What’s in The Rugby Paper: 23/07/23

It’s been another busy week in rugby news despite preparation fixtures for the Rugby World Cup still a few weeks away, and you’ll be able to catch all of it in another packed edition of The Rugby Paper.

One of the biggest pieces of news has been Marcus Smith’s new contract at Harlequins, and the England star’s comments will be in The Rugby Paper after he signed a new contract with his boyhood club.

And in our Q&A feature, Ben Jaycock speaks to former Quins and 54-time England no.8 Nick Easter about the optimism surrounding his former side following their coaching changes while also discussing the national teams chances in the Rugby World Cup.

Smith’s fellow fly-half Jonny Sexton has managed to avoid a punishment that will take him through the World Cup, but he will miss Ireland‘s warm-up games which Mack Hansen says will be important test matches in their own right.

We’ll also have England U20s captain Lewis Chessum looking back on the World Cup and the future for Mark Mapletoft’s playing group.

Chessum’s international teammate Connor Slevin is our Young Gun this week, and we’ll also have an interview with former England U20s player Sam Hill as he discusses his next steps after leaving Sale Sharks.

Though the U20s World Cup may be over, we’ll be wrapping all the action from the World U20s Trophy, with Scotland looking to achieve promotion back to the main competition. 

It’s a fallow week in The Rugby Championship, but Guest Columnist Neil de Kock will be casting his eye over the action so far, and Lewis Ludlam will be looking ahead to England’s preparation matches in the Northern Hemisphere.

The Premiership fixtures for 2023/24 were released this week, and we’ll have a full list of those as well as Jon Newcombe looking at Newcastle Falcons‘ TNT Sports snub.

And last, but certainly not least, Brendan Gallagher continues his World Cup icons series by looking at Richie McCaw’s majestic 2011 tournament, and Neil Fissler looks back on Exeter’s 1996/97 National League Three triumph in Moment in Time, alongside his Blindside column.

There’s no new edition of the podcast this week, but check out last week’s episode with former Ulster, Ireland and British and Irish Lions winger Trevor Ringland MBE.

Stream The Rugby Paper Podcast on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify (also above), Castbox, Google Podcasts or your favourite podcast provider.

Featured Image: Harlequins/JMP Sport

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