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Jeff Probyn
/ 3 years agoWR has made mess of how game is played
JEFF PROBYN With the season over and the Premiership finally decided, it would be good to look back and see what...
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James Harrington
/ 3 years agoKremer’s red gives Racing easy ride
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN Argentinian back-row Marcos Kremer’s last act for Stade Francais was to get sent off - for the...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 3 years agoBorthwick must pull off a minor miracle
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK Steve Hansen isn’t wrong when he says that the 2023 World Cup draw is...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoFarrell shows who’s the master
BRENDAN GALLAGHER It was billed as a titanic head-to-head between Owen Farrell and George Ford but in truth rugby, a game...
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Paul Rees
/ 3 years agoSanderson will know that better times are ahead
PAUL REES As Alex Sanderson reflected on what could have been after a Premiership final that yielded 60 points, Sale’s director...
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Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoStrewth, mate! Fast Eddie’s cash jackpot
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Eddie Jones returned to Twickenham this week as an RFU-made millionaire coach. Jones,...
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Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoDavid Emery honoured at rugby awards
David Emery is the reason that The Rugby Paper exists, and since its inception in September 2008 I have had the...
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Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoMasterful Skelton is the talk of the town
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST IF Simon Shaw of England was a 20-storey tower block of a lock blessed with penthouse levels...
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Chris Hewett
/ 3 years ago‘Chilling’ Nowell leaves us shivering
CHRIS HEWETT When a front-line England player tells his national coach that he is unavailable for World Cup duty – not...
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Paul Rees
/ 3 years agoIt’s time for real change in a game drowning in debt
Paul Rees looks back on a sobering season for the professional game in England and wonders what happens next The...
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British and Irish Lions
/ 3 years agoWe need more time to prepare the 2025 Lions
SHANE WILLIAMS WALES AND LIONS LEGEND I was fortunate enough to go on two tours with the British & Irish Lions...
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Peter Jackson
/ 3 years agoPutting the boot in – but not if it’s bright green …
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Tawera Kerr-Barlow’s fluorescent green boots, as worn when La Rochelle dared to give...
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Peter Jackson
/ 3 years agoAlarm as Europe just keeps getting smaller
Europe, as defined by European Professional Club Rugby, is in the process of shrinking almost as alarmingly as the English Premiership....
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Peter Jackson
/ 3 years agoO’Gara’s touch of Old Big ’Ead
On the face of it, Brian Clough and Ronan O’Gara do not appear to have much in common: different ball games,...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoIreland mustn’t copy this breakdown flaw
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER The tumultuous happenings in Dublin last week were...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoLet’s hope technology passes trial
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER Be careful for what you wish for! World Rugby are carrying out their promise to trial chip...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 3 years agoIt’s right that Wasps start again from the bottom
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME As I look at the Wasps saga, I can’t help thinking that...
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James Harrington
/ 3 years agoToulouse look set to take top spot
JAMES HARRINGTON Tonight, more than 24 hours after both the Premiership and URC celebrated their champions for the 2022/23 campaign, the...
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Peter Jackson
/ 3 years agoKerr-Barlow pines for Eddie
Tawera Kerr-Barlow, probably the second best scrum-half in the world behind you-know-who, would love to do the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 3 years agoSharks can give favourites a fright
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK Alex Sanderson is quality, and that is why he has managed to take Sale...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoLeinster finally pay the price for their cynicism
BRENDAN GALLAGHER Every journo is surely allowed one “told you so” moment in their career and mine arrived last night when...
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Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoRFU failed to enforce regulatory standards
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Nothing holds a mirror up to all that is wrong with the elite...
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Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoParisse and Ollivon sparkle
NICK CAIN Toulon's 43-19 European Challenge Cup victory over Glasgow was notable not just for the style in which the French...
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Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoNo debate, Hill has to be the Immortal No.6
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST UP, you could not make it. BT Sport, whose coverage of English club rugby has been close...
