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'Beast' flies in for ceremonial Webb Ellis Cup handover to France

Tendai Mtawarira arrives in Paris (Photo by Aurelien Meunier/World Rugby via Getty Images)

The countdown towards the start of the 2023 Rugby World Cup ramped up on Tuesday evening when Tendai Mtawarira, the retired Springboks prop forward, arrived in Paris for the ceremonial handing over of the Webb Ellis Cup from the holders South Africa to host nation France.

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It was November 2019 when the loosehead first got his hands on the famed trophy, the Springboks defeating England 32-12 in the final in Yokohama.

More than three and a half years have now passed since that memorable denouement to the brilliantly hosted Japanese tournament and ‘The Beast’ Mtawarira arrived in France on an Emirates A380 to deliver the trophy just hours before Wednesday’s 100 days to go celebrations kicked off across the country.

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After making the journey from South Africa, the retired 117-cap was met at Charles de Gaulle airport by World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont and Jacques Rivoal, the France 2023 chairman. Mtawarira will now accompany the trophy through a programme of activities on Wednesday showcasing French culture and expertise.

The former front-rower is scheduled to pay a visit to chef Julien Duboue’s restaurant and pastry chef Christelle Brua’s workshop, while also stopping off at Montmartre and at an amateur rugby club in Gennevilliers. Mtawarira will end his Wednesday by placing the Webb Ellis Cup on top of the Arc de Triomphe, triggering a projection onto this iconic French monument and in the host cities.

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World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin enthused: “Things kicked off when Tendai Mtawarira arrived with the Webb Ellis Cup in France, passing the cup from the champions to the hosts, putting the cup back up for contention for Rugby World Cup.

“These activities in themselves, never mind the tournament, have taken a lot of planning and that is a testament to the great partnership that we have got with the France 2023 organising committee, with the French rugby federation and with the French government.

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“We are all driven by the common objective of really highlighting and celebrating what is going to be an incredible Rugby World Cup. We will leave you to judge the spectacular nature of that on Wednesday.”

More than 600,000 international visitors are expected to travel to France 2023 from September, a record for a Rugby World Cup. Tickets for the tournament sold out in record time with all available 2.5million tickets sold a year out. That demand will see the tournament break the RWC 2015 attendance record.

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T
TJ Hooker 540 days ago

it's in touching distance now!

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JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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