Hawkins can't wait to get going

AS one of Exeter’s new kids on the block, Joe Hawkins says the Chiefs are bang on track as they ready themselves for the demands of the upcoming Gallagher Premiership season.

Saints getting beefed up for new season

NORTHAMPTON are aiming to be bigger and better this season and Fin Smith believes today’s trip to Sale is the ideal start.

Spencer treble gives Bath a battling start

BEN Spencer showed the England selectors what they’re missing as the scrum-half scored an emphatic hat-trick to help Bath begin their campaign with a battling bonus point win over Newcastle.

Gloucester hang on to snatch it in a thriller

THE Kingsholm faithful certainly had their money’s worth as Gloucester began their league season with a last-minute winner to nick a thrilling game, which neither side deserved to lose.

One Goon show we could all do without

IT IS just about possible, if you’re seriously odd, to imagine that Dan Cole might stand a chance of out-performing Simone Biles on the uneven bars. Which begs the following question: would you also be deluded enough to support a World Cup expansion to 24 teams?

Hodge leads the demolition squad

ROB Baxter said it would take time for his next generation at Sandy Park to show their true colours.

Russell already one of the family - Blackett

LEE BLACKETT has revealed how Finn Russell’s meticulous preparation has already made him part of the Bath family.

The twin pillars of England's rebuild

OLLIE Chessum and Marcus Smith play with such enthusiasm when they pull on the Red Rose jersey that their pride in representing England is transparent, and it will be evident when they face Fiji in this afternoon's World Cup quarter-final in Marseille.

England must get best out of Smith

STEVE Borthwick does not have a lot of choice when it comes to selecting his forwards for today's quarter-final against Fiji because the options are limited, but the plusses are that Ollie Chessum looks like he's coming back to his best, and Ben Earl has been getting good raps.

France put faith in Dupont return

FRANCE are preparing for a game of \"rare intensity\" and simmering violence as Antoine Dupont returns to captain the hosts against South Africa just 24 days after fracturing his jaw.

Unbelievable! It all ends in Irish tears

WHOEVER said that the All Black aura had waned, that it was now dust and powder? Whoever said it was going to be all-Northern Hemisphere semi-finals? New Zealand defied the emerald wall - both on the pitch and in a raucous Stade de France crowd to send Ireland packing from a World Cup quarter final for the eighth time.

Fairytale finale for revived Pumas

NICOLAS Sanchez was an Argentine rugby hero as its record points scorer before he touched down the interception try four minutes from time which ushered the Pumas into the semi-finals of the 2023 World Cup at Wales' expense.

Confident England set to get out of jail

STEVE Borthwick and his coaching staff are on parole today as England play their get out of jail card in Marseille in their quarter-final against Fiji.

Care: Time to grab this chance of a lifetime

DANNY Care has urged England to seize the day against Fiji this afternoon because it could be the last dance for a chunk of the side.

'We've set our sights on winning the league title!'

AS soon as the club’s decade-long stay in National One came to an end at the close of last season, Esher had only a single goal for this one: to go straight back up again.

Bury hold edge in enthralling encounter

IT has been two years since these teams last met, and that proved to be a high-scoring event.

Sale need to seize the day

ALEX Sanderson has pushed his players to their physical and mental limits this season after they fell short in May’s Premiership final against Saracens. The Sharks’ director of rugby knows from his days with Saracens, as a player and coach, that success comes from planning and patience rather than just happening.

Codling knows it will be tough

ALEX Codling knew what he was taking on when he agreed to become Newcastle’s third director of rugby in little over a year.

Baxter out to rebuild again

THE summer marked a reset for Exeter following the departure of a number of players who were instrumental in their league and Champions Cup double success three years ago.

Bath bank on Russell class

BATH finished last season with four consecutive victories, their best run for three years. They scored 175 points and 24 tries to claim the Premiership’s final place in the European Champions Cup, no insignificant achievement for a side that had lost its first six matches.

Red Roses set for revenge mission

ENGLAND return to New Zealand for the first time since their ‘devastating’ loss to the Black Ferns in last year’s World Cup final aiming to get revenge in the newly formed WXV competition.

Galloping Reeves races in to steal it for Glouceter

TWO tries from Jack Clement enabled Gloucester to edge their way past gallant Coventry and into the Premiership Cup semi-finals – but they were first pushed right to the brink.

We need to hit ground running, says Waller

NORTHAMPTON Saints have made seven changes as they welcome Doncaster Knights to Franklin’s Gardens for the first time since 2007.

Impressive Bath start to show their worth

THEY say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but ever since his arrival back in June 2022, Johann van Graan has quietly been laying some solid foundation at the famous Recreation Ground.

Codling's happy to keep faith with youth

ALEX Codling has given his young players exposure in the Premiership Cup and that trend will continue when the Falcons’ league campaign starts at Bath next weekend.

Italy crushed by rampant France

A RAMPANT France warmed up for the business end of their tournament in superb fashion with this crushing win over hapless Italy in Lyon.

Wales finish with a flourish

WALES secured a bonus-point win to make it four from four and top Pool C with wing Louis Rees-Zammit grabbing a hat-trick.

Majestic Ireland blow Scots away

THE Group of Death finally claimed its victim, as it always would. And in the end the death throes for Scotland were total agony.

All Blacks get in mood for quarter-finals

SAM White-lock broke the record for Rugby World Cup appearances as his side booked a spot in the quarter-finals with an 11-try demolition of Uruguay.

The Great Escape! Care gets England

DANNY Care has come off the bench to England's rescue before, and the 36-year old scrum-half did it again to dig his side out of a huge hole in this World Cup quarter-final rehearsal in Lille to deprive a brave, adventurous Samoa side of a historic first victory over a ragged Red Rose outfit.