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The popularity of rugby definitely grew in South Africa over the World Cup, and sport has great power, so hopefully it will make some difference. Even if it's just 1%, it's a bit of a change.
The Tory party is like a rugby union match in which all 30 players are wearing the same strip. They're not sure who they are grabbing round the knees, but they're having a lot of fun doing it.
Statistically, there have to be more gay men in rugby than we know about and I would hate for them to be going home from training and feeling depressed or feeling like they need to live a lie.
My kids are my life. Sitting on the sidelines watching my son play rugby, helping them with their homework or getting them ready for their exams - I can't think of anything else I'd rather do.
I would never tell anybody to give up hockey - the great sports we have here - basketball, lacrosse - rugby coming into its own - we've got so many great team sports, and I say hold on to them.
You do not have time in international rugby to stop and think, 'This is tough.' It's more a case of, 'Let's crack on.' Where's your next job? Fill a hole for someone who has just made a tackle?
A friend of mine - one of the rugby girlfriends - got qualified to do lip stuff and she was like: 'I'm gonna do it for free, do you want to do it?' And I'd always wanted to try it so I said yes.
A lot of guys have played college football and were in the NFL, but for me, it made my transition a lot easier, and people say I'm one of the toughest guys in WWE. I have rugby to thank for that.
I remember when I was a kid rugby players were some big guys that drunk a lot of beer but now they have proper training programs and diets and all that. And the pioneers of all that is bodybuilding.
I had a lot of anger because I didn't like who I was when I was off the field. I used to relish the chance to try and hurt somebody in a legal way, and in the game of rugby you were able to do that.
I was absolutely a non-starter at games. My report for rugby said, 'Nigel's chief contribution is his presence on the field.' I used to pray for rain and sometimes it did rain - and we played anyway.
As a rugby player I got into the habit of tackling without thinking. But in MMA you've got to land the right way. You can't flop. You've got to bounce back to your feet. You've got to use your sprawl.
The home of Rugby Union is in Twickenham - just outside London in the suburbs, where I live. I'm mad for it. The trouble with being an actor and being in the theater is that you always miss the games.
When I left rugby and bought my first commercial gym membership it was a shock to the system. I went in there and saw people training and thought 'I've got to get out of here and get in a proper gym.'
I know my dad would have loved me to have played rugby. He was a No. 8. I started off playing centre and ended up playing at the back of the scrum, No. 8 as well, just picking it up and running with it.
He was a professional rugby player in the area that I played as a youngster. So a lot of people who I went to school with knew who he was and knew that he was black. So I would get racist taunts in school.
We're removal men. It's hard labour. I've come to the conclusion being a forward is probably the worst thing in rugby. Looking at backs, they play kick and laugh, run and clap and we get absolutely flogged.
Although the rugby league fraternity probably don't like it, the rugby union fraternity probably doesn't like it, it's cool for sportsmen, for young kids coming up, to know that there's not just that one door.
I've kind of banned myself from motorcycles. I've had broken ribs, broken shoulder, wrists, leg, broken collarbone - and it was all from motocross or rugby. All of my injuries have come from outside of sailing.
I love the 6 Nations rugby. I feel very Scottish then. I feel very Scottish now, sitting in the middle of Chelsea. But that's part of our heritage - being part of Britain, part of Europe. I love being European.
Your name or what you've done on the rugby pitch is not going to carry you through for the rest of your life. I realise I'm going to have to eventually do something else, and that does frighten me a little bit.
I've spent my whole life playing football. My father didn't want me to play rugby because he felt it was very hard on the body, so at school, I was encouraged to play football, and that's where everything started.
So I was in football, athletics doing shot put and sprinting, and rugby all at the same time. Ultimately, I didn't know how serious you had to take one of them and I was just a kid wanting to do everything at once.
I've got my head fixed on the next part of life. I know there will be an adjusting period of just not being a rugby player for a while, and over that period I'll get my head around what the next challenge involves.
People think of rugby players as being tough but it's another thing to stand in front of someone and get kicked, punched, taken down. In rugby you have two contact sessions a week and you play a game on the weekend.
I used to play rugby, polo, tennis, and cricket in school. It was only in the 1990s, when I used to live just opposite Harrods in London, that I started putting on weight. I used to have my breakfast there every day.
It is very easy to make athletes, and it is very difficult to make rugby players with that rugby instinct. I would like to think I have got a bit of rugby instinct and have become more of a rugby athlete along the way.
