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Latest News
/ 4 years agoLa Rochelle present a tougher test
PETER JACKSON LEO Cullen before last week’s semi-final against Toulouse in Dublin: “It doesn’t get any tougher.’’ Considering that the ex-champions...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoFly-half Billy left the kicks to others
PETER JACKSON BILLY Griffiths rolled off the assembly line at the Welsh fly-half factory in the mid-1950s whereupon he set about...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 4 years agoNew law variations do not ensure a level playing field
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME Applying the brake: Hookers must keep one foot forward until the call...
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James Harrington
/ 4 years agoRacing 92 play down any move for Jones
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN Try double: Matthieu Jalibert helped Bordeaux book their place in the play-offs England head coach Eddie Jones...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 4 years agoLet Arundell show what he’s got against Australia
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK HENRY Arundell played junior rugby for Bradford-on-Avon, and all I can say after seeing...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoHigh-scoring hookers not good for the game
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK ONE of the strangest signs of the times is that this season hookers...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoEurope’s best too hot for England
NICK CAIN IT took the 2022 European Cup until the quarter-finals before it delivered in terms of the quality and drama...
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Chris Hewett
/ 4 years agoThe Boks are here, there and everywhere
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST Some things in rugby are so difficult to find, they drive astrophysicists to drink. Scientists operating the Giant...
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Chris Hewett
/ 4 years agoNow’s the time for the French revolution
CHRIS HEWETT AS a rule of thumb, English teams good enough to fight their way into a Champions Cup final eventually...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoWayne will need all his big guns to battle Boks
SHANE WILLIAMS WALES AND LIONS LEGEND It is going to be a big week for Wayne Pivac as he emerges from...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoBeer test put Glyn on his way to Widnes
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW The last formality of Glyn Shaw’s transfer from Neath to Widnes took place...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoDeclining European crowds a cause for concern
PETER JACKSON LA Defense Arena, Racing’s indoor home some six miles west of downtown Paris, offers 30,261 seats for rugby matches....
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Columnists
/ 4 years agoChiefs are form team, they’re real contenders
ROCKY CLARK ENGLAND’S MOST CAPPED PLAYER AND WORLD CUP WINNER After one of the most competitive seasons in the Allianz Premier...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 4 years agoEngland rugby still has a long way to go
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME The failure of any of the Premiership teams to make it to...
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James Harrington
/ 4 years agoBayonne win battle for home semi-final
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN Away from the bright lights of the European semi-finals, the regular season of France’s second-tier ProD2 drew...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 4 years agoSanderson’s men will be hoping for minor miracle
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK WHEN Sale Sharks face Racing 92 at their 30,000 capacity La Defense Arena superdome...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoBucketloads of tries not a winning formula
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK AT the same time as Bath collapsed to a record 64-0 defeat against...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoOverseas players leave little room at 12
NICK CAIN IF you are perplexed by England’s lack of choice when it comes to big inside centres as potential replacements...
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Chris Hewett
/ 4 years agoPoints do not always deliver the top prizes
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST Rugby followers who decided long ago that the sport’s various governing bodies shared a factory setting of...
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Chris Hewett
/ 4 years agoCueto was Ashton but without all the fanfare
CHRIS HEWETT CLOSE members of Chris Ashton’s own family would hesitate to describe him as “the complete wing”, but his attacking...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoWRU must mirror the success of Connacht
SHANE WILLIAMS WALES AND LIONS LEGEND As Oliver Hardy used to say to his comic partner Stan Laurel, "That's another fine...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoMerging of giants is the only option to lift Welsh
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW When the organisers finalise their 24 qualifiers for next season’s Champions Cup, they...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoWily Myler has many more miles still left on the clock
PETER JACKSON Longevity: Myler STEPHEN Myler will complete 20 years as a goalkicking stand-off next season, adding to a points total...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 4 years agoComeback king Sergio aims to bow out in style
BRENDAN GALLAGHER RUGBY MATTERS YOU can’t keep a good man down. Sergio Parisse has not been on our radar for a...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 4 years agoOne-sided contests will drive fans away
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME It seems that not a week goes by without some sort of...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 4 years agoFeel lucky to have played in the era I did
JEFF PROBYN I HAD the chance last week to help Upper Clapton Rugby club celebrate 140 years since the club was...
