Kalling-Smith aiming for top
RAMS centre Axel Kalling-Smith has come out second-best with both club and country this season but he can look back with pride at what he achieved, not only in National One but with Sweden.
The Reading-based Rams have had to concede defeat to Chinnor in the race to win promotion to the Championship, while Sweden were second to Switzerland in the Rugby Europe Trophy, the region’s third tier competition.
While the Rams were hoping for more, especially after they missed out on promotion on points difference to Cambridge in 2023, Sweden are celebrating their best season yet with the runners-up finish.
It leaves them just one place off their all-time best of 32nd in the World Rugby rankings, and to cap it all, Kalling-Smith got to lead them in their final two matches against Lithuania and Ukraine, both of which were wins, after his regular centre partner, Philip Murphy, needed surgery.
“As soon as he (coach Alex Laybourne) asked me to captain the side I felt honoured and it felt natural when I was speaking to the boys,” said KallingSmith, who has a Swedish-born mother.
“It was a bit nerve-racking as we had such a good first half to the season and then I had to take over and try and replicate that in the last two games and I think we did that.
“The boys are mature enough and experienced enough now to be a winning side, whereas a few years ago we weren’t. In our second-half performances now we really press on and execute in the 22.”
Kalling-Smith puts a lot of Sweden’s progress down to coach Laybourne, a graduate of Loughborough who coached some of the current stars of the Scotland Women’s team when he was in charge of their U20s.
“We’ve got massive Viking-looking humans who can handle the contact bePearce a lot of them played ice hockey in their youth.
“So we have got the raw talent and now we have got someone organising it all. Alex has brought a lot of structure to rugby in Sweden over the four years that he has been with us.
“A fair few of the players are the same who got us promoted to the Trophy and now we’re in the Trophy we are getting more exposure and more players are wanting to play.
Harlequins’ Swedish-qualified scrum-half Max Green has, so far, proved elusive though. “We’ve been knocking on his door for a while!”
As for the Rams, 25-yearly old Kalling-Smith says everyone at Old Bath Road is determined to go one better next season.
“Coming second twice now in two years on the trot isn’t great but with both teams playing well you get the winning feeling most weekends.
“Chinnor were just a formidable force in the second half of the season so congratulations to them.
“We’ve sat down and had a good chat about it. We’ve all been on the same page for the last three years in saying that we all want to go up, but it is about doing it. Hopefully next year you’ll see us at the top.”