France

  • July 4, 2012

FIRST THE good news. Five years from now rugby fans will no longer be required to trudge out to the Stade de France every time France play a home international.…

  • June 28, 2012

FREDDIE'S BACK! Just a week after we were pondering the future of French flair, Frederic Michalak orchestrated a thumping 49-10 win for France in Tucuman of all places. Not many…

Jonny Wilkinson

  • May 18, 2012

A RATHER drab and uninspiring final with Biarritz able to ensure their Heineken Cup qualification thanks to the boot of Dimitri Yachvili in wet conditions at the Stoop. They were…

Mike Phillips Bayonne

  • May 3, 2012

By Gavin Mortimer TWO ROUNDS of the Top 14 to go and down at the foot of the table it’s looking tight. Lyon are doomed, that much is sure, even…

Nathan Hines

  • April 27, 2012

Bordeaux is famed for its wine but this weekend it’ll be the smell of rugby players’ sweat filling the air rather than the fruity aroma of a good red. Clermont…

Shane Geraghty

  • April 12, 2012

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…

Alex Cuthbert

  • March 17, 2012

Wales won a third Grand Slam in eight seasons at the Millennium Stadium to equal the achievement of the Seventies greats. Alex Cuthbert, fast becoming a key member of this…

  • March 16, 2012

If ‘revenge’ for the semi-final loss to France in October wasn’t enough motivation for the Wales squad, Mervyn Davies’ sad passing will ensure the atmosphere in the Millennium Stadium is…