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Columnists
/ 6 months agoJeremy Guscott: Time for Scotland to make big step
Scotland have had the players in the last six years to make a big impact on the world stage, but overall...
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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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Chris Hewett
/ 6 months agoChris Hewett: Without Jac Morgan, Wales will not be all right
The differences are obvious: he doesn’t have a shock of guitar-hero hair, or a nose so busted it resembles the last...
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Columnists
/ 6 months agoPeter Jackson: Ray ‘Chico’ Hopkins still unhappy with place in history
Even now, more than 50 years after turning England inside out and upside down at Twickenham, Ray ‘Chico’ Hopkins still resents...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 6 months agoBrendan Gallagher: A bolt of brilliance in that Arctic winter
The old sporting, and indeed show business, maxim of leaving the punters wanting more has never rung truer than with Richard...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoJeremy Guscott: Look at that lineup and you have to say: ‘Wow!’
England’s performance against Australia in the first of their four home Autumn Series Tests was rusty, which was only to be...
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Columnists
/ 7 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
/ 7 months agoDavid Norrie: 40 years on, and still stuck in the dark ages
The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again – and expect a different result.
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Chris Hewett
/ 7 months agoChris Hewett: I’d stick with Ben Earl in the back row, Steve Borthwick
Welcome to the “Yeti Syndrome”, a vivid way of categorising the many things we seek in rugby but no longer expect...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoPeter Jackson: Fearless Fred Howard calls Henry Pollock to account
A retired referee of global renown called the other day to pose a rhetorical question about the legality of Henry Pollock’s...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 7 months agoBrendan Gallagher: When Pumas gave Wales a tough time
The record books tell us that Wales and today’s opponents, Argentina, have contested 22 Tests since their first official meeting in...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoJeremy Guscott: Time for France to put down a marker
France, champions of Europe, against South Africa, double World Cup winners and newly crowned Rugby Championship title holders, in Paris on...
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Columnists
/ 7 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
/ 7 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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Chris Hewett
/ 7 months agoChris Hewett: ‘Finishers’ need to be put in their place
Imagine you are peering across halfway at a pack of forwards so big, knotted with muscle and profoundly pug-ugly that the...
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Chris Hewett
/ 7 months agoGalthie’s secret squirrel exercise
CHRIS HEWETT FACED with last week’s espionage bulletin from France, the owlish master spy George Smiley would have cleaned his spectacles...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoPeter Jackson: Welsh Rugby’s press charade does the game no favours
When the top brass at Twickenham interviewed Dudley Wood for the vacant position of RFU secretary, they raised a pressing matter...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 7 months agoBrendan Gallagher: We need a full-time eligibility supremo
This column grew hoarse a few years back, arguing for World Rugby to loosen their belts just a little and spend...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoJeremy Guscott: England are buzzing and ready to have a go
The reboot of the international season starts for England when they face Australia at Twickenham on Saturday, and they go into...
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Columnists
/ 7 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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Chris Hewett
/ 7 months agoChris Hewett: Too much talent can be a problem
We have heard much wailing and gnashing of teeth over Tom Willis, largely from those who assumed the France-bound Saracens forward...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 7 months agoBrendan Gallagher: Don’t hold Noah Caluori back – he’s too good
So a supernova named Noah Caluori, whose vapour trails lingered long in the sky over Hendon last Saturday night, is now...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 7 months agoBrendan Gallagher: Emily Scarratt has left a stellar legacy
We can, if we want, measure Emily Scarratt’s extraordinary career in bald facts.
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoPeter Jackson: Wingers who fly high in their teens
Those teenagers who dare to wing it across the international stage belong to a galaxy of meteoroids once flown by England’s...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoPeter Jackson: Ospreys have good reason to spit blood
When the WRU delivered its damning verdict on the Ospreys and Scarlets, the judges ought to have been suitably dressed for...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoJeremy Guscott: Problem laws are just not ‘helpful’
When it comes to a commentary on the laws of the game, it’s important to acknowledge first that the referee has...
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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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Chris Hewett
/ 7 months agoChris Hewett: The two-team solution has worked for Scotland
On a bad road day – the sad truth is that most days turn bad the moment you sit behind the...
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Columnists
/ 7 months agoPeter Jackson: Long march of players from distant lands
The All Blacks are heading this way via Chicago reinforced by another bountiful raft of converts from their treasured trawl of...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 7 months agoBrendan Gallagher: David Bishop – Unforgiven and unforgettable
Not many sporting books have been cobbled together with the co-authors flat on their backs 200 miles apart, but that’s what...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoJeremy Guscott: England must unite Ollie Lawrence and Tommy Freeman in midfield
The prospect of England facing Australia at Twickenham in just under three weeks with a backline in which their 2025 Lions...
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Columnists
/ 8 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
/ 8 months agoPeter Jackson: David Bishop in search of the final reckoning
Of all the Test scrum-halves in all the world, David Bishop stands apart from the rest. He is the only one...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 8 months agoBrendan Gallagher: No-one is immune to this awful disease
I wonder if, by chance, you can guess what the following had in common: American photographer Eddie Adams; Japanese karate master...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 8 months agoBrendan Gallagher: Furious little bull who was as hard as nails
Imagine being a French rugby international in the tumultuous decade between 1971 and 1981.
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoJeremy Guscott: It won’t surprise me if Springboks land a threepeat
South Africa have got people talking about the revolution in their back play in the Rugby Championship after their huge victories...
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Columnists
/ 8 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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Peter Jackson
/ 8 months agoWainwright goes close to 1923 record
PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW OVER the course of 10 seconds in Belfast last weekend, Aaron Wainwright may...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoPeter Jackson: Saturday afternoons no longer for rugby
Back in the day when Cardiff ran the best club team in Europe, their fixture list guaranteed supporters 23 home matches,...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoCatherine Spencer: I am so proud to be Red Rose 114
The tears for me, while standing in the crowd at Twickenham watching Canada receive their second-place medals, were of hurt.
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 8 months agoBrendan Gallagher: Decline of Samoa is sad to see
Despite the expansion of the World Cup to 24 teams for RWC 2027, Samoa now run a serious risk of not...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 8 months agoBrendan Gallagher: Why it’s right time to invest in the ‘have nots’
A massive hat-tip to all those involved in both organising the Women’s World Cup and those behind England’s triumph, on and...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 8 months agoBrendan Gallagher: The legacy of Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s grandfather
Sensational fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu is going to be a household name in South Africa – if not already – but we...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoJeremy Guscott: Bath are looking good as the bunfight begins
Bath started the defence of their Prem title with a bang by scoring seven tries against Harlequins at The Stoop on...
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Columnists
/ 8 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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Chris Hewett
/ 8 months agoChris Hewett: Change is the only permanent thing
It is 15 years since Bruce Craig, not obviously a man to be found wanting in the ambition department, bought himself...
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Latest News
/ 8 months agoPeter Jackson: Regan Grace struggling to prove he’s still got it
During the hardest of the hard times endured by Wales, one of their broken ranks somehow survived the experience with an...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoPeter Jackson: Final throw of the dice for Liam Williams
Newcastle Red Bulls opened the Prem season on Friday without their latest signing.
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 8 months agoBrendan Gallagher: World Cup 2035 has to be held in Europe
World Rugby fires the starting gun next week for those with dreams of hosting RWC2035, which seems an eternity away but...
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Columnists
/ 8 months agoJeremy Guscott: Sky’s the limit for fantastic Tommy Freeman
There’s been a big fanfare around Tommy Freeman’s potential move from wing to outside centre following the Lions tour, starting this...
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