News By Brendan Gallagher
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 8 years agoBrendan Gallagher: So why has rugby just gone north in the North?
Sale entertain Newcastle on Friday night in the big northern derby – or the Sharks play the Falcons if you prefer...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 8 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Will All Blacks be fresh to go again?
New Zealand have lost only two of their 27 Rugby Championship matches to date – there was also a draw against...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 8 years agoBrendan Gallagher looks back at 150 years of Wasps history
Wasps’ 150th anniversary season isn’t five minutes old and already they have one trophy in the Cabinet having retained their Premiership...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher previews the Women’s World Cup
The memory of 2014 in France might still be fresh with us but women’s rugby has moved on apace and, a...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: England have only two world class players in their squad
This week heralds the announcement of the 45- strong England EPS squad and it feels like a big staging post, the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: As the pressure ramped up, so cool Gatland kept his nerve
This Test was not only a compelling thriller which instantly claims its place in Lions folklore but a game which neatly...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher’s all-time All Blacks Maori XV
1. Billy Bush – William Kingita Te Pohe to give the Napier and Canterbury prop his full name. Wild looking, heavily...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher picks his all-time Lions XV
15. JPR Williams Ever present in 1971 and 1974 and a player who took the fight to the ‘enemy’ more than...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Exeter prove patience can be greatest virtue
It was Leo Tolstoy – who doesn’t offer appear on the sports pages – who once remarked that the two most...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Premiership final promises to be an absolute cracker
So after 22 rounds and two pulsating skin-of-your- teeth semis Wasps will play Exeter in the Aviva Premiership Final in a...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Chiefs to beat Saracens but Wasps for title
There’s no guarantee a cracking regular season will produce two semi-final play-offs to remember next weekend but, frankly, it will be...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: We’re going to miss you Ashton, try scoring ace
No one individual ever wins a match for Saracens, it’s not how they go about their work, but it was slightly...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Crusading Clermont are closing in on their Holy Grail
It possibly won’t surprise you that Clermont – who took 99 years to land their first French Championship and who are...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Scots unlucky that Twickenham defeat was not considered a blip
My heart sunk a little for the Scots on Wednesday when John Spencer read out the 41- strong Lions squad and...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Willie wasn’t a wonker – he just got it wrong
Don’t blame Willie Le Roux or Danny Cipriani for that matter. Wasps‘ humbling defeat at Leinster went much deeper than an...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher remembers the 1993 Lions tour
The last truly amateur tour in Lions history ended up as just about the perfect metaphor of everything that had preceded...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Eurostars who can earn chance to make a late check-in for the Lions
European Cup quarter-final weekend is right up there with the very best rugby weekends of the season but doubly so this...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher’s Team of the Six Nations
15. Stuart Hogg (Scotland): One of few modern players with genuine x-factor. A try scorer and provider. Rob Kearney was in...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Good riddance to record run, now Eddie can experiment
It had to happen – and in fact you could argue it might have been better for England if France had...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher on the famous Lions bolters
As far as I can determine the term “bolter” was originally an Australian equine expression used to describe a horse that...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher remembers the 1977 Lions tour
History has not been kind to the 1977 Lions and, coming after the triumphs of 1971 and 1974, they were, perhaps,...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Joost was a joy to watch and an utter nightmare to play against
Rarely, if ever, have the sporting gods given so abundantly before retracting their favours so suddenly and without sentiment. To see...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Play Itoje and Daly in their natural positions
Sometimes we can get carried away and expect too much from out young players with their extravagant talents encouraging us to...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Payback as Lions bare their teeth in New Zealand
Only those of a certain age can fully appreciate the excitement, and sheer disbelief, as news filtered back in the summer...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher previews the last two rounds of the Champions Cup
The European Champions Cup – which will forever remain the ‘Heineken’ for those of a certain age – can sparkle at...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher’s ten to watch in 2017
Ardie Savea, above: Outrageously gifted All Blacks flanker and younger brother of Julian. Combines at bit of Michael Jones and Jerry Collins....
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Fasten your seatbelts for a rip-roaring 2017
The great thing about the New Year, for the rugbyhead anyway, is that everything seems to accelerate after January 1. The...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Germans are defying odds to climb up the rankings
So suddenly Germany are ranked 23rd in the world, hard on the heels of recent World Cup qualifiers Namibia and Uruguay...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Lamentable affair which left the Lions in doldrums
From the outside looking in, the 1966 Lions visit to New Zealand seems like a calamitous affair. A first ever Test...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Yes, I have to admit it, England do have momentum right now
For many years I hated the word momentum, used in a rugby context, and tied myself in knots avoiding it –...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: England roll on but battle-weary Pumas need rest
A gritty, invaluable win by 14-man England against a Pumas side who finish 2016 punch drunk and dispirited after a year...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Launchbury gives England a world-class look at lock
The record books will point to a very significant historic win – England’s first over the Boks for ten years –...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Are China ready to rush through the open door?
Will Rugby ever crack China or indeed vice versa? I ask that question again in light of the rather startling announcement...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher on a 30-day 46-test global spectacular
There was a time when rugby fans looked forward eagerly to THE annual November international, the big match between the touring...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Look away now unless you can think back to England beating South Africa…
England have been playing international rugby for 145 years and there have been a few bad trots over the decades against...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher – Who would earn place in Steve Hansen’s Invincibles?
If New Zealand beat Australia in Auckland on Saturday – and they haven’t lost at Eden Park against anybody for 22...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher takes a look at the 1930 tour to New Zealand
In many ways the 1930 Lions tour epitomised everything we have grown to love, and occasionally curse, about the trips down...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Beware the All Blacks ‘in transition’
It seems barely five minutes ago that the Rugby Championship was first mooted and then established and now here we are...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 9 years agoBrendan Gallagher remembers the 1908 Lions who halted the rise of Rugby League
The 1908 ‘Lions‘ tour of New Zealand was, at first glance, a miserable failure with humiliating drubbings in two of the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher catches up with Italy boss Conor O’Shea
Conor O’Shea has been moving house this week and barring ferry delays, French customs getting moody and removal vans getting lost...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher: Built on sand, but Fiji’s Olympics bid will be rock solid
When it comes to stand-out Olympic performances, David Hemery’s 400m hurdles gold for Great Britain in 1968 is right up there...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher: The All Black tour that left Olympics in chaos
It’s 40 years pretty much to the day that a rugby tour wreaked havoc with the 1976 Montreal Olympics, a financially...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher looks back at Harlequins’ 150th history
What’s in a shirt? Harlequins launched their special 150th anniversary 1st XV shirt last week and the famous quartered colours remain...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher remembers the Battle of the Somme
Today we are commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme which history has generally condemned as the greatest...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher verdict: Thanks to Saracens, Eddie has turned England into natural-born winners
The thing about winning, like any addiction, is that you can’t live without it. You can’t function properly without that regular...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher verdict: Eddie’s made England box-office again
There was a moment early in the game yesterday – the 12th minute to be precise – when you knew for...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher column: For first Lions, cash not glory was top of bill
Whisper it quietly but the first Lions tour to New Zealand in 1888, which took in Australia as well, was all...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher verdict: England claim redemption
Never underestimate the power of redemption and the urgent bloody-minded need to prove yourself right and the other buggar wrong. It’s...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher on Italy and Scotland’s summer scrutiny
Most eyes will inevitably be looking south this summer with England, Wales and Ireland going head to head with the Southern...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher looks back at the career of Imanol Harinordoquy
So it’s farewell to Imanol Harinordoquy who will be an ex-rugby player by the end of the month, perhaps sooner. His...












