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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain gets out his crystal ball and the form book to pick his 2017 Lions
Two years from now the Lions will be in the midst of a three Test series against a New Zealand side...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain’s column: Time for Lions to show claws over intinerary
The 2017 Lions itinerary, which was due to be announced in May but is now expected later this summer according to...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 10 years agoJeff Probyn: Heading off to the hills on another mission from God
Training camps and altitude training in far-flung foreign fields do make you wonder what the game is coming to. As big...
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Peter Jackson
/ 10 years agoPeter Jackson’s column: Accept it, Gatland’s Law is now a nonsense
Like Mo Farah’s front doorbell when the drug testers came calling, Warren Gatland’s eponymous law has much to answer for. As...
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Shane Williams
/ 10 years agoShane Williams’ column: Liam Williams’ loss gives the likely lads a chance
There’s no hiding from the fact that losing Liam Williams would be a major blow to Wales. It would have been...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher speaks to Firebrand Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu about preaching the message of alofa
As well as being a cracking Test centre and fly-half and a ‘have boots will travel’ professional for a decade or...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 10 years agoJeremy Guscott’s column: In-form Matt Banahan would be my first choice wing
Wingers are try-scorers first and foremost, as they always have been, but in the modern Test arena they’ve had to develop...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain talks to England captain Chris Robshaw
Chris Robshaw does not come from the Eric Evans school of England captaincy. Evans, who was captain of the 1957 Grand...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 10 years agoJeff Probyn: Let’s hope Ian Ritchie’s warning does not stop team bonding
As England prepare to jet off to their Colorado training camp the words of RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie must be...
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Peter Jackson
/ 10 years agoPeter Jackson: When Bill Samuel kept Gareth Edwards from lure of football
The making of Gareth Edwards as a rugby superstar, humble human being and now knight of the realm, would probably never...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain casts an expert eye over last week’s European Champions Cup draw
The recruitment rosters of the Premiership and Pro12 teams make them look like a pop-gun parade compared to the heavy artillery...
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Shane Williams
/ 10 years agoShane Williams’ column: Will even champs Toulon escape the Pool of Death?
What a draw we saw for the European tournaments this week – and what a vindication of the decision to move...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 10 years agoJeremy Guscott: You can bet Richie McCaw and Dan Carter will be ready
One of the big stories so far in the Super 15 is the Crusaders failing to make the play-offs for the...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain’s column: Megabucks Toulouse give Manu Tuilagi a dilemma
Manu Tuilagi has one year left on his Leicester Tigers contract and Toulouse have sounded out the 24-year-old England centre about...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher’s feature: The day South Africa was cleared for take-off
It’s 20 years ago today that President Nelson Mandela presented Francois Pienaar with the World Cup at Ellis Park to bring down...
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Peter Jackson
/ 10 years agoPeter Jackson’s column: Signing up Kiwis and Boks mocks the rules
Exactly five years ago this coming Wednesday, in a football stadium where a local boy called Messi used to play, New...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher’s feature: Bionic Jacques Burger is on his last crusade
After the best part of ten months at the coal face on behalf of Premiership champions Saracens, Jacques Burger is taking...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 10 years agoJeff Probyn’s column: Union right to ride roughshod over Leicester Tigers’ American dream
The question of who is running rugby in America came under the spotlight this week as Leicester Tigers were forced to...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain’s column: Memo to Stuart Lancaster: Avoid the dwarves
The inexorable trend towards spin over substance in the running of the professional game reached new peaks this week. As part...
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Shane Williams
/ 10 years agoShane Williams’ column: Jonathan Davies’ loss more disruptive than Manu Tuilagi’s
With fewer than 100 days until the World Cup, Stuart Lancaster will be far happier than Warren Gatland is right now...
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Peter Jackson
/ 10 years agoPeter Jackson: Bull-dozing Ross Moriarty may be Wales’ missing link
When Wales beat Australia in the World Cup for the first and only time, amid the geothermal geysers of Rotorua, their...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 10 years agoBrendan Gallagher: The 69-match journey to the World Cup
Nations Cup The tenth year of this competition and the ninth to be held in Bucharest. Only the inaugural tournament, in...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 10 years agoJeff Probyn’s column: Stuart Lancaster’s left with more questions than answers
Well, well at last the bridesmaids have become the brides as Saracens stormed to victory last weekend in the Premiership final...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain discusses the political dangers which are threatening Championship clubs
Chris Pennell’s superb two-try contribution to the thrilling 30-30 draw in the second-leg of the Championship final at Sixways on the...
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Nick Cain
/ 10 years agoNick Cain’ column: George Ford still gets my England vote over Owen Farrell
Ford or Farrell? It was predictable that the meeting of two fly-halves who have been close friends since schooldays, and are...
