CATEGORIES

Skivington: Balance is better but much to do

GLOUCESTER director of rugby George Skivington is confident his team are close to striking the right balance between attack and defence as they look to put their Sandy Park jinx to bed.

Rampant Sale leave Bears with nothing

WHAT a difference a week makes. Last weekend, Bristol’s all singing and dancing 54-24 performance at Leicester was hailed as one of the best in Premiership history.

Mitchell & Smith get Saints back on track

NORTHAMPTON swept aside a tame Newcastle team in a match that was over after just 15 minutes.

Quins are denied as Tigers snatch draw

ON a weekend of bizarrely one-sided games, a full throated and entertaining draw in front of nearly 80,000 fans at Twickenham redressed the balance a little but this 16th edition of the Big Match wasn’t without controversy.

Bath give Saracens lesson in finishing

BEN Spencer brushed off his autumn blues to come back and help inflict a record league victory on his old club as Bath went five clear at the top of the Premiership.

Ollie is the right man for England

SINCE Ollie Sleightholme won his first two England caps against New Zealand last summer, and then came off the bench again in the autumn series to score two tries against Australia, and another two against South Africa and Japan, he has not been exposed or looked out of place.

Sides are coming after us - Dowson

PHIL Dowson concedes his Saints are still struggling to cope with being targeted by rivals desperate to stick one on the reigning English champions.

Wilson backing Isgro to create havoc for Quins

RODRIGO Isgro is a “physical specimen” who will become an even more destructive weapon for Quins once he is Premiership “battled hardened”.

Strength in depth at Bath and Scotland is huge, says Bayliss

JOSH Bayliss enjoyed his best run in a Scotland jersey over the autumn but insists competition for places means he’ll never take selection for granted, for either club or country.

Steward prepares new plan of attack

FREDDIE Steward has the safest pair of hands in the Premiership and is now set on finding his feet as an attacking force.

Ford set to follow family line and take up coaching

GEORGE Ford admits he sees himself following in the footsteps of his father and two brothers by moving into coaching one day.

MacGinty out for four months with knee injury

BRISTOL fly-half AJ MacGinty is to miss the next four months with a knee injury that has required surgery.

Jenkins excited to get back in action

BY his own admission, it’s been a ‘painful’ watch for Dafydd Jenkins so far this season.

Diamond is happy to stick with Newcastle

STEVE Diamond has committed himself to Newcastle longterm, as long he is wanted by the new owners when Semore Kurdi sells his stake in the Falcons.

McCall: That was horrible and ugly

THUNDERSTRUCK Mark McCall urged his Saracens side to get off the canvas after they were handed their worst Premiership defeat by rampant Bath.

I always wanted to play an exciting form of rugby

THERE were periods of my career where I felt like I was playing well enough to earn a shot with England. However, if you look at the way England’s gone, even with Marcus Smith now, he gets taken off when he is playing fantastic rugby just because he’s more of a flair player and as a result has a stigma attached.

England must find a way to deliver

WITH Christmas fast approaching, it’s time for us all to look forward to better things and hope we achieve them.

I've still got plenty to give, says Beaumont

JOSH Beaumont prepares to put his body on the festive front line again in the Sale cause revealing his biggest “regret” has been not winning an England cap.

Saracens fight back to overcome Bears

SARACENS secured a pulsating victory over a Hannah Botterman-inspired Bristol Bears to move to within a point of the summit of the table.

Hopkins in snatch it

AFTER the resignation of their popular head coach Toby Booth earlier in the week, Ospreys were given a huge boost when replacement Iestyn Hopkins crashed over with the clock in overtime to condemn their fiercest rivals to yet another defeat in Swansea.

No Mostert? That's got to be a mistake

HERE'S a funny thing: one of the more prominent rugby sites on the world wide web super information highway thingy has just published its list of the 100 best players in the sport. And no, the Spring-bok lock Franco Mostert isn't in it. ALLOWED

Tompkins hits the 200-mark for Saracens

MARK McCall has hailed Nick Tompkins, who makes his 200th appearance today for Saracens against champions Northampton at StoneX Stadium, as the epitome of a player the club aims to produce.

Anguish for Chiefs as Sale march on

GEORGE Ford’s educated right boot proved hugely instrumental as Sale subjected rock-bottom Exeter to yet more misery and gloom.

Rampaging Bears tear Tigers apart

BRISTOL produced a memorable display of attacking rugby which left Leicester thoroughly shaken and stirred.

England's outsiders deserve a chance niveste cu

IT’S just six weeks before the start of the 2025 Six Nations, and since Steve Borthwick became England head coach his main message to the media has been we want to get better. However, by the end of the autumn series, Borthwick had become a bit more critical, saying that England were not fit enough, and were not carrying what they had been doing in training into matches.

Defeats will spur us on - Randall

HARRY Randall believes Bristol’s two Champions Cup defeats against Leinster and La Rochelle this month will help them in their quest to win the Premiership for the first time.

Steward leads calls for Cheika to stay at Tigers

MICHAEL Cheika will hold talks with Leicester after Christmas over his future having signed a one-year contract with the East Midlands club.

Speedster Ollie ends the year on a high

OLLIE Sleightholme will not be among those glad to see the back of 2024 – a year in which he made his England debut, marked the birth of his daughter, Lyra, and won the Premiership with Northampton.

Willis: I'm loving my life with Toulouse

WHILE some sides would consider the tag of defending champions as a target on their backs, it appears Toulouse see it more as a badge of honour having started their European campaign in ominous fashion.

Call to axe Sweeney 'as soon as possible'

BILL Sweeney’s tenure as RFU chief executive is in a precarious position after Bill Beaumont’s announcement as an interim RFU Board Chairman resulted in increased unrest among over 200 clubs calling for a Special General Meeting.