Columnists
Nick Cain: It’s time to stop this untouchable scrum-half sham
Nick Cain calls on World Rugby to scrap its “Protecting the 9” law, arguing that over-protecting scrum-halves is undermining rugby’s contests for possession and making the...
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Columnists
/ 1 week agoNick Cain: It’s time for England to access all areas
Nick Cain takes the overseas eligibility debate a step further, arguing England should find a way to bring Jack and Tom...
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Columnists
/ 2 weeks agoNick Cain: Afolabi Fasogbon’s England omission a puzzle
Nick Cain questions Afolabi Fasogbon’s England omission, believing the Gloucester tighthead has shown the physical maturity and resilience to compete at...
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Columnists
/ 2 weeks agoNick Cain: Cracking America looks like a massive task ahead of 2031 Rugby World Cup
Nick Cain questions whether World Rugby has done enough to set the 2031 Rugby World Cup up for success in the...
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Columnists
/ 3 weeks agoNick Cain: Steve Borthwick failed to hit the mark with England central contract deals
Nick Cain questions whether Steve Borthwick’s England central-contract choices have given the clearest indication of how he plans to build towards...
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Columnists
/ 4 weeks agoNick Cain: England need all their best players available
Nick Cain revisits the debate over England’s overseas selection policy after contrasting views from Rob Baxter and Courtney Lawes have reignited...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoNick Cain: RFU Board needs an immediate overhaul
Nick Cain argues the RFU Board must act now to restore trust in the game, overhaul its governance and address the...
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Feature
/ 2 months agoNick Eastwood’s fiscal talent behind RFU’s success
Nick Cain looks back on the life of Nick Eastwood, former Finance Director of the RFU, who has died at the...
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Columnists
/ 3 months agoNick Cain: England’s direction of travel still unclear
Nick Cain believes England’s summer ended with encouraging signs, but says Steve Borthwick still has major questions to answer over discipline,...
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Columnists
/ 3 months agoNick Cain: England boss Steve Borthwick must sort out his back row now
Nick Cain says Steve Borthwick must stop delaying the big selection calls, insisting Henry Pollock deserves the No.7 shirt and urging...
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Columnists
/ 3 months agoNick Cain: Tommy Freeman deserves a decent run at 13 for England
Nick Cain argues England must stick with Tommy Freeman at outside centre, insisting Steve Borthwick’s stop-start handling of the Northampton Saints...
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Columnists
/ 3 months agoBubble of unreality threatens England
SOMETIMES being in a backs-to-the-wall bubble can work for a team under pressure, but at other times ‘group-think’ can become an...
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Columnists
/ 3 months agoNick Cain: Excluding the Willis brothers is costing England
Nick Cain explores how England are harming themselves by excluding Jack and Tom Willis, urging the RFU to scrap its overseas...
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Miscellaneous
/ 3 months agoNick Cain: Nations Championship gets off to a humdinger of a start
The Nations Championship naysayers – and there is an army of them – should take a look at the competition’s inaugural...
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Columnists
/ 4 months agoNick Cain: England still making the same mistakes
Nick Cain says England’s drab defeat to France exposed the same flaws that derailed their Six Nations campaign, leaving Steve Borthwick...
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Columnists
/ 4 months agoNick Cain: Selling the soul of the ‘greatest rivalry’
Nick Cain questions the decision to stage the final South Africa v New Zealand Test in Baltimore, USA, arguing tradition and...
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Columnists
/ 4 months agoNick Cain: ‘Project Shaun Edwards’ must be activated
In the last week, in the absence of any formal statement from the French Federation de Rugby (FFR), or France head...
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Columnists
/ 4 months agoNick Cain: Super Northampton Saints at their swashbuckling best
Justice was done at a packed Franklin’s Gardens on Friday night when Northampton, the best team in the league over the...
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Columnists
/ 4 months agoNick Cain: RFU must move fast to sign up Shaun Edwards for England
Whether Shaun Edwards is in the process of disentangling himself from a French Federation contract which extends until 2028, or is...
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Columnists
/ 4 months agoNick Cain: Afo Fasogbon deserves to be in Steve Borthwick’s England squad
Afo Fasogbon’s omission from the England training squad for this summer’s Nations Cup is a glaring oversight in an era in...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoNick Cain: England are unbalanced – both on and off the field
Steve Borthwick’s England squads get stranger by the minute, whether you are looking at player selection, or that of his coaching...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoNick Cain: Saints expose case for defence of van Rensburg
The integrity of the Prem as a league capable of producing international quality players took a battering when Northampton humiliated Bristol...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoNick Cain: Detailed? Robust? No… It’s a farcical non-review
The RFU’s review into England’s 2026 Six Nations nosedive was a whitewash that told the English rugby public, and the media,...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoNick Cain: Aussies musn’t waste the Lions windfall
The Lions have bailed-out Australian rugby again, with the hugely profitable 2025 tour by the British & Irish outfit last summer...
