AFTER SEVEN practice games, culminating with the decidedly docile Rebels as well as a test match, you’d have thought that the battle for the back-row would be all but resolved.…
Blogs
Lions 2013: Babies, boots and breakdowns
WHAT A few days it’s been. The stories have been coming so thick and fast Down Under…
Lions 2013 Player Profile: Tom Court
COURT has been a regular in the Ireland squad since February 2009 and has accumulated 32 caps, but only eight Tests starts. The Australia-born prop converted from shot-putting to rugby…
Lions 2013: 5 Things We’ve Learned. Australia v Lions – First Test
THE LIONS secured an agonisingly narrow, but vitally important 23-21 win in the opening test against the Wallabies. It was a game full of heart-stopping drama which ended Warren Gatland’s…
Lions 2013: The first Test is here and nothing prepares you for it
MOVIES ABOUT sports invariably get it wrong. It’s the montage. Athletes are shown muddied and broken, scuttling around performing seemingly impossible tasks over and over until the actions actually become…
Summer tours: After some bum notes, Scotland can end on song
WHEN SCOTLAND’S head coach and soon-to-be director of rugby says: "We have no-one else," when the team’s No.8 goes down, it can send a shiver down Scots spines. That one…
Lions 2013: Five First Test matchups to get excited about
WHEN SATURDAY comes, it comes with hand grenades in its pockets and it is looking for a hug. You’ll embrace it. Undoubtedly you will feel every blow and every collision…
Diary of a new academy recruit in NZ – Part One
Dan Ward-Smith, the former England back-row and Inside Running Academy Manager, tells us how Rugby World competition winner Ken Murray is enjoying his first few weeks in New Zealand…
Summer tours: All Blacks set to end Philippe Saint-Andre’s terrible year
IT'S NOT much fun being a French fan at the moment. Humiliated last Saturday against the All Blacks, France have already lost the three Test series and are playing for…
Lions 2013: Warren Gatland’s Test selection and what the stats say
HEAD COACHES never have it easy, but the selections are made now and we know who will be facing off between the Lions and the Wallabies. Was it the right…