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English Championship
/ 2 years agoYet again, Ealing prove they have what it takes
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Ealing Trailfinders’ narrow defeat by Leicester in the Premiership Cup semi-final last weekend...
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English Championship
/ 2 years agoMerit on the pitch should be decisive
There has been a long-standing tradition in rugby union that everyone is entitled to their opinion, and when Ealing Trailfinders hosted...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoWaugh’s battle is going to be tough
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED WHO has the toughest job in rugby? It certainly doesn’t belong to the loadsamoney establishment lawyers plotting...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoEaling showed they are worthy
Ealing Trailfinders knew it was a big day and they gave it a proper lash. A single point behind Leicester with...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoStill out in front, the rocks of ages
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW They have been resting in the front row of the Pantheon now for...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoSwift move to fit in another international
ANOTHER so-called Test match is squeezed into a congested calendar with such indecent haste that nobody can be sure as to...
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Features
/ 2 years agoLawes can bring some order
Paul Rees says the former England captain who has signed for Brive will have much to offer when he retires Brive...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoWhen the B grade was full of A stars
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER AS England A crank back into action today...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoDon’t let refs help the time wasters
THE sheer perversity of referees helping time wasting goal kickers looking to run the clock down by helpfully counting down the...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoLisbon? Let’s go…
There are no Six Nations fixtures next weekend but the all singing, all dancing Os Lobos are playing Spain in their...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoWe need to progress, both on and off pitch
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME NOW the teams have had their week off hopefully they have had...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoRussell gives Scotland edge for Calcutta Cup
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK The Calcutta Cup is a great occasion whether it’s at Murrayfield or Twickenham, and...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoIt’s time to take a risk, England need to get the fans on their feet
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK As we approach the Six Nations midpoint, England are more like a Thames...
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English Championship
/ 2 years agoA new spirit of unity is in the air
NICK CAIN For the moment it is jaw-jaw rather than war-war in the Championship’s dispute with the RFU over their right...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoThe piano shifters are playing modern tune
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Much of the “tactical” kicking across the opening rounds of the Six Nations would have left Fred...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoPrepare for scrum time ad breaks…
CHRIS HEWETT OF all the unlikely questions to be asked in this corner of the paper, try this one for size:...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoIreland’s class will be hard to overcome
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW IF ONLY Wales could take an old leaf out of the record book...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoSix Nations endures Wretched Saturday
PETER JACKSON GIVEN the Six Nations’ unfailing capacity to hype up its final round as Super Saturday, last weekend’s double-header at...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoDutch and Germans proving their worth
RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Round Three of the Rugby Europe championship concludes...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoBenvenuto! Great to see Lynagh eventually opting for Italy
RUGBY MATTERS EVEN though I recently predicted in The Rugby Paper podcast that Louis Lynagh would be a starting wing...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoNo time to go soft on neck roll
Why isn’t the neck roll an automatic yellow card anymore? In fact, why isn’t the neck roll refereed much anymore full...
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Features
/ 2 years agoBorthwick is still in search of right mix
Paul Rees predicts a close encounter in the Calcutta Cup but sees Ireland winning another Grand Slam THE second round of...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoWe need action, not words, England
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME WITH the second game and a second victory, it seems that all...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoToulon need to win over the critics
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN Sometimes it’s not immediately obvious whether a side is in good shape or not. A simple look...
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Paul Rees
/ 2 years agoAfter two wins, it just gets harder from here for England
SIX NATIONS 2024 PAUL REES England named an unchanged side for the first time since the 2019 World Cup, but although...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoAre England in transition? Not really, and they should be kicking on purposefully
BRENDAN GALLAGHER Two very average teams produced a pretty sub par Test match in front of an intermittently mute Twickenham crowd...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoThat was a try – but the record will not reflect it
SIX NATIONS 2024 BRENDAN GALLAGHER THERE is a three-volume book to be written on false dawns, shattered dreams and broken hearts...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoThis Irish dynasty will keep on going
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK WAS the speed of the Irish recovery after the World Cup surprising? No, because...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoWhy the RFU needs to justify its CVC payments
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE recent observation by CVC that rugby union is too fragmented on the...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoEnough! No more ref chat
When is the incessant yapping between players and referees going to end? These appeals and “consultations” are becoming a blight at...
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British and Irish Lions
/ 2 years agoThe day John took on the NZ bully boys
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Barry John shall forever occupy a unique place in the rugby Pantheon in...
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Autumn Internationals
/ 2 years agoAll Blacks in Dublin will be the acid test
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED EARLY February is not obviously the moment to select a highlight of the calendar year. Especially if...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoShort-term ban means Willemse is evading natural justice
Natural justice is conspicuous by its absence in the union game. Think of the relegation-free protectionism of the Six Nations and...
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British and Irish Lions
/ 2 years agoLegend who had no wish to be one
Paul Rees says it was hard not to fall in love with rugby as a young boy, watching his hero play...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoSuperstar who paved the way for many more
BRENDAN GALLAGHER IT’S hard to quantify genius let alone compare one genius with another – although that never stops us trying...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoTake away the contact and you don’t have a game left
With the Six Nations now in full swing the last thing the game needs is further condemnation about how it’s played...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 2 years agoIreland look like the team to beat
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME Heading into week two of the Six Nations we were all wondering...
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James Harrington
/ 2 years agoCalvet’s likely to step in at Agen
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN France Under-20s coach Sebastien Calvet has emerged as favourite to replace Bernard Goutta on the conveyor-belt of...
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Paul Rees
/ 2 years agoEngland look ready to throw off the chains
SIX NATIONS 2024 PAUL REES CLOSE yet comfortable summed up a contradictory England performance. Exposed in defence at times, they smothered...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoIt wasn’t quite Bazball but George’s men did enough to get the job done
BRENDAN GALLAGHER WELL, it wasn’t quite the ‘Bazball’ rugby that Jamie George apparently aspires to – did we really expect things...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoWhy you don’t give up on your dreams
SIX NATIONS 2024 BRENDAN GALLAGHER It's been said before but needs reiterating on a regular basis but there is no sporting...
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Champions Cup
/ 2 years agoOnce again, the fans are being taken for granted
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE European Cup’s ‘round of 16’ takes some beating when it comes to...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoRFU double standards alive and well
Surprise, surprise, double standards are alive and well at the RFU. The latest example is the decision is to give a...
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English Championship
/ 2 years agoDiamond’s dual role can’t be right
The Twickenham suits are also not averse to turning a blind eye when a conflict-of-interests is involved. Perhaps the RFU’s performance...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 2 years agoThat was a must-watch match of real quality
JEREMY GUSCOTT SIX NATIONS 2024 THE Six Nations opener in Marseille between France and Ireland was a really good game of...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 2 years agoConfident Crowley shows why he deserves the keys to No.10
BRENDAN GALLAGHER SIX NATIONS 2024 Regular readers of The Rugby Paper will recall that I told you a very long time...
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Nick Cain
/ 2 years agoI didn’t see that coming! France as flat as a crepe…
NICK CAIN Ireland's trouncing of France in Marseille – a record Irish win on French soil – trashed most pundits prediction...
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Chris Hewett
/ 2 years agoTop dogs who build teams in own image
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED According to an article on the American website “Psychology Today”, there is scientific evidence to suggest that...
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British and Irish Lions
/ 2 years agoThe Lions show still sets the standard
Living with Lions, the film released off the back of the compelling British and Irish tour of South Africa in 1997,...
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Peter Jackson
/ 2 years agoColossus following in family tradition
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW A teenaged colossus introduced himself to the Six Nations late on Friday night...
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