Nick Cain
All eyes on Diego Sarthou’s 10-a-side match as France vs England ‘Le Crunch’ gets creative
French rugby seems to be ahead of the curve at the moment, not least in putting innovation into practice rather than just talking about it. The...
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Columnists
/ 7 days 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
/ 2 weeks 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
/ 2 weeks 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
/ 3 weeks 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
/ 3 weeks 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 weeks 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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Columnists
/ 1 month 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
/ 1 month 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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Columnists
/ 2 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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Latest News
/ 2 months agoItaly’s scrum gave Ireland flying lesson
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK FRANCE, and England, will have to be on their mettle against an Italy...
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Columnists
/ 2 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
/ 2 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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Columnists
/ 3 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
/ 3 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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Columnists
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 3 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
/ 4 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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Columnists
/ 4 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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Nick Cain
/ 4 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
/ 4 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
/ 4 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
/ 4 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
/ 5 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
/ 5 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
/ 5 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
/ 5 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
/ 5 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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Columnists
/ 6 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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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: Fault-lines show cracks in the All Black armour
Jordie Barrett’s tour-ending ankle injury against Ireland in Chicago last weekend plays into the hands of an England team hunting their...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: Avoid the circus and keep strategy simple
We are told the bench is now the ‘swingometer’ that dictates who wins at international and top club level.
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: Believe it! All Blacks are there for the taking
New Zealand may not be the imperious double World Cup winners they were in 2015, but at the start of the...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoNick Cain: Luke Cowan-Dickie’s reprieve smacks of inconsistency
Luke Cowan-Dickie’s exoneration by an RFU disciplinary panel on Tuesday for a potentially dangerous high tackle on Tom Willis in last...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoNick Cain: Time for Maro Itoje & Co to take on the world
Maro Itoje scaled one of the most significant peaks in rugby union as a winning Lions captain this summer, but he...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoNick Cain: Absurd rule banning Jack Willis from England
The high esteem in which Jack Willis is held at his club Toulouse, in French rugby circles in general, and regularly...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoNick Cain: Great result but let’s stay ahead of pack
Congratulations to the England women’s team after winning the 2025 Women’s World Cup, and also going 33 matches undefeated during head...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoNick Cain: Sorry, Saracens, but you weren’t the first
The attempts by Saracens to rebrand themselves this week as “The Original Club of North London” extends poetic licence beyond the...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoNick Cain: Game facing fight to retain its integrity
The Filipo Daugunu try which gave Australia two losing bonus points against Argentina in Sydney last weekend crossed a red line...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoNick Cain: Four roaring Lions make my star-studded World XV
Two years out from the 2027 World Cup, at the midway point of the 2025 Rugby Championship, with the 2025 Lions...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoNick Cain: Steve Borthwick snared in unworkable fudge with new player welfare stipulation
If international rugby union is the “shop window of the game”, the part that fires the imaginations and ambitions of young...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoNick Cain: Two-team model in Welsh rugby has little chance of success
The precipice on which Welsh rugby is perched rests on two disastrous decisions made on either side of the Millennium which...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoNick Cain: Steve Borthwick must not select this Bristol Bok, Benhard Janse van Rensburg
Benhard Janse van Rensburg is as South African as “boerewors”, and the idea of the Bristol centre being picked by England,...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoNick Cain: Wallabies too slow to make most of Will Skelton
The 2025 Lions gave the Wallabies a long overdue wake-up call on the pitch, as well as doing them a favour...
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British and Irish Lions
/ 9 months agoNick Cain: Wallabies paid price for unprofessionalism during Lions Tour
The Lions are back on the winning trail, but the high stakes surrounding the 2025 tour, whether sporting or commercial, means...
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British and Irish Lions
/ 9 months agoNick Cain: No return to Australia for the Lions without legal guarantees
Should Australia get the Lions back in 12 years? The answer is that Rugby Australia would have to commit to a...
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