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Posted 19 days ago
THERE WILL undoubtedly have been roars of delight as Newcastle Falcons clambered out of the Championship at the first time of asking, but for one man watching Falcons 31-24 victory over Bedford Blues in the play-off second leg – winning with an aggregate score of 49-33 – there would have been a hefty sigh.
Posted 22 days ago
THERE ARE still moments when Antonie Claassen has to pinch himself. Can it really be true? A French international and in the final of the Top 14? “It is hard to believe at times,” says the South African-born No8. “This time last year I was at about the lowest point of my career and now here I am, I’ve played for France and I’m about to play in my first Top 14 final. I couldn’t have dreamt of a better season.”
Posted 26 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 26 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 29 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 29 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 34 days ago
IT’S A funny old game, rugby, as Jamie Noon will testify. Son of Yorkshire, servant of Newcastle and now stalwart of Brive, the former England centre brings down the curtain on his professional career on Sunday, in Bordeaux of all places, about as far removed from Goole as you could wish to find. True, they’re both ports, but there’s not much sun, and even less wine, in the Yorkshire town where Noon was born 34 years ago.
Posted 36 days ago
LEEDS FAILED to end Newcastle’s bid to bounce back into the Aviva Premiership at Kingston Park on Sunday. After 160 minutes of rugby The Falcons, although out-scored two tries to one by the resurgent Yorkshiremen, progressed to the final by virtue of a 34-30 aggregate scoreline.
Posted 40 days ago
IT IS awards season and whether you agree with the esteemed panels or punters’ votes, there are a few players carrying off more gongs than Daniel Day Lewis. Ulster’s Nick Williams was the talk of the Celts, with the brutish No 8 claiming the RaboDirect Pro12 players’ Player of the Season as well as the same award from the Irish Rugby Union Players’ Association, a fillip for the wrecking-ball breakaway before tonight’s Pro12 semi-final against Scarlets.
Posted 40 days ago
PLAY-OFF RUGBY is as nerve shredding as it is rewarding. Months of hard work can be undone in one high-pressure showdown. It is completely different to regular-season rugby and for the four teams participating in the RaboDirect Pro12 semi-finals, winning the whole thing would mean a change in league fortunes.
