These are your rugby headlines on Friday, March 8.
Michael Lynagh’s son to make Italy debut
Australia great Michael Lynagh will watch his son, Louis, make his Six Nations debut this weekend after he was named in Italy’s team to face Scotland.
Louis Lynagh’s mother is Italian and he was born there, too. However, he played at under-20s level for England, where he grew up, and was even called into a training squad when Eddie Jones was in charge.
The Harlequins wing, 23, announced his intention to represent Italy when deciding to swap London for Benetton next season and he will receive his first cap this weekend.
His father, of course, is a legend of the game, having won the World Cup with the Wallabies back in 1991. The former fly-half, who had 72 caps for Australian, also played for Benetton during his playing days.
Italy are coming off the back of a nail-biting 13-13 draw against France in their last outing and will hope to go one better when they welcome the Scots to the Stadio Olimpico. The game kicks off at 2.15pm on Saturday.
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Rising Welsh starlet will ‘come back stronger’
Wales U20s captain Harri Ackerman suffered what is likely to be a season-ending injury in the opening moments of his side’s 45-12 defeat to France on Thursday night.
Less than three minutes into the clash at Cardiff Arms Park, the Dragons star was left stricken on the turf in pain, having got his foot caught under a French player’s body in the tackle. He was treated on the pitch and given gas and air before being carried off on a stretcher to applause from both sets of fans. You can read more about that here.
Nineteen-year-old centre Ackerman, who has been tipped by some as a future senior Wales international, was then taken to hospital and while the exact nature of his injury has not yet been disclosed, it looks to have been a serious lower leg injury.
Not only is it a huge blow for the man himself, as well as his Wales team-mates who were well beaten by France on the night, but also for the Dragons. Ackerman has starred in midfield for the region on several occasions so far this season and is highly regarded at Rodney Parade and by much of Welsh rugby as a whole.
Newport RFC coach Tyron Adams paid tribute to Ackerman at full-time, describing him as a “rising superstar”. Taking to X, he wrote: “My heart goes out to Harri Ackerman, a rising superstar. He’s destined for Wales’ senior international team.
“Despite the setback, he’ll emerge stronger with his superb professional mindset. Your Newport rugby family stand by you, Harri.”
‘Incredible’ Feyi-Waboso handed start
Immanuel Feyi-Waboso has been handed the daunting task of sparking England’s attack into life against Ireland after being handed his first ever Test start by Steve Borthwick.
The Cardiff-born star has already made appearances off the bench against Italy and Scotland after choosing to represent England over Wales at this year’s Six Nations, making an instant impact in the Calcutta Cup by scoring moments after entering the field. But he will start the clash against Andy Farrell’s side at Twickenham as he replaces Elliot Daly on the wing.
Despite only losing once, England have had an underwhelming start to the Six Nations having finished third at last year’s World Cup. After squeezing past Italy and Wales, they suffered a fourth successive loss to Scotland while Farrell’s Grand Slam hopefuls represent by far their greatest challenge of the tournament so far.
While he is still just 21 and making just his third Test appearance ever, however, Feyi-Waboso is seen by some as the answer to England’s attacking woes having left many of his teammates blown away in training.
“Manny’s ready – he’s more than ready,” said captain Jamie George. “You’ve seen that in the time he’s had on the field so far in the Six Nations. He’s an incredible talent, but the maturity we’ve seen from Manny is something that’s impressed me a lot.
“His willingness to learn, he’s eager, you’re constantly having to pull him back. He’s so excited for this opportunity, you can see that, and that energy is infectious throughout the team.”
Meanwhile, speaking about his selection of Feyi-Waboso, Borthwick added: “He was full of gratitude. We see these young players with incredible ability and determination, each time you throw a challenge at them, they seem to relish that challenge. We’ve seen him progress brilliantly and he has earned this opportunity.
“The blend of players is important. Manny came on to the field two weeks ago and had an incredible impact. He is a player who wants the ball.”
Borthwick added: “When I watch Manny, I see his ability to come off the wing and pop up off scrum-half – as he did against Scotland – and pop up inside and outside fly-half.
“I have seen him several times pop up in the middle and do a pick and go at the ruck because he wants the ball in his hands. That is the encouragement I have for him – get that ball in his hands.
“After I told him he was starting, he was very grateful and thanked me numerous times then asked me ‘what do you want from me?’.
“I said ‘find the ball and get it in your hands’. There are some nuances, but the message was ‘I want you to get the ball in your hands as many times as possible’.”
Wallabies’ ‘unacceptable’ overspend under Eddie Jones revealed
Rugby Australia chief Phil Waugh has revealed that $2.6 million in unapproved expenses releated to last year’s World Cup were put through the union’s books, describing the overspend as “unacceptable”.
The Wallabies, of course, suffered a humiliating tournament campaign which saw them crash out in the pool stages for the first time ever after losing to both Wales and Fiji. Eddie Jones was blamed for much of the disastrous stint and quit as head coach just 10 months into a five-year contract before joining Japan.
But the tournament has proved to be costly in more ways than one to Australian rugby, with Waugh left stunned by the massive overspend.
“The over-investment that was unapproved was $2.6 million, which covered three main elements, being team costs, staff travel and then player benefits,” he said on Thursday. “So a lot of that came through post-World Cup. You want to set the team up for success. I mean, the reality is that 86 per cent of our revenue comes through the men’s fifteens program for Rugby Australia, and a successful World Cup program is critical to that.
“And I guess, yeah, there was lenience given in the hope that we would succeed at the World Cup and make it deep into the tournament. Clearly that didn’t happen, but the circumstances were quite unique. Delegation of authority is important and clearly there were breaches in that area and we’ve made personnel changes on the back of some of those breaches.”
However, Waugh refused to blame the former England head coach or Australia World Cup manager Chris Webb for the situation, adding: “I’m not going to point the finger at one individual. I think it was a cultural deficiency that we need to rectify.”
But he continued to say: “The lack of trust certainly comes through and we talk through elements of culture as well as governance there. The actual specifics of Eddie and the linkages to Japan, not so much. But I think that’s the broader lack of trust across the system.”
More to come from Scotland – Townsend
By Anthony Brown, PA
Gregor Townsend is desperate to see Scotland hit their maximum performance levels over the next two weekends as they bid to secure a first top-two finish in the Six Nations era.
The Scots are second in the championship table – a point ahead of England and three above France – as they prepare for matches away to Italy this Saturday and Grand Slam-chasing Ireland the following week. Townsend has seen his team defeat Wales and England while going agonisingly close to defeating the French, but he still feels they are yet to hit top gear for any sustained period.
“Happy-ish,” he said, reflecting on the campaign so far. “You’ve obviously got to be delighted for the team to beat England and retain the Calcutta Cup. But in terms of performance, we’re a little bit away from what we know we can deliver. The first 45 minutes against Wales is probably still the best we’ve played.
“We had elements of control throughout much of the France game and for the last 60 minutes of the England game. But there’s still a lot more to come from us. We’re delighted with how the guys trained yesterday, a real physical session. The non-23 trained really well and really tested us. So the guys are in a good position to deliver their best performances over the next two weeks. That’s all we’re working towards.”
Scotland know that even if they win in Rome on Saturday, it may not be enough to stop Ireland securing the championship against England later in the day. If the Irish slip up at Twickenham, it could pave the way for a last weekend title shootout between Ireland and Scotland in Dublin.
“We can only do what we have to do this weekend which is deliver a winning performance and see where we are after that,” said Townsend. “We’re the first game so I’m sure we’ll be watching the other game with interest. We’re into the last two rounds of the championship still in the mix, although it’s an outside chance for the championship. There’s a lot to play for this weekend and again in Dublin.”
Asked if a second-place finish would represent a good outcome for the Scots, who have never finished higher than third this century, Townsend, said: “I don’t know. Anything to build on what we’ve done in the last few years would be an improvement. We’re focused on the performance and we know that at times it’s been better since the World Cup and last year’s Six Nations but still not where we believe this team can be.”