Columnists
Kyran Bracken: Grand Slam has to be expectation, not hope for England
This England team is the closest thing we’ve had to the 2003 World Cup-winning side – and they should set their sights firmly on a Grand...
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Chris Hewett
/ 5 days agoChris Hewett: Key pieces might yet emerge for England chief Steve Borthwick
The World Cup is all that matters, right? Everything else is 50 shades of beige. If England’s second-string success in Argentina...
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Columnists
/ 5 days agoPeter Jackson: Argentina left licking their wounds after double mugging
Tom Curry condemned Argentina to a gross injustice at Twickenham last weekend, one which subjected the victims to a grotesque double...
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Columnists
/ 5 days agoPeter Jackson: Daan Human factor has made Springboks even deadlier
Forensic experts engaged on a week-long trawl through the ruins of the Irish pack would have found something more disturbing than...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 5 days agoBrendan Gallagher: Bravo referee Matt Carley for taking no nonsense
Of all the subjects that have irritated me in recent years – apart from the hardy annual of blatant forward passes...
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Columnists
/ 2 weeks agoJeremy Guscott: It’s great to see England carving out a way to win
What impressed me most about England’s victory over New Zealand was the way that they stayed in it in the ebb-and-flow,...
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Columnists
/ 2 weeks agoNick Cain: Don’t exaggerate the importance of bench too much
The eight-man bench is not an aspect of the pro game I support, and the lauding of England’s “Pom squad” as...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 weeks agoChris Hewett: These Flying Fijians deserve place in sun
Few historians of the ancient world put it quite this way, but the Peloponnesian War was won off the bench.
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 weeks agoBrendan Gallagher: Awards season has its problems
It’s the awards season and time to issue my annual warning about the vaguely ridiculous nature of awards – remember that...
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Columnists
/ 2 weeks agoPeter Jackson: And finally, George Ford puts his nemesis to the sword
During a rare moment of solitude since last weekend, George Ford might have found his mind drifting back to an ancient...
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Columnists
/ 3 weeks agoJeremy Guscott: Time for Scotland to make big step
Scotland have had the players in the last six years to make a big impact on the world stage, but overall...
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Columnists
/ 3 weeks agoNick Cain: England A team just not up to the job
The Rec was packed with 14,500 Red Rose fans last Saturday, England A were on home turf, and the second-string All...
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Chris Hewett
/ 3 weeks agoChris Hewett: Without Jac Morgan, Wales will not be all right
The differences are obvious: he doesn’t have a shock of guitar-hero hair, or a nose so busted it resembles the last...
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Columnists
/ 3 weeks agoPeter Jackson: Ray ‘Chico’ Hopkins still unhappy with place in history
Even now, more than 50 years after turning England inside out and upside down at Twickenham, Ray ‘Chico’ Hopkins still resents...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 weeks agoBrendan Gallagher: A bolt of brilliance in that Arctic winter
The old sporting, and indeed show business, maxim of leaving the punters wanting more has never rung truer than with Richard...
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Columnists
/ 4 weeks agoJeremy Guscott: Look at that lineup and you have to say: ‘Wow!’
England’s performance against Australia in the first of their four home Autumn Series Tests was rusty, which was only to be...
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Columnists
/ 4 weeks agoNick Cain: Fault-lines show cracks in the All Black armour
Jordie Barrett’s tour-ending ankle injury against Ireland in Chicago last weekend plays into the hands of an England team hunting their...
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Columnists
/ 4 weeks agoDavid Norrie: 40 years on, and still stuck in the dark ages
The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again – and expect a different result.
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Chris Hewett
/ 4 weeks agoChris Hewett: I’d stick with Ben Earl in the back row, Steve Borthwick
Welcome to the “Yeti Syndrome”, a vivid way of categorising the many things we seek in rugby but no longer expect...
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Columnists
/ 4 weeks agoPeter Jackson: Fearless Fred Howard calls Henry Pollock to account
A retired referee of global renown called the other day to pose a rhetorical question about the legality of Henry Pollock’s...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 4 weeks agoBrendan Gallagher: When Pumas gave Wales a tough time
The record books tell us that Wales and today’s opponents, Argentina, have contested 22 Tests since their first official meeting in...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoJeremy Guscott: Time for France to put down a marker
France, champions of Europe, against South Africa, double World Cup winners and newly crowned Rugby Championship title holders, in Paris on...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoNick Cain: Avoid the circus and keep strategy simple
We are told the bench is now the ‘swingometer’ that dictates who wins at international and top club level.
