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Latest News
/ 4 years agoWe must protect this jewel in club rugby
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is common-sense wisdom that should apply...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoFunding plans for women just bizarre
NICK CAIN The RFU revealed a bizarre £220 million 10-year plan for professional women’s rugby that appears to be based more...
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Columnists
/ 4 years agoEngland need to rewrite the script quickly
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The roll call for England’s three-Test tour of Australia reads as follows: two...
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Columnists
/ 4 years agoThis merry-go-round is fraught with danger
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK BY the time Eddie Jones selected his England team to take on a...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoCollier can help turn scrum into a weapon
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THIS is a testing time at tighthead, an England problem position which must...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoWrite off Cheika’s Pumas at your peril
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK ARGENTINA under Michael Cheika will be as aware as Eddie Jones’ England of...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoEddie beware! This beast holds all the keys
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK IN the last fortnight Eddie Jones and his England squad have had a...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoFrance are the giants, Prem just sleeping
NICK CAIN THE English Premiership has just been described as a “sleeping giant” of sport by Simon Massie-Taylor, its chief executive....
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoPlan for life without Manu
NICK CAIN MANU Tuilagi’s latest knee operation, which rules him out of England’s summer tour to Australia, shows just how precarious...
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Challenge Cup
/ 4 years agoEurope’s elite clubs are facing trip into unknown
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE European Cup final in Marseille was not billed as a watershed moment,...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoEddie has to find the answers …and fast
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK IT was Eddie Jones’ first faceto-face press conference with the rugby media for...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoHigh-scoring hookers not good for the game
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK ONE of the strangest signs of the times is that this season hookers...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoEurope’s best too hot for England
NICK CAIN IT took the 2022 European Cup until the quarter-finals before it delivered in terms of the quality and drama...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoBucketloads of tries not a winning formula
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK AT the same time as Bath collapsed to a record 64-0 defeat against...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoOverseas players leave little room at 12
NICK CAIN IF you are perplexed by England’s lack of choice when it comes to big inside centres as potential replacements...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoChampionship ‘serfs’ must unite for uprising
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK HAVE the Championship clubs finally woken up and smelled the coffee? Have they...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoNo place in the game for abuse of officials
NICK CAIN THERE was a recent commentary that referees are over-protected and should not be immune from criticism, particularly by pro...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoShake up tired Six Nations fixture list
NICK CAIN THE Six Nations chief executive, Ben Morel, is not slow to pat himself on the back, over-hyping the last...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoEngland job needs Eddie’s full attention
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THIS is the week that Gareth Southgate did what Eddie Jones should have...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoChampions Cup has too many also-rans
NICK CAIN THE European Cup is being diluted by the decision to extend the qualification criteria from six teams in each...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoEddie’s gift-wrapped route to the semis
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE 2023 World Cup has the uplift of France, the hosts, having a...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoDevil is in the detail of buyback option
NICK CAIN AFTER a couple months of putting down a smokescreen the RFU has finally given an answer to what happens...
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Latest News
/ 4 years ago‘Beleaguered Bill’ tries to defend the indefensible
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK WHO runs the RFU, Bill Sweeney or Eddie Jones? There have been rumours...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoSweeney offers hope to clubs in second tier
NICK CAIN THERE could be good news for the Championship clubs, and the English club game as a whole, with indications...
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Nick Cain
/ 4 years agoEddie has had ample time to build a ‘new England’ and failed to do it
NICK CAIN SAYS ENGLAND’S DEFEAT IN FRANCE SHOULD HAVE BEEN EDDIE JONES’ LAST MATCH IN CHARGE ENGLAND’S defeat in Paris last...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoTime for refs to follow directives or face axe
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THERE is nothing that undermines a professional sport more than being unclear about...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoThere will be more on Rogers’ naughty list
NICK CAIN ANOTHER week, another Premiership ‘rotten borough’ story. This time it is about Leicester, a club which behind the scenes...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoTemporary stands at Bath reek of double standards
NICK CAIN AT the same time as two clubs, Ealing and Doncaster, have failed the RFU/Premiership ground criteria rules to be...
