After nipping at the heels of the men’s Premiership to no avail, it’s in the women’s game that Ealing will finally get to taste top-flight rugby. Gaining entry before they’d even played a single game of rugby, Trailfinders Women could prove to be the making of the west London club.

For almost a year, the future of Worcester Warriors, a club that had risen up through rugby’s pyramid, hung in the balance. Fans, players, office staff and coaches could do little more than watch as the incredible rugby legacy of Cecil Duckworth was torn apart.

Rosslyn Park had been blessed by Russian royalty, part of a much-vaunted history, but the advent of professionalism led to a plummet down the leagues. It was only saved when a stranger with a familiar surname walked through the clubhouse door offering a route to salvation.

The story of Bridgend-born Meg Webb, who plays for Brython Thunder, Bristol Bears and Wales, also features in the new issue of Rugby Journal. Available to buy here.

Saved from extinction for the cost of ‘one hundred trips to Paris’, Cambridge leapt from third to first on the final day of the season to secure what seemed an unlikely promotion to the Championship. It’s a story that even their former chair Jeffrey Archer couldn’t make up.

It’s seen the highs of visiting All Blacks and a dominant Pooler, and the lows of arson and financial collapse. But now, after a decade of turmoil, Pontypool Park will once again play host to top-flight Welsh club rugby.

In 1987, Yorkshire won the county championship with a side flush with British Lion-class talent from Rob Andrew and Peter Winterbottom to Rory Underwood. Today, while the talent remains, the White Rose is still to truly bloom in rugby’s top division.

When a fifty-year-old Topsham printer went to Exeter to try and get a game of rugby, he was told he was too old for them. Undeterred, he opted to set up his own club, in a town known for building warships, fishing, and having an awful lot of pubs.

The Dorchester Gladiators arrived for the tour match wearing heavily the impact of the night before, which had ended only a few hours earlier. As they stepped from the bus, they found themselves facing photographers and TV crews. On the pitch, things got worse, as they faced the 24-time Romanian champions, with every minute broadcast live on national television.

One month they could be facing the Army in front of 50,000, the next they’re facing Somali pirates armed with assault rifles in hostile waters. Their greatest honour is made from the timber of Lord Nelson’s ship, and HMS Ark Royal once ruled the rugby pitch, as it did the waves. Royal Navy rugby is never dull.

University rugby was once considered the game of the elite, but the rise of BUCS rugby has changed the face of the sport. At a time of instability within the professional game, our educational institutions could provide an answer.

Sunday 2nd September, 2001.  The SkyRack was bouncing. Phil Davies was bouncing, dual-international Steve Bachop was bouncing, young Tom Palmer was bouncing, the whole place was bouncing… ... this was a night like no other for professional rugby union in the city of Leeds. Once-mighty Bath had been beaten, 10-6, by the upstarts from Headingley and the city was in celebration mode. There’s only one way rugby in Yorkshire is going from here…

They arrived from Spain, America, Holland, France, Japan, Canada, some just in time for kick off. But with a core of local talent, Exeter Chiefs somehow managed to beat the very best in the  Allianz Premier 15s.

They had fixtures against rugby’s elite, including the All Blacks. They produced players for England and even had the tenacity to have a level playing field. Albion, a side made up of dockyard workers in the city of Plymouth, never knew their place. And they still don’t.

Four years after the Cadbury brothers gave us Dairy Milk, and six years before they delivered Milk Tray, the world’s most famous chocolatiers gave us Bournville RFC. More than a century later, the club have finally joined their plastic-wrapped Bournville siblings on the national stage. 

Just west of France on an island stretching nine miles by five, you’ll find one of the ten oldest buildings in the world, deserted Nazi war tunnels, a booming financial centre, two languages and the best rugby side outside of the Premiership, the Jersey Reds.

In the summer of 2017, Lichfield Ladies had their ‘heart ripped out’ by the RFU’s decision not to give them a ticket to the Premier 15s party. The team that had produced Emily Scarratt and Sarah Hunter was sent into oblivion. Almost everyone left. But one team is not a club and Lichfield Ladies have roared again, loud enough for Leicester Tigers to come knocking.  

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.

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 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…