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.

Lack of relegation is not causing a loss of edge

It’s five weeks since the moratorium on Premiership relegation was announced, and if the doom-mongers were to be believed, some teams would by now be swanning around with their players demonstrating a couldn’t-care-less attitude. We were told that the lack of ‘jeopardy’ would be damaging to the league, and that fans would lose interest, but so far nothing could be further from the truth.

Getting inside head of Gatland not easy

S0 the 2021 Six Nations is all but done and dusted and our thoughts turn afresh to Lions selection regardless of exactly what format that ‘tour’ will take.

Dusautoir feels the pain of World Cup failure

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

Premiership's treatment of Lions is a scandal

THE Premiership is on its way to becoming the biggest pariah in Rugby Union. Hallmarks of its blinkered, divisive selfishness, highlighted by its ring-fencing agenda, have surfaced again in its latest fight with the British & Irish Lions.

Lions leave space for Farrell to join the tour

WARREN Gatland has left the door open for Ireland head coach Andy Farrell to join the British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa this summer if his international commitments allow.

Maybe clubs are reason England failed, not Eddie

The European Champions Cup has reached the quarter-final stage last weekend with a mixed bag of teams from the three leagues involved.

Massimo was heart and soul of Azzurri

THE death of Massimo Cuttitta earlier this week of Covid-related issues at the age of just 54 was not only very sad in human terms but also a poignant reminder of the quality of player Italy once possessed.

Forget Six Nations form, Itoje can rattle the Boks

WHEN you think of must-go Test Lions for the 2021 series against South Africa, the first forward that comes to mind is Maro Itoje. He will be a cornerstone of the Lions in South Africa, despite not having the best Six Nations in a disappointing England side.

Prince Harry Granted Lood An Exclusive Interview!

Daniel Gallan talks to Sale Sharks lock Lood De Jager about World Cup memories

Ewers gets dogged Exeter over the line

EXETER’S famous determination enabled them to cling on to second place in the Premiership table as they pulled off the great escape after trailing for 75 minutes.

Why should Thorley pay for defending himself?

There is virtually universal support for the current clampdown on tackles involving contact with the head, but events last week must raise questions about whether the disciplinary process in the Premiership is working.

Frazzled Wasps take time out to recharge

IF EVER a game illustrated the contrasting mental states of two sides this was it – Bristol all bustle and resilience, Wasps a depleting force in need of a holiday.

Bath's belief shines through the storm

BATH’S group morale was key as the West Country side produced a superb six-try display to get their third victory from their last four matches to continue their resurgence in form.

Hogg aims to make up for Dublin howler

SCOTLAND and Ireland have become such familiar and feisty foes in recent times – today is their fifth meeting in a little over two years – that the fixture is rarely lacking spice.

Grayson's on target as Saints close it out

SALE dominated Northampton for large chunks of this bitty encounter but it was the home team’s defence and resolution which proved decisive.

I'm backing wonderful Wales all the way in Paris

In my column last week I wrote that George North, Louis Rees-Zammit and the rest of Wales’ dangerous back-three players could cause havoc in the Italian sunshine. So it proved. Italy were as bad as I expected them to be and Wayne Pivac’s side took full advantage to move to within a game of a Grand Slam.

Playmaker Theo eyes long run in the middle

THEO Brophy Clews has banished his injury woe and is ready to deliver on the talent that has long marked him down as a London Irish star of the future.

Stopwatch away! It's quality time that counts

Thanks to the “game clock” and a scrum process best measured in light-years, top-end Rugby Union matches generally last between 85 and 90 minutes – or, to put it another way, slightly longer than an England innings on a dry and dusty turner in India.

Fiji Magic's Everywhere – Except In World Cup

If you were among the sporting soothsayers who foresaw that the current breakdown laws would provoke a health and safety crisis as well as straitjacket the game and that the television match official’s seat might be better occupied by any species of bat, the following prediction will hardly come as a shock.

The chickens are coming home to roost for Eddie

VIVALDI had a thing for the four seasons, and, with England’s 2021 Six Nations campaign looking like a spring shocker, so does this column. While it may seem uncharitable to dissect Eddie Jones’ record by leaving out his turbo-charged first two years in charge, the reality is that in the four seasons from 2018 to 2021, Jones has only a 50 per cent win-loss ratio against the leading sides in the world when England play them in a competitive environment.

They're back – Chiefs smash six of the best

CRISIS? What Crisis? Chiefs hardly looked like a team with major problems as they battered Bath into six-try submission at The Rec.