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Watch: Jonny May scores his first Pro D2 try for Soyaux Angouleme

Jonny May playing for the Barbarians in June prior to his move to France (Photo by Paul Harding/Getty Images)

Former England winger Jonny May is up and running in the French Pro D2, scoring his first try in his second appearance for Soyaux Angouleme. Just 11 months ago, he was starting on the wing in the Rugby World Cup semi-final versus South Africa in Paris.

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Now, having retired from Test rugby and quit his way of life in the Gallagher Premiership with Gloucester, he is getting used to the cut and thrust of playing in the French second tier.

May debuted last weekend in his new club’s 31-24 win at Aurrilac. He wasn’t a try-scorer on that successful road trip but he got on the mark in Friday night’s round two home encounter versus Brive, collecting a bouncing ball just inside the opposition’s 22 and diving in at the corner to score.

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‘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
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    That 20th-minute try gave his team a 5-3 lead that was added to by Ben Botica’s conversion, but they finished the half trailing 10-20. The visitors, who had May’s former England colleague Courtney Lawes playing in their second row, then went on to win 25-28.

    The 34-year-old May scored five times in 15 appearances last season with Gloucester following his return from the World Cup where he drew a blank in his five England starts at the tournament.

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    J
    JW 2 hours ago
    Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

    It is now 22 years since Michael Lewis published his groundbreaking treatise on winning against the odds

    I’ve never bothered looking at it, though I have seen a move with Clint as a scout/producer. I’ve always just figured it was basic stuff for the age of statistics, is that right?

    Following the Moneyball credo, the tailor has to cut his cloth to the material available

    This is actually a great example of what I’m thinking of. This concept has abosolutely nothing to do with Moneyball, it is simple being able to realise how skillsets tie together and which ones are really revelant.


    It sounds to me now like “moneyball” was just a necessity, it was like scienctest needing to come up with some random experiment to make all the other world scholars believe that Earth was round. The American sporting scene is very unique, I can totally imagine one of it’s problems is rich old owners not wanting to move with the times and understand how the game has changed. Some sort of mesiah was needed to convert the faithful.


    While I’m at this point in the article I have to say, now the NRL is a sport were one would stand up and pay attention to the moneyball phenom. Like baseball, it’s a sport of hundreds of identical repetitions, and very easy to data point out.

    the tailor has to cut his cloth to the material available and look to get ahead of an unfair game in the areas it has always been strong: predictive intelligence and rugby ‘smarts’

    Actually while I’m still here, Opta Expected Points analysis is the one new tool I have found interesting in the age of data. Seen how the random plays out as either likely, or unlikely, in the data’s (and algorithms) has actually married very closely to how I saw a lot of contests pan out.


    Engaging return article Nick. I wonder, how much of money ball is about strategy as apposed to picks, those young fella’s got ahead originally because they were picking players that played their way right? Often all you here about is in regards to players, quick phase ruck ball, one out or straight up, would be were I’d imagine the best gains are going to be for a data driven leap using an AI model of how to structure your phases. Then moving to tactically for each opposition.

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