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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoTen Italian tyros who will hit the headlines
RUGBY MATTERS IT’S BECOME almost a mantra or article of faith recently that reinforcements, in the form of a squadron of...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoLucky? No, that was pure skill
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER THE sainted Antoine Dupont might be on a...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoDid that just happen? Five other jaw dropping moments
FRANS STEYN DROPPED GOAL (2010) The huge Bok centre was playing for Racing at Clermont. His side were trailing 14-12 when...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoSticking with Furbank shows England’s attacking intention
BRENDAN GALLAGHER I’M tempted to call it bums on seats rugby.... except 82,000 fans at Twickenham and millions back home or...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoFor me, this was their finest Six Nations win
BRENDAN GALLAGHER Could have beaten England. Should have beaten France, finally did the business against Scotland. Italy took the major scalp...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoSorry Cockers, but it’s Portugal for me
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER I wish the doughty warriors of Georgia no...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoWe are going to miss you guys a lot
All career-ending injuries are to be mourned but the last couple of weeks or so have been hard to digest for...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoHow one player really can make a team tick
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER WHY have France fallen off a cliff ?Can...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoIt doesn’t feel right to see Italy at the bottom
Various non rugby specialists have contacted me this week asking why Italy are currently bottom of the Six Nations table. Patiently...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoLow degree of danger? This man is just lethal…
BRENDAN GALLAGHER There was a curious moment in the last minute at Murrayfield last night when a message suddenly flashed up...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoAs usual, Gibson-Park enjoys life in top gear
BRENDAN GALLAGHER It's more than a little sobering to think that Ireland’s win over Wales on Saturday was probably their “iffy”...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoWhen the B grade was full of A stars
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER AS England A crank back into action today...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoDon’t let refs help the time wasters
THE sheer perversity of referees helping time wasting goal kickers looking to run the clock down by helpfully counting down the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoLisbon? Let’s go…
There are no Six Nations fixtures next weekend but the all singing, all dancing Os Lobos are playing Spain in their...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoDutch and Germans proving their worth
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Round Three of the Rugby Europe championship concludes...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoBenvenuto! Great to see Lynagh eventually opting for Italy
RUGBY MATTERS EVEN though I recently predicted in The Rugby Paper podcast that Louis Lynagh would be a starting wing...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoNo time to go soft on neck roll
Why isn’t the neck roll an automatic yellow card anymore? In fact, why isn’t the neck roll refereed much anymore full...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoAre England in transition? Not really, and they should be kicking on purposefully
BRENDAN GALLAGHER Two very average teams produced a pretty sub par Test match in front of an intermittently mute Twickenham crowd...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoThat was a try – but the record will not reflect it
SIX NATIONS 2024 BRENDAN GALLAGHER THERE is a three-volume book to be written on false dawns, shattered dreams and broken hearts...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoSuperstar who paved the way for many more
BRENDAN GALLAGHER IT’S hard to quantify genius let alone compare one genius with another – although that never stops us trying...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoIt wasn’t quite Bazball but George’s men did enough to get the job done
BRENDAN GALLAGHER WELL, it wasn’t quite the ‘Bazball’ rugby that Jamie George apparently aspires to – did we really expect things...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoWhy you don’t give up on your dreams
SIX NATIONS 2024 BRENDAN GALLAGHER It's been said before but needs reiterating on a regular basis but there is no sporting...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoConfident Crowley shows why he deserves the keys to No.10
BRENDAN GALLAGHER SIX NATIONS 2024 Regular readers of The Rugby Paper will recall that I told you a very long time...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years ago50 years ago, and it’s a different world
RUGBY MATTERS - BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points IT’S funny how some things 50 years...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoUnlucky Bev had just the two caps
It was remiss of this column not to note the passing of former Bristol and England prop Bev Dovey last month...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoFarrell’s jumping from fire…into fire
RUGBY MATTERS I don't know about you but it’s occasionally been a bit of a torture watching Owen Farrell struggle with...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoThe tackle: Different options are available
Dafydd Jenkins’ yellow card last week for Exeter against Bayonne has caused much debate with most people agreeing that is was...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoScots should focus on developing own talent
The international merry-go-round continues. After the best part of a decade of striving for England honours Exeter Chiefs prop Alec Hepburn...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoMagnificent tome tells fantastic tales
Take a bow Neil Fissler and Adam Hathaway – much respected members of this parish – for completing a definitive Who’s...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoNo hiding place in those final trials
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER For some reason, the good old days have...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoWhen JPR enjoyed his day at court
The late JPR Williams has many claims to sporting fame and one of the more esoteric is that he played in...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoWhen the selectors made the right calls
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER IT’S 2024 – a belated Happy New Year...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoSir Dicky’s New Year honour is hugely deserved
Everybody west of the Tamar, and indeed way beyond, was delighted that Dicky Evans was elevated to Sir Dicky in the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoThe day Bancroft created history
TODAY sees the 130th anniversary of the first successful penalty kick in Test rugby with Billy Bancroft, below, landing a tricky...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoWhen Merlene Ottey’s leotard grew nine sizes
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points NEW Year’s Eve and rugby always brings to...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoProud men who graced the game
Brendan Gallagher recalls the achievements of those from across the globe that the world of rugby lost in 2023 Sydney Millar...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoTime of goodwill to all (well, nearly all)
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER hands out his Christmas goodies... HO HO HO. I’m normally more of a scrooge than a Santa...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoToulouse’s victory over Quins is top of my list
RUGBY MATTERS THE greatest single performance in the Heineken Cup? That’s a tricky one, there have been so many, but when...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoMillar knew how to keep ref onside
RUGBY MATTERS Dr Syd Millar was many things – Ballymena stalwart, redoubtable Ireland Test prop, successful Ireland coach and innovative rugby...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoFollowing in fathers’ footsteps
RUGBY MATTERS The tradition of “sons of” playing for France U20 is well and truly established now and seems to know...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoA team stuffed full of captains
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER I was having one final lingering look at...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoI can’t see how a single action can cover it all
Lawyers and the legal system move in mysterious ways but as a layman it’s difficult to understand how the law firm...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoA case of third time lucky for Neville
RUGBY MATTERS - A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Sport is full of sliding doors moments,...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoTime to enforce law on quick tapped penalties
RUGBY MATTERS I can't remember the last time I saw a quick tapped penalty taken correctly yet refs and assistant refs...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoTwenty years on and still looking good…
Brendan Gallagher looked on as England’s World Cup winners from 2003 got together recently WAISTLINES have expanded and hairlines receded while...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoA game in desperate need of some answers
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points IF THERE is one thing I have learned...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoWhen relegation battle was the key
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points Twenty years on from England’s World Cup triumph...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoYoung guns who fired the triumph of 2003
RUGBY MATTERS While we rightly ruminate on the 20th anniversary of England’s World Cup triumph we should also doff a 30th...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoThe Beast of Bezier broke the mould
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points French rugby said goodbye this week to the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoThis diminished Premiership is benefiting no-one
RUGBY MATTERS TIME waits for no man. As the World Cup recedes in the rear-view mirror and we concentrate on the...
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