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Posted 37 days ago
IT’S QUIET, drinking in the last chance saloon. The barman has gone home and told London Welsh to lock up on their way out. Because, unless someone from the Championship can defeat unbeaten Newcastle; and someone who would also fail the Premiership criteria, the saloon door will swing closed and the Kassam lights will go out for rugby.
Posted 39 days ago
RUSSIAN RUGBY has got one up on the Americans – the first rugby player in space. That’s what they’re claiming anyway after cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky welcomed dignitaries at the Sevens World Cup draw in Moscow via a space link with the International Space Station. Click below to see his great ball control…
Posted 43 days ago
CAUGHT BETWEEN the Devil and a deep red rage, Nathan Hines angered the people of Perpignan in 2009 by skipping the Top 14 final in order to travel to South Africa with the British and Irish Lions. That year Perpignan triumphed without the oversized lock, besting Clermont Auvergne, Hines current club, 22-13.
Posted 43 days ago
LAST WEEKEND was a rip-roaring weekend of European rugby, with the action starting on a Thursday evening with Gloucester v Biarritz and finishing as the sun set on Sunday evening with a Jonny Wilkinson-inspired Toulon edging past a valiant Leicester.
We’ve brought you a little picture gallery, to show you the best of the action, enjoy…
Posted 44 days ago
SO NOW we all know. You, me and every rugby player in France. As Midi Olympique revealed in Monday’s edition Jonathan Sexton will be pocketing €55,000 [£47,000] a month next season playing for Racing Metro. That will make the Ireland fly-half the best paid player in the Top 14.
Posted 44 days ago
A CHAMPIONSHIP club is guaranteed a place in this year’s final of the British and Irish Cup; and it is little surprise that they will meet one of the Irish Provincial ‘A’ sides. Although this was principally a British and Irish Cup weekend for the five Championship sides who had made it through to the knock-out stages, one re-arranged league encounter leaves two of the four Championship play-off places wide open.
Posted 45 days ago
CLERMONT AUVERGNE demonstrated just why they are the favourites to lift the Heineken Cup this year as they clinically saw off Montpellier. Rugby World, however, has decided to pinpoint a few individuals, rather than teams, who stood out over the weekend.
Posted 49 days ago
THE NEWS that George North is to leave his homeland to ply his trade in Northampton may cause some hand wringing in Wales, but there is scope to consider another viewpoint. Indeed, there may even be a case for jealousy with regards to Welsh rugby’s civil war.
Posted 49 days ago
GIVEN THE intelligent, unfussy rugby instincts that characterise his game, it comes as no surprise that Alex Goode also possesses a pretty precise memory.
Describing a short sequence an hour into his first Test start at Port Elizabeth 10 months ago – the last time he faced Springbok scrum half Ruan Pienaar – the Saracens and England full-back offers a razor-sharp recollection.
Posted 50 days ago
COMPARED TO the chill winds that have been blowing through Leicester of late, Toulon on Sunday will feel positively balmy for the English club. Spring has been slow in showing its face even on the Cote D’Azur but temperatures of 15 degrees make a mockery of the sub-zero conditions in England. But the Tigers can expect the mercury to rise on Sunday evening when they emerge at the Stade Mayol to take on Toulon in their eagerly-awaited Heineken Cup quarter-final.
