WINNING TESTS is one thing, but to do it with young, exciting players is another. For the second Test against Argentina, Stuart Lancaster has selected an explosive and sprightly backline…
Owain Jones
Lions 2013: The silliness around spying
SOMETIMES THINGS go too far. Like the private joke said aloud too often or the headlines whenever a football team scores six goals, talk of spying, spies and undercover Aussies…
Lions 2013: O’Driscoll and Roberts, side-step brothers
THEY STARTED out as Six Nations enemies, but since the 2009 British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa, centres Brian O’Driscoll and Jamie Roberts have been spilling over with…
Summer tours: Scotland’s slide before South Africa
A BEATLES B-side, Helter Skelter was said to be the song that started it all for heavy metal. “When I get to the bottom, I go back to the top…
Lions 2013: 5 Things We’ve Learned. Lions v Combined Country XV
THE BRITISH and Irish Lions racked up a perfunctory fourth consecutive win with a 64-0, ten try victory, against the Combined NSW-Queensland Country. As expected, and considering that the Country’s…
Summer tours: Four who caught the eye
MEDIA BLACKOUT on the tours of North America, South America, Japan and South Africa from the home nations could have been an unfortunate by-product of the Lions stint Down Under.…
Lions 2013: RW picks the Lions XV for the First Test
FOUR GAMES, one proper contest, and the Lions bandwagon rolls on. Every player has now been cast into the fray, bar a hamstrung Rob Kearney and jet-lagged Simon Zebo, so…
Lions 2013: Five things we’ve learned. Lions v Queensland Reds
WHILST THE British and Irish Lions have now recorded three victories on their 2013 tour, Saturday’s win against the Queensland Reds was the first of any real significance – it…
Lions 2013: Quade Cooper, the man in the middle of the storm
HIS RUGBY may be bohemian and his reputation grandiose, but Quade Cooper is not the arrogant mess many believe him to be. His flaw is that he needs the spotlight…
Lions 2013: The anniversary of Jonny Wilkinson versus Elton Flatley
ON SATURDAY the British and Irish Lions face the Queensland Reds, a team they thumped 42-8 last time they met at Ballymore 12 years ago. The ground itself became legendary…