Rugby Through The Leagues Podcast

Rugby TTL
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 Rugby Through The Leagues (Rugby TTL) shines a light on rugby beyond the mainstream — tier 2 and tier 3 nations, grassroots clubs, Spanish rugby, Rugby Europe, Super Rugby Americas, sevens and the global game. Honest interviews and analysis with the players, coaches and characters the spotlight ignores. New episodes regularly — subscribe on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. 

  1. Jul 10

    Greece's Rugby Growth: Inside the Aegean Festival & Big 2027 Athens Plans

    This week on Rugby Through the Leagues, Carl sits down with George and Dave from Attica Rugby, the team behind the Aegean Rugby Festival, to talk about growing rugby in Greece through sport tourism. They cover the festival's origins, the vision of showcasing Greece as a sporting destination, and the reality of 2026 — a scaled-back event after travel uncertainty and rising costs forced multiple cancellations, yet still delivered with four men's and four women's teams, strong local support in Crete, and professional refereeing. Then the big one: plans for a bigger early-summer 2027 festival in Athens — rugby sevens, beach rugby, an all-inclusive option, a major closing party, and ideas for youth divisions, touch rugby, rugby tours and future 15s. Plus Andy Powell's sevens story, why legends add credibility, the Greek rugby leadership gap, and the philosophy of show up and build. Real stories from the leagues the mainstream skips. ⏱️ Timestamps  (00:00) Welcome & Guests  (00:56) Origins of the Aegean Festival  (03:01) Greek Rugby Growth  (05:22) Festival Vision & the Federation  (09:15) Travel Chaos & Cancellations  (11:01) Pulling Off the 2026 Event  (13:13) Referees & Tournament Quality  (16:47) 2027 Athens Teaser  (18:48) Youth Division vs the Party  (23:12) Future Formats & Rugby Tours  (27:48) Streaming the Format  (28:08) Tournament Week Blueprint  (28:44) Event Weekend Integration  (29:19) The Andy Powell Sevens Story  (31:37) Legends Add Credibility  (33:56) The Greek Rugby Leadership Gap  (38:12) Show Up & Build  (39:37) Celebrities Who Deliver  (43:57) Rugby for Anyone  (47:01) Touch Rugby Expansion  (48:42) Early Summer 2027 Plans  (50:30) Final Wrap & Callouts 🎧 Follow Rugby TTL wherever you get your podcasts — and if you're enjoying it, a rating or review genuinely helps us reach more people.  ▶️ Watch the full video: youtube.com/@RugbyTTL  📸 Instagram: @rugby.ttlpod  🌍 rugbyttl.com

    Greece's Rugby Growth: Inside the Aegean Festival & Big 2027 Athens Plans

  2. Jul 3

    Albanian Rugby's Rise: Chairman Xhino on Grassroots Growth & the Road to Rugby Europe

    This week on Rugby Through the Leagues, Carl sits down with Xhino, chairman of the Albanian rugby federation, for the story of how a sport almost nobody was playing became a national project. Xhino traces it back to 2010–2012, when a handful of students inspired by YouTube clips started throwing a ball around — through the founding of Tirana Rugby Club to official federation recognition in 2024. He and Carl get into Albania's entirely self-funded growth, the touring sides making the trip out (the European Parliament Rugby Team and Nottingham Police Force among them), and why hospitality, raki and the post-match third half matter as much as anything on the pitch. Xhino lays out the pillars taking Albanian rugby forward: school programmes and touch rugby, building a base beyond Tirana in Durrës, French connections opening player pathways, women's rugby, and the long game — Rugby Europe membership and fixtures against Bosnia, Serbia and Greece. Real stories from the leagues the mainstream skips. ⏱️ Timestamps  (00:00) Welcome & Guest Intro  (01:06) Rugby Begins in Albania  (02:18) Tirana Club & Touring Teams  (03:31) Albanian Hospitality & Raki  (06:02) The Road to Rugby Europe  (06:53) Schools & Youth Pathways  (08:02) France Links & Player Opportunities  (13:44) Growing Beyond Tirana  (18:35) Funding & Building an Ecosystem  (20:24) The 5, 10, 15-Year Vision  (22:46) Women's Rugby & the Balkan Schools Cup  (28:21) Rugby League & Learning from the NRL  (31:12) Media Buzz & Upcoming Fixtures  (32:59) How to Connect & Visit  (35:49) Final Thanks & Wrap Up 🎧 Follow Rugby TTL wherever you get your podcasts — and if you're enjoying it, a rating or review genuinely helps us reach more people.  ▶️ Watch the full video: youtube.com/@RugbyTTL  📸 Instagram: @rugby.ttlpod  🌍 rugbyttl.com

