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European Challenge Cup
/ 2 years agoGeorgia happy to be joining the party
The Challenge Cup is being used to widen boundaries. A Georgian side, Black Lion which will play its home matches in...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoBaxter’s right to call for the return of ‘traditional’ scrum
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME LAST week in almost all of the articles that I read, national...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoTwenty years on and still looking good…
Brendan Gallagher looked on as England’s World Cup winners from 2003 got together recently WAISTLINES have expanded and hairlines receded while...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoLaporte & Co hit the panic button
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN A week after ripping out their coaching set-up and employing an Etch-a-Sketch style reset to their season,...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoFearing players going abroad is a false storm
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK WORLD Cups provide rugby union with an opportunity to reset, and the actions taken...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years ago20 years on and little to give us any real hope
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THIS week saw the 20th anniversary celebrations of the 2003 England squad winning...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoOur starting XV for 2027
NICK CAIN An England team for the 2027 World Cup is a long shot which would leave most snipers well wide...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoDupont deserves to be on Olympic stage
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED There are exceptions to the general rule – the best three-minute pop songs, James Joyce’s stories in...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoWithout any mystery, it’s barely a game at all
Here's a brain-teaser for you: why do so many techno-wizards at the cutting edge of “artificial intelligence” seem to be missing...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoDay Wales played a game of four halves
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW It’s built beneath the mountain, beneath the coal and clay, It’s where we...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoShaw stood the test of time
When they come to rank the all-time great individual performances by British and Irish Lions, Simon Shaw’s in the forbidding temple...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoCockerill off to the guillotine
When it comes to sacking those in charge of losing teams, French rugby has beaten English football to the punch. While...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoA game in desperate need of some answers
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points IF THERE is one thing I have learned...
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Paul Rees
/ 2 years agoSet-pieces which make the difference
Paul Rees canvasses expert opinion on how scrums and lineouts can separate the two codes of rugby Last month, World Rugby...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoCourt case that could define game’s future
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME AS WE approach what could be a defining moment in the future...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoCockerill goes out, Collazo comes in
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN TIME was very firmly called on Richard Cockerill’s brief run as Montpellier manager six days ago, after...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoRussell has the mastery to push Bath to the top
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK Finn Russell is, with out a doubt, an ultra talented fly-half and the Scot...
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English Championship
/ 2 years agoWelfare of rugby in England is at stake
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The Championship clubs are standing up to be counted by sticking an iron...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoThe Tank who is adding weight to Bath’s attack
Thomas du Toit may not have featured in as many headlines as Finn Russell, but the South African prop has been...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoWe can’t afford a weak Six Nations
There was a ray of sunshine for the Lions this week when their preparations for the 2025 tour of Australia were...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoLaunchbury can make Borthwick think again
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED SIMON Shaw mastered a wide range of rugby’s arts and sciences, but not even he could find...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoGood to see Phil pick up whistle
So Phil de Glanville, an England captain in his prime and a smooth-operating sports administrator in the years since, has reached...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoThe day that Jonah paid his £3 to play
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Aberavon Naval Rugby Football Club exists in name only, an enduring exercise in...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoWRU braced for another rough ride
The Welsh Rugby Union will be braced for another rough ride today, its annual meeting coming hot on the heels of...
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Features
/ 2 years agoScottish genie turning on the magic at Bath
Paul Rees looks at Finn Russell, the big-money signing who is making a name for himself in the West Country Big-name...
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Features
/ 2 years agoUnassuming Charlie, the water carrier
One of the attractions of rugby union is that it is a game which provides a refuge for the likes of...
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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...
Autumn Internationals
What is the Nations Championship? Format, fixtures and how rugby’s new tournament works
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