus Rashford, England Rugby Union Team


Jack Willis is on a voyage of self-improvement in Toulouse that has already seen the 27-year-old enhance his ball-carrying and learn the language. A more relaxed mind-set on the pitch is the latest development.

Willis, poised for a Champions Cup semi-final against Harlequins on Sunday, credits Katie Mobed at The Prime Clinic with helping him to harness the pressure of big games. Mobed, a performance psychologist who worked with Team GB at three Olympic Games in 2012, 2016 and 2020, has also co-authored two books with Marcus Rashford. Willis believes that the collaboration clears his head from undue distraction and stress.

?I think I?ve learned to give it everything I can on the training pitch and during the week, but probably take a little bit of pressure off myself,? he says of the biggest lesson that his Toulouse stint has taught him so far.

?It probably got to a point where I was putting a lot of pressure on myself daily, which can get quite exhausting, and probably bog you down a little bit. I feel a lot freer mentally, I?ve been doing some work with a psychologist as well, which has been incredible.

?I can name drop her because she?s great at what she does; Katie Mobed, she?s brilliant and a big support to me. I think it frees me up going into games, and that?s quite important.

?If you feel bogged down mentally that does make a big difference. I?m not saying I was in a bad headspace at all, but I think you just have lots going through your mind, and you need to organise things correctly. And I certainly feel a lot freer on the pitch.?
?Pressure feels like a positive thing rather than a negative?

Willis, who has recovered from a stomach bug that kept him out of last weekend?s league game against Racing 92, won the Top 14 title in his maiden season across the Channel. Toulouse have looked irresistible during their current Champions Cup campaign, dispatching Cardiff, Harlequins, Ulster and Bath in the pool stages before ousting Racing and then surging past the defiant Exeter Chiefs with a dominant second-half display.

?I certainly feel I enjoy [the pressure] now,? Willis adds. ?I probably went through a phase of not enjoying it so much. I think now the pressure feels like a positive thing rather than a negative. And I?m looking forward to seeing what I can do out there each weekend and just trying to be the best version of myself for the club.?

The best version of Willis is evolving, which one might expect of a player sharing a squad with luminaries such as Emmanuel Meafou, Fran?ois Cros, Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack. He was never a mug with ball in hand, but Willis has challenged himself to be an attacking asset for Toulouse. His performance against Exeter was a huge endorsement in that regard.

Willis surged 30 metres to score in the first half, clattering through Harvey Skinner in the process, and made more strong carries in the build-up to second-half tries from Dupont and Pita Ahki. The benefits of drilling his leg-drive in contact, as Willis is doing weekly with a small group of Toulouse colleagues, are there for all to see.

Exeter also found the most celebrated area of Willis? game, jackalling, to be in fine fettle. Harlequins are bringing their own exponent in Will Evans, a scavenger whose reputation precedes him.

??Wevs? is a great player, incredible over the ball and certainly dangerous to the way we want to play,? Willis acknowledges. ?We want a flowing attack and to look after the ball when we?ve got it in our possession. He?s obviously a big threat to that and we?ve got to make sure we nullify that as much as possible to get a good foothold in the match.?


Willis expects Marcus Smith and co to ?bring all sorts of tricks? to Le Stadium. A helter-skelter quarter-final victory over Bordeaux-B?gles reinforced that, against Harlequins, ?if you give them an inch, they will take a mile?. Back to Evans, then, is there a jackaller?s collective to supplement the front-row union?

?There?s a mutual respect, I?d say so,? Willis grins. ?Whenever I?m watching games, I?ll keep an eye on players like him. I am always pretty happy when I see a nice turnover or two? not trying to be too much of a nause, but that?s true!?

With that in mind, would Willis like to see Steve Borthwick take a punt on a groundhog like Evans for England?

?Yeah for sure,? Willis continues. ?Will?s a great player and to have an attribute like he does and to perform as well as he does each week, I think it?s only fair that he gets an opportunity, but I don?t pick the team!?

The performances that Willis is producing for Toulouse must be bittersweet for Borthwick ? and, indeed, England supporters ? to witness given the Rugby Football Union?s current selection policy. From the sounds of it, if a clear head is aiding these efforts, Willis knows it is no use fretting about matters beyond his control.