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Unretired Stuart Hogg set to play his first match in 17 months

207 days ago

Stuart Hogg on Exeter duty in 2023 (Photo by Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images)

Former Scotland captain Stuart Hogg will play his first competitive match in 17 months after being selected to start for Montpellier in their Top 14 campaign opener at home to Lyon on Saturday. The 32-year-old retired from professional rugby in July 2023 in the lead-up to the Rugby World Cup in France, reasoning that “my body has not been able to do the things I wanted and needed it to do”.

However, after a tumultuous year out of the game in which he was plagued by off-field issues including being arrested for alleged domestic abuse, it was announced in July that Hogg would be returning to top-level rugby after signing for Montpellier on a two-year contract.

Despite being troubled by a calf issue recently, the full-back – who won the last of his 100 caps for Scotland in March last year – has been selected to start in the number 15 jersey for his new club this weekend.

‘This Energy Never Stops’ – One year to go until the Women’s Rugby World Cup

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‘This Energy Never Stops’ – One year to go until the Women’s Rugby World Cup

With exactly one year to go until Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025 kicks off
in Sunderland, excitement is sweeping across the host nation in anticipation of what
will be the biggest and most accessible celebration of women’s rugby ever.

It will be the experienced back’s first outing since coming on as a substitute for previous club Exeter Chiefs in their Champions Cup semi-final against La Rochelle on April 30, 2023.

Hogg is due to stand trial in Jedburgh on Tuesday, September 10, as he faces domestic abuse charges relating to his estranged wife Gillian.

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Comments

2 Comments

JK 207 days ago

Nobody missed you wife beater

Bull Shark 207 days ago

Interesting that he was “plagued” by a domestic abuse charge and “troubled” by a calf injury.

fl 207 days ago

hope he gets a concussion

hope he reads this comment

Join free and tell us what you really think!

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Comments on RugbyPass

mused 8 minutes ago

Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

Interesting take on the locking stable at qld. Who are you putting as the single #5?

My take is that it seems that Blyth/LSL tandom on the 5 side, while canham/smith play the 80 and are more mobile. Good depth to have, though I doubt we will hold onto them all next season.

111 Go to comments

JW 12 minutes ago

Razor has an about turn on All Blacks eligibility rules

Down where? They certainly lost support through the Irish series first loss and coach debacle following that, and I wouldn’t be surprised of those are a few coming on here complaining about how bad Richie was in Black. They just didn’t see how good he was.

51 Go to comments

JW 15 minutes ago

Razor has an about turn on All Blacks eligibility rules

LOL Savea was garbage last year!

51 Go to comments

JW 16 minutes ago

Razor has an about turn on All Blacks eligibility rules

Yep, another problem!

I think he would have, in the instance I mentioned, which wasn’t changing anything other than correctly applying todays eligibility quidelines. Which is an arbitrary construct, as the deal likely would have played out completely differently, but I just ‘allowed’ him to have 1 year sabbatically for his ‘loyalty’, rather than having some arbitrary number like 70 caps required.

So if Richie had a 3 year deal, and the first year he was allowed to use him still, I don’t think he’d really not transition to Dmac being his main 10, as he’s obviously the only one he can use for the following two years, therefore likely his only real option for the WC (very hard for Richie to overtake him in such a short time). Richie would purely be a security net in a situation like I proposition where there are only small changes to the eligibility.

The system is not working well enough though, as we don’t have the Rugby Championship or World Cup trophies, do we? Well on that last question, that’s all I’m really saying but I would not believe a word this author says, so it’s entirely a ‘what if’ discussion, but if the author is right and now they are actually going to be more flexible, I think that’s great yeah. Ultimately thought I think those two players were an anomaly signing their contracts and futures up so far ahead, especially of when they were performing. Both jumped at the opportunity of good contracts when their All Black prospects weren’t looking that bright.

51 Go to comments

mused 16 minutes ago

Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

Ya, that reds lineout on the weekend was a mess. But as a lineout jumper of absolutely no repute back in the day, I used to hate hookers throwing the ball at my hips. And that was before I had jumped…

Years ago, I would have said for Lancaster to stay away from the political mess that was RA. It seems different at the moment, but time will tell. Interesting turn of events if he gets the job. I’m not in a hurry for kiss to leave the reds. He is doing good things with this squad.

111 Go to comments

JoeySanders 30 minutes ago

Red-hot Brumbies dispatch toothless Sharks to set-up novel semi-final pairing

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