CATEGORIES
Quins out to collect another big scalp
FULL of confidence after their brilliant 31-28 win away to Racing 92, Harlequins are now looking to take down another big French team at the Twickenham Stoop today.
Olympics causing financial headache
THE new cycle of T French senior men's rugby starts here - a month-and-a-half after the 2023 Rugby World Cup ended, and a month-and-ahalf before the 2024 Six Nations kicks off.
Championship Is a class competition Hammond
DESPITE the lack of jeopardy at both ends of the Championship, Nottingham head coach Craig Hammond relishes battling the full-time outfits and enjoys the competitiveness of the division.
Carter earns number one a festive for hosts
CHINNOR put in a mammoth second-half defensive display during a boisterous derby clash to take the National One lead for the first time this season.
Gloucester top to deny come out on battling Chiefs
DEFENDING champions GloucesterHartpury thwarted a superb Exeter fightback to maintain their 100 per cent record in a thriller at Sandy Park.
Each day was filled with song, fun and laughter
WHEN I hit the last year of High School, my coach at St Peter’s College, the legendary Eric Kohlhase said I wasn’t tall enough to continue playing No.8 but that I’d make a really good front rower, and that set me on the path for higher honours.
Toulouse’s victory over Quins is top of my list
THE greatest single performance in the Heineken Cup? That’s a tricky one, there have been so many, but when pressed I normally opt for Toulouse’s 51-10 annihilation of Harlequins in the quarter-finals of the 1997-98 competition.
Tenth defeat in a row for battling Falcons
LIONS blindside Emmanuel Tshituka scored two second-half tries as Newcastle were taken back to school by a brutally powerful South African side in Johannesburg.
Lockett's late score has Saints believing
A FEW more thunderous nights like this one and Northampton look assured of keeping hold of Courtney Lawes next season.
Cardiff push Bath's all-stars to the limit
THIS was a game for the ages, European Rugby at its’ best, with neither side deserving to end up as losers.
Bordeaux put Bears through the mixer
BORDEAUX-Begles confirmed their status as dangerous floaters in this year’s Champions Cup but there was no disgrace in defeat for a very makeshift Bristol Bears.
Russell: I've come here to win titles
WHILE Henry Arundell has chosen to stay at Racing 92 and turn down a move to Bath, Finn Russell is in no mind that he made the right decision in swapping the Parisian high life for more genteel Somerset surrounds.
Hunt is on for next generation of props
FIVE years ago there was a scrum feature in The Rugby Paper which forecast that unless England developed a world class scrum in the year leading up to the 2019 World Cup they would not be world champions.
Henry's French leave wont hold him back
IT’S time for the RFU/Premiership to wake up and go, ‘Wow, what’s wrong with us that a young player with the talent of Henry Arundell can opt out of playing for England by signing a two-year contract with a French Top 14 club like Racing 92?’
Gonzalez is enjoying his new lease of life
JUAN Martin Gonzalez proved he is another diamond to come out of the wreckage of London Irish as Saracens ended their two-match losing streak and got their Champions Cup campaign back on the road.
Sanderson: Ford and Tuilagi will stay at Sale
ALEX Sanderson is confident England outside-half George Ford will be at Sale next season, along with Manu Tuilagi.
Mann happy he made the switch from football
FOOTBALL’S loss is proving to be rugby’s gain in the case of URC top tackler Alex Mann.
Varley gets Bears back in winners' enclosure
BRISTOL Bears got back to winning ways with an eight-try victory at Franklin’s Gardens.
It's time for Lions to hunt change
THE British and Irish Lions will face Argentina in Dublin before embarking upon their 2025 tour to Australia in a repeat of the Cardiff-based 2005 fixture but, from Argentina’s perspective, things could not be more different.
A team stuffed full of captains
I WAS having one final lingering look at that 2003 England reunion picture last week before we banish all such thoughts until the next reunion – 2028 I’m guessing – when I was suddenly struck by something I had never really clocked before. My God, has there ever been a national team with so many Test captains?
Minnows can make splash of a whale
ACCORDING to Donald J Trump – you may have heard of him – “losers” are the lowest of the low, “suckers” and “schmucks”. One of the founding principles of what might loosely be called his philosophy, it applies even to the military.
Barton is on target to rescue Gloucester
A FAULTLESS kicking display off the tee from George Barton saw a coltish Gloucester side halt a run of six defeats on the trot with this hard earned win in a wet Tbilisi.
Four-try Lake guides Ospreys safely home
WALES hooker Dewi Lake helped himself to a European record equalling four tries in a match for the Ospreys as he guided his side to a bonuspoint win in Pool 2.
Fit-again Henderson out to grab his chance
CAMERON Henderson is relishing the start of Leicester Tigers’ Champions Cup campaign, seeing it as the perfect platform to state his claim for Scotland’s Six Nations squad in January.
We're not the whipping boys - Sanderson
ALEX Sanderson is relishing Sale’s novel status as underdogs as the Premiership leaders prepare to face some of the best sides in Europe, starting with a home game against Stade Francais.
Freeman double has Saints on the march
ON the move domestically, and on the march in Europe.
Slade leads Chiefs on smash and grab raid
EXETER’S struggles on the road have been well documented over the past year, but the Chiefs produced the perfect ‘smash and grab’ to win in the south of France.
Seven-try Toulouse too swift for Cardiff
BLAIR Kinghorn marked his Toulouse debut with a brace of tries as the starstuffed French outfit got their Champions Cup campaign off to a flying start.
Rampant Bath storm to the winning post
WHEN a side has an outside-half of Finn Russell’s vision and daring, it comes down to how much possession he enjoys, as well as its quality. Bath’s forwards were rampant on the club’s return to the Champions Cup on an afternoon when the scrum reasserted itself.
Ice-cool Sheedy the hero for Bears
IT WAS a night of dizzying figures. Twenty four unanswered points by Lyon in the second half. The clock five minutes into the red. And three sweet, sweet drop goal points from Callum Sheedy to win it for the Bears.