By Alex Shaw Everyone in the rugby world knows the name Maro Itoje. The 21-year-old has been riding the crest of a wave that has grown, exponentially, over the last…
England
England advance while the spectre of the All Blacks lurk in the background
Napoleon famously said he would rather have lucky generals in his ranks than good ones and Eddie Jones definitely both falls into both categories in a rugby sense. He is…
Blackadder prefers to look to Bath’s future rather than past glories
If you can work out what the next number in this sequence is then you should probably get a job writing a horoscope column in a newspaper or apply for…
Eddie Jones sets sights on Springboks to arrest losing run
When England met up at their recent training camp in Teddington, so the story goes, Eddie Jones walked into the room and told the 40-plus blokes there that none of…
The greatest wingers of all time: Rory Underwood
Major teams: Leicester, Bedford Country: England Test span: 1984-96 England caps: 85 (85 starts) Lions caps: 6 (6 starts) Test points: 215 (50T) Born in Middlesborough in 1963 to a…
Gill Burns
After England won the World Cup in Paris in 2014, there was a lovely snapshot a few hours later when the victors mingled with supporters at a pub around the…
Maggie Alphonsi
Maggie Alphonsi made as big an impact in raising the profile of women’s rugby as she did when tackling opponents in matches. Within the game, the flanker had long been…
The greatest centres of all time: Jeff Butterfield
Major teams: Northampton Country: England Test span: 1953-59 England caps: 28 (28 starts) Lions caps: 4 (4 starts) Test points: 27 (8T, 1DG) Jeff Butterfield was a stylish centre who…
The greatest hookers of all time: Peter Wheeler
Major teams: Leicester Country: England Test span: 1975-84 England caps: 48 (48 starts) Lions caps: 7 (7 starts) Test points: 0 Adopting the role of chief executive at Leicester…
Fran Cotton
Brain and brawn combined to make Fran Cotton an all-time great. The son of a good rugby league player, young Fran took up union at grammar school, was capped by…