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Columnists
/ 5 months agoJeremy Guscott: Mark McCall’s challenge – to create another dynasty
We don’t often hear Mark McCall making comments about a lack of “attitude and application” in the Saracens squad, and especially...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoNick Cain: One area where Ealing Trailfinders leave Bath in the shade
You have got to admire Ealing Trailfinders. The staying power that has seen them go 19 matches unbeaten in the Champ,...
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Chris Hewett
/ 5 months agoChris Hewett: Why we need to see more of referee Luke Pearce
Alfie Barbeary turned in an eye-catching performance as Bath squeaked their way past Exeter at a rapt Recreation Ground last weekend....
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoPeter Jackson: Wales head coach Steve Tandy is facing a mountainous task
The Welsh Rugby Annual of 1991 appeared in the form of a death notice, its front cover etched in a rectangle...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 5 months agoBrendan Gallagher: State school game is in good health
English rugby’s over-reliance on private schools has been cited by some – notably Eddie Jones – as an issue in recent...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 5 months agoWhen Balding raced home for Light Blues
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER IAN Balding, who died earlier this month aged 87, is of course best known as a legendary...
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Chris Hewett
/ 5 months agoChris Hewett: We must guard our friends in the north
There are a mere 320 miles of road separating Exeter from Newcastle, the geographical poles of top-flight rugby in England, and...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 5 months agoBrendan Gallagher: It’s no surprise Harlequins are finding the going tough
I’m surprised that so many people are surprised at Harlequins’ travails this season. It was always going to happen.
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoJeremy Guscott: Tommy Freeman adds to England’s options
The good news for England going into the New Year, and the 2026 Six Nations, is that their centre stocks are...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoNick Cain: England can bank on speed merchants
Speed could be England’s greatest asset as the Red Rose squad contemplate a New Year in which a Six Nations Grand...
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Chris Hewett
/ 5 months agoBut you’re part of the problem, Beirne
CHRIS HEWETT TADHG Beirne is one of the quiet marvels of the rugby age, so it is worth listening especially hard...
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Latest News
/ 5 months agoPeter Jackson: Weird and wonderful in my New Year’s honours
What with Reggie Rabbit playing up in Australia, a dog called Dougal eating a New Zealand passport, Major League franchises vanishing...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 5 months agoThe WRU missed a trick with Morris
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER TALKING of sliding doors moments, I can’t help thinking that one of the many opportunities the WRU...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 5 months agoBrendan Gallagher: Fran Cotton recalls the ‘indestructible’ Tony Bond
Sport is full of sliding doors moments and that was certainly the case with former England centre Tony Bond, who died...
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Nick Cain
/ 5 months agoAre Chiefs in danger of going ‘Twang’?
NICK CAIN TONY Rowe has gone full circle. Exeter’s chairman and main backer was an ardent proponent of promotion-relegation when the...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoJeremy Guscott: The striking cobra Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is my star of 2025
When it comes to my highlights of 2025, South Africa has to be at the top of the international list because...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoNick Cain: Without promotion we will all be losers
Top of my New Year’s wish-list for rugby union is for promotion and relegation to be restored as the cornerstone of...
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Chris Hewett
/ 5 months agoChris Hewett: Five reasons for us to cheer in the New Year
A Champions Cup so lacking in substance and purpose, it resembles a ghost searching for someone to haunt; a pre-shrunk Lions...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoPeter Jackson: Nations Cup suffers from travel sickness
England, Scotland and Wales may soon be on the receiving end of a gift more bounteous than most of those delivered...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 5 months agoBrendan Gallagher: Magnums all round in my all-star awards
A cycling mate of mine – award-winning journalist Daniel Friebe – annually ranks the sport’s three Grand Tours using emojis denoting...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoNick Cain: Now Ellie Kildunne needs to keep the flame burning bright
Ellie Kildunne’s popularity as the poster girl of the world champion England women’s team was confirmed this week when she was...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoJeremy Guscott: Wales busting a gut to get back in contention
Wales will recover as a competitive top-tier rugby nation, but the main question is when?
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoNick Cain: Referees must be told to cut out the forward pass
Here is a message to all the referees, assistant referees, and television match officials confirmed this week for the 2026 Six...
