Nick Cain
News By Nick Cain
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Columnists
/ 4 days agoNick Cain: England’s direction of travel still unclear
Nick Cain believes England’s summer ended with encouraging signs, but says Steve Borthwick still has major questions to answer over discipline,...
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Columnists
/ 2 weeks agoNick Cain: England boss Steve Borthwick must sort out his back row now
Nick Cain says Steve Borthwick must stop delaying the big selection calls, insisting Henry Pollock deserves the No.7 shirt and urging...
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Columnists
/ 3 weeks agoNick Cain: Tommy Freeman deserves a decent run at 13 for England
Nick Cain argues England must stick with Tommy Freeman at outside centre, insisting Steve Borthwick’s stop-start handling of the Northampton Saints...
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Columnists
/ 3 weeks agoBubble of unreality threatens England
SOMETIMES being in a backs-to-the-wall bubble can work for a team under pressure, but at other times ‘group-think’ can become an...
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Autumn Internationals
/ 4 weeks agoSouth Africa 45-21 England: Steve Borthwick under mounting pressure after Springboks run riot
Steve Borthwick’s reign as England coach is teetering on the brink after they crashed to a seven tries to three defeat...
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Miscellaneous
/ 4 weeks agoNick Cain: Nations Championship gets off to a humdinger of a start
The Nations Championship naysayers – and there is an army of them – should take a look at the competition’s inaugural...
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Columnists
/ 1 month agoNick Cain: England still making the same mistakes
Nick Cain says England’s drab defeat to France exposed the same flaws that derailed their Six Nations campaign, leaving Steve Borthwick...
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoNick Cain: ‘Project Shaun Edwards’ must be activated
In the last week, in the absence of any formal statement from the French Federation de Rugby (FFR), or France head...
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoNick Cain: Super Northampton Saints at their swashbuckling best
Justice was done at a packed Franklin’s Gardens on Friday night when Northampton, the best team in the league over the...
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoNick Cain: Afo Fasogbon deserves to be in Steve Borthwick’s England squad
Afo Fasogbon’s omission from the England training squad for this summer’s Nations Cup is a glaring oversight in an era in...
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoNick Cain: England are unbalanced – both on and off the field
Steve Borthwick’s England squads get stranger by the minute, whether you are looking at player selection, or that of his coaching...
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Columnists
/ 2 months agoNick Cain: Saints expose case for defence of van Rensburg
The integrity of the Prem as a league capable of producing international quality players took a battering when Northampton humiliated Bristol...
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Columnists
/ 3 months agoNick Cain: Detailed? Robust? No… It’s a farcical non-review
The RFU’s review into England’s 2026 Six Nations nosedive was a whitewash that told the English rugby public, and the media,...
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Columnists
/ 3 months agoNick Cain: Aussies musn’t waste the Lions windfall
The Lions have bailed-out Australian rugby again, with the hugely profitable 2025 tour by the British & Irish outfit last summer...
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Club Rugby
/ 3 months agoRFU leadership shell-shocked after vote of no-confidence
The Rugby Football Union leadership received a resounding vote of no-confidence in its resolutions to change the RFU’s democratic structure at...
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Columnists
/ 3 months agoNick Cain: Seismic defeat at Twickenham shows RFU Board not fit for purpose
The RFU Board suffered a seismic SGM defeat at Twickenham on Friday night of such magnitude that it is hard to...
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Columnists
/ 3 months agoNick Cain: Bill Sweeney’s presiding over a house divided
Getting administrative wires in a tangle seems to have been an RFU default position during Bill Sweeney’s six-year tenure as chief...
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Columnists
/ 3 months agoNick Cain: When it comes to self-harm, rugby union’s in a league of its own
Anyone in doubt about the magical properties promotion-relegation can have in galvanising a sport need look no further than the sensational...
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Columnists
/ 4 months agoNick Cain: Harlequins lacking the launchpad George Furbank needs
George Furbank is a gem of an attacking full-back with the skills and elusive running to spark a backline.
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Columnists
/ 4 months agoNick Cain: At the top level, Northampton Saints’ young guns have a bit to learn
When the European Cup reaches the last eight thankfully it has shed the hangers-on who finish in the lower end of...
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Columnists
/ 4 months agoNick Cain: RFU should get Sir Clive Woodward back on board
When it comes to an understanding of what high-performance means, and the ability to implement it and create a world-beating team,...
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Latest News
/ 4 months agoSo why did Quins decide to fight?
