Columnists
Jeremy Guscott: Now is the time for England to learn to be streetwise
It’s been hailed as the best ever Six Nations because of its topsy-turvy nature, unpredictability, and exciting edge-of-the-seat stuff, as well as the tournament in which...
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Columnists
/ 2 days agoNick Cain: Resolute Thomas Ramos shows England how to do it
The only team to go backwards in the 2026 Six Nations was England. Where every other nation had something positive to...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 days agoThe rise of Italy lifted the whole tournament
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER YOU can make a decent case for 2026...
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Columnists
/ 2 days agoAfter three rounds, it all looked so easy…
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN WELL, that was a remarkable end to what turned out to be an utterly astonishing Six Nations,...
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Columnists
/ 1 week agoPaul Rees: This mad Six Nations ends with a flourish
The start of a mad, compelling Six Nations was very different to the end. Ireland, like Scotland, suffered a chastening defeat...
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Columnists
/ 1 week agoJeremy Guscott: Stunned! That’s my reaction to England’s Six Nations defeats
Stunned is the only way to describe my reaction to England’s triple losses against Scotland, Ireland, and Italy.
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Columnists
/ 1 week agoNick Cain: England lead way in self-inflicted wounds
The fog of disinformation surrounding England since their landmark loss to Italy in Rome last weekend reflected a group unwilling to...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 week agoChris Hewett: Another one right in the eye for TMOs
It does not take an unusually sardonic soul, let alone a satirist measuring 9.5 on the Evelyn Waugh Scale of Savagery,...
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Columnists
/ 1 week agoPeter Jackson: Blackheath still have a dream of higher things
The oldest football club in Wales and the oldest rugby club in England share a common goal. Wrexham AFC (1864) and...
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Features
/ 1 week agoPaul Rees: It’s time to get back to what we are good at
Paul Rees looks ahead to the resumption of the Premiership next weekend and says it can’t come fast enough.
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 1 week agoBrendan Gallagher: Explore… Dream… Discover. That’s Italy
It was a curious, slightly unsettling experience in the final quarter at Rome last week watching Italy – who, frankly, hadn’t...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 1 week agoBrendan Gallagher: The Romanian who stood tall for his country
You bump into some huge human beings on the rugby circuit, but I’ve encountered few bigger than Romanian lock Constantin Cojocariu,...
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Columnists
/ 2 weeks agoAll off to France for the Grand Slam then? Paul Rees on England’s Six Nations slide after another defeat
England set their sights on the Grand Slam but could end up with the wooden spoon.
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Columnists
/ 2 weeks agoPaul Williams: Wales’ young guns are showing the way
Watching Welsh rugby’s recent performances, or reading about Welsh rugby’s political events, can have a premature ageing effect on the faces...
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Columnists
/ 2 weeks agoNick Easter: The weight Maro Itoje has to carry is quite extraordinary
What Maro Itoje has dealt with in the last nine months is extraordinary. He captained the Lions, he captains England, he...
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Columnists
/ 2 weeks agoNick Easter: Tom Willis would have been in my team
I would have started Tom Willis in the back row for England yesterday, regardless of his decision to move to France...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 weeks agoChris Hewett: Dave Rennie should leave Brodie Retallick where he is
Let the fun and games begin. Dave Rennie, freshly-appointed head coach of the All Blacks with a World Cup looming large...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 weeks agoChris Hewett: Chris Boyd can transform Gloucester
An effigy of Francois Pienaar swinging from the roof of the Shed as the World Cup-winning Springbok captain made an early...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 weeks agoBrendan Gallagher: Players love getting one over the referee
I’m intrigued, fascinated, perplexed, occasionally entertained, but mostly irritated by why sportsmen and women feel the need to subtly but deliberately...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 weeks agoAttacking full-back Lacaze was ahead of his time
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER FRANCE’S reputation for producing vibrant attacking full-backs almost matches their ability to uncover and nurture commanding Napoleonic-like...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 weeks agoPortugal’s clash with Spain will be classy
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER AWAY from the Six Nations, the Rugby Europe Championship is coming to the boil today with the...
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Columnists
/ 2 weeks agoPeter Jackson: Key figure Alex Mann puts Wales in contention
And so, let it be said sotto voce, the end is nigh. After losing 15 in a row, Wales have given...
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Columnists
/ 2 weeks agoPeter Jackson: When Ray Glastonbury warmed up during The Big Freeze
Long before his surname became synonymous with a music festival, Ray Glastonbury’s scorch marks could be found all over the north...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 weeks agoBrendan Gallagher: My Six Nations Top 20 – The good, the bad and the rugby
And breathe! In the blink of an eye, we are 60 per cent through the 2026 Six Nations, and we are...
