-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoRFU helps Farrell stay in England contention
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK England were facing a fly-half fiasco this week when Owen Farrell went in...
-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoIt’s time Max made his return to No.10
The disciplinary convolutions surrounding Owen Farrell’s early return to match action against Scotland shines a spotlight on England’s chronic shortage of...
-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoEngland need scrum firing on all cylinders
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Here is a New Year prediction. The scrum will be hugely influential in...
-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoTime to ban the curse of the caterpillar
NICK CAIN The stop-watches are in play with a view to speeding-up the game by putting time limits on goal-kickers, setting...
-
Latest News
/ 3 years agoTime to use technology to help out referees
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The noxious abuse of referees is one of the most urgent issues confronting...
-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoChristmas gift which shows soft mentality
NICK CAIN In a league with a genuine competitive edge teams do not throw away points in the way that Harlequins...
-
International Rugby
/ 3 years agoSelection maze the big test for Borthwick
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK STEVE Borthwick’s brave new world, launched on Monday when he was confirmed as...
-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoJones had no right to take England to finals
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK It is predictable hearing England players who were virtually given selection sinecures by...
-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoClubs still in limbo as RFU fail to plan ahead
Wasps are in the Championship next season following the RFU board’s approval of their structure under new owner Chris Holland, and...
-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoCall for Sir Clive! It’s time to rebuild bridges
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE end of Eddie Jones’ seven-year era following his sacking on Tuesday has...
-
English Championship
/ 3 years agoThis is one ludicrous idea we don’t need
NICK CAIN The RFU has plumbed the depths by considering a raft of changes which would reduce a new Premiership-Championship Cup...
-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoLight Blues still attract a good crowd
NICK CAIN While some Premiership clubs had been struggling to draw crowds of 4,000, the annual Cambridge University v Steele-Bodger’s XV...
-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoTime for a parting of the ways is overdue
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The RFU has finally recognised that when Eddie Jones talked after defeat by...
-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoStart by getting it right in the front row
NICK CAIN England's priorities as Eddie Jones departs are to find an interim head coach, and to unearth a front row...
-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoAngry MPs censure ‘shambolic’ leadership
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK It would be reasonable to expect that, by the time RFU chief executive...
-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoTime for RFU to be more proactive
The RFU has a habit of letting the Twickenham grass grow under its feet for too long when it comes to...
-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoJohnson’s 2003 team better than Eddie’s lot
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK There are those who believe that today’s international players are bigger, better, faster,...
-
Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoEngland’s all-court game was not good enough
NICK CAIN England showed great dignity – captain Sarah Hunter in particular – after being beaten 34-31 by New Zealand in...
-
Latest News
/ 3 years agoIs RFU getting value for money? Not from Eddie
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK EDDIE Jones has become a millionaire courtesy of the RFU, for doing what...
-
Latest News
/ 3 years agoTime to stop petty gamesmanship
NICK CAIN THE high-five cheerleading that breaks out every time a decision or penalty goes England’s way is a sure sign...
-
Latest News
/ 3 years agoGive some thought to Belize’s struggles
NICK CAIN AS a recession looms, the World Rugby mandarins who jetted to New Zealand in first or business class for...
-
Latest News
/ 4 years agoLooking to learn from tales of the unexpected
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK WHEN it comes to tales of the unexpected, Argentine rugby has few peers....
-
Latest News
/ 4 years agoPuccio’s tragic life -Puma who died in jail
NICK CAIN THERE is one story from Argentine rugby’s annals that is stranger and starker than any. It concerns Alejandro Puccio,...
-
Nick Cain
/ 4 years agoTime for ruthless focus and an iron discipline
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The 2022 autumn series is within touching distance, and with it comes a...
-
Nick Cain
/ 4 years agoEngland facing toughest test yet
NICK CAIN England are the favourites to win the Women’s World Cup, but they will only be put to the acid...
-
Nick Cain
/ 4 years agoDitch the skulduggery and dismantle the cartel
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The most critical element of any reorganisation of England’s professional club league structure...