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Shane Williams
/ 10 years agoShane Williams’ column: Gentle giant Jerry Collins made Ospreys into true Galacticos
Jerry Collins was a typical south-sea islander – a monster on the pitch but a gentle giant off it. I remember...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 10 years agoJeremy Guscott’s column: Get the scrum sorted or risk damaging our great product
This season as a whole has been very positive, and the attitude of teams in the Premiership will, hopefully, help to...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 11 years agoJeff Probyn: Sam Burgess is different, but does he have the time to deliver
How do you make 50 into one? That was the question most occupying the mind of Stuart Lancaster as he announced...
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Peter Jackson
/ 11 years agoPeter Jackson’s column: Such a pity Gavin Henson never graced a World Cup
Gavin Henson’s place among the footnotes of rugby history can now be found hidden away beneath a sub-section reserved for the...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain’s view on England’s World Cup training squad
One of the enduring conundrums of Stuart Lancaster’s tenure, and that of many England coaching regimes before his, is whether Red...
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Shane Williams
/ 11 years agoShane Williams’ column: Chris Ashton will lift England but Wales won’t be worried
Stuart Lancaster‘s die is cast, but this Dai certainly isn’t downcast! England’s 50-man squad won’t hold many fears for Warren Gatland...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 11 years agoJeremy Guscott’s column: No Steffon Armitage means no exile will ever get in
The exclusion of Steffon Armitage and Nick Abendanon had been well documented before the selection of England’s 50 man World Cup...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain’s column: Sir Clive Woodward could make France great again
Sacre bleu! Could Sir Clive Woodward, knight of the realm, England‘s only World Cup winning coach, be about to do a...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 11 years agoBrendan Gallagher’s feature: USA Eagles leave rugby’s old world order at Sixes and Sevens
Last Tuesday evening, when Madison Hughes and his American Sevens squad arrived back at the USA Olympic training centre in Chula...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 11 years agoJeff Probyn’s column: World Cup wage cap would promote level playing field
With the domestic season more or less over and sights set firmly on the World Cup, we are once again forced...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 11 years agoBrendan Gallagher’s Premiership play-offs preview
Northampton (1) Story of the season The reigning champions may have wobbled badly in Europe with those big defeats against Racing...
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Peter Jackson
/ 11 years agoPeter Jackson’s column: If ‘Gatland’s Law’ is not upheld there’s no point in being loyal to Wales
Warren Gatland‘s eponymous law has been further exposed by his refusal to rule Jamie Roberts out when the good doctor lines...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain: Why Manu Tuilagi deserves just a little sympathy
If any England player was likely to stray off the straight-and-narrow then Manu Tuilagi was always a prime candidate. That was...
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 11 years agoJeremy Guscott’s column: This Bath side has the ability, now they must finish the job
Bath have arrived as true Premiership contenders again, and with a home semi-final already secured I would bet on them at...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain looks at the likely composition of Stuart Lancaster’s World Cup squad
There’s a spaghetti of conflicting views surrounding the long-squad of around 50 players – initially billed as 45 – that Stuart...
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Shane Williams
/ 11 years agoShane Williams’ column: World-class Matthew Morgan needs to play in Premiership
I don’t say this lightly but Matthew Morgan is one of the most naturally gifted players in the world. Yes, I...
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Peter Jackson
/ 11 years agoPeter Jackson’s column: Poachers at work on both sides of Severn
One day long ago during a break from curing toothache at his dental practice in Newbridge, Derek Morgan found himself asked...
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Shane Williams
/ 11 years agoShane Williams’ column: Why a Scarlets victory is vital for Wales cause
Scarlets face two ‘cup finals’ in the next seven days and for the sake of Welsh rugby, it is vital they...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 11 years agoJeff Probyn: What’s the money on Toulon making it four on the spin?
As the dust settles on the first ever Champions Cup and the remarkable but unsurprising success of Toulon in winning their...
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Brendan Gallagher
/ 11 years agoBrendan Gallagher’s feature: How the RAF revived spirit of Bader and Cooler King
Through adversity to the stars, as the RAF motto proclaims. Taking on the might of the Army and Navy has always...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain talks to Saracens wing Chris Ashton about England and the Premiership title race
Chris Ashton has spent all season looking-in at the England squad from the outside, and the Saracens wing yearns to be...
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Nick Cain
/ 11 years agoNick Cain: Contract blackmail harms World Cup
The parlous state of the Tier Two nations was emphasised this week by Dan Leo, the Samoa and London Irish lock....
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Jeremy Guscott
/ 11 years agoJeremy Guscott: Marland Yarde and Christian Wade deserve another look by Stuart Lancaster
The England back three is still a work in progress, and with Manu Tuilagi not back from injury until just before...
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Jeff Probyn
/ 11 years agoJeff Probyn: Sorry, but is all this legislation making the game any safer?
There are times when I worry for the future of our great sport with all the accusations and promises banded about...
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Shane Williams
/ 11 years agoShane Williams: Outstanding Liam Williams deserves run at No.15
Liam Williams is playing so well right now that he could do the unimaginable and grab the Wales No.15 jersey off...
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