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Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoHow England could use that Limerick spirit
CHRIS HEWETT BACK in the dim and distant, when down-to-earth Munster were the side to beat in Ireland and hifalutin Leinster...
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Paul Rees
/ 3 years agoStage set for mind battle between old friends
Paul Rees previews the Premiership final Alex Sanderson is a two-club man. He spent the bulk of a playing career that...
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Shane Williams
/ 3 years agoWhen it’s your time to go, you just know
SHANE WILLIAMS WALES AND LIONS LEGEND Well, I didn’t see any of that coming! Two retirements within an hour of each...
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Peter Jackson
/ 3 years agoDallaglio’s turned into Nostradamus
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Of the 12 clubs to have won European rugby’s supreme prize, only one...
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Peter Jackson
/ 3 years agoToulouse’s homemade champions
The original champions of Europe could have put their collective feet up on Saturday knowing that neither contender in Dublin would...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoSharks deserve far more recognition
BRENDAN GALLAGHER Rugby has its favourites and we in the media are as guilty as any of promoting them above others...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoNew Zealand schools side in ’93 was the best ever
The greatest national schools team ever? That debate kicked off on Twitter recently and my mind immediately went back 30 years...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoRefs must demand immediate release
Another game, yet another big “jackal” injury, this time it was the unfortunate Ben Curry as he bent low to turnover...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 3 years agoIf Sale win it could be a real game-changer
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson was close to tears after...
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James Harrington
/ 3 years agoGalthie’s message of hope to top 100
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN Top 14 coaches, pundits and fans have had the calculators, slide rules and computer modelling programmes out...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 3 years agoLawrence bounces back from adversity
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK Most of the players who get awards are deserving, and I think that is...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoFazzball too much for Jekyll and Hyde team
BRENDAN GALLAGHER Saracens might still be searching for their European mojo but domestically they were in regal form Sunday as the...
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Nick Cain
/ 3 years agoEngland need to get it right at scrum time
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Steve Borthwick’s decisionion to raid Leicester for his latest scrum coach – and...
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English Championship
/ 3 years agoSecond tier clubs are ready to play tough
The Championship clubs have taken a long time to become a coherent collective voice for change – with promotion and relegation...
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Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoWhy Ojomoh could be in with a shout
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST SO Bath won the big one against Saracens Under-12s and secured their Champions Cup qualification at the...
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Chris Hewett
/ 3 years agoSmith has vision to see through the fog
Wayne Smith, who secured a place in the pantheon of great coaches long before his astonishing triumph with the Black Ferns...
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Shane Williams
/ 3 years agoFish is my kind of player – reliable and committed
SHANE WILLIAMS WALES AND LIONS LEGEND I WAS gutted when I read that Dan Fish is going to miss Cardiff ’s...
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Babcock Trophy
/ 3 years agoSorrowful shadow blights the game
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW FOR month after miserable month, Welsh rugby had been crying out for someone...
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Peter Jackson
/ 3 years agoWarriors gather for Coulman farewell
Old warriors from both sides of what used to be The Great Divide joined early on Monday afternoon to pay their...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoOn the clock: Who put the minutes in?
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER I’m indebted to stats guru Stuart Farmer who...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years agoLeinster turn out at the Aviva more often than Ireland
Much debate, some of it a tad heated, recently about the massive advantages real or perceived that Leinster enjoy over other...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 3 years ago60 years on…The tour with no jet lag
Sixty years go this week England embarked on their first ever overseas tour and it remains a splendid exercise in both...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 3 years agoToo many matches had no real meaning to them
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME Now, as we reflect and are drawing closer to the end of...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 3 years agoRFU Council still does far more than most people realise
There have been a few comments in the Press lately about how some professional players seem to think that the RFU...
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James Harrington
/ 3 years agoAll to play for in final days of the season
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN Top 14 coaches, pundits and fans have had the calculators, slide rules and computer modelling programmes out...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 3 years agoEngland look too confused in attack
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK It has been difficult to see how England want to attack since Steve Borthwick...
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