Waisale Tikoisolomoni Serevi is a Fijian former rugby union football player and coach, and is a member of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. Serevi is renowned for his achievements in rugby sevens, while also enjoying a long career in fifteen-a-side rugby at both club and national team levels. Nicknamed "The Wizard" by commentators, he is widely considered to be the greatest rugby sevens player in the history of the game. A biography of Serevi titled Waisale Serevi: King of Sevens by Nick Darvenzi was published in 2018.
Harlequins are a professional rugby union club that plays in Premiership Rugby, the top level of English rugby union. Their home ground is the Twickenham Stoop, located in Twickenham, south-west London.
Jacobus Francois Pienaar is a retired South African rugby union player. He played flanker for South Africa from 1993 until 1996, winning 29 international caps, all of them as captain. He is best known for leading South Africa to victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup. After being dropped from the Springbok team in 1996, Pienaar went on to a career with English club Saracens.
Stade Français Paris is a French professional rugby union club based in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The club plays in the Top 14 domestic league in France and is one of the most successful French clubs of the modern era. The original Stade Français was founded in 1883. In its current form, the club was founded in 1995 with the merger of the rugby sections of the Stade Français and Club Athlétique des Sports Généraux (CASG).
Bristol Bears are a professional rugby union club based in Bristol, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
Agustín Pichot is an Argentine retired rugby union player, formerly captain of the Argentine team and the English club Bristol. In addition to Bristol, he played for French sides Stade Français and Racing Métro after leaving Argentine team CASI from San Isidro in 1997. In 2011, he was inducted into the IRB Hall of Fame. He was Vice-Chairman of World Rugby between 2016 and 2020.
Mike B. James is a former professional Canadian rugby union player. Standing at 196 cm tall and weighing in at 110 kg, James is an imposing figure and is well known for his expertise in the set pieces. He has played for the prestigious French Barbarians, and was featured in the 2005 team that included New Zealand greats Justin Marshall and Kees Meeuws. He last played in France for Stade Français, having started his career with 4 years in Perpignan USAP and was part of the great Stade teams that won the French Premiership titles in 2003, 2004 and 2007. James also played in 2 Heineken Cup Finals in 2001 and 2005.
Sergio Francesco Parisse is an Italian former rugby union player. He is currently the lineout coach for French club Toulon. He played for the Italy national team from 2002 until the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Parisse is Italy's most-capped player, and currently the fourth most-capped player of all time. He was the first Italian rugby union player to be nominated for the IRB International Player of the Year, in 2008 and again in 2013. Parisse is widely considered one of the greatest number eights of the modern era, and the greatest Italian rugby player of all time. He also holds the joint record of playing in five Rugby World Cups.
David Seymour is a retired rugby union player. A Flanker by trade, that had a successful career in the Aviva Premiership with Saracens and Sale Sharks.
Fabien Galthié is a French rugby union coach and former player, currently the head coach of the France national team.
Pieter Joshua de Villiers is a South African-born French rugby union player and coach. As a player he represented France at international level and played in two Rugby World Cups, and ended his club career with Stade Français in the Top 14 competition in France. A prop, he was renowned for his scrummaging ability.
Mario Ledesma Arocena is an Argentine rugby union coach and a former international rugby player. He played in Argentina's successful 2007 Rugby World Cup campaign and had a professional playing career in France spanning 10 years. Since retiring he has coached at the highest level in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and was most recently the head coach of the Argentine national team.
Mike A. Ford is an English rugby union coach and rugby league footballer. He is currently the Head coach of the Belgian national rugby union team.
Sakiusa Masinivanua (Masi) Matadigo is a rugby union footballer who plays back row for Montpellier Hérault RC. He has been capped for the full Fiji national side, as well as representing Fiji at Sevens. Before moving to the Guinness Premiership in 2007, he had played representative rugby for Fiji Barbarians in the Pacific Rugby Cup and for Suva Highlanders in the Colonial Cup. His senior rugby career began playing for Suva suburb Nabua, as well as the full Suva F.C. side. His regular playing positions are Number eight, Flanker and Lock.
The 2011–12 Top 14 competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). Home-and-away play began on August 26, 2011. Two new teams from the 2010–11 Rugby Pro D2 season were promoted to Top 14 this year, Lyon and Bordeaux Bègles in place of the two relegated teams, La Rochelle and Bourgoin.
Tommy Smith is a former rugby union player who represented the United States in 15s and 7s rugby before becoming the coach of the US sevens team in 1999. Smith played, captained, and coached the US National team and has been a member of the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame since his 2017 induction.
Rhodri Williams is a Wales international rugby union player. A scrum-half, he plays his club rugby for the Dragons, having previously played for Scarlets and Bristol Bears
Dallen Stanford is a South African-born, former American rugby union sevens player and current international rugby commentator based in the United States.
This page covers the major events of 2017 in rugby union.
The Tel Aviv Heat is the first professional Israeli rugby union team. Based in Tel Aviv, the team competed annually in the Rugby Europe Super Cup until 2023. The team is also called the Israeli Springboks, on account of the number of South Africans in the team and have also been described as 'the world's most diverse rugby team'.