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Nick Cain
/ 5 months agoDu Toit can make difference for Bath
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK TODAY will be a reckoning for a Bath pack touted as the most...
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Nick Cain
/ 6 months agoAll eyes on Diego Sarthou’s 10-a-side match as France vs England ‘Le Crunch’ gets creative
French rugby seems to be ahead of the curve at the moment, not least in putting innovation into practice rather than...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: Seismic defeat at Twickenham shows RFU Board not fit for purpose
The RFU Board suffered a seismic SGM defeat at Twickenham on Friday night of such magnitude that it is hard to...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: Bill Sweeney’s presiding over a house divided
Getting administrative wires in a tangle seems to have been an RFU default position during Bill Sweeney’s six-year tenure as chief...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: When it comes to self-harm, rugby union’s in a league of its own
Anyone in doubt about the magical properties promotion-relegation can have in galvanising a sport need look no further than the sensational...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: Harlequins lacking the launchpad George Furbank needs
George Furbank is a gem of an attacking full-back with the skills and elusive running to spark a backline.
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: At the top level, Northampton Saints’ young guns have a bit to learn
When the European Cup reaches the last eight thankfully it has shed the hangers-on who finish in the lower end of...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: RFU should get Sir Clive Woodward back on board
When it comes to an understanding of what high-performance means, and the ability to implement it and create a world-beating team,...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoNick Cain: RFU ‘whitewash’ is already under way
As a broadcast pundit, Chris Ashton provides many sharp insights on back play, but often, like many former internationals now in...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoNick Cain: Resolute Thomas Ramos shows England how to do it
The only team to go backwards in the 2026 Six Nations was England. Where every other nation had something positive to...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoNick Cain: England lead way in self-inflicted wounds
The fog of disinformation surrounding England since their landmark loss to Italy in Rome last weekend reflected a group unwilling to...
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Latest News
/ 8 months agoItaly’s scrum gave Ireland flying lesson
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK FRANCE, and England, will have to be on their mettle against an Italy...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoNick Cain: England boss Steve Borthwick missed his Henry Pollock chance
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and it is a saying coaches tend to lean on when it all goes wrong and...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoNick Cain: Rifts widen as franchise plan set to go ahead
Attempts by Premiership club owners, and the RFU executive, headed by Bill Sweeney, to bounce English club rugby into an American...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoNick Cain: Save our scrums! Refs must do their jobs
There was a snapshot from the second to fourth minutes of the opening match of the Six Nations between France and...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoNick Cain: Wallabies are on a National Rugby League recruitment drive
The Wallabies are doing a counter-attack raid on rugby league Down Under ahead of the 2027 World Cup which could see...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoNick Cain: The Doyen, in whose shadow we all stand
There was a Grand Canyon of a gap in the ranks of the rugby union writers assembled at Twickenham to report...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoNick Cain: Slam these adverts into touch before it’s too late
France were in devastating form against Ireland in Paris on Thursday night, but there was a potentially more devastating force at...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoNick Cain: We don’t want these front row giants
It is dire news when a player is forced to retire due to health issues, as happened last week when France’s...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoNick Cain: England must ditch the hype and make history
The Six Nations decision to play this season’s tournament opener between reigning champions France and Ireland in Paris on Thursday evening...
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Columnists
/ 9 months agoNick Cain: The Grand Slam is within reach for England
Steve Borthwick’s ship is steady as she goes as England focus on winning a Six Nations Grand Slam for the first...
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Columnists
/ 9 months agoNick Cain: Mark McCall’s record is tough to beat
Mark McCall’s decision to step down as Saracens director of rugby after this season will be the end of a 15-year...
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Columnists
/ 9 months agoNick Cain: Scott ‘Razor’ Robertson fails to produce a cutting-edge strategy
Scott Robertson’s ‘windmill’ spin breakdancing celebrations were shelved during his tenure as All Blacks head coach.
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Columnists
/ 9 months agoNick Cain: One area where Ealing Trailfinders leave Bath in the shade
You have got to admire Ealing Trailfinders. The staying power that has seen them go 19 matches unbeaten in the Champ,...
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Columnists
/ 9 months agoNick Cain: England can bank on speed merchants
Speed could be England’s greatest asset as the Red Rose squad contemplate a New Year in which a Six Nations Grand...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 months agoAre Chiefs in danger of going ‘Twang’?
NICK CAIN TONY Rowe has gone full circle. Exeter’s chairman and main backer was an ardent proponent of promotion-relegation when the...
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