Today's rugby news as Lions star 'should never have played' and Wales international starts new life

Here are your rugby morning headlines for Friday, July 25.

Anscombe arrives at new club

Wales international Gareth Anscombe has arrived in Bayonne ahead of his next chapter in rugby.

The 34-year-old fly-half has signed with Aviron Bayonnais ahead of the new season following a solid campaign in the Premiership with Gloucester. He partnered Tomos Williams at the Cherry and Whites, but he’ll have a new half-back partner in former French international Maxim Machenaud at Bayonne. Springbok Herschel Jantjies is also on the books there.

Posting to his Instagram story on Thursday afternoon, Anscombe was pictured at Stade Jean-Dauger with his children, as well as a video showing the immaculate stadium in southwest France. Sign up to Inside Welsh rugby on Substack to get exclusive news stories and insight from behind the scenes in Welsh rugby.

Anscombe agreed the deal to join the Top 14 club in May, and has penned a one-year deal. “Really looking forward to testing myself in the Top 14 that is arguably the most competitive league in the world at the moment,” he said.

Despite being 34, Anscombe wants to play at the 2027 World Cup for Wales, when he will be 36.

The experienced number 10 was not initially named in Wales’ Six Nations squad under Warren Gatland, but once Matt Sherratt was introduced on an interim basis, he immediately called up Anscombe.

He was not involved on the summer tour to Japan, where Wales ended their 18-match losing streak by defeating the Brave Blossoms in the second Test.

Anscombe will play alongside former England centre Manu Tuilagi, Fijian flyer Sireli Maqala and Argentina star Mateo Carreras in a strong-looking Bayonne outfit.

Lions star ‘should not have played’

Campaign group Progressive Rugby have hit out at World Rugby rules that allowed Garry Ringrose to play for the Lions against First Nations and Pasifika XV on Tuesday, just 48 hours before he pulled himself out of the Test team on Thursday after suffering concussion symptoms.

Ringrose was originally picked to start against the Wallabies in Melbourne this weekend before admitting he was suffering head pains after training on Thursday.

It came two weeks after he was concussed in the win over the ACT Brumbies that forced him to sit out the first Test. He then made a successful comeback against the First Nations and Pasifika XV on Tuesday but spoke up two days later.

His decision was lauded by Andy Farrell as “selfless”, with many pundits praising him for putting his health first.

But Progressive Rugby have slammed World Rugby’s directive that only requires players to sit out playing for 12 days, while amateurs must be stood down for 21 days.

They said: “Absolute fair play to Ringrose but he should never have been in this position – the minimum stand down period for a concussion / traumatic brain injury must be 21 days at professional level, as it is at amateur. And he shouldn’t have been playing last Tuesday.

“This is not us having a go at the Lions; it’s us saying that the protocols in place, dictated by World Rugby, are not adequate and are not protecting players, players’ brains and players’ long term futures.”

Irish star reveals Lions sacrifice

Lions prop Andrew Porter has revealed the sacrifice of playing for the tourists in Australia – missing the early weeks of his new-born son.

The Irish loosehead has been brought in to start at the MCG this weekend, having been on the bench in Brisbane last Saturday. When asked what he had learned about himself on this tour, Porter opened up on leaving his family back in Ireland.

“You’re putting me on the spot now,” he said. “I can’t think.

“It’s a curveball. What have I learned about myself?

“I learned that babies get very big when you’re away from home. Yeah, my wife is at home looking after the baby. He’s nine weeks now.

“I could say it’s not easy for me but I don’t think my wife would like that too much.

“I wouldn’t get much sympathy. Yeah, it’s that side of it as well. My wife is at home looking after our baby at the moment.

“She’s the one in the trenches at home at the moment. I’m in the trenches over here. Well, I can’t really say that. We’re looked after here quite well.

“But it’s a sacrifice on both ends. She’s there with sleepless nights at home looking after him and I’m here representing my family, my country, and representing the Lions. It’s two different kinds of sacrifices. But I’ll definitely owe her for this for a long time anyway.”

Farrell knows Lions need to be better at MCG

Lions head coach Farrell knows his side will have to be better at the Melbourne Cricket Ground as they chase a piece of history.

The Lions have never won back-to-back tours in the same country, but that’s up for the grabs when they take on the Wallabies on Saturday. However, their first Test victory wasn’t perfect.

Having started in dominant fashion, they ultimately limped over the line as Australia finished strongly. With Joe Schmidt’s side welcoming back some star names and feeding off the desperation of needing to win to stay in the series, Farrell knows the Wallabies will be better than they were in Brisbane.

“During victory you get an opportunity to be unbelievably honest and show each other just how much you can improve and there has been nothing but that this week as far as honesty is concerned, about where we can get to,” he said. “We certainly feel we left a few things out there, most aspects of our game will need to better but it is proving to ourselves it can be better as well.

On what went wrong in that second-half, he added: “A dip probably in focus, because it wasn’t just one thing it was a number of things and a dip in focus is probably what goes with that, the intent drops off a little bit and what that looks like to us might look something different to another team. We know the game we want to play we just need to keep understanding what it takes to get better.

“Not intensity, doing thing properly, that is what we have talked about all week, what it looks like for us and the expectation that has to happen the majority of the time. We are realists, we are all human and we realise it is not going to be perfect all of the time, it is not going to be a perfect 85 minute performance but staying on it as much as we can will give us a better chance of getting what we want.

“This game might be completely different, we might have a role reversal and we have to adapt and be honest with ourselves and stay on point if we are in front if we are behind, things going your way, not going your way. It is just staying honest as long as we possibly can.”

Today’s rugby news as Lions star ‘should never have played’ and Wales international starts new life

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