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Features
/ 3 years agoNorth and south set for global showdown
Paul Rees considers the implications of a biennial 12-team international tournament due to begin in 2026 It has taken years to...
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Peter Jackson
/ 3 years agoWales pull another one from nowhere
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW When it comes to finding players from anywhere and nowhere for World Cups,...
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Peter Jackson
/ 3 years agoCripps, the hard man overlooked by Big Five
PETER JACKSON Brandon Cripps earned his stripes in the twice-weekly mayhem of the Welsh club scene during an era when more...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoYoung stars need more room to grow
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER A fascinating Junior World Cup has reached the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoThe day Jonny saved his best until the final play of the game
Brendan Gallagher looks back at the players who shone on the biggest stage Johnno or Jonny? Who was the iconic English...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoWhen Johnno’s Dad’s Army had one last hurrah
There are those, and I would be one, who still consider RWC2003 the best run and most enjoyable tournament to date...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 3 years agoWe trained for hours in baking sun – then lost!
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME As England ramp up their preparation for this year’s Rugby World Cup,...
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James Harrington
/ 3 years ago90 players in search of a new club
JAMES HARRINGTON | FRENCH COLUMN What links 16 props, 12 hookers, 10 second rows, 15 back rowers, 13 scrum-halves, 11 wingers,...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 3 years agoYou write off the All Blacks at your peril
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK Before this edition of the Rugby Championship, people have been writing off New Zealand,...
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Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoBattle lines drawn over game’s future
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK HALLELUJAH! The English Championship clubs have finally got their act together to form...
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Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoVeterans not the answer at No.9
NICK CAIN The selection call by Steve Borthwick to pick two veteran scrumhalves, Ben Youngs and Danny Care, in his 41-man...
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Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoTime to balance a weighty problem
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST ACLEVER man once predicted that progress would eventually turn out to be a circle rather than a...
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Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoThere’s more woe from the Smiths
Rugby's optimists – and there are still some of you out there, just as there are people who continue to think...
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Shane Williams
/ 3 years agoTorture of the ice age gave us faith
SHANE WILLIAMS WALES AND LIONS LEGEND DON’T tell me or any of the boys from 2011 that the players in the...
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Features
/ 3 years agoTake it to the limit one more time
Paul Rees says the heat will be on for England and Wales as the training ramps up It is boot camp...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoGreat to see Dupont going for Paris gold
RUGBY MATTERS – BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points Rather overlooked during a hectic end of...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoPride clear to see at London Irish
Well that didn’t take long. No sooner had we mentioned in this column and elsewhere that London Irish were looking to...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoWe need more diversity at the top
At the time of writing World Rugby boasts 132 members and affiliate nations and at the forthcoming World Cup nine of...
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Peter Jackson
/ 3 years agoRecalling when all roads led to the sea
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW As any half-decent student of European history knows, the first Russian Revolution of...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoJohn Eales, the quiet man who became an inspiring skipper
Brendan Gallagher looks back at the players who shone on the biggest stage, this time focusing on John Eales' leadership in...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoLamaison brought the house down
The 1999 World Cup was a curate’s egg of a tournament, combining the crass with the truly historic. This was the...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 3 years agoRFU needs to strike the right financial balance
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME EARLIER this week, the RFU president Nigel Gillingham, sent out a newsletter...
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James Harrington
/ 3 years agoBiarritz are left sweating on future
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN By the time you read this, ProD2 side Biarritz were supposed to be under new management after...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 3 years agoSteward’s aerial skills can power England on
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK FREDDIE Steward has had a big impact for England at full-back since he made...
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Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoEngland’s Bath bias difficult to justify
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK IF England international selection is meant to be a meritocracy it is hard...
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Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoTime for Blackett to seize his chance
JEFF Blackett gave a valedictory interview this week which beggared belief. The retiring RFU Council grandee, who was President for two...
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Chris Hewett
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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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