CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST THE basic mix of marketing ingredients for sporting World Cups is one part exaggeration to three parts hyperbole – afact widely […]
CHRIS HEWETT It’s not easy to argue with a man like Rob Baxter, the honest-to-goodness, soil-under-the-fingernails West Countryman whose work with Exeter across a wide […]
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST Where’s daddy gone?” asks the six-yearold boy. “To a Premier Rugby board meeting,” his mother replies. “What’s that?” “It’s a place […]
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST Younger readers may be surprised to learn that back in the days when dinosaurs were roaming the corridors of Twickenham – […]
CHRIS HEWETT They were all present for the Premiership launch at Twickenham, but they were not all correct. In a tell-tale photograph, the young Worcester captain […]
CHRIS HEWETT A few days ago, the proposed transfer of the Senegalese footballer Ismaila Sarr from Watford to Aston Villa disappeared down the same hole […]
CHRIS HEWETT Many of the most gruesome blood sports have been legislated out of existence. It’s called progress. You don’t see many goose-pulling tournaments these […]
CHRIS HEWETT Back in 2008, when a Labour government was running the country and the Rugby Football Union couldn’t run a tap, your columnist schlepped […]
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST We’re almost there. By mid-November, the cast list of next year’s World Cup will be finalised, with one of four complete […]
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST When the Australian batsman Mark Waugh, brother of the masterly Test captain Steve, questioned the credentials of Jimmy Ormond during an […]
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST The sagacious lexicographer Dr Johnson – we’re talking Samuel here, not Martin – famously caused a ruckus by describing patriotism as […]
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST Three decades and a thousand miles down the road, die-hard All Blacks supporters still unfurl their “Bring Back Buck” flags in […]
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST The former England captain Phil de Glanville will continue as “Senior Professional Game Board Representative”, according to the latest pronouncement from […]
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST Spike Milligan, comedy goldsmith and undisputed grandmaster of nonsense verse, counted rugby among the great loves of his life. “The thing […]
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST Hot news! Manchester City won the Premier League. Again. Didn’t see that one coming. And Bayern Munich are champions of Germany. […]
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST It is often argued, usually by politicians reneging on a manifesto promise, that “the perfect is the enemy of the good”. […]
CHRIS HEWETT UNINTENDED consequences? You can’t move for them in the Union game. World Rugby has just announced another of its “global trials” (the nongoverning […]
CHRIS HEWETTGUEST COLUMNIST Some things in rugby are so difficult to find, they drive astrophysicists to drink. Scientists operating the Giant Magellan Telescope are struggling to […]
CHRIS HEWETTGUEST COLUMNIST Rugby followers who decided long ago that the sport’s various governing bodies shared a factory setting of “useless” are unlikely to fall […]
CHRIS HEWETT CLOSE members of Chris Ashton’s own family would hesitate to describe him as “the complete wing”, but his attacking instincts – rooted in […]
CHRIS HEWETTGUEST COLUMNIST The way the old-timers tell it, the Springboks were so petrified by the majesty of the All Blacks’ attacking play in the […]
CHRIS HEWETT WHEN it comes to openside flankers, New Zealand’s grand tradition has long been grander than everyone else’s. Nathan, Mourie, Jones, Kronfeld, McCaw? They weren’t many […]
CHRIS HEWETT BACK in the day, when England were at the cutting edge of sports science and spending eye-watering amounts of money on technical expertise, […]
CHRIS HEWETTGUEST COLUMNIST Few of the people charged with running English rugby are blessed with a sense of direction. If there is a wrong turning […]
CHRIS HEWETT IT WAS just a little discombobulating, listening to a sports presenter on BBC R4’s flagship Today programme talking about latest developments in the […]
CHRIS HEWETT ALL things considered, the world rankings do not feature highly on Wayne Pivac’s current agenda. The Wales coach would kill for a couple […]