COMPARED TO the chill winds that have been blowing through Leicester of late, Toulon on Sunday will feel positively balmy for the English club. Spring has been slow in showing…
European Champions Cup
Smash! Wayne Barnes gets hit in the face
IT’S A tough life being a referee – hundreds of decisions to make, crowds jeering you, coaches blaming you. There was an even more painful moment for Wayne Barnes recently.…
Statistics: Heineken Cup’s most effective players
MUCH LIKE younglings obeying a magical, umbrella-toting nanny, we have packed the Heineken Cup away in its box until March. We have no use for it when we have the…
Heineken Cup Round Six: Winners and Losers
AFTER THE final pool matches at the weekend we now know the quarter-finalists, who drops into the Amlin Challenge Cup and who goes back home, wondering what could have been…
Heineken Cup Round 5: Winners and Losers
WE ARE now left with one last round in the Heineken Cup pool stages, with teams not so much balanced on a knife’s edge as trying to clamber onto the…
Heineken Cup Round 5: Five must-watch clashes
SPORTING CLICHES are often abused. Every tournament has a Group of Death and every player is weighed and measured to see if they will be found inferior or capable of…
New Year predictions: 2013
GET THE chopping block ready. Remove the ceremonial stretching-rings. It's time to put my neck on the line. The season has, so far, provided very few genuine shocks. However, as…
Heineken Cup: Winners and Losers
EVERY YEAR, as Christmas drew closer, my school rugby team would embark upon a festive fitness regime. Regardless of how much frost there was, we would work on early morning…
The French are flying in the Heineken Cup
IT'S THE half-way stage of the Heineken Cup and for the French clubs things are looking good. With three of the six pool matches gone, only Biarritz of the seven…
Hit and miss for French in Heineken Cup
TWO ROUNDS gone and four to go in the group stage of the Heineken Cup, and while some clubs are looking good others (no names, Edinburgh) are still looking for…