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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Johnno and Tigers are made for each other
When it comes to filling the managerial vacuum at Leicester left by the sacking of a larger-than-life character like Richard Cockerill,...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain’s wishes and expectations for rugby in 2017
Rugby Union in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland has a host of reasons to be cheerful in 2017. At the apex...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoWorld Rugby made a mistake by picking Beauden Barrett as Player of the Year
Maro Itoje should have been World Rugby’s Player of the Year by a clear margin ahead of New Zealand fly-half Beauden...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Eddie Jones will stick with Dylan for as long as he needs to
Disciplinary wonders never cease! Two Welsh disciplinary officers – Simon Thomas and Rhian Williams, and another from Italy, Marco Cordelli –...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain compares England’s world beaters of 2003 with Eddie Jones’ current crop
1. Trevor Woodman v Mako Vunipola Vunipola has improved as a scrummager to the extent that there is little between him...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Clear this fog over North for the sake of others
Northampton‘s attempt to shroud the crucial issue of George North being knocked out against Leicester last weekend in a fog of...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Bonus points will make Six Nations even better
Just before the start of the 2016 Six Nations Championship this column advocated the tournament trialling a bonus point system, and...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain selects his 2017 Lions squad based on the autumn Tests
This 2017 Lions squad is picked from Home Unions players who took part in the autumn series, and is based entirely...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoAre the All Blacks dirty? You’d better believe it!
The trouble with New Zealand‘s protests that they are being victimised following the rolling footage of head shots in last weekend’s...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain looks at the motivational forces behind England’s clash with Australia
A few weeks ago Michael Cheika was incensed at being portrayed as a clown on the front page of a New...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Lions must find room to blood British coaches
When the Lions assistant coaches are announced on December 7 they will represent a few shoots of growth in a desert...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Beware, new-style Pumas have yet to bare their claws
Argentine rugby is a strange beast. It is one with a habit of never quite being what we expect, and it’s...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain deplores the continued poaching of Fijian players by world giants
Any visitor to Fiji will instantly become familiar with the word “Bula!”. The friendly local greeting, whose literal meaning is “life”,...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Stay put George, it’s your best move of all
George Ford had a weird training week as part of the England team preparing to take on South Africa. First, a...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Dan Carter & Co need to be protected from medics
Rugby Union should be on red alert following the cortisone injections given to Dan Carter, Joe Rokococo and Juan Imhoff to...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Springboks must look North to stop the rot
When Adriaan Strauss stepped onto the broadcasting plinth at King’s Park in Durban after South Africa had suffered a humiliating record...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoSarries must be humble and earn victory – Billy Vunipola
This season Saracens start the defence of their title as champions of Europe, and, as the first holders to win every...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Building Eddie’s white wall has a cost
Training injuries happen, and as long as Rugby Union remains a contact sport they always will. The fact that England, after...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Premiership gets richer; others can go swing!
Salary caps are causing strife again, with dire warnings emanating from the Premiership elite as well as from clubs in National...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoAbsent stars? No problem says Eddie Jones, there’s more!
There was a moment at Twickenham on Friday when Eddie Jones demonstrated why he is being paid a king’s ransom by...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Referees must stop favouring All Blacks
All international teams bend the rules in order to accentuate their strengths and hide their weaknesses, it’s just that New Zealand...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Fears grow for Manu Tuilagi, the Tiger in a trap
Manu Tuilagi has probably gone into freefall further and faster than with any high profile international currently playing the game. Furthermore,...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain column: Time for old Lions heroes to fade way
The 1971 and 1974 Lions were the greatest touring teams that have departed these shores, but the monopoly they appear to...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Yes, I believe England can rain on New Zealand’s parade
The All Black procession is in full marching order again, with the usual array of tub-thumpers and cheerleaders proclaiming them as...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain column: Matt Burke’s law on summer season is good sense
Matt Burke was not only a great Wallaby full-back, he is a measured and respected commentator on the game. That’s why...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoAll Blacks will have to dig deep to keep that No.1 tag
By the time England are next scheduled to play New Zealand in the autumn of 2017 it will have been three...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain: Fiji were fab but 7s is a glorious sideshow
Congratulations to Fiji for winning their first medal of any sort at the Olympics, and making it gold by dominating the...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoNick Cain column: Feed the Championship before it dies of neglect
There are very few players in the England squad who have not benefitted from the time they have spent with a...
