So far so good. After Rugby’s ill-starred Olympic history it’s been comparatively plain sailing to date for the 2016 tournament, at least on the pure […]
During a lifetime in sport journalism I can’t remember anything more exhilarating and life enhancing than reporting on the young Jonah Lomu and then, for […]
The alarm bells started ringing loudly, for me anyway, in a dusty classroom at Loughborough University last May. It was just before England jetted off […]
The London Sports Writing Festival hosts an inquest into the Rugby World Cup on Saturday 14 November. TRP writer Brendan Gallagher acts as the Master […]
15. Ben Smith (New Zealand): Consumate in all departments, Japan’s brilliant Agumu Goromaru the next in line 14. Julian Savea (New Zealand): Use to be […]
The construction – or in this case deconstruction – gangs will arrive at Twickenham first thing this morning to start ripping down the huge hospitality […]
Richie McCaw and Dan Carter deserve every plaudit that comes their way – the golden duo have redefined their positions and rewritten the records book […]
Fiji’s most-capped player Nicky Little has warned his former colleagues not to go into their shells when they tackle England in the opening game of […]
One of the biggest drawbacks of Rugby Union’s obsession with amateurism was that the Rugby World Cup was belatedly dragged kicking into this world 15-20 […]
This year’s quick-fire Rugby Championship seems to be hurtling to a conclusion almost before it began but the organisers couldn’t have hoped for a more […]
The thing about World Cup camps is that the handbrakes come off and, especially among Tier One Nations, the notoriously tight-fisted Union treasurers can finally […]
It’s 20 years ago today that President Nelson Mandela presented Francois Pienaar with the World Cup at Ellis Park to bring down the curtain on what […]
Last Tuesday evening, when Madison Hughes and his American Sevens squad arrived back at the USA Olympic training centre in Chula Vista, near San Diego, […]
Northampton (1) Story of the season The reigning champions may have wobbled badly in Europe with those big defeats against Racing and, of course, Clermont […]
15 Nick Abendanon (above) – Clermont For some reason his stellar performances for Clermont seem to have attracted more attention than similar displays for Bath. […]
Money invariably encourages envy and bad-mouthing but money per se has never guaranteed success in any sport. Winning is much more complicated than that. Some […]
1999: Ulster 33 Stade Francais 27 The English clubs weren’t involved in the 1998-9 competition but frankly nobody really missed them and Ulster’s magical mystery […]