    Albanian Rugby's Rise: Chairman Xhino on Grassroots Growth & the Road to Rugby Europe

  3. Jun 26

    Mike Poppmeier: Germany's New Head Coach on Rebuilding, Funding & Rugby Europe | Rugby TTL Podcast

    German rugby is rebuilding — and new head coach Mike Poppmeier is the man tasked with leading it back. In this episode, Carl sits down with Mike Poppmeier, the new head coach of Germany and a former Germany international, for an open conversation about Rugby Europe, the national team's future, and the funding gap holding it all back. Mike talks through his South African upbringing, his German/Austrian family roots and 11 years living in Germany, before laying out the real picture: how the lack of a professional environment and funding limits preparation, player retention, staffing and international fixtures. He explains the value of cross-border competition like the new Ascent Rugby league (featuring Adler XV and Frankfurt), his role with dominant Bundesliga champions Frankfurt, and why Germany sits in the Trophy division while rebuilding its culture, behaviours and pathway by blooding young France-based prospects. Plus his coaching ethos — fitness, tempo and smart rugby — and the practical needs, from video analysis to aligned governance, that could unlock sponsorship and long-term growth. Real stories from the leagues the mainstream skips. ⏱️ Chapters  00:00 Welcome & guest intro  00:45 Mike's Germany journey  02:19 Why Germany slipped  04:50 Super Cup & pro pathways  07:16 Ascent Rugby explained  08:00 Bundesliga & Frankfurt dominance  10:43 Adler XV selection plans  13:26 Friendlies & travel budgets  16:07 Rebuild in the Trophy division  19:48 The funding mystery & next steps  22:03 Squad identity plan  22:45 Player release commitments  24:58 Coaching ethos & style  27:40 Prep time & logistics  28:46 Video analysis & tools  30:27 Head coach workload  33:40 Five-year vision  35:37 Funding & alignment  38:59 Curtis Brayford addition  40:25 Final message & legacy 🎧 Listen & follow: Spotify (open.spotify.com/show/511e8frgzJnY1CWe06GLyH) · Apple Podcasts · YouTube (youtube.com/@RugbyTTL) · rugbyttl.com

    Mike Poppmeier: Germany's New Head Coach on Rebuilding, Funding & Rugby Europe | Rugby TTL Podcast

  4. Jun 19

    Heart of Wales 7s Special: Jordan & The Flaming Unicorns on Rugby, Community & Mental Health

    The Rugby Through the Leagues podcast welcomes Jordan, organiser of Heart of Wales 7s, and Stu from The Flaming Unicorns / Tough Enough To Care, to talk rugby, community and mental health. Jordan charts the tournament's growth from 16 men's teams to an 11-year event drawing around 1,500 people — with the goal of 6,000 — and the entertainment that's grown with it: Flamingo Bingo, boxing, netball, charity matches and the famous naked run (which may hit 250–300 runners). He opens up on how it all came together: contacts, hard-won logistics lessons, a 10-person core crew, COVID refunds, and a relentless focus on retention, safety and experience. Stu shares how The Flaming Unicorns began as a charity match supporting mental health after losing two friends to suicide — and how their distinctive branding creates safe spaces for conversations at rugby clubs, with Heart of Wales giving them a major platform alongside celebrity guests and the growth of women's rugby. ⏱️ Chapters  00:00 Naked Run Cold Open  00:12 Meet the Guests  01:03 Heart of Wales Origins  02:41 Growing Past Covid  04:57 Behind the Scenes Crew  07:19 Entertainment & Traditions  10:38 Flaming Unicorns Join In  12:39 Tough Enough To Care Story  16:00 Why the Partnership Works  18:19 Rugby Stars & Welsh Sevens  22:06 Logistics Lessons & Burnout  26:57 Post-Event Rituals  31:02 Two-Week Build Plan  31:39 Site Setup Week  33:32 Rugby Star Ringers  36:03 Women's Night Magic  39:35 Growing Organically  42:48 Welsh Sevens Series  46:17 Sevens Media Value  49:23 New Format Ideas  52:14 Unicorns Mission  57:36 Final Messages 🏉 Heart of Wales 7s: heartofwales7s.co.uk 💚 This episode discusses mental health and suicide. If you're struggling, you don't have to face it alone — in the UK & Ireland you can call Samaritans free, day or night, on 116 123. Find out more about Tough Enough To Care at toughenoughtocare.help. 🎧 Listen & follow: Spotify · Apple Podcasts · YouTube (youtube.com/@RugbyTTL) · rugbyttl.com