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Chris Hewett
/ 5 months agoChris Hewett: Time to restore some meaning in Europe
The ability to fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoPeter Jackson: Best in Wales setting up home in England
When Wales beat England 1-0 at The Racecourse during the final year of football’s annual Home International Championship, they did so...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 5 months agoBrendan Gallagher: Hollie Davidson leads by example
By any criteria, Hollie Davidson must currently rank as one of the three or four best referees in the game, with...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 5 months agoBrendan Gallagher: How you could rebuild an old but great empire
The last time I talked rugby with the late Eddie Butler was on The Rugby Paper podcast, not long after the...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoJeremy Guscott: Bath will need the big boys to shine
Bath have got a squad now which, when at full strength, and at home, can take on anyone, whether it’s in...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: This farce could rip the game to pieces
The longest-running farce in sport is the administration of club rugby union in England, with the RFU and the Prem club...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: Happier hunting ground for Prem clubs in Europe
The opening round of the European Cup was notable for far fewer complaints by Prem clubs that they are always on...
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Chris Hewett
/ 6 months agoChris Hewett: Glad we were spared Gianni Infantino’s sycophancy
Just for once, we must congratulate World Rugby on getting it right. Their staging of the pool draw for the next...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoPeter Jackson: The Big Brekky feeding the soul as well as body
On the filthiest of winter mornings last Tuesday, when the squalls rattled everybody and everything, the old boys from the glory...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoPeter Jackspn: You’ve still got a few more years to go yet, Leigh Halfpenny
Jimmy Gopperth went to within a fortnight or so of turning 42 when he finally ran out of road down in...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 6 months agoBrendan Gallagher: I fear the worst in Rugby World Cup mismatches
Rugby’s obsession with micro-management long ago became a disease, a sort of nervous disorder, and a full manifestation of this will...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoJeremy Guscott: England short of World XV starters
The 2027 Rugby World Cup draw held last week in Sydney produced a good result for England, mainly because Wales, their...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: Selection skills key to delivering big prizes for Steve Borthwick’s England
Where does England’s 4-0 Autumn Series success over southern hemisphere opposition leave them? The answer is having to take the next...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: Recruiting Benhard Janse van Rensburg sends out the wrong message
The decision by the RFU to petition World Rugby for Bristol’s South African-born-and-bred centre Benhard Janse van Rensburg to be granted...
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Chris Hewett
/ 6 months agoChris Hewett: Eben Etzebeth top billing in Springboks rogues’ gallery
Clint Eastwood knows a thing or two about cinema, but if anyone is to make a sequel to his Springbok-inspired Invictus...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoPeter Jackson: When Dafydd James asked ref to end the misery
When the roof caved in on Wales and their predicament cried out for someone to put a humane end to the...
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Features
/ 6 months agoPaul Rees: R360 threat can force change
Paul Rees on how the proposed breakaway league could revamp rugby amid increasing stresses on top players
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoKyran Bracken: Grand Slam has to be expectation, not hope for England
This England team is the closest thing we’ve had to the 2003 World Cup-winning side – and they should set their...
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Chris Hewett
/ 6 months agoChris Hewett: Key pieces might yet emerge for England chief Steve Borthwick
The World Cup is all that matters, right? Everything else is 50 shades of beige. If England’s second-string success in Argentina...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoPeter Jackson: Argentina left licking their wounds after double mugging
Tom Curry condemned Argentina to a gross injustice at Twickenham last weekend, one which subjected the victims to a grotesque double...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoPeter Jackson: Daan Human factor has made Springboks even deadlier
Forensic experts engaged on a week-long trawl through the ruins of the Irish pack would have found something more disturbing than...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 6 months agoBrendan Gallagher: Bravo referee Matt Carley for taking no nonsense
Of all the subjects that have irritated me in recent years – apart from the hardy annual of blatant forward passes...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoJeremy Guscott: It’s great to see England carving out a way to win
What impressed me most about England’s victory over New Zealand was the way that they stayed in it in the ebb-and-flow,...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: Don’t exaggerate the importance of bench too much
The eight-man bench is not an aspect of the pro game I support, and the lauding of England’s “Pom squad” as...
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Chris Hewett
/ 6 months agoChris Hewett: These Flying Fijians deserve place in sun
Few historians of the ancient world put it quite this way, but the Peloponnesian War was won off the bench.
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 6 months agoBrendan Gallagher: Awards season has its problems
It’s the awards season and time to issue my annual warning about the vaguely ridiculous nature of awards – remember that...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoPeter Jackson: And finally, George Ford puts his nemesis to the sword
During a rare moment of solitude since last weekend, George Ford might have found his mind drifting back to an ancient...
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