Is there clear evidence certain players make success far more likely? We canvassed coaches and analysts for their views
Alan Dymock
Rugby World features editor

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Toulouse win penalty shootout to make Champions Cup semis
Toulouse win penalty shootout to make Champions Cup semis Could there be a more horrible way to lose a knockout rugby match? Munster missed three shots at goal in their…
Should women play with a smaller ball?
If the ball size was to change, we ponder if there would need to be any short-term technical adjustments
Giant lock Paul Willemse: “I take pleasure in the small things”
Giant lock Paul Willemse: “I take pleasure in the small things” WALKING AROUND, Paul Willemse steers the kind of frame that jams doorways, blots out suns and pressures pavements. And…
Introducing Australia Sevens star Dietrich Roache
LIKE A hospital pass that’s so bad it sucks you into the ambulance, Dietrich Roache can see the question coming. But the rapid wide-out answers kindly. “It’s kinda weird because…
Dalton Papalii: “I want to be the best seven in the world”
IT WASN’T pretty. When Dalton Papalii rocked up to his first All Blacks camp for an end-of-year tour, the conditioners saw an athlete who, by their standards, was “terribly unfit.…
Marcos Moneta: “The Olympics changed my life drastically”
“I LEARNT ENGLISH at my school,” says Marcos Moneta, with disarming diction. “I went to a Scottish school, called St Andrew’s, in Buenos Aires. My university is linked to the…
Allister Coetzee on his dual challenges in Italy and Namibia
“It’s not something I can give a clear-cut answer on!” replies an upbeat Allister Coetzee when asked how he ended up in Rovigo, coaching the Delta side through the Peroni…
Crossing Over: From rugby union to the NFL
The NFL are always looking for talent from around the world to bolster their sport, and physical units from rugby could make it. But it ain’t easy…
Elrigh Louw on running with the Bulls
By this point the story has grown enough arms and legs for three Vitruvian Men, but in giving his side of things, Elrigh Louw still finds an involuntary laugh. “It’s…