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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain: England need a Raging Bull to down these cocky Aussies
Michael Cheika has not made many slip-ups since his appointment as Wallaby coach last year, but his decision to play down...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain’s column: The haka’s a sideshow not a sacred ceremony
Holy cow! The haka defence brigade were out in force last week with the England 2003 World Cup winner, Matt Dawson,...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain’s column: The devil’s in the detail with England’s centres
It is a tale of two England centres, one cast as a sinner, the other a saint. Manu Tuilagi is wearing...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain’s column: Is Teflon Rob Andrew ensuring he hangs onto his job?
Maybe it’s a cunning plan? Rob Andrew’s version of lulling England‘s opponents in the 2015 World Cup into a false sense...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain: Trim bench to five to keep players healthy
The timing of Warren Gatland‘s comment that “one or two more serious knocks” could end George North‘s career, made on the...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain on why Brad Barritt is England’s go-to centre
Brad Barritt has a reputation for being England‘s midfield rock. We are talking about a centre who is not just teak-tough...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain’s verdict on England’s World Cup squad
Apart from Stuart Lancaster saying that he had to make choices that brought tears to his eyes, it was business as...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain: Man-of-the-match Justin Tipuric holds the key to unlocking the breakdowns
They are coming round the corner hard, fast, and in numbers, as Warren Gatland‘s sides tend to do – and England...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain’s column: James Horwill axe shows how the mighty can fall, fast
James Horwill’s arrival at The Stoop to join his new Harlequins team-mates will probably come sooner than he expected following his...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain takes stock of how the England pack rates against the world’s best
Forwards, and how many of them he needs, will be at the top of Stuart Lancaster’s agenda as he contemplates cutting...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain looks ahead to next season’s Champions Cup which kicks off two weeks after the World Cup final
How big will the World Cup hangover be, and which of this season’s European Champions Cup contenders will be hit hardest?...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain’s column: Sorry, but the North/South divide is as wide as ever
Of the seven World Cups that have preceded the 2015 edition which kicks off next month all but one have been...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain talks to England’s world class lock Courtney Lawes about his vital role in RWC 2015
Courtney Lawes hits twice as hard in the tackle as most of his Red Rose team-mates, and it has earned him...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain’s column: Axeman Stuart Lancaster must sharpen his plans in midfield
One of the enduring issues during Stuart Lancaster’s tenure as England head coach has been a revolving door selection policy at...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain looks at the way Michael Cheika is trying to rebuild the Australian scrum
Australian have traditionally struggled to match South Africa for size and strength, but Michael Cheika is on a mission to change...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain’s column: Stuart Lancaster’s bubbling cauldron is troubling
There are times when the England selection alchemy seems stacked against players who bring something different to the squad. We had...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain talks to Leicester captain Ed Slater
Ed Slater could be an irresistible catalyst for change. That’s because the Leicester captain’s first two main forays in an England...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain’s column: Bad referees must pay the price in World Cup
It doesn’t matter if you don’t penalise crooked feeds, or if you stuff up monumentally as a 2015 World Cup referee,...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain gets out his crystal ball and the form book to pick his 2017 Lions
Two years from now the Lions will be in the midst of a three Test series against a New Zealand side...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain’s column: Time for Lions to show claws over intinerary
The 2017 Lions itinerary, which was due to be announced in May but is now expected later this summer according to...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain talks to England captain Chris Robshaw
Chris Robshaw does not come from the Eric Evans school of England captaincy. Evans, who was captain of the 1957 Grand...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain casts an expert eye over last week’s European Champions Cup draw
The recruitment rosters of the Premiership and Pro12 teams make them look like a pop-gun parade compared to the heavy artillery...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain’s column: Megabucks Toulouse give Manu Tuilagi a dilemma
Manu Tuilagi has one year left on his Leicester Tigers contract and Toulouse have sounded out the 24-year-old England centre about...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain’s column: Memo to Stuart Lancaster: Avoid the dwarves
The inexorable trend towards spin over substance in the running of the professional game reached new peaks this week. As part...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain discusses the political dangers which are threatening Championship clubs
Chris Pennell’s superb two-try contribution to the thrilling 30-30 draw in the second-leg of the Championship final at Sixways on the...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain’ column: George Ford still gets my England vote over Owen Farrell
Ford or Farrell? It was predictable that the meeting of two fly-halves who have been close friends since schooldays, and are...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain’s view on England’s World Cup training squad
One of the enduring conundrums of Stuart Lancaster‘s tenure, and that of many England coaching regimes before his, is whether Red...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain’s column: Sir Clive Woodward could make France great again
Sacre bleu! Could Sir Clive Woodward, knight of the realm, England‘s only World Cup winning coach, be about to do a...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain: Why Manu Tuilagi deserves just a little sympathy
If any England player was likely to stray off the straight-and-narrow then Manu Tuilagi was always a prime candidate. That was...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain looks at the likely composition of Stuart Lancaster’s World Cup squad
There’s a spaghetti of conflicting views surrounding the long-squad of around 50 players – initially billed as 45 – that Stuart...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain talks to Saracens wing Chris Ashton about England and the Premiership title race
Chris Ashton has spent all season looking-in at the England squad from the outside, and the Saracens wing yearns to be...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain: Contract blackmail harms World Cup
The parlous state of the Tier Two nations was emphasised this week by Dan Leo, the Samoa and London Irish lock....
