The exodus of South African players continued in the off-season, but these five teams are looking to show they are still forces to be reckoned with
Lions
Need for speed: The value of pace in rugby
BARELY FOUR minutes into England’s 2014 Twickenham Test against the All Blacks, Brad Barritt threw a looping ball to Jonny May. It was May’s second game against New Zealand but…
Lions Third Test: Five things we’ve learnt
The perfect draw It has been said that a draw is like kissing your sister. If that is the case, the third test was like kissing an adopted step sister…
The Lions remain unchanged for the Third and deciding Test
Warren Gatland has had the luxury of being able to name the same 23 players who took part in the nail-biting 24-21 win over New Zealand in Wellington. It is the…
Lions 2017: Warren Gatland gambles for must-win Second Test
The thwack was perceptible through the cold Wellington air. In amongst a throng of All Blacks on the Westpac turf, Beauden Barrett was drilling the ball 40m across field into…
Lions 16-22 Blues: The game’s key talking points
A tale of missed opportunities The Lions are becoming masters at not being able to get over the whitewash. Against the Provincial Barbarians, on four occasions, they rumbled, or spun…
Warren Gatland names 41-man Lions squad to face the All Blacks
Warren Gatland announced his 41-man British & Irish Lions squad today in West London in front of assembled media. A party of 16 Englishmen, 12 Welshmen, 11 Irishmen and two…
Six Nations: The 37-man Lions squad for New Zealand
Everyone else has had a crack at predicting Warren Gatland’s party and Test line-ups for the British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand this summer so why can’t we?…
How important is the role of the captain?
Martin Johnson always reckoned that us lot in the media made too much of the role of a captain – he said he had a team of leaders around him…
Lions bolters for 2017: Who will be Warren Gatland’s surprise packages?
As the new year dawns, we move into the second half of the 2016-17 northern hemisphere season, a season that you will all know ends in a British and Irish…