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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoGreat to see Dupont going for Paris gold
RUGBY MATTERS – BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points Rather overlooked during a hectic end of...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoPride clear to see at London Irish
Well that didn’t take long. No sooner had we mentioned in this column and elsewhere that London Irish were looking to...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoWe need more diversity at the top
At the time of writing World Rugby boasts 132 members and affiliate nations and at the forthcoming World Cup nine of...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoJohn Eales, the quiet man who became an inspiring skipper
Brendan Gallagher looks back at the players who shone on the biggest stage, this time focusing on John Eales' leadership in...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoLamaison brought the house down
The 1999 World Cup was a curate’s egg of a tournament, combining the crass with the truly historic. This was the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoEligibility rules are cause for concern
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER These newish eligibility regulations are still open to...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoHoping a phoenix can rise from the ashes…
The London Irish story has taken a horrible, cruel, turn recently but remains an extraordinary tale worth telling and in the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoSensational Jonah, the game’s first global star
Brendan Gallagher looks back at the players who shone on the biggest stage, this time he goes back to 1995 and...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoMandela inspires rainbow nation
The 1995 World Cup is a multi stranded story we never tire of. Nelson Mandela, elected at South Africa’s first President...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoWho will be next on the production line?
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER The Junior World Cup makes a welcome return after a four-year hiatus next week down in South...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoSamoan underdogs and an Australian masterclass stole the show in ’91
The Rugby World Cup really started to hit its stride in 1991, scaling up from the inaugural event in 1987 in...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoWhen Kirk took the All Blacks right to the top of the world
Brendan Gallagher begins a series on the star man at each global gathering Being the first in anything often confers iconic...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoHow a boat trip on the Seine swung the vote
The IRB took the momentous decision to stage a first World Cup in March 1985 in strange circumstances. Prior to their...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoWe must find a way to stop vicious spiral
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Heaven knows The Rugby Paper has been warning...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoWhen I needed a helping hand…
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER You could fill a noisy bar with the journalists past and present queuing to buy David Emery...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoStunning Munster are the best of the bunch
RUGBY MATTERS - A weekly look at the game’s other talking points What with an epic Champions Cup final and a very...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoBastareaud deserves his cheering send-off, too
Sergio Parisse’s long farewell has taken centre stage recently but let’s hear it also for Mathieu Bastareaud who also took his...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoFarrell shows who’s the master
BRENDAN GALLAGHER It was billed as a titanic head-to-head between Owen Farrell and George Ford but in truth rugby, a game...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoIreland mustn’t copy this breakdown flaw
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER The tumultuous happenings in Dublin last week were...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoLet’s hope technology passes trial
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER Be careful for what you wish for! World Rugby are carrying out their promise to trial chip...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoLeinster finally pay the price for their cynicism
BRENDAN GALLAGHER Every journo is surely allowed one “told you so” moment in their career and mine arrived last night when...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoSharks deserve far more recognition
BRENDAN GALLAGHER Rugby has its favourites and we in the media are as guilty as any of promoting them above others...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoNew Zealand schools side in ’93 was the best ever
The greatest national schools team ever? That debate kicked off on Twitter recently and my mind immediately went back 30 years...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoRefs must demand immediate release
Another game, yet another big “jackal” injury, this time it was the unfortunate Ben Curry as he bent low to turnover...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoFazzball too much for Jekyll and Hyde team
BRENDAN GALLAGHER Saracens might still be searching for their European mojo but domestically they were in regal form Sunday as the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoOn the clock: Who put the minutes in?
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER I’m indebted to stats guru Stuart Farmer who...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoLeinster turn out at the Aviva more often than Ireland
Much debate, some of it a tad heated, recently about the massive advantages real or perceived that Leinster enjoy over other...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years ago60 years on…The tour with no jet lag
Sixty years go this week England embarked on their first ever overseas tour and it remains a splendid exercise in both...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoHow about a sharp shot of summer fun?
So there we go, it’s May 7 and seven of the 11 Premiership teams have no competitive rugby now until the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoLet’s hope this new-look Cup has meaning
So the Premiership Cup is to remuster in yet another guise this autumn as a joint competition with the Championship sides...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoTall poppy syndrome or a case to answer?
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER For all sorts of reasons, all conquering Leinster...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoThere’s no place for jackals and crocodiles in rugby jungle
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER I don't watch enough David Attenborough – frankly his droning voice is my go-to remedy for insomnia...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoIt’s not British Bulldogs … needs of the defender matter as well
RUGBY MATTERS - BRENDAN GALLAGHER As the subject de jour seems to be rugby absurdities let me highlight an instructive moment...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoIreland’s passion play in classic confrontation
BRENDAN GALLAGHER Touts were reportedly asking €1,000 for a ticket outside the Aviva yesterday morning ahead of kick off and frankly,...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoItaly benefit from the brotherhood
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER I have a half-baked theory that the comparative...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoGone too soon, a young man destined to be England’s No 1
RUGBY MATTERS Can it really be 20 years since young Harlequins and England scrum-half Nick Duncombe passed away – Friday, February...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoA wonder try, one of the best ever seen in Calcutta Cup history
BRENDAN GALLAGHER And hey presto, Scotland will find themselves ranked five in the world on Monday morning when the World Rugby...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoGeorgia the team to beat in Euro fiesta
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER ALL eyes on the Six Nations but the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoIt’s time to give credit to the URC
RUGBY MATTERS Ok, I think we can all agree that one or two French players have been pacing themselves a little...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoThe golden voice… that glorious try…
RUGBY MATTERS WE are fast approaching the 50th anniversary of what many consider the greatest try ever scored and frankly there...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoPart Roger Moore, part Obolensky…as cool as hell and dripping with X-factor
BRENDAN GALLAGHER I have cursed David Duckham every winter’s day since late in 1971, which is an odd state of affairs...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoThrilling finish in ‘73 never to be repeated
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER What with Italy looking more competitive, the 2023...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoDickson wrong to ignore his TMO
For me there are only two reasons for a TMO. First to adjudicate whether a try has been legally scored and...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoTake five: Looking back, and forward
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER FIVE BEST MEMORIES OF 2022 1: Italy’s Ange...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoDoddie and Benny lead list of heroes we have lost
Brendan Gallagher remembers those the game has lost over the last 12 months Phil Bennett (Felinfoel, Llanelli, Wales, Barbarians, British and...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoWhen the old European Cup was just the ticket
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER This column has been warning about the decline...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoHamza improves on rugby’s record
RUGBY MATTERS Rugby has a decent record in Strictly Come Dancing – think Austin Healey and Matt Dawson although perhaps not...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoChristmas miracle in the Andes: 50 years on… a tale of survival
By BRENDAN GALLAGER For those of us of a certain age there were possibly two global stories that dominated our adolescence...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoHow baseball kept Bish on right track
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Ken Poole, the head of economic development for...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoMystery surrounds Robinson departure
BRENDAN GALLAGHER It was a week of departures for Romania, one unexpected but the other less so. First the shock resignation...
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