Shortly after beating Scotland to win their first game in this year's RBS Six Nations, Italy announce they have joined Ireland and South Africa in the race to host RWC 2023

Quotes of the week

Scotland U20s head coach Sean Lineen on former protégé Mark Bennett: “He’s an outstanding rugby player and an outstanding person, the model professional. I’d be very surprised if he wasn’t on the British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand in 2017.”

World Rugby’s Head of Rugby World Cup Alan Gilpin on the bid to host RWC 2023: “We have strong declared interest from both Ireland and South Africa, and a number of other countries are talking to us behind the scenes as well.”

World Rugby Chairman Bernard Lapasset on the Keep Rugby Clean anti-doping education initiative which has reached out to almost 7,000 players, coaches and administrators "Integrity and player welfare are at the top of World Rugby’s agenda and anti-doping education and testing is at the very heart of our strategy to maintain and promote a level playing field in the sport.”

Australia women’s sevens head coach Tim Walsh reflects on their near-miss against New Zealand in the Dubai leg of the Women’s Sevens Series ahead of Atlanta: “You look at the stats and we’re the top points scorers, dominating ball, turnovers and we’re pretty disciplined. I’m proud of how the girls performed in that last tournament but we just lacked that touch of composure.”

Video of the week

This week we had the usual Monday round-up bringing all the results and rankings from across an array of senior, women's and age grade international competition.

There was also Japan's Rugby World Cup 2019 venues announcement and a dip behind the scenes with the Lelos of Georgia, who gave World Rugby TV access all areas at their match against Spain in the European Nations Cup.

But the most popular video of the week across World Rugby's digital and social platforms has been the #throwbackthursday offering, looking back on a memorable night in Auckland when New Zealand and Tonga kicked off the 2011 Rugby World Cup with rival pre-match challenges.

Tonga are superb and Piri Weepu the master entertainer at the start of what was to become a heroic six weeks for the scrum-half. We chose this video as part of our birthday wishes to New Zealand's enduring number 10 Dan Carter and it has already received almost 2 million views across our digital platforms!

 


Milestone of the week

Narrowly edging Dan Carter's feat of reaching the ripe old age of 33, this week we congratulate Keven Mealamu on a Super Rugby milestone.

Test try of the week

For Conor Murray's skill under pressure and Robbie Henshaw's superb jump and gather, we pick Ireland's try against England.

Result of the week

Pipping Italy's win over Scotland, for Russia there was a first win for new coach Alexander Pervukhin against Rugby World Cup-bound Romania.