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James Harrington
/ 4 years agoProD2 call for system reset to aid recruitment
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN Biarritz’s long-inevitable relegation from the Top 14 was finally confirmed last weekend when they lost 48-13 at...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 4 years agoSaracens the favourites – if they finish in top two
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK NO-ONE should be surprised that Saracens are tucked in at second in the league...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoChampionship ‘serfs’ must unite for uprising
NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK HAVE the Championship clubs finally woken up and smelled the coffee? Have they...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoNo place in the game for abuse of officials
NICK CAIN THERE was a recent commentary that referees are over-protected and should not be immune from criticism, particularly by pro...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoBravo to WRU for giving grassroots day in the sun
SHANE WILLIAMS WALES AND LIONS LEGEND It has been open season on the Welsh Rugby Union recently, and quite rightly in...
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Chris Hewett
/ 4 years agoVery few now could master art of Joggie
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST The way the old-timers tell it, the Springboks were so petrified by the majesty of the All...
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Chris Hewett
/ 4 years agoAll eyes on Leinster’s honorary All Black
CHRIS HEWETT WHEN it comes to openside flankers, New Zealand’s grand tradition has long been grander than everyone else’s. Nathan, Mourie, Jones,...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoLeicester lesson has served Leo well
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Leo Cullen left Dublin for Leicester during the summer of 2005 on a...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoOnly Evans to coach Wales was a Wallaby
PETER JACKSON AT the last count, as conducted by people who know about these things, there were almost 75,000 Evanses living...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 4 years agoRespect for referee is golden rule of rugby
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME As the game struggles to recover from the pandemic and we are...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 4 years agoIs poor coaching to blame?
JEFF PROBYN England hero: Steve Thompson playing at 2003 World Cup PICTURE: Getty Images THERE have been more sad revelations of...
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James Harrington
/ 4 years agoAll to play for as it begins to get serious
JAMES HARRINGTON Like any other league, the business end of the Top 14 season is played in a haze of permutations...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 4 years agoLeicester’s pack power has put them in the mix
JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK IT is no surprise that there are four French quarter-finalists in the European Cup,...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoDanger of Planet Rugby spinning out of control
SHANE WILLIAMS WALES AND LIONS LEGEND All of a sudden it feels as though the game of rugby is getting more...
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Chris Hewett
/ 4 years agoStreamline Champions Cup -don’t just dilute it
CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST What bright spark invented this game of ours? The creation myth tells us it was a hoity-toity...
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Chris Hewett
/ 4 years agoSheeran’s show is hindering Munster’s advance
CHRIS HEWETT EVEN in a world of surprises, it would be quite something for an Ipswich Town football nut to drive...
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James Harrington
/ 4 years agoBeauxis: Time to hang up my boots
JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN Arguably the most wonderfully and frustratingly French of French fly-halves, Lionel Beauxis, confirmed he will call time on...
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Columnists
/ 4 years agoIt’s winner takes all on Super Saturday
ROCKY CLARK ENGLAND’S MOST CAPPED PLAYER AND WORLD CUP WINNER England and France are leading the way and it’s all set...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoPivac must make bold calls to stop Welsh slide
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Since taking charge of Wales after the last World Cup, Wayne Pivac has...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoBelittling dangers of concussion is the Stone Age view
PETER JACKSON ANYONE still daft enough to belittle the dangers of concussion and parrot the Stone Age view that the game’s...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoShake up tired Six Nations fixture list
NICK CAIN THE Six Nations chief executive, Ben Morel, is not slow to pat himself on the back, over-hyping the last...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoJimmy’s on course for illustrious 4,000 club
PETER JACKSON ON a sporting stage where the landscape changes like a kaleidoscope, one constant can be found in the enduring...
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Latest News
/ 4 years agoBiden keen to spread the faith
PETER JACKSON JOE Biden’s support of America’s bid to host the 2031 World Cup shows that the President’s interest in the...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 4 years agoWorld Rugby missed a trick by ignoring USA
JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME Ican’t believe that the chance to expand the game over the Atlantic...
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