CATEGORIES

Young stars need more room to grow

A FASCINATING Junior World Cup has reached the business end of affairs so it’s not too late to parachute in and catch some of the excellent action on the World Rugby stream which has been working pretty well while ITV also put a highlights package together.

Wales in the mood to rumble

WALES U20s defence coach Craig Everett says his side are ‘chomping at the bit’ for their physical battle against Georgia today.

Spirited England out for revenge

ENGLAND U20s have the opportunity to make amends for their dismal defeat to France at the Rec in February and book a place in a World Championships final tonight.

Wales pull another one from nowhere

WHEN it comes to finding players from anywhere and nowhere for World Cups, Wales can be relied upon to do so with almost unfailing consistency.

Middleton keen to help Japan move up a notch

SIMON Middleton has taken on a new role as high-performance adviser to the Japan national women’s 15s team.

James: We'll just keep improving

LIFELONG Sale Sharks fan Sam James is hoping his side go one step further next season and lift the Premiership to pave the way for the next generation of players from the North West.

World League will add to the pressure

ALL the excitement in the game at the moment surrounds the upcoming World Cup in France, and that’s the way it should be. But what is going to happen when we have the new World League in play? Where is the highest value going to go then? I’m not sure what the main reason was for the introduction of the new tournament but, in my eyes, it can only add extra pressure on the coaches and players.

'I wanted to keep on working with Steve'

RICHARD Wigglesworth admits staying close to head coach Steve Borthwick was one of his biggest motivations to take his current England post.

When law and spirit are not the same

WE’VE heard an awful lot – far too much, frankly – about the spirit of cricket just recently, and it has had little to do with the amount of single malt a multi-coloured blazer in human form can chuck down his neck in the Long Room. The Great Jonny Bairstow Stumping Scandal has propelled us headlong into the realm of sporting morality: two words that fit together like “love” and “divorce”, or “parliamentary” and “standards”.

A man-mountain who needs to be stopped

POSOLO Tuilagi is a force of nature who stands between England U20 and the chance of another World U20 final – and they will need a Joe Worsley-style masterclass in chop-tackling to keep him at bay.

Radwan's aiming to fly high with Falcons

DESPITE finishing bottom and with relegation set to return in next season’s top flight, Newcastle Falcons winger Adam Radwan insists his side are looking up the table under a new coaching staff led by Alex Codling.

Arendse piles the misery on Jones

EDDIE Jones endured a miserable start to his second tenure in charge of Australia as the Wallabies’ Pretoria curse continued courtesy of a hat-trick by Springboks flyer Kurt-Lee Arendse.

Arundell shouldn't be lost in France

HENRY Arundell’s new contract with Racing has been the subject of a lot of speculation, but the overall understanding is that he has signed a one-year contract, with a two-year option. Arundell is young, talented, and has been given a wonderful opportunity to play for a good team in a great city like Paris – and when you lose your job in the way he did at London Irish it is not surprising that his thinking would be to immediately find some job security.

Gatland calls up uncapped Plumtree

UNCAPPED back row Taine Plumtree, who Scarlets last week unveiled as a new signing, has been called up to the Wales squad. Swansea-born Plumtree, 23, is the son of ex-Swansea head coach and All Blacks assistant John Plumtree.

Radford keen to put steel into the Saints

NEVER one to shy away from a challenge as a child growing up on the largest council estate in Europe, Northampton’s new defence coach Lee Radford knows a thing or two about resilience – something the Saints lacked in abundance in protecting their own line last year.

French surprise as AWJ signs for Toulon

ALUN Wyn Jones has joined French club Toulon as cover during the World Cup.

Chandler ready for his next episode

CHANDLER Cunning- ham-South is hoping to fly off to Portugal on holiday in just over a week’s time as an U20 World Cup winner before starting the next chapter in his career, at new club Harlequins.

YOUNG GUNS - LOUIE JOHNSON

Instinctive Newcastle fly-half Louie Johnson has set his sights on breaking into the Falcons first team after finishing his final tournament with England U20s.

Wade would be my wild card on the wing

Ben Jaycock speaks to former Wasps, Leicester and England winger Tom Varndell about the state of the game in 7s and 15s

It felt a bit surreal when I ran out at Murrayfield

RICHARD DE CARPENTIER - THE FORMER ENGLAND SEVENS INTERNATIONAL AND LEICESTER, WORCESTER, HARLEQUINS AND BATH BACK ROWER

High life suits Wales as they prepare for World Cup assault

Wales enjoy the high life as they get set for France

Haskell: We must be tough

ENGLAND’S World Cup hopes rest on building an aggressive, physical spine of ‘tough guys’ to intimidate their opposition.

GB women clinch sevens spot at Paris Olympics

GREAT Britain’s women’s sevens team won gold at the European Games in Krakow, Poland to clinch a place at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

O'Kelly's backing his boys to triumph

FORMER Ireland lock Malcolm O’Kelly believes his nation will win the World Cup – if the coaches avoid the preparation issues that have cost them in previous tournaments.

Biarritz are left sweating on future

BY the time you read this, ProD2 side Biarritz were supposed to be under new management after a deal finally brought an end to a difficult and convoluted period in the storied club’s recent history.

Jones: We must be multi-dimensional

THE last peak scaled by England under Jones was in Australia last summer when they came from one down to clinch the Test series against the Wallabies at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

RFU needs to strike the right financial balance

EARLIER this week, the RFU president Nigel Gillingham, sent out a newsletter outlining many of the current problems facing the game in England and what the RFU are attempting to do to put it right.

I think I took more good options than bad ones

MY LIFE IN RUGBYIAN WHITTEN THE FORMER IRELAND, EXETER & ULSTER CENTRE

Recalling when all roads led to the sea

AS ANY half-decent student of European history knows, the first Russian Revolution of 1905 paved the way for the end of the Tsars.

25 years on and the pain is fading...

Next week marks the 25th anniversary of the end of what became known as the “Tour of Hell”. Jon Newcombe talks to some of the players whose Test careers were over before they barely began as a result of the frightful hammerings at the hands of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa