Nick Cain

Light Blues still attract a good crowd

11 December 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN While some Premiership clubs had been struggling to draw crowds of 4,000, the annual Cambridge University v Steele-Bodger’s XV at Grange Road last […]

Time for a parting of the ways is overdue

4 December 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The RFU has finally recognised that when Eddie Jones talked after defeat by South Africa in the […]

Start by getting it right in the front row

4 December 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN England’s priorities as Eddie Jones departs are to find an interim head coach, and to unearth a front row to provide a solid […]

Angry MPs censure ‘shambolic’ leadership

27 November 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK It would be reasonable to expect that, by the time RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney and his […]

Time for RFU to be more proactive

27 November 2022 1 comment

The RFU has a habit of letting the Twickenham grass grow under its feet for too long when it comes to working out England coaching […]

Johnson’s 2003 team better than Eddie’s lot

20 November 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK There are those who believe that today’s international players are bigger, better, faster, and more skilful than […]

England’s all-court game was not good enough

20 November 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN England showed great dignity – captain Sarah Hunter in particular – after being beaten 34-31 by New Zealand in a cliffhanger of a […]

Is RFU getting value for money? Not from Eddie

13 November 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK EDDIE Jones has become a millionaire courtesy of the RFU, for doing what is essentially a six-months-a-year […]

Time to stop petty gamesmanship

13 November 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN THE high-five cheerleading that breaks out every time a decision or penalty goes England’s way is a sure sign of a team that […]

Give some thought to Belize’s struggles

13 November 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN AS a recession looms, the World Rugby mandarins who jetted to New Zealand in first or business class for the Women’s World Cup […]

Looking to learn from tales of the unexpected

6 November 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK WHEN it comes to tales of the unexpected, Argentine rugby has few peers. It is reflected in […]

Puccio’s tragic life -Puma who died in jail

6 November 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN THERE is one story from Argentine rugby’s annals that is stranger and starker than any. It concerns Alejandro Puccio, the CASI and three-cap […]

Time for ruthless focus and an iron discipline

30 October 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The 2022 autumn series is within touching distance, and with it comes a ready-reckoner for Eddie Jones […]

England facing toughest test yet

30 October 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN England are the favourites to win the Women’s World Cup, but they will only be put to the acid test when the delayed […]

Ditch the skulduggery and dismantle the cartel

23 October 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The most critical element of any reorganisation of England’s professional club league structure is that we are […]

Waltzing Dempsey’s false step

23 October 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN Crash ball: Jack Dempsey playing for Australia against Fiji at 2019 World Cup PICTURE : Getty Images The last time I saw Jack […]

Spreading sense of anger and dislocation

16 October 2022 2 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK It was always odds-on that Lawrence Dallaglio’s recent calls for Premiership clubs to stand together collectively and […]

Pumas will have inside track on England

16 October 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN Argentina will know the England players they face at Twickenham three weeks from now better than any of the teams that Eddie Jones’ […]

Jones should focus on effective rugby

9 October 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE conundrum facing England, and especially head coach Eddie Jones, is whether the triesgalore basketball rugby being […]

RFU’s Past Presidents deserve respect

9 October 2022 2 comments

Having spent all its financial reserves, the RFU administration is cutting away like Sweeney Todd, and the latest to feel the blade are the venerable […]

Amnesia in rugby’s corridors of power

2 October 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Then there were 12. Less than a month into the new season, the demise of Worcester has […]

Protectionist policy that is killing the game

25 September 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The Premiership is crumbling like a house built on dodgy foundations. Worcester are in a state of […]

Why couldn’t we see Smith take on Farrell?

25 September 2022 0 comments

Nick Cain A Premiership that kills its own prime promotional opportunities, like preventing Marcus Smith from playing for Harlequins in a fly-half head-to-head with Saracens’ […]

Time for England to get Sevens game in order

18 September 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK There is no nation in the Rugby Union family that was not disrupted by Covid. However, while […]

£500m debt could bury 13-club cartel

11 September 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK If Premiership owners had made the same mistakes in the multi-million pound enterprises that put them on […]

Time for England to get act together

11 September 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK We are a year out from the 2023 World Cup – and three years into England “kicking […]

England’s Jersey trip leaves RFU all at sea

4 September 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK English club rugby has never been more in need of coherent, strong, farsighted leadership as it enters […]

Rising stars who give us reasons to be cheerful

21 August 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Peerless: England’s Freddie Steward scores against Australia PICTURE: Getty Images Now for the good news. The silver […]

Time to apply law on forward passes

21 August 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN The only blot on the landscape in last weekend’s Rugby Championship clashes was the continued tolerance for forward passes. It had an ironic […]

Jones blaming others for his own failings

14 August 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Eddie Jones pressed the class-war button this week with a blanket criticism of the public school contingent […]

We need the figures on schools

14 August 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN Before the 2015 World Cup, when most aspects of English rugby union looked rosy, the RFU launched a scheme called “2015 & Beyond […]

Best packs dominate

14 August 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN The pick of the forwards on show over the course of the season has underlined the primacy of the three best packs in […]

England lack thrust to get to destination

7 August 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK NEXT year will be the 20th anniversary of England’s single World Cup-winning campaign, and that great achievement […]

Nienaber has his team on right track

7 August 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN Consistent, coherent selection is a hallmark of the most successful teams at international level, and right now there is no-one who can match […]

So unfair that Ireland are on this path of pain

31 July 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Ireland have become the green giants of the game after doing what no home unions nation, or […]

Mayor ban highlights dangers of HGH

31 July 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN The four-year ban given to Chris Mayor (right), the former Sale, Northampton and Wasps centre, after the RFU charged him with attempting to […]

A veil of secrecy which keeps us all in the dark

17 July 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK There is a complete contradiction at the heart of the English Premiership having a salary cap at […]

Beware promises in the land of the free

10 July 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE USA may bill itself as “the land of the free, and the home of the brave” […]

Life in the front row is tough for Stuart

10 July 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN All Test props have to relish the head-to-head confrontations with their opposite number, and the chance physically and psychologically to put their team […]

We must protect this jewel in club rugby

3 July 2022 2 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is common-sense wisdom that should apply to the European Cup. […]

Funding plans for women just bizarre

3 July 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN The RFU revealed a bizarre £220 million 10-year plan for professional women’s rugby that appears to be based more on fantasy than on […]

England need to rewrite the script quickly

26 June 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The roll call for England’s three-Test tour of Australia reads as follows: two old guard rejects, eight […]

This merry-go-round is fraught with danger

19 June 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK BY the time Eddie Jones selected his England team to take on a formidable Frenchflavoured Barbarians side […]

Collier can help turn scrum into a weapon

19 June 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THIS is a testing time at tighthead, an England problem position which must be fixed before the […]

Write off Cheika’s Pumas at your peril

12 June 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK ARGENTINA under Michael Cheika will be as aware as Eddie Jones’ England of the opportunities to progress […]

Eddie beware! This beast holds all the keys

5 June 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK IN the last fortnight Eddie Jones and his England squad have had a rude awakening. The ‘future […]

France are the giants, Prem just sleeping

5 June 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN THE English Premiership has just been described as a “sleeping giant” of sport by Simon Massie-Taylor, its chief executive. He got the ‘sleeping’ […]

Sale Sharks centre Manu Tuilagi has pulled out of the England squad

Plan for life without Manu

5 June 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN MANU Tuilagi’s latest knee operation, which rules him out of England’s summer tour to Australia, shows just how precarious it is for Eddie […]