RING-FENCE reality hit home last weekend with the recognition that with six regular season Premiership matches remaining the last third of...
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Columnists
/ 4 months agoNick Cain: RFU ‘whitewash’ is already under way
As a broadcast pundit, Chris Ashton provides many sharp insights on back play, but often, like many former internationals now in...
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Columnists
/ 4 months agoNick Cain: Resolute Thomas Ramos shows England how to do it
The only team to go backwards in the 2026 Six Nations was England. Where every other nation had something positive to...
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International Rugby
/ 5 months agoFrance 48-46 England: Steve Borthwick’s men go so close to stunning victory
England climbed their way out of an abyss in Paris last night to come within a whisker of scuppering France’s chances...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoNick Cain: England lead way in self-inflicted wounds
The fog of disinformation surrounding England since their landmark loss to Italy in Rome last weekend reflected a group unwilling to...
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International Rugby
/ 5 months agoEngland 21-42 Ireland: Red Rose dreams are shattered as the Irish power to record win
Woeful England have fallen so far so fast in eight days that their dreams of being a force in Six Nations...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoNick Cain: England boss Steve Borthwick missed his Henry Pollock chance
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and it is a saying coaches tend to lean on when it all goes wrong and...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoNick Cain: Rifts widen as franchise plan set to go ahead
Attempts by Premiership club owners, and the RFU executive, headed by Bill Sweeney, to bounce English club rugby into an American...
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International Rugby
/ 5 months agoScotland 31-20 England: The English left for dead by the storming Scots in Six Nations clash
Grand Slam no more. The Murrayfield hoodoo has struck again, as Scotland, the bogey team that have haunted England throughout Gregor...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoNick Cain: Save our scrums! Refs must do their jobs
There was a snapshot from the second to fourth minutes of the opening match of the Six Nations between France and...
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Columnists
/ 5 months agoNick Cain: Wallabies are on a National Rugby League recruitment drive
The Wallabies are doing a counter-attack raid on rugby league Down Under ahead of the 2027 World Cup which could see...
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International Rugby
/ 6 months agoEngland 48-7 Wales: Henry Arundell hat-trick sparks Red Rose Six Nations romp
Henry Arundell answered Steve Borthwick’s clarion call for England to go for Six Nations gold with a first-half hat-trick, which saw...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: The Doyen, in whose shadow we all stand
There was a Grand Canyon of a gap in the ranks of the rugby union writers assembled at Twickenham to report...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: Slam these adverts into touch before it’s too late
France were in devastating form against Ireland in Paris on Thursday night, but there was a potentially more devastating force at...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: We don’t want these front row giants
It is dire news when a player is forced to retire due to health issues, as happened last week when France’s...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: England must ditch the hype and make history
The Six Nations decision to play this season’s tournament opener between reigning champions France and Ireland in Paris on Thursday evening...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: The Grand Slam is within reach for England
Steve Borthwick’s ship is steady as she goes as England focus on winning a Six Nations Grand Slam for the first...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: Mark McCall’s record is tough to beat
Mark McCall’s decision to step down as Saracens director of rugby after this season will be the end of a 15-year...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: Scott ‘Razor’ Robertson fails to produce a cutting-edge strategy
Scott Robertson’s ‘windmill’ spin breakdancing celebrations were shelved during his tenure as All Blacks head coach.
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Columnists
/ 7 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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Columnists
/ 7 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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Columnists
/ 7 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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Columnists
/ 8 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
/ 8 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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Columnists
/ 8 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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Columnists
/ 8 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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Autumn Internationals
/ 9 months agoEngland 33-19 New Zealand: Steve Borthwick’s side steamroll jaded All Blacks
There was smoke over Twickenham yesterday evening – black smoke – after an on-fire England team achieved one the rarest of...
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Columnists
/ 9 months agoNick Cain: England A team just not up to the job
The Rec was packed with 14,500 Red Rose fans last Saturday, England A were on home turf, and the second-string All...
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Autumn Internationals
/ 9 months agoEngland 38-18 Fiji: Battling Fijians give Steve Borthwick’s side plenty to work on
By the time Maro Itoje dived over the top of the tiring Fijian forwards from close range to score England’s sixth...
Club Rugby
Mike Tindall: R360 will transform our game
Autumn Internationals
England accused of ‘lack of respect’ by Argentina coach Felipe Contepomi
Club Rugby
Mike Tindall: R360 will transform our game
Autumn Internationals
Fin Smith admits England must solve discipline issues
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