Here are some of the stories making the rugby news for Tuesday July 26.
Popham calls for shorter six-month season
Former Wales star Alix Popham has called on rugby to cut its season in half to protect players from brain injuries.
The 42-year-old was diagnosed with early onset dementia and probable CTE in 2019. Popham is one of 185 players - of which around 50 are Welsh - suing World Rugby, the WRU and the RFU, claiming that playing the sport caused brain damage.
And Popham believes that while some changes have been made since he and the likes of Steve Thompson went public with their diagnoses, more dramatic steps have to be taken to protect current players.
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"If you look at the game since we went public, some positive changes have been made," he told Wales Online. "I don't think Tomas Francis, Sam Underhill or Tom Curry would have been sent home from the summer tours had it happened last year.
"So that’s positive but so much more needs to happen. Rugby needs to hit the reset button.
"It needs to be rugby 2.0 with a six-month season, contact limited to the mandatory 16 sessions and baseline testing with an electroencephalogram - so players don’t return until they’ve hit that level.
"They’ve announced this new 12-day return to play as looking after the players, but then somehow Johnny Sexton, with his history of concussion, slips through in seven days because of loopholes.
"The game will never be 100 per cent safe. But what I’ve learned since being diagnosed is that literally every contact is causing some sort of damage to the brain.
"That’s insane and that’s why it’s about dosage of contact. A hit to the chest can cause damage to the brain so we need to control the controllables - which is the time in the week.
"Wales went to South Africa and they were in camp five to six weeks before they went out. And I hear from boys that training was intense, on the back of a 10 or 11 month season.
"That can’t happen. Even though they performed and did the country proud, those boys didn’t need to go through that intensity.
"But if it’s across the board that teams can only do so much, it’s a level playing field. The guidelines are 15 minutes of contact, which you can easily do in one session."
South African media take aim at 'imposters' New Zealand
New Zealand are a team of 'imposters', with this current crop among the 'worst coached' All Blacks sides since 1996.
That's the scathing verdict of South African journalist Mark Keohane, who believes New Zealand rugby is in a rut on the back of their 2-1 series defeat at home to Ireland this summer.
“But as good as the Irish played, this is the worst coached and selected All Blacks match-day squads I have reported on since the game turned professional in 1996. They are imposters,” Keohane wrote for Keo.co.za following the Irish series.
“I felt Wales had the toughest assignment of the northern hemisphere teams and Ireland had the easiest, given who they actually played and not being seduced by the history of who they were playing. When I say easiest, not to be misinterpreted as easy.
“Historically, there is no tougher assignment than the All Blacks in New Zealand but in the context of the current fragility of the men in black and the substandard pedigree of their head coach Ian Foster, this was a series out of kilter with the quality of what the All Blacks have traditionally produced at home.”
His comments come ahead of New Zealand's trip to Mbombela Stadium for the opening game of this year's Rugby Championship on August 6.
Wales Women captain cleared of racial assault
Wales Women's rugby league captain Bryonie King has been cleared of racially abusing and hitting a friend, after an alleged argument that broke out over taking the knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The 18-year-old was accused of racially abusing Jasmine Rampton before punching her after she was challenged by Miss Rampton for not taking the knee before a game.
The pair were students at Hartpury College in Gloucestershire at the time, with Miss Rampton telling a jury she was punched seven or eight times by King.
However, King, who was 17 at the time of the incident, insisted she acted in self defence during the confrontation on March 15 last year.
She said: "I was asked why I hadn't taken the knee and I reiterated that all lives matter. She told me I should educate myself.
"She began to raise her voice and became angry with me. I feel that taking the knee has gone on for too long but people were still doing it for their own reasons.
"It appears that Miss Rampton did not agree with this. Things came to a stalemate when she swore at me to leave her room.
"I then began making my own way back to my room and as I reached the door I got pushed from behind by Miss Rampton.
"It was a hard shove. I stumbled and, in the process, I threw out my arm. At the time I wasn't aware that I had struck Ms Rampton in the face."
King, of Mountain Ash, south Wales, accepted making physical contact with her friend, but denied doing it intentionally or using any derogatory words.
Edward Mitchard, defending, told the court: "It was a common assault and the injuries were mercifully small. Miss King used reasonable force based on the perceived threat she was under at the time."
The jury at Gloucester Crown Court took 45 minutes to find her not guilty of racially aggravated assault by beating.
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