It is futile and immature to add imaginary points onto a scoreboard, but sometimes the exercise helps emphasise a message – so here goes. England were four passes away from…
Northampton Saints
Saints and Sinners: The weekend’s talking points
The Saints That’s the Wade to do it Christian Wade gave Stuart Lancaster a timely reminder of his try-scoring prowess with a superb try for Wasps against Saracens in the…
Six Nations player watch: Jamie Roberts, Racing Métro and Wales
Brace yourselves, because the beginning of the Six Nations will inevitably bring a torrent of clichés. And the majority of them always seem to concern France. According to well-worn maxims,…
Six Nations: Who should be No 1 for England against Wales?
READING DOWN the list of names as England announced their training squad for the Six Nations opener against Wales at the Millennium Stadium on 6 February, it becomes apparent that…
Rugby statistics: Tracking England player burn-out
With a World Cup approaching, expect much talk of growing the game and new commercial opportunities. Potential showpiece events such as the winners of Super Rugby and the European Champions…
Saints and Sinners: The weekend’s talking points
The Saints Tame Tiger Measured and diplomatic are not words you might readily associate with the Leicester Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill. A fiery player in his day, he…
Five Things we learned in October
Australia v Barbarians. Take a bow I feel sorry for whichever producer was tasked with producing the highlights package for the Barbarians v Australia game. Cutting that down to 15…
Saints and Sinners: The weekend’s talking points
The Saints Centre of attention Glasgow Warriors made the rest of Europe sit up and take notice as they put to the sword a Bath side which has been earning…
Premiership player of the weekend: James Wilson, Northampton
Success tends to affect a team in one of two ways. Either self-satisfaction sets in and complacency results, or the taste of triumph inspires hunger for a repeat. After a…
Saints and Sinners: The weekend’s talking points
The Saints Final flourish There are some people who still don’t like to see playoffs decide league titles, but without them we wouldn’t have dramatic occasions like Saturday’s Aviva Premiership…