Here are your rugby morning headlines for Tuesday, 28 June.
Springboks not underestimating Wales
South Africa assistant coach Deon Davids says that the Springboks are under no illusions over the challenge Wales will pose in the upcoming Test series.
Wayne Pivac's men face the world champions in Pretoria this Saturday in the first Test of their summer tour, with Tests in Bloemfontein and Cape Town to follow. Given how Wales finished a lowly fifth in the Six Nations, the general consensus appears to be that the Springboks will comfortably secure a 3-0 whitewash.
Read more: Wales refute psychological issues in South Africa after regional drubbings
However, Davids insists they will not be underestimating Wales in the coming weeks. "Listen, everyone is focusing on the Italy loss," he said.
"A couple of years ago, we also lost against Italy. What we need to understand is if you look at the other Six Nations games, Wales were actually in those games right until the end.
"They are a competitive side, they play with a lot of passion and a lot of pride. They're in a situation where they want to turn things around, they've got experienced campaigners, British and Irish Lions.
"We are under no illusions that it's going to be a tough series and that is how we're approaching it."
Northampton confirm Burrell wasn't racially abused at club
Northampton Saints have confirmed the racist abuse Luther Burrell revealed he experienced at the hands of past team-mates did not take place during his time at the club.
In an interview with the Mail on Sunday last weekend, Burrell said racism was “rife” in English rugby. The 32-year-old centre recalled players joking about slavery and remembered being called a "n-----".
And Northampton, where Burrell spent seven years between 2012 and 2019, have released a statement on behalf of their chief executive, Mark Darbon.
“Everyone at Northampton Saints was saddened and appalled to read Luther Burrell’s comments published yesterday, detailing the racist abuse he has experienced during his playing career,” said Darbon.
“The Club condemns all forms of discrimination, and yesterday reached out to Luther to offer our support and applaud his bravery in speaking out.
“We were reassured during our conversation that Luther did not experience any racial abuse during his time at Northampton Saints. The Club will continue its ongoing work to make sure that Franklin’s Gardens remains an inclusive environment for all Northampton players, staff and supporters.
“We have invited Luther to return to Franklin’s Gardens in the coming months to contribute towards the Diversity and Inclusion projects already being delivered by the Club’s community and commercial staff.
“Saints will welcome and support any wider action taken by the RFU and Premiership Rugby to improve education and awareness across Rugby Union, so that we can eradicate discrimination from our game.”
All Blacks hit by another Covid setback
The All Blacks have been engulfed by Covid chaos ahead of their Test series against Ireland.
Overnight, Will Jordan became the sixth member of the group to test positive. Earlier this week, head coach Ian Foster, assistants John Plumtree and Scott McLeod and centres David Havili and Jack Goodhue all tested positive. All will be forced to isolate at home this week while the All Blacks prepare for the July series opener against Ireland at a sold-out Eden Park on Saturday night.
Lock Sam Whitelock insists the players will take the lead despite the setback.
“If anything for a player, it’s quite nice for it to happen early,” said Whitelock, who is also overcoming a thumb fracture ahead of the first Test. “It makes us take the lead, which we normally want to do anyway. If anything, it means we’ve got to do it a day earlier than we normally would.
“The leadership have been together for a couple of campaigns now and we know each other pretty well. So it’s not doing too much differently … it’s maybe everyone taking a step up in the right areas. We all lead in different ways, so we’ve got to carry on doing that but make sure we’re right across the whole board because we don't have our normal coaches there.
“It’s a really cool challenge and something I’m actually looking forward to. It’s different, but how awesome we get to have a week in here that’s so different.”
Sevens guru Ryan switches to football
Brentford have appointed rugby sevens guru Ben Ryan as their new Director of Elite Performance.
Ryan coached Fiji to Olympic gold when rugby sevens made its debut at Rio 2016, delivering the country’s first ever medal at the Games. Before that, he worked as England head coach for six years and did some consultancy work with the WRU after leaving his Fiji post.
The 50-year-old’s arrival in the newly created role is part of a restructure of the Premier League side’s hierarchy after the departure of co-Director of Football Rasmus Ankersen last year.
Ankersen had shared that position Director of Football Phil Giles, who will now take on the role alone. Speaking about Ryan's appointment, Giles said: “When Rasmus left us in December 2021, I spent some time thinking about the future direction of the department and what skills and experiences I felt we needed moving forward.
"Director of Elite Performance is a role I think will help us reach even higher levels of performance across both players and staff. After a thorough recruitment process, Ben emerged as the outstanding candidate.
“He brings huge experience of how to reach elite level across a range of sports and has a coaching background which will help him work effectively with Thomas [Frank]. He is also a Brentford fan, so already understands the Club, knows what we’ve achieved already, and what we want to achieve together in future.”
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