CATEGORIES

Battling Bundee can fill Manu void

I don’t think anyone saw Bundee Aki gate-crashing the Lions squad especially as we thought that if everyone had been fit and ready at centre then Manu Tuilagi’s ramrod-straight confrontational running would have made him one of the first backs on Warren Gatland’s list.

Big mistake not picking Danny insists Bracken

ABOVE all others Danny Care should have been the scrumhalf selected to take the game to the Boks for the Lions, says 1997 tourist Kyran Bracken.

Barbeary doesn't want to play numbers game

ALFIE BARBEARY is nearing a return to action, and doesn’t care if it is in the front row or back row.

Lam helps launch the dazzling rise of Samoa

Brendan Gallagher delves into some of rugby’s most enduring images, their story and why they are still so impactful

They're only human...just far stronger and fitter!

DANIEL GALLAN finds out what it’s like facing the mighty Saracens as a semi-professional

Wigan gave Union their wake-up call

It’s 25 years ago this Tuesday that a curious triptych of cross-code rugby encounters came to an end when Bath, playing Union laws, defeated Wigan Warriors 42-19 in front of 42,000 fans at Twickenham.

Fans finally back to feed Bears frenzy

BRISTOL have been running onto the pitch to the sound of The Greatest Showman this season. In truth, the Bears have been playing like lion tamers for months, but all to an empty amphitheater. Like all the best showmen, however, an audience is what’s needed to truly stir the blood.

Gavin fires the dream for Wood's Raiders

If he so wished, Aaron Wood could put one hand on his heart, the other on the bible, and solemnly swear that he runs a record-breaking footy outfit.

Watch out world, game in Japan will sky rocket

WHEN I moved to Japan in 2012 to play for Mitsubishi Dynaboars, I was one of the first northern hemisphere players to try their luck in the Far East.

So good to be back with the fans at Twickenham

At last, we had a meaningful weekend of rugby with two European Cup finals held back to back. Friday evening I watched the final of the European Challenge Cup, then yesterday we had the main show, the European Champions Cup, both held at Twickenham, the home of rugby.

Record man Sam reminds me of my old pal ‘Backy'

WHAT Sam Simmonds did this week in breaking the Premiership try-scoring record for a season is pretty exceptional.

England system is OK, just pick right players!

In his column last week, Jeff Probyn bemoaned the deals struck by the RFU and the Premiership to allow the national side to have access to the best England-qualified players around.

Australian quarantine puts clamp on Galthie

Seven weeks after France’s Six Nations’ campaign ended with that late, late loss to Scotland at Stade de France, Les Bleus’ coaching team reunited for the first time at Marcoussis.

Six Nations triumph can spur us on now vows Tipuric

JUSTIN Tipuric admits Wales’ Grand Slam heartbreak in Paris still haunts him, but he believes that Six Nations title win can drive the top Welsh players forward this summer.

TMO's not perfect but don't give him red card

Why after more than 20 years are we still allowing the Luddite tendency to question the role of the TMO? On BT Sport’s Rugby Tonight programme, one of the guests was JP Doyle, shamefully made redundant by the RFU. Now refereeing in the US league, he was part of the panel that discussed the use of the TMO – it was dispiriting to hear the same old ground still being debated, and fascinating because of what wasn’t mentioned.

We're fully charged up, McCall tells Trailfinders

MARK McCALL hopes to celebrate his new four-year Saracens contract by taking a huge step towards promotion back to the Premiership against their biggest Championship rivals.

This is how rugby can be saved from peril

FRANCIS Baron, acknowledged widely as English rugby’s most successful administrator of the professional era, says the RFU requires an urgent reset to put its house in order.

RFU and millionaires have led us by the nose

LAST month the RFU binned relegation for the foreseeable with the approval of the CBs (the community clubs’ representatives at HQ) isolating the 1400 community clubs from the... er, 13 elite clubs at the top of the pyramid.

Red Roses secure hat-trick of titles

EMILY SCARRATT kicked a late penalty to seal England’s third Women’s Six Nations title in a row with a hard-fought final win against France.

Monye spearheads the fight for rugby diversity

FORMER England wing Ugo Monye hopes that as chair of a new RFU advisory group he can help make rugby more accessible for all.

Dunn reaches 150 on return after red

TOM DUNN is determined to mark his 150th appearance in a Bath jersey – and his first game back from a three-week ban – with a win against Wasps.

Erasmus: Tough competition will prepare us for Lions challenge

SOUTH AFRICA Rugby have released the revised schedule for the PRO14 Rainbow Cup SA that will see three consecutive “Super Saturdays” from next weekend.

Carefree Quins vets can steer kids to silverware

ATTACK coach Nick Evans believes Harlequins old lags have enough miles left in their legs to help fire the club’s top four hopes.

Harry Put His Lads First, Even Before Man Utd

The Harry Leyland Stand on Merseyside has been empty now for a whole year, a silent memorial to a famous old goalkeeper’s rugby conversion. Leyland played for Everton when they were the team in Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers when they reached the FA Cup final for the last time, in 1960. He finished at Tranmere, managed Wigan Athletic for one season and ran a stall at Birkenhead market.

Sandersons help put Kirkham on the map

Brendan Gallagher continues his series looking at rugby’s great schools

Rees-Zammit is truly fast but Slade is just too quiet

The five players highlighted in this column – Wales winger Louis Rees-Zammit, France fly-half Matthieu Jalibert, England outside centre Henry Slade, Ireland lock/blindside Tadhg Beirne, and Scotland openside Hamish Watson – are there because they have contributed in different ways in this Six Nations, and I’ve enjoyed watching them. Even more credit is due because each has raised their game despite the difficulties of the emotional bypass involved in playing in empty stadiums during lockdown.

Welsh luck ran out but future looks much brighter

For some it could have been the ‘Lucky 13th’ Grand Slam, but in the end the luck ran out. Fair play to the French, they kept going and going and going and deserved their win in the end.

No protests this time about unequal TV cash!

It’s amazing how time and circumstances can change people’s ideals and position on any number of things, even those that are supposedly ‘cast in stone’. Just around 25 years ago the RFU were removed from the Five Nations Championship on a point of principle that was agreed by the Celtic nations (Wales, Scotland and Ireland) and then after protracted discussions and negotiations, reinstated.

Lions turned hoses on Bevan and Gibson

ALLAN MARTIN THE FORMER WALES, LIONS AND ABERAVON LOCK

England's Lions hopefuls hit skids with Triple Frown

A very strange thing happened over the last week or so. It started with Anthony Watson straight after the France game, followed by Jonny May and then Ben Youngs, with all three being refreshingly candid in interviews in which they conceded England’s poor form in the Six Nations before the France game had been down to them.