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.…
Rugby World
Lions 2013: Alex Cuthbert’s first Test try
GEORGE NORTH’S try grabbed the headlines after the Lions’ first Test win over Australia in Brisbane, but Alex Cuthbert’s touchdown deserves praise too. It was a well-worked backs move that…
Lions 2013: Melbourne Rebels 0-35 Lions
How the Lions wrapped up a five-try victory over the Rebels
Lions 2013: Babies, boots and breakdowns
WHAT A few days it’s been. The stories have been coming so thick and fast Down Under…
Rugby Rant: Italy’s club game is dying!
ITALIAN RUGBY has sold its soul to the devil. In the name of high-level rugby, it has forgotten the club game. The development of players is now all in the…
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: First Test Australia 21-23 Lions
What a Test match! What a finish! It was nail-biting stuff. There were great tries, powerful hits, end-to-end action and plenty of drama – this is what Lions series are…
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…