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Nick Cain
/ 9 years agoTom Youngs in? Richard Cockerill must have Eddie Jones’ ear
Tom Youngs was a surprise addition to the Provisional England Elite Player Squad of 45 announced last Monday. That’s because when...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain column: Stop these TV chiefs from censuring matches
Partisan television coverage in which host broadcasters lose the capacity to be objective is a growing problem for Rugby Union. The...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain column: England’s U20 stars would thrive at Rio Olympics
Here’s hoping that the GB Sevens side for the Rio Olympics which was announced last week come back from Brazil with...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain talks to Nigel Wray and Simon Halliday about the Club v Country crisis
When the new club-country accord between the RFU and the Premiership is announced on Monday, unless there is a cast-iron clause...
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Columnists
/ 10 years agoCain column: Burgess effect still rumbling through Bath
By Nick Cain THE saying, “be careful what you wish for” is tailor-made for the wreckage left at the Rec after...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain column: European scales look finely balanced at last
Where’s the ‘pool of death’? That’s the first thought that struck me when looking at the European Cup draw announced this...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain marks the England touring party
Test players Dylan Hartley (c) Top-quality leadership. Attended impressively to the core skills of hooking, and the longer he stayed out...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain: Now England must strive for sustained excellence
If outside praise makes you as weak as Eddie Jones says, then England are in grave danger of shuffling out on...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoShakespeare lover Paul Hill is writing his own drama
Paul Hill is a 21-year-old who has relished being stuck between a rock and a hard place during England‘s victorious tour...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain column: ‘Respect’ is the key to James Haskell’s rejuvenation
James Haskell is proof that you can’t keep a good man down. The sheer storm-force belligerence with which he bowled over...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain column: Eddie Jones turns the tables on his Aussie tricksters
England have won the Test series…and head coach Eddie Jones has won the mind games just as conclusively. Yesterday’s succes in...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain column: Slave-driver Eddie Jones will whip squad into shape
Phil Kearns is no shrinking violet, and this week he launched a clever strike aimed at destabilising the England squad coached...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain looks at the Wallabies’ key personel
All’s fair in love and war – and baggage searches – when England play Australia in any sport. That’s why, after...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain column: Self-policing the salary cap wrong from the off
The salary cap “investigation” surrounding Saracens and Bath last season, and the stampede by almost every other club in the Premiership...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain column: It’s another dangerous Maverick manoeuvre
Chris Ashton is a maverick. Ever since he crossed codes by leaving Wigan for Northampton he has never been far from...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain’s Team of the Year
When Saracens became the first Premiership side to win the European Cup for eight years in Lyon a fortnight ago, they...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain column: Lions tour schedule devised by donkeys
A year from now the 2017 Lions will be travelling to the other end of the world with the aim of...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain column: Wallabies will be formidable on fast ground Down Under
George Smith has always defied convention, and the 35-year-old veteran Aussie openside continues to do so, capping his first – and...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain column: Mercenaries under fire as Agustin Pichot cries foul
Agustin Pichot was always a visionary scrum-half and the former Argentine captain has wasted no time in getting stuck into the...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain column: Saracens can batter down the gates of Europe
Two years ago Saracens hit the wall. Then, as now, there was a European and Premiership double for the taking, but...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain column: This jealous snub only undermines the awards
There is something badly amiss in the shortlist for the 2016 Players’ Player of the Year award. The absence of a...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain column: Andrew Cosslett’s new broom sweeps out Rob Andrew
Rob Andrew’s departure from the RFU as their professional rugby director may have been presented as a long-planned exit, but his...
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