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Posted 16 days ago
THIS IS your chance to see who will be next to lift the Bouclier de Brennus at Stade de France on Saturday 1 June. TV5MONDE – the international French-language channel that broadcasts Top 14 matches live in the UK – has a pair of VIP seats to the final to give away in this great competition, as well as return UK travel, two night’s accommodation in Paris and all transfers.
Posted 34 days ago
THERE’LL BE a new face in the Top 14 next season, captained by an old face , and an English one at that. Former Bristol flanker Joe El-Abd joined Oyonnax last summer after three seasons with Toulon, a stint on the Cote d’Azur that had him sharing a dressing room with some of the greats of the game: Jonny Wilkinson, Sonny Bill Williams, George Smith and Tana Umaga to name but a few.
Posted 141 days ago
JONNY WILKINSON brought down the curtain on 2012 in fine style, signing off with a 26-point haul as Toulon crushed Perpignan 46-13 and consolidated their position as the Top 14’s dominant side in the first half of the season. Toulon have won 12 of their 14 matches, giving them a seven point lead at the top of the table over Clermont with reigning champions Toulouse lying third a further three points adrift.
Posted 246 days ago
THEY SAY Lourdes is where you go in search of a miracle cure, but if you’re a thirty-something Englishman Toulon seems to be the place in France that has healing properties. We know all about Jonny Wilkinson, rejuvenated since he left Newcastle for the Cote d’Azur in 2009, and Simon Shaw has had a second wind since he quit Wasps for Toulon 12 months ago.
Posted 275 days ago
DOWN IN Perpignan Luke Charteris isn’t hard to miss. At 6ft 9in and 20st, and with that fair Celtic skin of his, he stands out a mile in the Catalan city where people tend to be shorter, stockier and slightly more bronzed. Not that the Wales lock minds the attention. “I’m loving it down here,” he tells Rugby World.
Posted 281 days ago
By Gavin Mortimer, Rugby World writer
THE OLYMPICS are over and the football season is about to get underway. But don’t worry, it’s not all depressing news on the sports front. The 2012-13 rugby season is just round the corner in the British Isles while over in France the new Top 14 campaign kicks off this weekend.
You have to feel for…
Posted 337 days ago
IN CASE you missed it what with all the misery surrounding the Home Nations narrow defeats at the weekend, France also suffered at the hands of the southern hemisphere. Their 23-20 loss to Argentina in Cordoba was Les Bleus eighth defeat in 11 matches against the Pumas, writes Gavin Mortimer.
France have the chance to level the two-Test series this Saturday…
Posted 357 days ago
AS THE Home Nations gear up for Down Under, across the Channel in France the Top 14 is coming to the boil, writes Gavin Mortimer.
The French domestic season is a bit like Simon Shaw’s career in that one wonders if it will ever end. Ten months after the 2011-12 campaign began we have four clubs left standing.
Saturday’s semi-final pits the…
Posted 364 days ago
IN FRANCE they call them ‘les barrages’, in English we’d call them ‘play-offs’; perhaps the best description is the Top 14 quarter-finals, which is in effect what unfolds on Saturday when Castres host Montpellier and Racing Metro visit Toulon, writes Gavin Mortimer.
At stake is a semi-final place the following weekend with the winner of the first tie facing Toulouse and…
Posted 406 days ago
NO DOUBT about it, Shane Geraghty’s stint in Brive has been eventful, writes Gavin Mortimer. The 25-year-old was to the fore again on Sunday, steering the unfashionable French club into the semi-finals of the Amlin Challenge Cup courtesy of a 15-11 defeat of the Scarlets. As usual Geraghty made sure his shock of blond hair was noticed, not just by…
