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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoGood to see the winners party like they meant it
BRENDAN GALLAGHER Well it was good to see the Sharks celebrate on Friday night like the European Challenge Cup really meant...
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English Gallagher Premiership
/ 2 years agoTry tsunami sends a mixed message
Peter Jackson looks at an increase in points scored but suggests the figures may be hiding a problem for the Premiership....
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Latest News
/ 2 years agoCollier fits the bill for NZ challenge
READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK England finished the Six Nations with a resurgence, but their next destination, New Zealand, is...
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British and Irish Lions
/ 2 years agoLawes still has Lions in his sights
Courtney Lawes was typically modest when he was presented with the Rugby Union Writers Club’s prestigious Pat Marshall Award as the...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoDiamond Dupont is surrounded by stars
Match-winning moments, men, and money is what sets Toulouse apart. Foremost among those men is Antoine Dupont, whose brilliance earned him...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoTalk of jeopardy is wide of the mark
THINKING ALLOWED It happened during the early stages of the 2003 World Cup in Australia, when two of the union game’s...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoTime for us to see some new thinking
Remember the elderly joke about the flight from Australia to New Zealand? “There’s a time difference between the two countries,” the...
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English Gallagher Premiership
/ 2 years agoFantastic four face final tests
PAUL REES LOOKS FORWARD TO THE PREMIERSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINALS: NORTHAMPTON v SARACENS AND BATH v SALE NORTHAMPTON The Saints finished at...
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English Gallagher Premiership
/ 2 years agoDiamond out to add some steel
By PAUL REES Even someone without Steve Diamond’s coaching experience would have known that taking over at Newcastle was never going...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoDay O’Reilly missed out on Hollywood
THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW When he last spoke in public, at his old Dublin rugby club a few hefty...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoThe £20m circus which led to a World Cup
David Lord would kick off every email to The Rugby Paper during the last years of his life in the down-to-earth...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoThe time Tony did plenty of learning
RUGBY MATTERS - A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER It might surprise some to learn that...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoResting players for big games isn’t on
JEFF PROBYN - A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME It was just a couple of weeks ago that certain people...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoTV deal hits the €700m jackpot
By JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN Jeroboams of champagne all round at Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) headquarters earlier this week, after...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoSarries’ star exits generate extra fuel
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK Saracens are the defending Premiership champions, and Mark McCall’s side are looking more and...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoDiamond’s rough support loses sparkle
By NICK CAIN What makes this season even more of a travesty is that Steve Diamond, Newcastle’s consultant rugby director, who...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoTop flight losing its soul, and integrity
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK GLOUCESTER’S 90-0 capitulation to Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens last weekend reflected all that...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoToo many coaches taking liberties in selection
It should not be difficult to distinguish between a Premiership rugby match and a game of county cricket: one, full of...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoMako reinvented job of loosehead
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Eddie Jones coached Mako Vunipola during a brief spell in charge of Saracens, and coached him again...
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Features
/ 2 years ago‘We have to manage load’
PAUL REES EXAMINES THE FALLOUT FROM GLOUCESTER’S 90-0 HIDING BY NORTHAMPTON SAINTS George Skivington has had better weeks. He knew his...
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Features
/ 2 years agoCup final is genuine clash of the giants
By PAUL REES Nearly half of the Champions Cup finals have involved Toulouse or Leinster, the two most successful sides in...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoJust listen, Leighton had ability to be rugby star
PETER JACKSON - THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Upon his death last month at the age of 71, Leighton James...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoLawes is level with England’s greatest
RUGBY MATTERS Members of the Rugby Writers club have recently been voting for the Pat Marshall award which we scribes use...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoMias made his mark in land of the giants als
Lucien Mias, below, who died this week aged 93, was never a giant of a man physically but when the force...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoNew law changes will hurt the game
JEFF PROBYN Am I the only one who thinks that something is wrong with ‘those in charge’ of our game as...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoDramatic finale puts Brive into play-offs
By JAMES HARRINGTON The ProD2 supplied a final glorious regular-season round for the ages in a perfectly timed reminder to broadcasters...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoLeicester have the class to rule again
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK Leicester are not where their fans want them to be – and a minority...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoTime to put an end to marquee players
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK ARE marquee players, or coaches, worth it, or are they just a Premiership...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoMistake to reduce value of the scrum
The danger World Rugby’s high-handed law-makers face with their insistence on trying to marginalise the scrum is that it could easily...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoCalling MPs will add to pressure
The decision of Championship clubs to contact their local MPs to ask for Government to mediate in its gridlocked negotiations with...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoRugby’s holy trinity prove the difference
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED SINCE time immemorial, rugby has been cloaked in its own cliches: Prince Obolensky was always “dashing”; Colin...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoMo’unga likely to be back in black
SO he hasn’t gone for good, after all. Not quite. If the All Blacks have their way, as they invariably do...
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Champions Cup
/ 2 years agoPower of the four musketeers
A common theme of last weekend’s Champions Cup semi-finals was the influence of the four scrum-halves, the catalysts of teams that...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoDavies the leading light in Welsh quartet
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Four international fly-halves took flight from Wales last year, understandably so given the...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoWhen Goodall was the bigger man
Ken Goodall shall forever be remembered as one of Ireland‘s greatest back row forwards, a humble man with a freakish talent...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years ago50 years ago, the Lions start to sweat
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER At the start of the year, this column...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoGB face Monaco battle for Olympic decider
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER ANY rugby tourist, or indeed anybody who finds themselves in striking distance of Monaco, should consider looking...
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English Championship
/ 2 years agoDon’t only blame RFU for lack of confidence
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME IT WAS interesting to read last week’s comments by Simon Halliday in...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoI may sell Toulon for €1 – Lemaitre
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN A matter of weeks after ProD2 strugglers Biarritz were sold for €1, Toulon owner Bernard Lemaitre suggested...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoWales will be caught out if Carre steps up
Rhys Carre’s imminent exit from the Arms Park comes at the end of a season when Wales steadfastly ignored him while...
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Champions Cup
/ 2 years agoQuins have to climb very steep mountain
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK WHEN Harlequins face Toulouse this afternoon in their first European Cup semi-final in south-west...
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English Championship
/ 2 years agoRFU’s still killing the dreams of investors
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The RFU’s indecision is final. It does not know what to do about...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoDon’t put Dickson in that position
If the Karl Dickson furore in the Harlequins v Northampton clash last weekend at Twickenham tells us anything, it is that...
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Features
/ 2 years agoWithout referees, there is no game
Paul Rees looks at the pressures on the men and women in the middle and asks what can be done to...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoLouis has sights set on Kansas gold rush
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW The latest phase of his footballing reincarnation took Louis Rees-Zammit to a school...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoDelighted to see Titans stand tall
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER There are some teams you grow particularly attached...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoStorti brings season to an end in style
Portugal wing Raffaele Storti may have made a slow start to the season but he has been making up for it...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoThe ringfence which is encouraging open play
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME THERE have been a few articles written about how the Premiership has...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoBiarritz’s fight for survival goes on
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN Ten days ago, under-new-management ProD2 strugglers Biarritz gave themselves what looked a lot like a crucial safety...
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Champions Cup
/ 2 years agoTime for Saints to be true to themselves
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK THE contest between the 9-10 pairings of Leinster’s Jamison Gibson-Park and Ross Byrne and...
Features
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