International prop scores superb 50-metre solo try

While Joe Marler has been dominating the headlines off the pitch for his comments about the Haka and his decision to retire from international rugby, another Test loosehead was making a name for himself on the pitch this weekend.

Ale Loman might not have the profile, or the career of Marler, who has called it quits after 95 caps at the top, but the Sweden international is three-nil up on the try count.

Marler may have achieved many things in the game but not once during his 12-year Test career did the Harlequins man cross the opposition whitewash, whereas Loman got his third for Sweden at the weekend, away to Lithuania, and what a try it was (try starts 29 minutes into video/12:15 into match, footage courtesy of Rugby Europe).

Receiving the ball just inside his own half in the 13th minute, Loman beat two defenders on the outside with barely a hand laid on him and then powered through a third tackle to score Sweden's opening points after they had fallen behind to an early Lithuania score.

Loman's brilliant effort inspired Sweden who, helped by a brace of tries from captain and inside centre Axel Kalling-Smith, maintained their winning run in style at the Aukštaitija Stadium with a 46-19 victory.

"It was my third try for Sweden, and definitely the best!" Loman said.

"When I got the ball, I recognised the mismatch against their 10 in defence. After I was able to beat him, I looked for support. I didn’t see a good opportunity to offload so I went for the try myself. I’m glad I did!"

Sweden are looking to go one better than last year and win the Rugby Europe Men's Trophy, having finished as runners-up in 2023-24, and the win over Lithuania puts them top of the table following a hard-fought victory over Czechia in their first game of the competition.

It will also put Sweden at their highest-ever position of 31st in the World Rugby Men's Rankings when they are officially updated at midday on Monday.

Like his captain, who plays for Rams Rugby in National One, Loman is based in England but one level higher with Nottingham.

The 24-year-old is believed to be the first Scandanavian player to sign for an English Championship club, having moved to Midlands to do an MSc in Machine Learning and Computer Science at the University of Nottingham

Whilst he has yet to break into Nottingham's first team, Loman, a death metal guitar player in his spare time, continues to impress Sweden's head coach, Alex Laybourne.

Laybourne believes that Nottingham have made a good decision, too, in recruiting the cornerstone of his pack.

“I’m very proud of where Ale has got to so far. He made his debut in my first test match in charge against Luxembourg in October 2021, and has been an ever-present since,” said Laybourne.

“Originally an 8, I moved him to prop and he hasn’t looked back, developing consistently and working hard on his game.

"He's moved to tight-head (Nottingham's preference) but played loose-head on Saturday for us as he can play both sides.

“He has a great willingness to learn and a desire to get better all the time; I believe he has a high ceiling and there is plenty more to come from him.”