What Is The Best Rugby Movie? These days we all have a lot of time on our hands. And there’s no live rugby on the tube. At moments like this so many of us turn to movies. But what if we could combine the two… During the Rugby World Cup in Japan we heard a lot about ‘The Brighton Miracle’ – a movie about Japan’s triumph over south Africa in 2015, starring Once Were Warriors and Star Wars actor Temuera Morrison as Eddie Jones. There have been rumours of rugby films in the past, with an option taken out on RW contributor Tom English’s book The Grudge a few years back. In the past there were stories of Mickey Rourke’s scheme to make a biopic about Gareth Thomas, while we also heard of the desire to see a movie about Ben Ryan and Fiji’s Olympic champions. But has there ever been a truly excellent movie about rugby? Here are some of the most notable films to feature a bit of rugby union. We’ll let you decide if they are great or not. The Departed (2006) Okay, so there’s barely two minutes of action in this but you see Matt Damon’s character, Colin Sullivan, packing down at flanker in a match between Boston police and local firefighters. It’s used as part of a sequence of getting-to-know-you scenes before Damon gets down to the nitty gritty of spying on his colleagues on the force, for the mob. Of course, this wasn’t the last time Damon would portray a flanker on the silver screen… Invictus (2009) In this tale of the 1995 World Cup, the Springboks’ victory, and the role Nelson Mandela played in uniting a nation, Damon played… um… well, the A-lister was Francois Pienaar. While Clint Eastwood applied some Holywood gloss to this, the rugby action displayed has drawn criticism ever since its release and there were some parts of the story of the final not covered (we never seen any All Blacks running for the bogs). However, Bath fans may have noticed their former No 8 Zak Feaunati trucking up the wing as Jonah Lomu. Mercenary (2016) This movie, which was celebrated at Cannes, tells the tale of a young Wallisian man who is ‘scouted’ in New Caledonia and brought to France to play prop for an elite club. When he is cut loose for not being big enough, the young man must make his way playing further down the leagues. Star Toki Pilioko, who does play professionally in France, was injured at the time of filming, so you never see any colossal collisions, but his performance is captivating… particularly considering he is not a trained actor. Related: Rugby World talks to the director of Mercenary Forever Strong (2008) Never heard of it? We don’t blame you. This movie follows a predictably cheesy path with a wayward young man turning his life around through the sport, there are a lot of shots of Americans doing hakas and the rugby action … Continue reading What Is The Best Rugby Movie?