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Nick Cain
/ 12 years agoNick Cain: Let George go, Saints, or risk his goodwill
George North is box office, and although he had to wait until last Friday night for his first try for Northampton...
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Nick Cain
/ 12 years agoNick Cain talks to Gloucester fly-half Freddie Burns about his challenge for club and country
Freddie Burns is the sort of fly-half that scares the living daylights out of English coaches almost as much as he...
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Nick Cain
/ 12 years agoNick Cain: These weakened teams undermine competition
There are occasions when it is hard to fathom the workings, and the culture, of the English Premiership. Why, at a...
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Nick Cain
/ 12 years agoNick Cain talks to Bath’s Dave Attwood about his second coming for England
Dave Attwood has that combination of brains as well as brawn that is a treasured commodity in most sports, but in...
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Nick Cain
/ 12 years agoNick Cain: Heineken war could harm World Cup 2015
The battle lines have been drawn around the Heineken Cup – or the territory it once occupied – and there is...
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Nick Cain
/ 12 years agoNick Cain: Self-interested coaches should not scrutinise refs
While I have sympathy for Premiership Rugby’s bid to secure a more meritocratic Heineken Cup, the initiative by PRL, the administrative...
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Nick Cain
/ 12 years agoNick Cain talks to Saracens coach Phil Morrow about the amazing Billy Vunipola
Billy Vunipola is a tank, and at Twickenham two weeks ago London Irish found him virtually unstoppable. The pulverising charges of...
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Nick Cain
/ 12 years agoNick Cain talks to Worcester’s new director of rugby Dean Ryan about the challenges ahead
Dean Ryan is realistic about Worcester‘s place in the Premiership pecking order. The Warriors are perched precariously on the lower rungs...
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Nick Cain
/ 12 years agoNick Cain: Let’s hope England use attack at key word
The pulse always quickens at the start of a new season, and with the Lions’ first triumph for 16 years still...
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Nick Cain
/ 12 years agoNick Cain: My Sevens squad for Rio has no Sevens stars
Imagine a Great Britain Sevens team for Rio 2016 picked, using a similar model to the Lions, from the best rugby...
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Nick Cain
/ 12 years agoNick Cain talks to Mike Ford about his vision for the revitalisation of Bath
Mike Ford is not promising miracles. Bath’s new head coach has been around too long to fall into that trap, notably...
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Nick Cain
/ 12 years agoNick Cain: Joubert shows refs can’t rule the scrum
Brett Gosper came up with some marketing waffle this week which illustrates how the International Rugby Board have earned a reputation...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Sevens title could be fool’s gold in Brazil
The suggestion that Sonny Bill Williams and Benji Marshall, two of Rugby League’s biggest stars, could be chasing Sevens gold for...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain gives his expert assessment of England’s latest elite squads
Stuart Lancaster’s EPS selection for the new season reveals that England have just a single option in one of the most...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain looks ahead to the 2015 World Cup showdown between England, Wales and Australia
We are six months closer to the 2015 World Cup Pool of Pain, and the Lions victory over Australia provides a...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: North star needs help to twinkle for Saints
When it comes to buying marquee players for the new season no one in the Premiership has done a better job...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Gatland defies the abuse to hit jackpot
What the 2013 Lions tour revealed is that for all the power inherent in the concept of the four Home Unions...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain says Lions’ selection errors would have proved costly in New Zealand
Sam Warburton says that he has no truck with the defeatist claptrap which says that the Lions cannot win in New...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain’s tour overview: Do not underestimate this wonderful triumph
The 2013 Lions roared in Sydney, mauling the Wallabies by a record score, but there are some embittered souls for whom...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain reflects on the highs and lows of the Lions tour leading up to the pivotal Test
The last round of Wallaby jaw-jaw before the battle for the 2013 Test series came to a climax at the ANZ...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: O’Driscoll was lucky even to be on tour
The notion held by some media pundits and fans – not all of them Irish – that Brian O’Driscoll is a...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain’s tour verdict: Gatland shows he has Midas touch
After the gunsmoke had cleared at the ANZ Stadium, the massed ranks of Lions fans waited to cheer on the 2013...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Horwill’s escape is latest great stitch-up
The James Horwill incident is the straw that broke the camel’s back. When the Australian captain was exonerated by Kiwi QC...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Lions tour? Aussies couldn’t give S***!
