-
Champions Cup
/ 2 years agoToulouse are the most entrancing side of them all
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Dupont or no Dupont, Ntamack or no Ntamack, this latest edition of the Champions Cup may well...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoGorging on a Christmas feast of non-stop rugby
CHRIS HEWETT Rugby has always been a game of Big Ideas: Carwyn James, the patron saint of Stradey Park, was a...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoEngland don’t need a comfort blanket
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED According to the industrious Alex Sanderson, who will surely be in the running for a senior place...
-
Challenge Cup
/ 2 years agoDungeon of obscurity needs to be shut
CHRIS HEWETT Barely able to buy a round of drinks, let alone a win – the good men and true of...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoMinnows can make splash of a whale
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED ACCORDING to Donald J Trump – you may have heard of him – “losers” are the lowest...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoWe need outcome that we can trust
It has been heading our way for many months, but now it seems horribly real. The concussion lawsuit laid against three...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoFalcons are trapped with nowhere to go
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED IT WAS a clear-cut case of “capitalism gone mad” as the loadsamoney class snapped up English club...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoExodus of talent isn’t always a disaster
Sabbaticals are all the rage. Sam Cane, the New Zealand captain who chased gold at the recent World Cup but ended...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoDupont deserves to be on Olympic stage
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED There are exceptions to the general rule – the best three-minute pop songs, James Joyce’s stories in...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoWithout any mystery, it’s barely a game at all
Here's a brain-teaser for you: why do so many techno-wizards at the cutting edge of “artificial intelligence” seem to be missing...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoLaunchbury can make Borthwick think again
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED SIMON Shaw mastered a wide range of rugby’s arts and sciences, but not even he could find...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoGood to see Phil pick up whistle
So Phil de Glanville, an England captain in his prime and a smooth-operating sports administrator in the years since, has reached...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoChange of culture is needed to compete
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED A slippery subject, rugby culture, and easily misrepresented in its narrowest sense. Across great swathes of the...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoIt’s better late than never to pick Zach
CHRIS HEWETT IF we’re being harsh – and heaven knows, the Cherry and White flock who congregate on the steps of...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoSeparated by 28 years – and a whole lot more
The bungled move to professionalism and the turf wars that followed; the “Bloodgate” scandal and the soul-destroying bankruptcies; the player welfare...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoBoks greater than sum of their parts
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED THERE was much wailing and gnashing of teeth at the unveiling of the 2023 “supreme” side by...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoIt’s time to decide who we really are
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED JUST the other day, during a sandstorm stoppage at a Cricket World Cup match, the commentators on...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoChoosing the right word is not easy
CHRIS HEWETT Does language matter? We are not talking Bongi Mbonambi-Tom Curry here, although no one should underestimate the importance of...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoNext time, Dupont will take what is his
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED DID the spirit of rugby romance go to meet its maker in the immediate aftermath of the...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoKolbe’s magic hidden from view
CHRIS HEWETT AMONG the many mysteries of this World Cup –Why isn’t Patrice Lagisquet coaching a competitive nation? Why doesn’t Ben...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoOne Goon show we could all do without
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED It is just about possible, if you’re seriously odd, to imagine that Dan Cole might stand a...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoTravelling coast to coast is a delight
CHRIS HEWETT A good many moons ago, this column identified the No.14 shirt as the latest cutting-edge fashion garment in the...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoSacrificial lambs who took one for the team
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED RUGBY being a hard old game even when things are going your way, the willingness to suffer...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoBunker mentality makes it easier for refs
Where football leads, rugby inevitably follows. So when can we expect the equivalent of a VAR cock-up to lord it over...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoIt wasn’t so easy back in Rory’s day
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED RORY Underwood. Remember him? You should. To this day, the Leicester wing stands tall – rather taller...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoTime to take the show on the road, England
According to those who know their stuff when it comes to the scorched landscape of domestic politics, there is a prime...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoBiggest boots are made for winning
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED If catches win cricket matches – a fact of sporting life mischievously underscored by the recent joke...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoSure you are in the right place, Sonny Bill?
CHRIS HEWETT There are still those of us, generally of “a certain age”, who continue to defend the BBC as though...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoTime for an elite 16-team contest
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST OCTOBER 2003 was a busy old month, what with Mother Teresa being beatified by Pope John Paul...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoFor me, anthems strike the right note
CHRIS HEWETT FAR be it for us to fly in the face of public opinion in this corner of the paper,...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoCipriani’s spat more suited to Colosseum
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED ONE of these fine days, with the grace of God and a following wind, a World Cup...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoToo many clubs, not enough players
If it ever turns out that the governing body at Twickenham has a monopoly on rugby wisdom, we are all up...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoShould we care about the world rankings?
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED THE way Clive Woodward saw it back in 2003, the International Rugby Board’s new-fangled ranking system was...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoDiamonds on the soles of his shoes
Siya Kolisi? What a man. If rugby is built on the stories it tells about its finest practitioners – the fables...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoBig cats likely to dine on minnows
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED IT MUST be a sobering prospect for the makeweights, travelling to a World Cup with a bunch...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoHansen’s secrets not hard to guess
There has been quite the hue and cry down there in All Black country following the latest twist in trans-Tasman affairs....
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoA brief history of tackles which changed a game
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED It has been fiendishly difficult to identify rugby union’s precise place in the constellation of professional sports...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoIgnore the league tough guys, it’s better to be soft and safe
CHRIS HEWETT Contrary to popular belief, there are still differences between the two codes of rugby. Union still has its flankers...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoA hat-trick for Sam would be deserved
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED We'll know soon enough if Sam Whitelock is finally past it. The venerable All Black lock from...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoSorry we won’t see Hooper in France
CHRIS HEWETT Wayne Shelford lost matches as captain of the All Blacks as often as he finished second in hand-to-hand combat....
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoCrowds need to be part of the action
CHRIS HEWETT THE best part of 84,000 spectators congregated at “The G” for last weekend’s Bledisloe Cup contest in Melbourne, which...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoThe day Mouritz showed his desire
CHRIS HEWETT Every so often, rugby sheds its hard skin and shows us its soft side. Not that Mouritz Botha was...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoThe greatest tour ever? Not likely…
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED IT IS no exaggeration to place exaggeration very high on the list of rugby’s deadly sins. It...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoAlways room for Bakkies and Co
CHRIS HEWETT SAY what you like about Bakkies Botha – most people don’t, for reasons of self-preservation – but there are...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoUnder-20s proved the future is bright
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST DID you hear the one about the trainee fortune teller who gave up because he couldn’t see...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoEddie’s a head honcho in a hurry
CHRIS HEWETT Eddie Jones is not a man to let the grass grow under his feet, even if his most trenchant...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoBarrett J has keys to the kingdom
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST Rugby is a game of infinite possibility, especially when it comes to dreaming up collective nouns. A...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoLet’s not abandon Fiji for the sake of US
CHRIS HEWETT Not for the first time, the ever-knowledgeable Paul Rees has treated us to a thorough account of the thinking...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoWhen law and spirit are not the same
CHRIS HEWETT We've heard an awful lot – far too much, frankly – about the spirit of cricket just recently, and...
-
Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoAnother lesson from the French
We are still a few days away from Premiership Rugby’s latest “big reveal”: the fixture list for the 2023-24 campaign, featuring...
Features
OSCAR WILSON
BUCS Super Rugby
Cardiff Met’s Gus Patterson on becoming Bridgend’s next rugby star
The best betting sites
