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Brendan Gallagher
/ 8 years agoReview: Slow start saw Lions move from strength to strength before springing into life
Match 1, June 3: Provincial Barbarians 7 British and Irish Lions 13 Okara Park, Whangarei, 19,951 Barely 72 hours off the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 8 years agoBrendan Gallagher: As the pressure ramped up, so cool Gatland kept his nerve
This Test was not only a compelling thriller which instantly claims its place in Lions folklore but a game which neatly...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 8 years agoBrendan Gallagher’s all-time All Blacks Maori XV
1. Billy Bush – William Kingita Te Pohe to give the Napier and Canterbury prop his full name. Wild looking, heavily...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher picks his all-time Lions XV
15. JPR Williams Ever present in 1971 and 1974 and a player who took the fight to the ‘enemy’ more than...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Exeter prove patience can be greatest virtue
It was Leo Tolstoy – who doesn’t offer appear on the sports pages – who once remarked that the two most...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Premiership final promises to be an absolute cracker
So after 22 rounds and two pulsating skin-of-your- teeth semis Wasps will play Exeter in the Aviva Premiership Final in a...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Chiefs to beat Saracens but Wasps for title
There’s no guarantee a cracking regular season will produce two semi-final play-offs to remember next weekend but, frankly, it will be...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: We’re going to miss you Ashton, try scoring ace
No one individual ever wins a match for Saracens, it’s not how they go about their work, but it was slightly...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Crusading Clermont are closing in on their Holy Grail
It possibly won’t surprise you that Clermont – who took 99 years to land their first French Championship and who are...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Scots unlucky that Twickenham defeat was not considered a blip
My heart sunk a little for the Scots on Wednesday when John Spencer read out the 41- strong Lions squad and...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoMunster v Saracens: Pedigree is there for a classic Euro showdown
It’s 18 years since Saracens first met Munster in Europe in a double header that still ranks alongside any clash in...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Willie wasn’t a wonker – he just got it wrong
Don’t blame Willie Le Roux or Danny Cipriani for that matter. Wasps‘ humbling defeat at Leinster went much deeper than an...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoWillie wasn’t a wonker – he just got it wrong
Don’t blame Willie Le Roux or Danny Cipriani for that matter. Wasps’ humbling defeat at Leinster went much deeper than an...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoThere’s never been another like England fly-half Karen
THIS week marked the 30th anniversary of the first women’s rugby international between Wales and England which was staged at Pontypool...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoItaly should stage finals
NOBODY is keener than me to see rugby gain an even firmer foothold in Spain and I don’t doubt that next...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher remembers the 1993 Lions tour
The last truly amateur tour in Lions history ended up as just about the perfect metaphor of everything that had preceded...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Eurostars who can earn chance to make a late check-in for the Lions
European Cup quarter-final weekend is right up there with the very best rugby weekends of the season but doubly so this...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher’s Team of the Six Nations
15. Stuart Hogg (Scotland): One of few modern players with genuine x-factor. A try scorer and provider. Rob Kearney was in...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Good riddance to record run, now Eddie can experiment
It had to happen – and in fact you could argue it might have been better for England if France had...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoJust how good is Stuart Hogg
Earlier in his career – and he’s still only 24 for heaven’s sake – the story that Stuart Hogg was distantly...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoYoung and Solomona top of the list outside bets for Lions
Is there any chance of Warren Gatland coming up with a genuine bolter for the 2017 Lions? Probably not. All four...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher on the famous Lions bolters
As far as I can determine the term “bolter” was originally an Australian equine expression used to describe a horse that...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher remembers the 1977 Lions tour
History has not been kind to the 1977 Lions and, coming after the triumphs of 1971 and 1974, they were, perhaps,...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Joost was a joy to watch and an utter nightmare to play against
Rarely, if ever, have the sporting gods given so abundantly before retracting their favours so suddenly and without sentiment. To see...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Play Itoje and Daly in their natural positions
Sometimes we can get carried away and expect too much from out young players with their extravagant talents encouraging us to...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoHair Bear Adam Jones finds happy new lair at the Stoop
One of the best, most direct and honest, Rugby autobiographies written in recent years was Bomb by Adam Jones which modestly...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Payback as Lions bare their teeth in New Zealand
Only those of a certain age can fully appreciate the excitement, and sheer disbelief, as news filtered back in the summer...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher previews the last two rounds of the Champions Cup
The European Champions Cup – which will forever remain the ‘Heineken’ for those of a certain age – can sparkle at...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher’s ten to watch in 2017
Ardie Savea, above: Outrageously gifted All Blacks flanker and younger brother of Julian. Combines at bit of Michael Jones and Jerry Collins....