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain: Let’s unhitch this truck and trailer for good
The truck-and-trailer maul has been the scourge of the modern game. In a nutshell, it allows a wedge of offside players...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain talks to Wasps No.8 Nathan Hughes about his international choices
Nathan Hughes is a wanted man. Wanted by England as well as Fiji, the land of his father, and where he...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain examines the implications of Australia’s U-turn on overseas players
The tectonic plates shifted this week not just in the Pool A fight between England, Wales and Australia for their tripartite...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain’s column: Such double standards wreck PRL credibility
When it comes to putting on a show of home-town partisan support there is no club, or province, in England, Ireland,...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain’s column: Danny Cipriani’s return gives Andy Farrell a dilemma
Danny Cipriani‘s decision to turn down a big-money move to France to join European champions Toulon shows how much he wants...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain’s column: We’re on the wrong road to Rio with Joe Lydon
Phil Greening is concerned that Great Britain, and their qualification nominees, England, are taking the wrong road to Rio. The former...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain talks to Dave Attwood about the effect the Bath quartet is having on England
When Dave Attwood grounded the ball over the line at the Millennium Stadium late in the script for what appeared to...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain talks to the England forwards coach Graham Rowntree about the exciting new dynamism of his pack
Graham Rowntree wants a pack for all seasons. An England eight that can grind the opposition like a millstone one minute,...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain: England Grand Slam hopes hit by TV rota
If you’ve always believed that the Six Nations is a level playing field, then think again. In the 15 seasons since...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain: Tom Who? can make a name for the Exiles
Tom Coventry’s appointment as the new coach of London Irish following the early departure of Brian Smith has probably prompted a...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain: A global season must still cater for the British & Irish Lions
A global season is one of the items at the top of World Rugby‘s new year agenda, and great institutions like...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain meets Jamie Gibson who has left academia to chase his rugby dream
Jamie Gibson is a scholar and a gentleman, a true blue Oxford University-educated boffin who, inspired by the philosophy of Socrates,...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain: C’mon Joel Jutge get a grip of your referees!
Forget New Year wish lists, because where the current crisis in elite refereeing is concerned what we need is a hit...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain: OK, relax the cap but make it fair for ALL
There is a cartel-like stench attached to the double standards employed in the English Premiership, and it intensified just before Christmas...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain gives his post-autumn verdict on where England are with just eight games to go until RWC2015
When Stuart Lancaster was asked about the one added extra he would have wanted in his England team for the autumn...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain: Ritchie keeps the faith with Lancaster…for now
Ian Ritchie delivered an intriguing line in double-speak as he delivered his verdict on England‘s autumn return of two losses and...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain: Pay for a proper TMO system or bin it off
The TMO was introduced into the Premiership just over two years ago, and into international rugby a year later, and the...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain: Joe Schmidt proves buying British isn’t always best
Look at the most successful sides in Europe, whether club or country, and you will usually find that there is a...
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