The Twickenham suits are also not averse to turning a blind eye when a conflict-of-interests is involved. Perhaps the RFU’s performance director, Conor O’Shea, can […]
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED According to an article on the American website “Psychology Today”, there is scientific evidence to suggest that dogs not only look […]
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN The afternoon after the Friday-night chastening Six Nations defeat in Marseille before, a subdued French rugby audience tuned in to the […]
NICK CAIN The Championship clubs appear to be in no mood for turning, typified by their stand-off with an RFU bureaucracy headed by chief executive […]
PETER JACKSON Throughout his distinguished career for Wales and the Lions as the finest hooker of his generation, Bryn Meredith, right, never once got the […]
RUGBY MATTERS I don’t know about you but it’s occasionally been a bit of a torture watching Owen Farrell struggle with himself ever since England’s […]
Dafydd Jenkins’ yellow card last week for Exeter against Bayonne has caused much debate with most people agreeing that is was almost physically impossible for […]
JAMES HARRINGTON In a league featuring the likes of Racing 92 and Toulouse, Toulon and La Rochelle, Bordeaux and Stade Francais, there’s a ‘big match’ […]
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE… EVERY WEEK ONE of the biggest talking points of Steve Borthwick’s 2024 Six Nations squad is the selection of Jamie […]
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK STEVE Borthwick talked of England “turning a corner” when he announced his preliminary England squad of 36 […]
WHEN it comes to competition for places the appointment of Gloucester’s George Skivington and Dom Waldouck as England ‘A’ coaches for the match against Portugal’s […]
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED HERE’S a little brain-teaser, just to make sure you’ve been paying attention at the back of the class: since 2014, when […]
No one ever accused Louis Rees-Zammit of “training like Tarzan and playing like Jane”, to excavate a funny one-liner from the dim and distant past, […]
The international merry-go-round continues. After the best part of a decade of striving for England honours Exeter Chiefs prop Alec Hepburn has suddenly decided he […]
Louis Rees-Zammit and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso share more than an X-factor ability and a double-barrelled surname. They grew up a year or so apart in the […]
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN An email drop and social media flurry confirmed the line-up of France’s 34-player training squad for the Six Nations, which kicks […]
NICK CAIN Northampton are playing attacking rugby which combines skill, speed, flair, and precision, and their hammering of Bayonne on Friday night at Franklin’s Gardens […]
Iain Sharpe makes some excellent points (Letters, Jan 7) in taking issue with views on the RFU’s second-tier revamp expressed in this column at the […]
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE… EVERY WEEK REDUCING the number of tactical substitutes is something I’ve wanted for a long time, and it’s great that […]