On the eve of the Brumbies game there was a Wallabies v Lions gala dinner held in the great hall of...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain sizes up the task ahead of the Lions in Saturday’s first Test in Brisbane
Mike Phillips versus Will Genia is the one clash which seems to encapsulate better than any the differences between the Lions...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Remember Finlay Calder and stick with Sam Warburton
Sam Warburton‘s selection as Lions captain was under serious scrutiny before last night’s crushing of the Waratahs, but the Welsh openside...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: The folly of Foley could kill off the Lions tours
Michael Foley played against the 2001 Lions four times. Once at hooker for the Queensland Reds, and three times for the...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain wonders why the Lions have not turned to the obvious choice as they tackle front row crisis
The departure lounges of airports as distant from each other as Durban and Buenos Aires have been busy over the last...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Chattering refs led to Hartley’s disgrace
There is no escaping the fact that Dylan Hartley‘s sending-off at Twickenham in the Premiership final last weekend cost Northampton the...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: First blood to Lions as toxic Quade gets ‘axed’
The slabs of red meat are one up already! The sledging war initiated by our Aussie mates ahead of the arrival...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain talks to Leicester’s Tom croft about his double challenge of Premiership final and Lions tour
Tom Croft has an attribute that few international forwards possess, including those back rowers alongside him in the 2013 Lions squad:...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain says the tour party to Argentina represents a sea-change for England
The grass-roots setting of Barnes RFC is an unlikely location for game-changing decisions at the apex of the English elite game....
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Put star players outside salary cap
What has happened to the once proud record of English clubs in Europe? When Saracens slipped out of the Heineken Cup...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Football could yet kick RWC 2015 into touch
There were cautionary notes amid the fanfare for England‘s 2015 World Cup when the schedule and venues were announced at Twickenham...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: These slabs of meat will be mighty mouthfuls
Slabs of red meat? More like slabs of gristle. The sort of tough, unpalatable stuff that the Aussies, who like the...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Give Danny loving care the same as Quade
Danny Cipriani must be cursing his luck that he wasn’t born an Aussie. Cipriani is a less divisive and outspoken character...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Be brave and blood more kids against Pumas
Should England go to Argentina with purely a development side, or should they go with enough experience and firepower to ensure...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain meets Paul Gustard, the man responsible for Saracens’ famous defence
Paul Gustard may not be in quite the same league as Crocodile Dundee when it comes to animal magic, but the...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Baxter can improve England’s set-piece
Stuart Lancaster has made a smart move in asking Rob Baxter to join the England set-up as forwards coach for the...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain picks his 2013 Lions tour party with some surprising ins and outs
No Brian O’Driscoll. No Chris Robshaw. Neither men make my 2013 Lions tour party for the straightforward reason that others are...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Change now or else!
There’s been a marked reluctance in English rugby ranks to accept that the 2015 Rugby World Cup draw is by far...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain assesses the potential outcomes of the Heineken Cup quarter-finals
Can England’s leading club sides come up trumps when it is all on the line, or will they follow in the...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Gatland must think French
There are not many Lions coaches who go into a tour on the back of a vintage Six Nations, and Warren...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain assesses the relative strengths and weaknesses of England and Italy
Italy have yet to beat England in the Six Nations, and, given that their only away win in the tournament since...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Let Welsh go Scott-free and return their points
Tyson Keats is innocent. Mike Scott is not. That was the only verdict that was clear in the Friday night disciplinary...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain looks at the England build-up to Italy – and beyond to the Lions
When teams which have battled to get within reach of big prizes start to batten down the hatches and ban words...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Welsh are embroiled in new fight for justice
There are times, as we all know, when the law is an ass. Usually this coincides with legal technicalities getting in...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain assesses the dramatic fight for survival at the bottom of the Premiership
If relegation is meant to be all about dull, unambitious, lock-tight rugby then London Welsh and Sale have not been listening....
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain: Lions levy hits their own fans
The latest twist in the Lions Test ticket story is that the Australian Rugby Union has refuted the statement from a...
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Nick Cain
/ 13 years agoNick Cain talks to Tom Wood about his triumphant return to England’s back row
Tom Wood is the embodiment of the new England. He is a fierce marauder who uses his mobility and work-rate to...