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Features
/ 4 years agoGalthie looks and acts the part as Brains behind French renaissance
NICK CAIN CHARTS THE KEY CHANGES FABIEN GALTHIE HAS MADE SINCE TAKING CHARGE OF FRANCE FABIEN Galthie’s transformation of France’s fortunes...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoSwitching Steward to centre isn’t the answer
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK COME in No.12, your time is now! That is the call that Eddie...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoA right mess entirely of the RFU’s making
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE minority who support ring-fencing can wail and gnash their teeth as much...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoHas Jones provided value for money?
NICK CAIN BY the end of his seventh year as England coach, Eddie Jones will have been paid £5.25 million in...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoStorm warning! Get Collier on front line
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK WILL Collier has served his time in the shadows, but, as England face...
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Latest News
/ 4 years ago‘Hybrid’ Championship idea must not be given green light
NICK CAIN IT is good to see that the concept of an English Cup competition, pitching Championship clubs against Premiership ‘A’...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoLegitimate questions deserve real answers
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK BILL Beaumont might well be wondering who controls the global game. Is it...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoKick for points, Ben – this isn’t a Prem game!
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK TOM Curry should have no shortage of helpers, or advice, as England’s embryo...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoLedesma is beaten by the bubbles
NICK CAIN THE attraction of coaching at World Cups appears to have lost some of its gloss – or at least...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoLet’s hear it for those little guys
NICK CAIN IT is great to see small wingers with dancing feet and blistering pace, like Scotland’s Darcy Graham (5ft 9ins)...
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Features
/ 4 years agoSuddenly the wonders of Rome hold perils for Eddie
NICK CAIN ASSESSES THE ANSWERS ENGLAND MUST PROVIDE AGAINST ITALY TODAY IF England stick with the excuse-ridden mindset post- Murrayfield that...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoGolden boy Jean-Pierre inspired a generation
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THERE are too many Englishmen happy to genuflect at the altar of “French...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoBrain injury rules must be more stringent
NICK CAIN RUGBY Union’s governing bodies must urgently take action to make concussion protocols far more stringent. World Rugby and...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoGatland’s available if Eddie fails again
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE main impediment to changing international coaches in the two years leading into...
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Latest News
/ 4 years ago£500,000 to swap helmets is woke joke
NICK CAIN THE Exeter Chiefs, North American Indianstyle, are dead, but hail to the Dumnonii Chiefs! Catchy it isn’t, but apparently...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 4 years agoThe Rugby Paper’s Six Nations preview: Green giants can cast long shadow over rivals
Amid the clinking cutlery and a few chinking glasses, The Rugby Paper’s brain’s trust gathered at Jeremy Guscott’s favourite Bath watering...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoA Murrayfield ambush waits for England
ENGLAND Nick Cain assesses England’s opening match and their wider issues THE Scots are an ambush outfit, and the last thing...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoThe ‘great selector’ is causing confusion again
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE ‘Fast Eddie’ nickname first coined in this column to describe Eddie Jones...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoNow RFU must find TV deal for ALL clubs
NICK CAIN THE new terrestrial broadcast deal struck between the Premiership and ITV is good news, but also long overdue. Disappearing...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoCourtney’s got the drop in captaincy shoot-out
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK COURTNEY Lawes would be my choice of captain for the 2022 Six Nations...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoFront row rankings put Quins pair first
NICK CAIN CAN Eddie Jones deliver on his vow to make England’s scrum great again? After the 2021 Six Nations and...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoGet Eddie’s successor to ride shotgun for him now
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK SUCCESSION plans for the England head coach role have been a lottery in...
International Rugby
Will Genia backs the Henry Pollock hype but feels England need to be more fluid
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