It's like a rugby team. If you're picking for the World Cup final, you're picking experience with youth. Everything is better off having that balance and that mix. I think that, especially, goes for the monarchy as well.
Playing rugby has been my whole life and for me, keeping fit was part of my job. But when I gave up my career, I was determined to keep motivated, and that isn't always easy when you have lost the competitive edge to it.
It was so important to have stuff outside of rugby so you have a life balance. I took a lot of criticism for that earlier in my career and thank God I ignored what everyone else said and did what I was always going to do.
I had my footballing heroes such as Bryan Robson and Diego Maradona but my dad was a rugby league star, and he was my real hero. But the relationship with my mum was rocky and we saw things that would affect any youngster.
I had seen the ethos of rugby, and I was very much an admirer. For us, it's a beautiful sport, what I guess what Pele called soccer in Brazil. It's so simple; it's easy to understand. You can play five on five or 15 on 15.
I loved playing rugby so much. I would have played rugby every day if I could have. I loved being a player so much, I don't know if I could sit on the side, with the passion I have and try and influence without being on there.
My uncle played rugby, and my dad played football, and they used to argue which game was the roughest - and everybody agreed rugby was. It's a great team sport, and to be successful, every person has to play in the same level.
Just like in rugby, the pinnacle was playing for the All Blacks. That was always a massive thing. But you never speak it outwardly because it can sound stupid. But if you don't have massive dreams, you might as well stay in bed.
I grew up in Shropshire, but I was born in Wales. There was a hospital seven miles away, but my dad drove 45 miles over the Welsh border so I could play rugby for Wales. But as a skinny asthmatic, I was only ever good at swimming.
When it comes to rugby, I'm a Welshman through and through. I'm a huge fan; I've played rugby since I was seven. Unfortunately, I had to quit when I went to drama school because it doesn't really go hand in had with being an actor.
Soccer is a continuous game, rugby is a continuous game, but for the physical elements that are involved in playing a football game and the number of plays that you play, I don't know that it was ever intended to be a continuous game.
Honestly, I was only rested in rugby football; all my friends were boys, and I definitely didn't want to go on stage, but I just did it to keep everyone happy. I did some singing, dancing like they liked, but it wasn't my thing at all.
I wasn't, you know, Mr. Popular. I was somewhere in the middle ground. I was quite alternative, the things I liked to do. Skateboarding, at the time. Playing in a band as opposed to playing in the rugby team. You know, that kind of thing.
I passed the 11-plus, but it was decided that I should take the Common Entrance exam to Monmouth School, the nearest independent. I was never entirely comfortable there, as they didn't have girls, and they played rugby instead of football.
I support Leeds United, and like any fan, I dreamed of playing for them. I tried out at the club and also tried rugby and cricket, and triathlon didn't really become part of my life until I was 16 or 17 - but it was the sport I enjoyed most.
The more expensive and/or exclusive a sport, the whiter it tends to be: the fact almost has the force of a law. That is the main reason why the Rugby World Cup, the Pacific islands excepted, was so desperately white, the Springboks included.
We all say we enjoy playing rugby, but most guys don't really show it - and some guys I don't think actually enjoy it. So every time I arrive in the morning, I've always got a smile on my face. Once I lose that enjoyment, I will stop playing.
The rugby team is a massive part of the city and generates a real passion but there is also far more to Toulouse. I learned not only to respect the history of the club but also the area and I soon came to appreciate 'buildings and structures.
I think New Zealand Rugby do an exceptional job, the way it's set up from the All Blacks, right down to grassroots. There's a clear path young players can take if they want to be an All Black, if they're talented, or if they get opportunities.
I come from a country that lives and breathes rugby, and I didn't think there would be anywhere else in the world that could be the same. But New Zealand takes it to another dimension. It's extraordinary how much passion Kiwis have for the game.
I'm not going on a crusade but I'm proud of who I am. I feel I have achieved everything I could ever possibly have hoped to achieve out of rugby and I did it being gay. I want to send a positive message to other gay people that they can do it, too.
I find it hard to believe that anyone could be playing regularly and saying they do not have a niggle. It is the nature of the beast, what you get when you play a lot of rugby: you have to get another niggle to forget about the one you already have.
I turned up my nose at yoga for years. I was a rugby player growing up. But now I know. When I'm on those long international flights, like 22 hours from L.A. to Sydney, I'll get up sometimes and do yoga in the aisle just to stretch out a little bit.