    Heart of Wales 7s Special: Jordan & The Flaming Unicorns on Rugby, Community & Mental Health

  5. Jun 5

    Josh Navidi: Forced Retirement, the Neck Injury & Lions Memories | Rugby TTL Podcast

    Former Wales and British & Irish Lions flanker Josh Navidi on the neck injury that ended his career and life after the game. In this episode: the injury & retirement call; Wales & Lions highlights; the transition out of pro rugby; advice for young players. Subscribe on YouTube (youtube.com/@RugbyTTL) · Spotify · Apple Podcasts · rugbyttl.com. ⏱ Add chapters from 00:00. 00:00 Passport Panic Intro 00:17 New Studio Welcome 00:34 Heart of Wales Sevens 01:55 Flaming Unicorns Charity 02:20 Neck Injury Retirement 05:15 Life After Rugby 06:06 England Rivalry Fire 07:27 Welsh Rugby Turmoil 10:04 Money, Depth and Regions 11:34 Player Workload & Burnout 12:45 Cap Rule Abroad Debate 15:35 Signs of a Wales Rebuild 18:26 Gatland Return and Legacy 21:51 2019 Grand Slam Memories 24:10 Alun Wyn Leadership 27:35 Leadership Core Talk 28:03 Gatland Training Intensity 29:24 Brutal Drills Build Edge 30:30 Lions Call-Up Chaos 35:00 Tour Life Under COVID 36:37 Keeping Shirts and Memories 37:03 DJing and Pink Bar Pivot 40:37 Building the Container Bar 43:34 Music Roots and Big Gigs 45:46 Career Moments to Relive 47:56 Heart of Wales Sevens Plug 48:59 Final Thanks and Sign Off Watch on YouTube: youtube.com/@RugbyTTL Website: rugbyttl.com Instagram: @rugby.ttlpod

    Josh Navidi: Forced Retirement, the Neck Injury & Lions Memories | Rugby TTL Podcast

  6. May 22

    Sam Hollingsworth: An Englishman in Spain's División de Honor | Rugby TTL Podcast

    Sam Hollingsworth on swapping the RFU Championship for Spain's División de Honor — Nottingham to VRAC Valladolid, the ACL injury, and what English players should know about Spanish rugby. In this episode: leaving the English system; standard of the División de Honor; the ACL comeback; advice for imports. Subscribe on YouTube (youtube.com/@RugbyTTL) · Spotify · Apple Podcasts · rugbyttl.com. ⏱ Add chapters from 00:00. 00:00 Career Turning Point 00:03 Meet Sam Hollingsworth 02:16 Nottingham and the Championship 03:10 Climbing the Leagues 05:48 COVID and Breaking Through 07:41 ACL Injury Breakdown 09:54 Rehab and the Mental Battle 12:59 Choosing Spain — The Offers 16:09 Spain Level Comparison 19:00 League Consistency Issues 20:37 The ABC Rule and Squad Building 23:10 U23 Pathway Levels 25:35 Loans vs Development 26:39 Spanish Rugby Momentum 27:30 Copa Del Rey Atmosphere 29:15 Spanish Celebrations 29:49 Learning Spanish On-Field 32:49 Family Multilingual Life 34:20 Coaching Vision Online 37:51 Video Analysis Mindset 42:04 Move to Spain Advice 43:02 Final Wrap and Plugs ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏉 FOLLOW SAM HOLLINGSWORTH ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📸 Coached by Sam (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/_coachedbysam 💼 LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sam-hollingsworth-7b18791a9 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📲 FOLLOW RUGBY THROUGH THE LEAGUES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔔 Subscribe for more interviews from grassroots, tier 2 and emerging rugby nations across the global rugby pyramid 🔗 All links: https://linktr.ee/rugbyttl 📸 Instagram: @rugby.ttlpod ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏷 ABOUT THE PODCAST ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Rugby Through The Leagues tells the stories you don't hear on mainstream rugby coverage — players, coaches and clubs from across the global rugby pyramid. From the Championship and National Leagues in England to División de Honor in Spain, Top 14 academies, Major League Rugby, and every emerging nation pushing for Tier 1 status. #RugbyTTL #SpanishRugby #VRAC #DivisionDeHonor #ChampionshipRugby #ACLRecovery

