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Posted 25 days ago
“AMBUSH AT the Allianz” could be a way of describing the Aviva Premiership semi-final between Northampton Saints and Saracens. That would do a disservice to Saints, though, who maintained an impressive level of defence, breakdown abuse and thumping counter-runs in order to topple the clear favourites at their own patch.
Posted 25 days ago
STAYIN’ ALIVE by the Bee Gees was a late 70s sentiment so powerful that it generated an eponymous follow-up movie to Saturday Night Fever in which John Travolta hustles to become a Broadway star. Fast forward through a few decades and the funky lines of “Feel the city breakin’, and ev’rybody shakin’, and we’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive” could well describe Dublin this Saturday as several British and Irish Lions give their all to win the the RaboDirect Pro12 title.
Posted 25 days ago
RUGBY SEVENS is known for its pace and excitement and now it is attempting to steal the limelight away from its bigger 15-man rival by being part of Rio Olympics in 2016 after the sport’s absence of a century from the Olympic movement. Brazil took their first bow in the 2012/2013 HSBC World Sevens Series in Hong Kong.
Posted 28 days ago
NEWCASTLE HAVE one foot back in the Aviva Premiership following their 9-18 win over Bedford in the first leg of the Championship final at Goldington Road on Thursday night. But Falcons’ head coach Dean Richards was quick to point out that the job was far from done: “We said that we would come up here and put in a workmanlike performance, and that is exactly what we did,” Richards told the Falcons’ website.
Posted 28 days ago
WHAT’S ALL the fuss about? Or put another way: what’s so different about what Delon Armitage did to Clermont’s Brock James from what Josh Lewsey did to Damian Traille during the 2007 World Cup semi-final? Remember that? England’s erudite winger dotted down in the second minute, exploiting the Frenchman’s inexperience at full-back.
Posted 28 days ago
GREEK THEATRE is fabled for its two set genres of play, the tragedy and comedy. In sport, as in life, though, there can be both elements coming together in a beautifully sweet moment during an incredibly sad time. In Scotland the hope could well be that the super serious and the chortle inducing come together in their rugby structure.
Posted 28 days ago
THE PRESSURE on Will Genia and James Horwill may be great as we slide towards the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, but not for the reasons many would expect. On Saturday, as the Waratahs crashed against the wild Brumbies of Canberra in the Super 15, Test hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau took a knee with a broken forearm.
Posted 29 days ago
THE NAMES of yesteryear’s Lions heroes roll off the tongue with consummate ease. Way before the latest promotional offering, when they stepped aboard a galleon set sail for Australia, dressed in late-19thcentury attire, JPR Williams and Willie John McBride became synonymous with the British and Irish Lions.
Posted 32 days ago
DUBLIN WILL be a certain shade of yellow or red come Saturday evening after two very familiar French foes do battle in the Heineken Cup final. If Clermont Auvergne’s more outspoken players are to be believed, the drawn game between Clermont and Toulon in April was one that Toulon were lucky to keep a grip on, despite the fact that the Vulcans fielded a second-string.
Posted 32 days ago
DESPITE THEIR illustrious history, their garish attire and their hunkier than thou personnel, Stade Francais are undoubtedly the underdogs going into tonight’s Amlin Challenge Cup final in Dublin.
The runaround at the RDS not only represents a chance to win a European trophy for the first time in the Parisien’s history, but also offers the 2007 Top 14 champions an opportunity to make it into the Heineken Cup next season.
