What's new in this season's English top flight?
Gallagher Premiership
The players missing openers in the Aviva Premiership and Pro12
THE WAITING is almost done. We are just over a week away from the opening days of the Aviva Premiership and the RaboDirect Pro12 and already we are condemning some…
Expect captaincy changes in the Aviva Premiership and Pro12
CAPTAINS SAY a lot about your team. You can pick the biggest name in your squad or you can pick the old-stager who has been there, done it, torn the…
A fresh challenge for Nick Evans
By Katie Field NICK EVANS added an extra five-kilometre run to his pre-season training programme, and it was a run with a difference. The Harlequins fly-half completed the Standard Chartered…
Leicester Tigers “disappointed” with result of Richard Cockerill appeal
HAD LEICESTER Tigers said: “we’re not angry, we’re just disappointed,” while spinning a ruddy-cheeked RFU spokesman towards the naughty step it would have had the same ring…
Falcons fly back into the Premiership
THERE WILL undoubtedly have been roars of delight as Newcastle Falcons clambered out of the Championship at the first time of asking, but for one man watching Falcons 31-24 victory…
Aviva Premiership final: an old-fashioned tear up
"AMBUSH AT the Allianz" could be a way of describing the Aviva Premiership semi-final between Northampton Saints and Saracens. That would do a disservice to Saints, though, who maintained an…
Lions 2013: Surviving finals and the Lions run-in
STAYIN’ ALIVE by the Bee Gees was a late 70s sentiment so powerful that it generated an eponymous follow-up movie to Saturday Night Fever in which John Travolta hustles to…
It’s awards season again…
IT IS awards season and whether you agree with the esteemed panels or punters’ votes, there are a few players carrying off more gongs than Daniel Day Lewis. Ulster’s Nick…
Knockout Know-how: The Aviva Premiership Semi-finals
AS SARACENS, Leicester, Harlequins and Northampton prepare to do battle in this weekend’s Aviva Premiership semi-finals, which set of supporters has most reason to feel optimistic?