    Sam Hollingsworth: An Englishman in Spain's División de Honor | Rugby TTL Podcast

  7. May 15

    Vidal Souza: Inside Alcobendas' Copa del Rey Win | Spanish Rugby | Rugby TTL

    Copa del Rey winner Vidal Souza breaks down Alcobendas' 40–39 derby final win over Cisneros and the clutch mentality behind it. In this episode: the 40–39 final; turning late losses into a title; the Madrid derby; Spanish club rugby. Subscribe on YouTube (youtube.com/@RugbyTTL) · Spotify · Apple Podcasts · rugbyttl.com. ⏱ Add chapters from 00:00. 00:00 Clutch Mentality Intro 00:16 Podcast Welcome Guest 00:58 Copa del Rey Thriller 02:24 Winning Tight Games 05:54 Rugby Journey Origins 08:22 Contracts & Club Culture 10:25 Rugby vs Career 12:59 Playoffs Focus: La Vila 14:58 Stopping The Maul 18:50 4G vs Grass 21:20 Wild División Season 24:22 Spain Rugby Rising 27:02 Elite A Closing Gap 30:08 Career Highlights & Farewell 🏉 ABOUT RUGBY THROUGH THE LEAGUES Rugby Through the Leagues is the home of grassroots and tier 2/3 rugby — bringing you the players, coaches, and stories the mainstream rugby media overlooks. From Spain and Portugal to Uruguay, Brazil, Kenya, Fiji, Samoa, and beyond. 🔔 SUBSCRIBE for more interviews with players and coaches shaping the next era of global rugby. 👍 LIKE if you enjoyed this conversation with Vidal. 💬 COMMENT — who should we interview next from the División de Honor? 📲 FOLLOW RUGBY THROUGH THE LEAGUES #SpanishRugby #CopaDelRey #Alcobendas #DivisionDeHonor #VidalSouza #RugbyTTL #RugbySpain #Cisneros #LaVila #BrazilRugby #CobrasXV #Rugby #WorldRugby #Tier2Rugby #RugbyPodcast

    Vidal Souza: Inside Alcobendas' Copa del Rey Win | Spanish Rugby | Rugby TTL

  8. Apr 17

    The Future of Tier 2 & Tier 3 Rugby: Rugby Europe, MLR & World Cup 2031 | w/ What's All the Ruckus

    Rugby TTL hosts Charlie from What's All the Ruckus to debate the future of tier 2 and tier 3 rugby and how to grow the game. In this episode: why tier 2/3 matters; Rugby Europe & MLR; World Cup 2031/2035; emerging nations. Subscribe on YouTube (youtube.com/@RugbyTTL) · Spotify · Apple Podcasts · rugbyttl.com. ⏱ Add chapters from 00:00. 00:00 Podcast Collaboration Intro 00:44 Why Cover Tier Two 01:56 Grassroots Sports Magic 03:12 Guests And Ruck Debate 06:26 Interviewing Finnley Harrison 08:18 Future Of Tier Two Rugby 09:27 Nations Cup And B Teams 13:21 USA Rugby And MLR Reset 15:48 Super Rugby Americas Growth 19:26 2035 Spain World Cup Dream 21:37 Rugby Europe Super Cup Funding 24:31 Restructuring Rugby Europe 26:08 Fixing Tier Two Calendar 27:10 League Model Proposal 28:28 Travel And Notice Boost 29:27 Showcase Friendlies Examples 32:21 Marketing Beyond Rugby Bubble 37:14 Changing Rugby Perception 40:55 Atmosphere Pricing Lessons 43:59 Favorite Guests Stories 47:52 Ultimate Guest Dreams 49:56 Where To Find The Pod 51:47 Final Thanks And Signoff

    The Future of Tier 2 & Tier 3 Rugby: Rugby Europe, MLR & World Cup 2031 | w/ What's All the Ruckus
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 Rugby Through The Leagues (Rugby TTL) shines a light on rugby beyond the mainstream — tier 2 and tier 3 nations, grassroots clubs, Spanish rugby, Rugby Europe, Super Rugby Americas, sevens and the global game. Honest interviews and analysis with the players, coaches and characters the spotlight ignores. New episodes regularly — subscribe on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. 

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