IT IS, as they say, the business end of the season, with play-offs in both the Aviva Premiership and the Top 14 this weekend. The difference being that in France…
Top 14
Top 14 play-offs: Samson ready to deliver knockout blow
FOUR CONSECUTIVE play-off appearances point to a team consistently vying for the top echelons of French rugby. Yet Castres remain the quiet outsiders as the likes of Clermont and Toulon…
Win a trip to the Top 14 final!
THIS IS your chance to see who will be next to lift the Bouclier de Brennus at Stade de France on Saturday 1 June. TV5MONDE – the international French-language channel…
Heineken Cup: Clermont ready for the Red Army
MUNSTER SHOULD be afraid. Very afraid. On Saturday evening in the semi-final of the Heineken Cup they will encounter a Clermont side at the top of their game. So what…
RFU Championship: The battle for promotion
THE RHETORIC of battles is always used in professional rugby, as if the weeks of weights and hours of Xbox were shared experiences with servicemen and women garrisoned around the…
Top 14: Minnows preparing to join the sharks
THERE'LL BE a new face in the Top 14 next season, captained by an old face , and an English one at that. Former Bristol flanker Joe El-Abd joined Oyonnax…
Lions 2013: The French foreign legion
CAUGHT BETWEEN the Devil and a deep red rage, Nathan Hines angered the people of Perpignan in 2009 by skipping the Top 14 final in order to travel to South…
Sexton set to replace Wilko as top France earner
SO NOW we all know. You, me and every rugby player in France. As Midi Olympique revealed in Monday’s edition Jonathan Sexton will be pocketing €55,000 [£47,000] a month next…
Statistics: Who will be rugby’s Golden Shoe winner?
AS A nimble Tom Varndell danced up the touchline against Northampton Saints at the weekend – an act of human dressage so well timed that both teams must have choreographed…
Former Lion Tom Smith on Lyon’s bid back to Top 14
TOM SMITH was always a canny player and he’s proving pretty canny as a coach. Judging by recent events at Edinburgh that have seen the departure of the coaching staff,…