BRENDAN GALLAGHER Two very average teams produced a pretty sub par Test match in front of an intermittently mute Twickenham crowd with the volume only […]
SIX NATIONS 2024 BRENDAN GALLAGHER THERE is a three-volume book to be written on false dawns, shattered dreams and broken hearts in Scottish rugby and […]
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE… EVERY WEEK WAS the speed of the Irish recovery after the World Cup surprising? No, because I don’t call it […]
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE recent observation by CVC that rugby union is too fragmented on the broadcast and commercial fronts, […]
When is the incessant yapping between players and referees going to end? These appeals and “consultations” are becoming a blight at the professional end of […]
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED EARLY February is not obviously the moment to select a highlight of the calendar year. Especially if that highlight is still […]
Natural justice is conspicuous by its absence in the union game. Think of the relegation-free protectionism of the Six Nations and the Premiership, or the […]
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN France Under-20s coach Sebastien Calvet has emerged as favourite to replace Bernard Goutta on the conveyor-belt of managers at ProD2 side […]
SIX NATIONS 2024 PAUL REES CLOSE yet comfortable summed up a contradictory England performance. Exposed in defence at times, they smothered Italy after the interval, […]
BRENDAN GALLAGHER WELL, it wasn’t quite the ‘Bazball’ rugby that Jamie George apparently aspires to – did we really expect things to change overnight? – […]
SIX NATIONS 2024 BRENDAN GALLAGHER It’s been said before but needs reiterating on a regular basis but there is no sporting tournament quite like the […]
The Twickenham suits are also not averse to turning a blind eye when a conflict-of-interests is involved. Perhaps the RFU’s performance director, Conor O’Shea, can […]
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED According to an article on the American website “Psychology Today”, there is scientific evidence to suggest that dogs not only look […]
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN The afternoon after the Friday-night chastening Six Nations defeat in Marseille before, a subdued French rugby audience tuned in to the […]
NICK CAIN The Championship clubs appear to be in no mood for turning, typified by their stand-off with an RFU bureaucracy headed by chief executive […]
PETER JACKSON Throughout his distinguished career for Wales and the Lions as the finest hooker of his generation, Bryn Meredith, right, never once got the […]
RUGBY MATTERS I don’t know about you but it’s occasionally been a bit of a torture watching Owen Farrell struggle with himself ever since England’s […]
Dafydd Jenkins’ yellow card last week for Exeter against Bayonne has caused much debate with most people agreeing that is was almost physically impossible for […]
JAMES HARRINGTON In a league featuring the likes of Racing 92 and Toulouse, Toulon and La Rochelle, Bordeaux and Stade Francais, there’s a ‘big match’ […]
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE… EVERY WEEK ONE of the biggest talking points of Steve Borthwick’s 2024 Six Nations squad is the selection of Jamie […]
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK STEVE Borthwick talked of England “turning a corner” when he announced his preliminary England squad of 36 […]
WHEN it comes to competition for places the appointment of Gloucester’s George Skivington and Dom Waldouck as England ‘A’ coaches for the match against Portugal’s […]
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED HERE’S a little brain-teaser, just to make sure you’ve been paying attention at the back of the class: since 2014, when […]
No one ever accused Louis Rees-Zammit of “training like Tarzan and playing like Jane”, to excavate a funny one-liner from the dim and distant past, […]
The international merry-go-round continues. After the best part of a decade of striving for England honours Exeter Chiefs prop Alec Hepburn has suddenly decided he […]