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English Gallagher Premiership
/ 2 years agoGloucester put faith in ‘some old heads’
By PAUL REES It was typical of Gloucester’s season – make that the last couple – that when they came up...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoMcCaw’s vision for harmony
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK If the current power struggle in New Zealand rugby intensifies, with the NZRPA...
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English Gallagher Premiership
/ 2 years agoOnly one full house in ‘greatest season’ finale
NICK CAIN Here's something for the RFU mandarins and Premiership owners who are hell-bent on keeping England’s top league ring-fenced to...
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Champions Cup
/ 2 years agoSorry, but that’s not all right, Jacques
A great European Cup final last weekend had only one blemish, when the limp attempt to tighten the rules around water-carriers...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoThen and now: It’s tough to compare
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Whenever the incomparable Antoine Dupont does the kind of things he did in dragging Toulouse over the...
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English Gallagher Premiership
/ 2 years agoTime to let Borthwick pick from the best
PAUL REES SAYS THE ENGLAND COACH SHOULD NOT BE LIMITED TO ONLY SELECTING PLAYERS WHO PLAY IN THE PREMIERSHIP England's preliminary...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoSorry, but we don’t need your cup, Wills
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Of all the trophies dreamt up for international matches over the last 20...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoDupont’s the best I’ve seen in pro era
There have been many landslide victories in sport but never one like Antoine Dupont’s in London last weekend, the most commanding...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoPink city deserves its place at the top
RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER - A weekly look at the game’s other talking points Anybody watching the crowd scenes in front...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoDowson’s right, let’s be more like French
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME In agreement: Mark McCall and, right, Phil Dowson PICTURES: Getty Images IT...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoGopperth misses out on top flight
FRENCH COLUMN By JAMES HARRINGTON Jimmy Gopperth won’t be the oldest-ever player to feature in the Top 14 next season after...
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Paul Rees
/ 2 years agoWe will have a full deck of cards next season – McKellar
By PAUL REES Leicester's dejection at finishing well short of the play-off positions was compounded by the sight of their fierce...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoBath and Saints to win – but only just
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK It's hard to see Northampton changing the way they’ve played all season when they...
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Paul Rees
/ 2 years agoOnce again, the French wizard calls the shots
PAUL REES Is there anything Antoine Dupont cannot do? Drop a goal with his left foot from his own half, perhaps?...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoGood to see the winners party like they meant it
BRENDAN GALLAGHER Well it was good to see the Sharks celebrate on Friday night like the European Challenge Cup really meant...
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English Gallagher Premiership
/ 2 years agoTry tsunami sends a mixed message
Peter Jackson looks at an increase in points scored but suggests the figures may be hiding a problem for the Premiership....
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Latest News
/ 2 years agoCollier fits the bill for NZ challenge
READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK England finished the Six Nations with a resurgence, but their next destination, New Zealand, is...
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British and Irish Lions
/ 2 years agoLawes still has Lions in his sights
Courtney Lawes was typically modest when he was presented with the Rugby Union Writers Club’s prestigious Pat Marshall Award as the...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoDiamond Dupont is surrounded by stars
Match-winning moments, men, and money is what sets Toulouse apart. Foremost among those men is Antoine Dupont, whose brilliance earned him...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoTalk of jeopardy is wide of the mark
THINKING ALLOWED It happened during the early stages of the 2003 World Cup in Australia, when two of the union game’s...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoTime for us to see some new thinking
Remember the elderly joke about the flight from Australia to New Zealand? “There’s a time difference between the two countries,” the...
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English Gallagher Premiership
/ 2 years agoFantastic four face final tests
PAUL REES LOOKS FORWARD TO THE PREMIERSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINALS: NORTHAMPTON v SARACENS AND BATH v SALE NORTHAMPTON The Saints finished at...
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English Gallagher Premiership
/ 2 years agoDiamond out to add some steel
By PAUL REES Even someone without Steve Diamond’s coaching experience would have known that taking over at Newcastle was never going...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoDay O’Reilly missed out on Hollywood
THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW When he last spoke in public, at his old Dublin rugby club a few hefty...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoThe £20m circus which led to a World Cup
David Lord would kick off every email to The Rugby Paper during the last years of his life in the down-to-earth...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoThe time Tony did plenty of learning
RUGBY MATTERS - A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER It might surprise some to learn that...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoResting players for big games isn’t on
JEFF PROBYN - A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME It was just a couple of weeks ago that certain people...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoTV deal hits the €700m jackpot
By JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN Jeroboams of champagne all round at Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) headquarters earlier this week, after...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoSarries’ star exits generate extra fuel
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK Saracens are the defending Premiership champions, and Mark McCall’s side are looking more and...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoDiamond’s rough support loses sparkle
By NICK CAIN What makes this season even more of a travesty is that Steve Diamond, Newcastle’s consultant rugby director, who...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoTop flight losing its soul, and integrity
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK GLOUCESTER’S 90-0 capitulation to Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens last weekend reflected all that...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoToo many coaches taking liberties in selection
It should not be difficult to distinguish between a Premiership rugby match and a game of county cricket: one, full of...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoMako reinvented job of loosehead
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Eddie Jones coached Mako Vunipola during a brief spell in charge of Saracens, and coached him again...
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Features
/ 2 years ago‘We have to manage load’
PAUL REES EXAMINES THE FALLOUT FROM GLOUCESTER’S 90-0 HIDING BY NORTHAMPTON SAINTS George Skivington has had better weeks. He knew his...
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Features
/ 2 years agoCup final is genuine clash of the giants
By PAUL REES Nearly half of the Champions Cup finals have involved Toulouse or Leinster, the two most successful sides in...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoJust listen, Leighton had ability to be rugby star
PETER JACKSON - THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Upon his death last month at the age of 71, Leighton James...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoLawes is level with England’s greatest
RUGBY MATTERS Members of the Rugby Writers club have recently been voting for the Pat Marshall award which we scribes use...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoMias made his mark in land of the giants als
Lucien Mias, below, who died this week aged 93, was never a giant of a man physically but when the force...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoNew law changes will hurt the game
JEFF PROBYN Am I the only one who thinks that something is wrong with ‘those in charge’ of our game as...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoDramatic finale puts Brive into play-offs
By JAMES HARRINGTON The ProD2 supplied a final glorious regular-season round for the ages in a perfectly timed reminder to broadcasters...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoLeicester have the class to rule again
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK Leicester are not where their fans want them to be – and a minority...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoTime to put an end to marquee players
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK ARE marquee players, or coaches, worth it, or are they just a Premiership...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoMistake to reduce value of the scrum
The danger World Rugby’s high-handed law-makers face with their insistence on trying to marginalise the scrum is that it could easily...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoCalling MPs will add to pressure
The decision of Championship clubs to contact their local MPs to ask for Government to mediate in its gridlocked negotiations with...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoRugby’s holy trinity prove the difference
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED SINCE time immemorial, rugby has been cloaked in its own cliches: Prince Obolensky was always “dashing”; Colin...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoMo’unga likely to be back in black
SO he hasn’t gone for good, after all. Not quite. If the All Blacks have their way, as they invariably do...
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Champions Cup
/ 2 years agoPower of the four musketeers
A common theme of last weekend’s Champions Cup semi-finals was the influence of the four scrum-halves, the catalysts of teams that...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoDavies the leading light in Welsh quartet
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Four international fly-halves took flight from Wales last year, understandably so given the...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoWhen Goodall was the bigger man
Ken Goodall shall forever be remembered as one of Ireland‘s greatest back row forwards, a humble man with a freakish talent...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years ago50 years ago, the Lions start to sweat
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER At the start of the year, this column...
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