-
Nick Cain
/ 4 years agoWaltzing Dempsey’s false step
NICK CAIN Crash ball: Jack Dempsey playing for Australia against Fiji at 2019 World Cup PICTURE : Getty Images The last...
-
Nick Cain
/ 4 years agoSpreading sense of anger and dislocation
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK It was always odds-on that Lawrence Dallaglio’s recent calls for Premiership clubs to...
-
Nick Cain
/ 4 years agoPumas will have inside track on England
NICK CAIN Argentina will know the England players they face at Twickenham three weeks from now better than any of the...
-
Nick Cain
/ 4 years agoJones should focus on effective rugby
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE conundrum facing England, and especially head coach Eddie Jones, is whether the...
-
Nick Cain
/ 4 years agoRFU’s Past Presidents deserve respect
Having spent all its financial reserves, the RFU administration is cutting away like Sweeney Todd, and the latest to feel the...
-
Nick Cain
/ 4 years agoAmnesia in rugby’s corridors of power
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Then there were 12. Less than a month into the new season, the...
-
Nick Cain
/ 4 years agoProtectionist policy that is killing the game
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The Premiership is crumbling like a house built on dodgy foundations. Worcester are...
-
Nick Cain
/ 4 years agoWhy couldn’t we see Smith take on Farrell?
Nick Cain A Premiership that kills its own prime promotional opportunities, like preventing Marcus Smith from playing for Harlequins in a...
-
Nick Cain
/ 4 years agoTime for England to get Sevens game in order
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK There is no nation in the Rugby Union family that was not disrupted...
-
Latest News
/ 4 years ago£500m debt could bury 13-club cartel
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK If Premiership owners had made the same mistakes in the multi-million pound enterprises...
-
Latest News
/ 4 years agoTime for England to get act together
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK We are a year out from the 2023 World Cup – and three...
-
Club Rugby
/ 4 years agoEngland’s Jersey trip leaves RFU all at sea
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK English club rugby has never been more in need of coherent, strong, farsighted...
-
Columnists
/ 4 years agoRising stars who give us reasons to be cheerful
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Peerless: England’s Freddie Steward scores against Australia PICTURE: Getty Images Now for the...
-
Latest News
/ 4 years agoTime to apply law on forward passes
NICK CAIN The only blot on the landscape in last weekend’s Rugby Championship clashes was the continued tolerance for forward passes....
-
Latest News
/ 4 years agoJones blaming others for his own failings
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Eddie Jones pressed the class-war button this week with a blanket criticism of...
-
Latest News
/ 4 years agoWe need the figures on schools
NICK CAIN Before the 2015 World Cup, when most aspects of English rugby union looked rosy, the RFU launched a scheme...
-
Latest News
/ 4 years agoBest packs dominate
NICK CAIN The pick of the forwards on show over the course of the season has underlined the primacy of the...
-
Columnists
/ 4 years agoEngland lack thrust to get to destination
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK NEXT year will be the 20th anniversary of England’s single World Cup-winning campaign,...
-
Latest News
/ 4 years agoNienaber has his team on right track
NICK CAIN Consistent, coherent selection is a hallmark of the most successful teams at international level, and right now there is...
-
Latest News
/ 4 years agoSo unfair that Ireland are on this path of pain
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Ireland have become the green giants of the game after doing what no...
-
Columnists
/ 4 years agoMayor ban highlights dangers of HGH
NICK CAIN The four-year ban given to Chris Mayor (right), the former Sale, Northampton and Wasps centre, after the RFU charged...
-
Nick Cain
/ 4 years agoA veil of secrecy which keeps us all in the dark
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK There is a complete contradiction at the heart of the English Premiership having...
-
Latest News
/ 4 years agoBeware promises in the land of the free
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE USA may bill itself as “the land of the free, and the...
-
Latest News
/ 4 years agoLife in the front row is tough for Stuart
NICK CAIN All Test props have to relish the head-to-head confrontations with their opposite number, and the chance physically and psychologically...