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Columnists
/ 3 weeks agoPeter Jackson: Mike Gibson remembers the Welsh lions of ’76
When he sits at home in Belfast next Friday night to watch Ireland-Wales, Mike Gibson could be forgiven for recalling a...
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Columnists
/ 3 weeks agoKyran Bracken: Steve Borthwick has work to do but calls for him to lose his job are over the top
I’ll be honest, I’m as surprised as anyone by what we’ve seen from England over the last two weeks.
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Chris Hewett
/ 3 weeks agoChris Hewett: Difficult choices in the game of survival
There is no shortcut to anywhere worth going, as rugby discovered to its acute discomfort following the fumbled embrace of professionalism...
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Chris Hewett
/ 3 weeks agoEngland numbers fall short at No.9
CHRIS HEWETT IT remains perfectly possible that England will beat the French in Paris in the final round of Six Nations...
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Columnists
/ 3 weeks agoPeter Jackson: Memories of All Black legend going under the hammer
In the bad old days when too many referees turned a blind eye to all manner of mayhem, Kevin Skinner built...
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Features
/ 3 weeks agoPaul Rees’ Six Nations 2026 analysis – Nothing beyond liberated France
France may be out in front in the race for the Six Nations crown, but the championship has had enough twists...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoPaul Rees: England must work out where it all went wrong after embarrassing Six Nations loss
The end of the match was a microcosm of what had gone on before. England were on the attack, on the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 1 month agoBrendan Gallagher: Jamison Gibson-Park is back to his best as he pulls the strings for Ireland
A few weeks back, with Ireland’s possible decline ahead of the Six Nations, the subject de jour I ventured the opinion...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoJeremy Guscott: Bouncebackability is key for England now after Six Nations drubbing
The making of a team is how it bounces back from a setback of the size of England’s defeat at Murrayfield...
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Features
/ 1 month agoPaul Rees: France boss Fabien Galthie unbottles a rare vintage
Paul Rees looks at how the French are turning on the style as they prepare to take on Italy this afternoon...
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Latest News
/ 1 month agoItaly’s scrum gave Ireland flying lesson
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK FRANCE, and England, will have to be on their mettle against an Italy...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoNick Cain: England boss Steve Borthwick missed his Henry Pollock chance
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and it is a saying coaches tend to lean on when it all goes wrong and...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoNick Cain: Rifts widen as franchise plan set to go ahead
Attempts by Premiership club owners, and the RFU executive, headed by Bill Sweeney, to bounce English club rugby into an American...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 month agoChris Hewett: ‘Fast, faster, fastest’ is Fabien Galthie’s new look for France
Rugby is a game of assumptions about the future, rooted in the here and now.
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 month agoChris Hewett: Italians put on a show in the scrum
Just when you thought the scrum was dying on the ample backsides of its specialist practitioners, along come the Italians –...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoPeter Jackson: The French try blitz shows no signs of stopping
There was a time not that long ago when France found it beyond their collective wit to score six tries over...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 1 month agoBrendan Gallagher: Award booming huge pens a full five points
We are losing so much from the game as World Rugby dumbs down in the professional era, which is bizarre considering...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoPaul Rees: When roosters turned to feather dusters
A week is a long time in sport. Henry Arundell and George Ford enjoyed the plaudits after the opening round romp...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 1 month agoBrendan Gallagher: I think Sevens is badly in need of an energy boost
I worry about Sevens which, having invested so much energy and emotion into securing Olympic status, seems to have become very...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoJeremy Guscott: Wales just must keep 15 players on the pitch against France
It’s hard to know where to start with Wales because I can’t remember a Welsh team being in this position since...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoNick Cain: Save our scrums! Refs must do their jobs
There was a snapshot from the second to fourth minutes of the opening match of the Six Nations between France and...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoNick Cain: Wallabies are on a National Rugby League recruitment drive
The Wallabies are doing a counter-attack raid on rugby league Down Under ahead of the 2027 World Cup which could see...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 month agoChris Hewett: Wingers who light up the greatest show
The key ingredients of a successful World Cup are few in number but broad in sweep: a critical mass of genuinely...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 month agoTime for the scrum to have its own clock
CHRIS HEWETT ANYONE watch the Super Bowl, which used to be the most ad-intrusive sporting event on the planet until ITV...
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Latest News
/ 1 month agoFrenchman in a hurry
PETER JACKSON Starlet: Fabien Brau-Boirie PICTURE: Alamy PAU introduced him to the Top 14 last season at the age of 18...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoPeter Jackson: Peter Squires, a true local hero
Peter Squires shall forever stand out among England’s true all-rounders, the first county cricketer to play a Test match for the...
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