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Club Rugby
/ 2 years agoCarbonel winner ensures last-gasp Montpellier survival
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN THE English Football League’s Championship play-off final is sometimes referred to as ‘the richest game in football’,...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoHotshot Hendy seizes the day
By NICK CAIN at Twickenham Northampton Saints..... 25pts Tries: Freeman 24, Sleightholme 28, Mitchell 73 Conversions: Smith 24, Furbank 75 Penalties:...
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English Gallagher Premiership
/ 2 years agoBy George! Hendy is the saviour of Saints
PAUL REES Courtney Lawes has never been one to turn his face away from reality. His first reaction at the final...
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English Gallagher Premiership
/ 2 years agoAfter that season, Bath can’t let it slip
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK Finn Russell has been a poster boy for Bath this season because of the...
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Paul Rees
/ 2 years agoSaints stars give credit to Vesty
By PAUL REES On the run: Alex Mitchell breaks through against Saracens during the semi-final PICTURES: Getty Images Alex Mitchell and...
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Latest News
/ 2 years agoBorthwick needs a clear direction
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The fog around England’s take-off as an attacking force in the latter stages...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoLet the ‘waterboys’ just get on with it
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED It's the burning question of the moment: what is Jacques Nienaber? Not “who is Jacques Nienaber”, or...
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Features
/ 2 years agoShattering end to Iestyn’s dreams
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Iestyn Harris had only just started to run with a rugby ball when...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoQuins cashing in on Twickenham factor
Peter Jackson looks at how attendances have changed in the last 20 years and sees good news in the capital cities...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoIt’s close but Dupont edges out Edwards
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Your columnist fell in love with rugby watching...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoPortugal looking to old guard
RUGBY MATTERS SCRUM-HALF and former skipper Samuel Marques is not the only Portuguese veteran being tempted out of retirement this summer...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoTime for Borthwick to stamp his mark
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME It's been well worth waiting until the end of the season to...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoHogg has eyes set on Top 14 surprise
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN Stuart Hogg’s reported surprise reverse-ferret back into the professional game after his retirement last year – and...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoEngland starting to look like Lions
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK A year out from the 2025 Lions tour of Australia it’s still hard to...
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English Gallagher Premiership
/ 2 years agoGloucester put faith in ‘some old heads’
By PAUL REES It was typical of Gloucester’s season – make that the last couple – that when they came up...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoMcCaw’s vision for harmony
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK If the current power struggle in New Zealand rugby intensifies, with the NZRPA...
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English Gallagher Premiership
/ 2 years agoOnly one full house in ‘greatest season’ finale
NICK CAIN Here's something for the RFU mandarins and Premiership owners who are hell-bent on keeping England’s top league ring-fenced to...
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Champions Cup
/ 2 years agoSorry, but that’s not all right, Jacques
A great European Cup final last weekend had only one blemish, when the limp attempt to tighten the rules around water-carriers...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoThen and now: It’s tough to compare
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Whenever the incomparable Antoine Dupont does the kind of things he did in dragging Toulouse over the...
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English Gallagher Premiership
/ 2 years agoTime to let Borthwick pick from the best
PAUL REES SAYS THE ENGLAND COACH SHOULD NOT BE LIMITED TO ONLY SELECTING PLAYERS WHO PLAY IN THE PREMIERSHIP England's preliminary...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoSorry, but we don’t need your cup, Wills
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Of all the trophies dreamt up for international matches over the last 20...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoDupont’s the best I’ve seen in pro era
There have been many landslide victories in sport but never one like Antoine Dupont’s in London last weekend, the most commanding...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoPink city deserves its place at the top
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER - A weekly look at the game’s other talking points Anybody watching the crowd scenes in front...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoDowson’s right, let’s be more like French
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME In agreement: Mark McCall and, right, Phil Dowson PICTURES: Getty Images IT...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoGopperth misses out on top flight
FRENCH COLUMN By JAMES HARRINGTON Jimmy Gopperth won’t be the oldest-ever player to feature in the Top 14 next season after...
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Paul Rees
/ 2 years agoWe will have a full deck of cards next season – McKellar
By PAUL REES Leicester's dejection at finishing well short of the play-off positions was compounded by the sight of their fierce...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoBath and Saints to win – but only just
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK It's hard to see Northampton changing the way they’ve played all season when they...
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Paul Rees
/ 2 years agoOnce again, the French wizard calls the shots
PAUL REES Is there anything Antoine Dupont cannot do? Drop a goal with his left foot from his own half, perhaps?...
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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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