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Fasten your seatbelts for a rip-roaring 2017
The great thing about the New Year, for the rugbyhead anyway, is that everything seems to accelerate after January 1. The...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Germans are defying odds to climb up the rankings
So suddenly Germany are ranked 23rd in the world, hard on the heels of recent World Cup qualifiers Namibia and Uruguay...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Lamentable affair which left the Lions in doldrums
From the outside looking in, the 1966 Lions visit to New Zealand seems like a calamitous affair. A first ever Test...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Yes, I have to admit it, England do have momentum right now
For many years I hated the word momentum, used in a rugby context, and tied myself in knots avoiding it –...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: England roll on but battle-weary Pumas need rest
A gritty, invaluable win by 14-man England against a Pumas side who finish 2016 punch drunk and dispirited after a year...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoHall of Fame or a random collection of great names?
by BRENDAN GALLAGHER Like any sporting Hall of Fame – and I’m aware of at least 50 worldwide from ballooning to rodeo...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoFish and chips? At times this England performance was a banquet of brilliance
Eddie Jones called for fish and chips rugby to beat Fiji – by which I take it he meant basic wholesome...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoHave Ireland found template for Lions to beat All Blacks?
Suddenly the biggest match in Irish Rugby history is upon us – well so it seems. New Zealand at home just...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Launchbury gives England a world-class look at lock
The record books will point to a very significant historic win – England‘s first over the Boks for ten years –...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Are China ready to rush through the open door?
Will Rugby ever crack China or indeed vice versa? I ask that question again in light of the rather startling announcement...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher on a 30-day 46-test global spectacular
There was a time when rugby fans looked forward eagerly to THE annual November international, the big match between the touring...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Look away now unless you can think back to England beating South Africa…
England have been playing international rugby for 145 years and there have been a few bad trots over the decades against...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher – Who would earn place in Steve Hansen’s Invincibles?
If New Zealand beat Australia in Auckland on Saturday – and they haven’t lost at Eden Park against anybody for 22...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoStrong-man Scott Sio wants smooth finish to patchy Australia season
Last Autumn Australia‘s powerful prop Scott Sio made no fewer than four Test appearances in a month at Twickenham and as...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher takes a look at the 1930 tour to New Zealand
In many ways the 1930 Lions tour epitomised everything we have grown to love, and occasionally curse, about the trips down...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Beware the All Blacks ‘in transition’
It seems barely five minutes ago that the Rugby Championship was first mooted and then established and now here we are...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher remembers the 1908 Lions who halted the rise of Rugby League
The 1908 ‘Lions‘ tour of New Zealand was, at first glance, a miserable failure with humiliating drubbings in two of the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoIntroducing the reigning Olympic rugby champions
15. Charles Doe (Stanford University): Basketball was his first love but he quickly took to rugby. Vice-captain in Paris in 1924...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher catches up with Italy boss Conor O’Shea
Conor O’Shea has been moving house this week and barring ferry delays, French customs getting moody and removal vans getting lost...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Built on sand, but Fiji’s Olympics bid will be rock solid
When it comes to stand-out Olympic performances, David Hemery’s 400m hurdles gold for Great Britain in 1968 is right up there...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: The All Black tour that left Olympics in chaos
It’s 40 years pretty much to the day that a rugby tour wreaked havoc with the 1976 Montreal Olympics, a financially...












