Land Rover Defender has had a long association with rugby, from grass roots to top-flight. So, when Defender became a headline sponsor of the 2023 Men’s Rugby World Cup, we decided on a human centric strategy and the opportunity to tell emotive stories over showing too much vehicle.

We set out to celebrate strong people in the world of rugby who have overcome adversity and embraced the impossible – just like Defender – a shared spirit.

We found rugby trailblazers who’ve used inner strength to change the game for the better in some way. Defeating ageism, sexism, poverty, homophobia, cultural taboos and ingrained expectations in the world of rugby.

We selected our trailblazers and used social, TV and posters to tell their stories. We then immortalised them as physical statues, to look strong and heroic. Offcut metals from the Land Rover Defender production process were also used to give the statues inner strength.

Defenders then trailered the statues to France, where they were erected outside one of the key Rugby World Cup stadiums.

We followed the whole process, creating a TV ident campaign around the games broadcast on ITV1.

Directed by Scott Carthy with Annex Films.