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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoDon’t lose Six Nations bonus on a Sunday
By Brendan Gallagher There have been more reports recently about the Six Nations wanting to do away with Sunday games and...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoThere’s more than money to Toulouse
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER There have, rightly, been acres of words written...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoDangers of brain trauma not new
The perceived wisdom is that rugby was not overly aware of the dangers of concussion and brain trauma back in the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoScratch XV that downed Boks
Brendan Gallagher was at Sixways when a National League One team caused a big upset - here he looks back to the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years ago25 years on and it’s still a special place
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER It was the 25th anniversary of the first-ever...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoTry from the end of the world…
Brendan Gallagher looks back to 1994 when New Zealand last lost at Eden Park, beaten by a brilliant French team that...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoThere is no warm welcome for Spain
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Gone but still winning. Sort of! London Irish...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoTeam Brittany show what might have happened in Cornwall
RUGBY MATTERS GO west young man. The phrase, attributed to American newspaper editor Horace Greeley, became a byword for the expansion...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoIt’s close but Dupont edges out Edwards
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Your columnist fell in love with rugby watching...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoPortugal looking to old guard
RUGBY MATTERS SCRUM-HALF and former skipper Samuel Marques is not the only Portuguese veteran being tempted out of retirement this summer...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoPink city deserves its place at the top
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER - A weekly look at the game’s other talking points Anybody watching the crowd scenes in front...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoGood to see the winners party like they meant it
BRENDAN GALLAGHER Well it was good to see the Sharks celebrate on Friday night like the European Challenge Cup really meant...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoThe time Tony did plenty of learning
RUGBY MATTERS - A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER It might surprise some to learn that...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoLawes is level with England’s greatest
RUGBY MATTERS Members of the Rugby Writers club have recently been voting for the Pat Marshall award which we scribes use...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoMias made his mark in land of the giants als
Lucien Mias, below, who died this week aged 93, was never a giant of a man physically but when the force...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years ago50 years ago, the Lions start to sweat
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER At the start of the year, this column...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoGB face Monaco battle for Olympic decider
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER ANY rugby tourist, or indeed anybody who finds themselves in striking distance of Monaco, should consider looking...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoDelighted to see Titans stand tall
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER There are some teams you grow particularly attached...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoStorti brings season to an end in style
Portugal wing Raffaele Storti may have made a slow start to the season but he has been making up for it...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years ago35 years on and Tim’s charity still full of hope
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER If you believe rugby is the ultimate team sport – which I still do – it is...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoS Africa is crying out for its own league
RUGBY MATTERS - A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER IF I remember my A level geography...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoGreat to see Swiss move up the ladder
There will be a new name mixing it with the bigger teams in the Rugby Europe Championship next season after Switzerland...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoAndré, high priest of French running rugby
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points Andre Boniface, who died earlier this week aged...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoHere’s hoping we see another drop of magic
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER IT’S Northampton against Munster in Europe today and...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years ago25 years of hurt and counting for Scotland
Scotland fans should look away now but this week – April 10 to be precise – will be the 25th anniversary...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoTime we demanded more from players
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER THE other weekend – although it could probably...
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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...













