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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoLaw-tinkerers are a danger to the game
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST THE odds on Owen Farrell travelling to the World Cup as England’s starting No.10 are even shorter...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoA new trophy, same old tricks …
CHRIS HEWETT It is one thing for a populist Prime Minister to ride a wave of duplicity before crashing head-first into...
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Features
/ 2 years agoFading myth of invincibility
As the World Cup approaches, Paul Rees reports on why the All Blacks need to hit the ground running For the...
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Features
/ 2 years agoPlayers discuss stresses of life
The times they are indeed changing. It was not so long ago that if a player used the services of a...
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Shane Williams
/ 2 years agoWhy this merger just might be the way to go
SHANE WILLIAMS WALES AND LIONS LEGEND Another week in Welsh rugby and another potential drama emerges. They always say the close...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoEligibility rules are cause for concern
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER These newish eligibility regulations are still open to...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoHoping a phoenix can rise from the ashes…
The London Irish story has taken a horrible, cruel, turn recently but remains an extraordinary tale worth telling and in the...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoFamiliar faces find some new identities
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Nine New Zealanders, four Australians, a goalkicking Irishman and an English prop are...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoLimited by a flawed structure
Back in those blessed years when the Heineken Cup often delivered matches of greater passion and technical skill than the Six...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoSensational Jonah, the game’s first global star
Brendan Gallagher looks back at the players who shone on the biggest stage, this time he goes back to 1995 and...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoMandela inspires rainbow nation
The 1995 World Cup is a multi stranded story we never tire of. Nelson Mandela, elected at South Africa’s first President...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoBlackett’s blueprint deserves attention
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME Jeff Blackett is not a name that will spring to mind if...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoTeam of the season is packed with brilliance
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN The 2022/23 Top 14 season is done. Toulouse are champions for the 22nd time, after pipping ambitious...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoSpencer’s the man to fire up England
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK STEVE Borthwick’s ability to get the best out of the best scrum-half in England...
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Champions Cup
/ 2 years agoFrom European Cup honour to Eurotrash
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The European Cup is sinking thanks to the tinkering of EPCR and its...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoCrowley’s quick exit was not deserved
NICK CAIN The most discordant note struck in the international game this week was Kieran Crowley’s axing by Italy. Crowley’s contribution...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoSo, who is set to fly in under the radar?
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST Remember Jean-Marc Doussain’s international debut for France? Probably not. The poor bloke would happily forget it himself,...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoWood is just the man to talk sense
It would be stretching a point to suggest that Tom Wood, the brick-hard Northampton flanker who won a half-century of caps...
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Shane Williams
/ 2 years agoLet’s hope our new big hitter has a big impact
SHANE WILLIAMS WALES AND LIONS LEGEND Among the many social media comments on the appointment of Richard Collier-Keywood as the new...
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Paul Rees
/ 2 years agoBorthwick has it all to play for
Paul Rees considers the head coach's options as he prepares to name his World Cup squad on August 7 England may...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoWho will be next on the production line?
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER The Junior World Cup makes a welcome return after a four-year hiatus next week down in South...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoSamoan underdogs and an Australian masterclass stole the show in ’91
The Rugby World Cup really started to hit its stride in 1991, scaling up from the inaugural event in 1987 in...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoMullen is so sorry to see his club fall
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW BRIAN Mullen has spent his working life helping a multitude of people keep...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoIreland fears are building for Sexton
Four weeks after the event, European Club Rugby is still investigating Johnny Sexton’s confrontation with all three match officials at the...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoA legend, a team-mate and great, great friend
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME SOMETIMES it’s easy to write about the passing of a great sportsman...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoGarbajosa joins list of axed coaches
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN It has been a busy week in various corridors of power in French rugby – with, in...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoNo more excuses: Time to get serious, England
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE… EVERY WEEK AS soon as Steve Borthwick got the England head coach job he will have...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoHe’s quite some man, that Emery…
David Emery 1946-2023 Peter Jackson looks back on the life and times of a giant in the world of sport and...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoArrival of novice advisers is cause for grave concern
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK There could not have been a bigger catalyst for change at Twickenham than...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoYour chance to join the (£55,000) culture club
NICK CAIN The RFU’s failure to put in a robust, stringent regulatory framework has led to three Premiership clubs going bust...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoWhen the collective carries all before it
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST Dings Crusaders? Crazy name, cracking club. One of the oldest and most successful of the dozens of...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoTongans have a plan for Ireland
CHRIS HEWETT Interesting rumblings from down Tonga way, where Toutai Kefu, the magnificent Wallaby No.8 who rumbled all the way to...
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Features
/ 2 years agoToo many promises, too little scrutiny
After London Irish became the third club casualty of a brutal season, Paul Rees considers what might happen next If thoughts...
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Features
/ 2 years agoSafety first as red cards rise to an all-time high
Peter Jackson finds that only Ireland kept on the right side of every referee as the game gets to grips with...
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Rugby World Cup
/ 2 years agoCrusaders give Gats a blueprint to beat Fiji
SHANE WILLIAMS WALES AND LIONS LEGEND Thank you, Scott Robertson and your Crusaders players for showing Wales the way to beat...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoTop Cat happy to recall the glory days
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW THE only man to captain Wales, coach Wales, select Wales, manage Wales, and...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoThere’s no stopping Ramos
PETER JACKSON Thomas Ramos is en route to finishing the season 100 or so points clear of his nearest challenger across...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoAfter this, Prince Harry could be calling AWJ
PETER JACKSON Alun Wyn Jones continues to treat ‘the media’ with such contempt that it may be but a matter of...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoWhen Kirk took the All Blacks right to the top of the world
Brendan Gallagher begins a series on the star man at each global gathering Being the first in anything often confers iconic...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoHow a boat trip on the Seine swung the vote
The IRB took the momentous decision to stage a first World Cup in March 1985 in strange circumstances. Prior to their...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoWe must find a way to stop vicious spiral
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Heaven knows The Rugby Paper has been warning...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoWhen I needed a helping hand…
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER You could fill a noisy bar with the journalists past and present queuing to buy David Emery...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoGame is spending above its means
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME Just as we all thought it couldn’t get any worse now the...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoTop two get set to put on the glitz
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN It's the final the Top 14 wanted and needed. Toulouse and La Rochelle – the two best...
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Peter Jackson
/ 3 years agoFollowing famous footsteps
PETER JACKSON When he lived in one of London’s swishest hotels at the height of his trans-Atlantic stardom, Richard Harris made...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 3 years agoHard to see who can catch Saracens
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK It's hard to predict whether this will be the start of a period of...
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Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoTime to call up X-factor reserves
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Where can Steve Borthwick find the X-factor players to take England back to...
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Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoToo many young players rejected too soon
Georgia's U20 victory over England is an example of one country making the most of their resources, while the other is...
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Features
/ 3 years agoHelping to develop the best referees
Paul Rees talks to Chris White about the specialist programme which has trained some of the top refs in world rugby...
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Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoTime we got round to telling full story
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST "No story lives unless someone wants to listen.” So said J KRowling, who knows a thing or...
Features
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