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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoWhen relegation battle was the key
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points Twenty years on from England’s World Cup triumph...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoYoung guns who fired the triumph of 2003
RUGBY MATTERS While we rightly ruminate on the 20th anniversary of England’s World Cup triumph we should also doff a 30th...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoBorthwick should not cut time with players
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME With the RFU now preparing for a new relationship with the Premiership...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoWelsh warrior bows out in style
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN Rugby – even thoroughly modern professional rugby – sometimes proves it still has at least a little...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoMy best XV attacking players on the planet
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK THIS is a World XV from the 2023 World Cup with a difference, because...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoGame in England is heading for a storm
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE return of England A – the national second team known as the...
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Latest News
/ 2 years agoFor once, ‘Hugh Bacardi’ was speechless…
NICK CAIN HUGH McHardy is one of those irrepressible, generous characters who give such vibrancy to the social and playing fabric...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoChange of culture is needed to compete
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED A slippery subject, rugby culture, and easily misrepresented in its narrowest sense. Across great swathes of the...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoIt’s better late than never to pick Zach
CHRIS HEWETT IF we’re being harsh – and heaven knows, the Cherry and White flock who congregate on the steps of...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoThe Beast of Bezier broke the mould
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points French rugby said goodbye this week to the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoThis diminished Premiership is benefiting no-one
RUGBY MATTERS TIME waits for no man. As the World Cup recedes in the rear-view mirror and we concentrate on the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoUni links are vital to make-up of clubs
RUGBY MATTERS CLOSE match-ups with local University sides are nothing particularly new. The great Coventry sides back in the day enjoyed...
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Latest News
/ 2 years agoExiles travel globe to find new homes
PETER JACKSON PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Relocated: London Irish player of the year Tom Pearson is now...
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Latest News
/ 2 years agoLegend of the ‘Bearded Beast’ Esteve
PETER JACKSON FOR sheer bloodthirsty brutality, no international fixture of the last half century has come remotely close to matching France-Wales...
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Club Rugby
/ 2 years agoA lack of pathway is halting our progress
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME Well, here we are back to rugby at the club level and...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoClermont claim first away win with Urios
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN The smile on Christophe Urios’s face said it all, as his Clermont side ended a year-long losing...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoWhy refs must still have the final word
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK THE World Cup final was always going to be tense, and produce significant talking...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoBarnes showed why he’s the best
Wayne Barnes retired at the top of his game on Thursday after taking charge of a record 111 internationals, the last...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoPerfect Pollard was the key difference
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE aftermath of South Africa’s record fourth win in the World Cup final...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoSeparated by 28 years – and a whole lot more
The bungled move to professionalism and the turf wars that followed; the “Bloodgate” scandal and the soul-destroying bankruptcies; the player welfare...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoBoks greater than sum of their parts
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED THERE was much wailing and gnashing of teeth at the unveiling of the 2023 “supreme” side by...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoLike Dr Luyt, the game is still far too one-eyed
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW THE first World Cup dinner after a South Africa-New Zealand final since 1995...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoMarta try was my favourite moment
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points SO that’s a wrap and after this final...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoLions of Europe would be a fine team to watch
A long time ago I concluded that the self-interest of the Six Nations runs so deep, and they are so frightened...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoWhen I was hit, I used to smile
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME With the World Cup finally over and an outcome that was half...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoStade set bar high in bid for new start
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN The Laurent Labit-Karim Ghezal era at Stade Francais officially starts here – and the talk around Stade...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoBrilliant Boks are worthy champions
BRENDAN GALLAGHER So they have only gone and done it! South Africa have become the first team to win four World...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoKamikaze Kids in unison once again
BRENDAN GALLAGHER OK, it wasn’t a cracker but nor was this play-off game a dud. In a tournament marked by a...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoBorthwick needs to rebuild England pack
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK IT was a well executed England game-plan against South Africa in the semi-final, but...
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Paul Rees
/ 2 years agoBorthwick has tough decisions to make
PAUL REES FOURTH in the Six Nations, third in the World Cup. Redemption rather than progress for England given the pool...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoEngland will struggle to replace Marler and Cole
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Here is a prediction. England will not win another World Cup, or Six...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoWhy wait until 2030? Get this contest going now
The closed-shop in international rugby union was reinforced this week after the second coming of the Nations Championship was announced by...
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Rugby World Cup
/ 2 years agoVillage teams which gave stars their start
SHANE WILLIAMS WALES AND LIONS LEGEND WHEN the Principality Stadium crowd rises to salute Leigh Halfpenny as he makes his final...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoIt’s time to decide who we really are
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED JUST the other day, during a sandstorm stoppage at a Cricket World Cup match, the commentators on...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoChoosing the right word is not easy
CHRIS HEWETT Does language matter? We are not talking Bongi Mbonambi-Tom Curry here, although no one should underestimate the importance of...
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Paul Rees
/ 2 years agoSmall steps, but it may be a quiet revolution
Paul Rees is pleased to see World Rugby introduce three changes which will help grow the global game World Rugby is...
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Paul Rees
/ 2 years agoWhy we won’t see the likes of this victory again
What the planned changes will not do is revive the old-fashioned international tour that used to be a feature of the...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years ago‘Pence’, the most humble superstar
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW When the curtain comes down on his international career next Saturday, Leigh Halfpenny...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoFinal bow for these veterans
PETER JACKSON Now that the World Cup has come and gone, so, too, has a distinguished team of veterans with matching...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years ago60 years on and what a day it was!
PETER JACKSON Monday marks the 60th anniversary of surely the greatest single act of giant-killing by a club team against the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoEngland’s finest right to the end
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Now here’s a little in-house admission. A couple...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoLagisquet’s effort cannot be ignored
RUGBY MATTERS World Rugby could desperately do with an injection of PR savvy not to mention a certain generosity of spirit....
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English Championship
/ 2 years agoCoventry show how it should be done…
Paul Smith takes a look at rugby values...and which club in particular is walking the walk while England talk the talk...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoEngland missed their big chance
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME I can't help thinking the disappointment that is currently being felt by...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoWe’re all set for the real start to season
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN TODAY, as fans get their breaths back after the Rugby World Cup final and the end of...
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Paul Rees
/ 2 years agoEngland go with heads held high
PAUL REES England did everything but win. They were ahead after two minutes and held on to the lead until there...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoPaying the price of a lopsided draw
BRENDAN GALLAGHER And there, ladies and gentlemen, we can see the mortal danger of having such a lopsided draw. We may...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoBorthwick must plot his own course
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK FOR the first time in a long time all four quarter-final games were outstanding...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoOne-sided victory is nothing to celebrate
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK TONY Rowe is one of the most vociferous of the Premiership owners, and...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoCoventry show the right spirit
NICK CAIN If you were looking for an example of the true spirit of the game look no further than Coventry’s...
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