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoNick Cain: Believe it! All Blacks are there for the taking
New Zealand may not be the imperious double World Cup winners they were in 2015, but at the start of the...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 month agoChris Hewett: ‘Finishers’ need to be put in their place
Imagine you are peering across halfway at a pack of forwards so big, knotted with muscle and profoundly pug-ugly that the...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 month agoGalthie’s secret squirrel exercise
CHRIS HEWETT FACED with last week’s espionage bulletin from France, the owlish master spy George Smiley would have cleaned his spectacles...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoPeter Jackson: Welsh Rugby’s press charade does the game no favours
When the top brass at Twickenham interviewed Dudley Wood for the vacant position of RFU secretary, they raised a pressing matter...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 1 month agoBrendan Gallagher: We need a full-time eligibility supremo
This column grew hoarse a few years back, arguing for World Rugby to loosen their belts just a little and spend...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoJeremy Guscott: England are buzzing and ready to have a go
The reboot of the international season starts for England when they face Australia at Twickenham on Saturday, and they go into...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoNick Cain: Luke Cowan-Dickie’s reprieve smacks of inconsistency
Luke Cowan-Dickie’s exoneration by an RFU disciplinary panel on Tuesday for a potentially dangerous high tackle on Tom Willis in last...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 month agoChris Hewett: Too much talent can be a problem
We have heard much wailing and gnashing of teeth over Tom Willis, largely from those who assumed the France-bound Saracens forward...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 1 month agoBrendan Gallagher: Don’t hold Noah Caluori back – he’s too good
So a supernova named Noah Caluori, whose vapour trails lingered long in the sky over Hendon last Saturday night, is now...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 1 month agoBrendan Gallagher: Emily Scarratt has left a stellar legacy
We can, if we want, measure Emily Scarratt’s extraordinary career in bald facts.
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoPeter Jackson: Wingers who fly high in their teens
Those teenagers who dare to wing it across the international stage belong to a galaxy of meteoroids once flown by England’s...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoPeter Jackson: Ospreys have good reason to spit blood
When the WRU delivered its damning verdict on the Ospreys and Scarlets, the judges ought to have been suitably dressed for...
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoJeremy Guscott: Problem laws are just not ‘helpful’
When it comes to a commentary on the laws of the game, it’s important to acknowledge first that the referee has...
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoNick Cain: Time for Maro Itoje & Co to take on the world
Maro Itoje scaled one of the most significant peaks in rugby union as a winning Lions captain this summer, but he...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 months agoChris Hewett: The two-team solution has worked for Scotland
On a bad road day – the sad truth is that most days turn bad the moment you sit behind the...
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoPeter Jackson: Long march of players from distant lands
The All Blacks are heading this way via Chicago reinforced by another bountiful raft of converts from their treasured trawl of...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 months agoBrendan Gallagher: David Bishop – Unforgiven and unforgettable
Not many sporting books have been cobbled together with the co-authors flat on their backs 200 miles apart, but that’s what...
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoJeremy Guscott: England must unite Ollie Lawrence and Tommy Freeman in midfield
The prospect of England facing Australia at Twickenham in just under three weeks with a backline in which their 2025 Lions...
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoNick Cain: Absurd rule banning Jack Willis from England
The high esteem in which Jack Willis is held at his club Toulouse, in French rugby circles in general, and regularly...
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoPeter Jackson: David Bishop in search of the final reckoning
Of all the Test scrum-halves in all the world, David Bishop stands apart from the rest. He is the only one...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 months agoBrendan Gallagher: No-one is immune to this awful disease
I wonder if, by chance, you can guess what the following had in common: American photographer Eddie Adams; Japanese karate master...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 months agoBrendan Gallagher: Furious little bull who was as hard as nails
Imagine being a French rugby international in the tumultuous decade between 1971 and 1981.
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoJeremy Guscott: It won’t surprise me if Springboks land a threepeat
South Africa have got people talking about the revolution in their back play in the Rugby Championship after their huge victories...
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoNick Cain: Great result but let’s stay ahead of pack
Congratulations to the England women’s team after winning the 2025 Women’s World Cup, and also going 33 matches undefeated during head...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 months agoWainwright goes close to 1923 record
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW OVER the course of 10 seconds in Belfast last weekend, Aaron Wainwright may...
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoPeter Jackson: Saturday afternoons no longer for rugby
Back in the day when Cardiff ran the best club team in Europe, their fixture list guaranteed supporters 23 home matches,...
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoCatherine Spencer: I am so proud to be Red Rose 114
The tears for me, while standing in the crowd at Twickenham watching Canada receive their second-place medals, were of hurt.
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