“IF YOU any good ideas, give them to me,” said Philippe Saint-Andre in the aftermath of Saturday’s Six Nations defeat to England. The coach of France was responding to a…
Blogs
RBS 6 Nations: Lions Watch – Round 3
THE FURTHER we wade into the 6 Nations the clearer the Lions picture becomes. After the latest matches, Rugby World’s Round 1 picks of Lion O’Driscoll, Owen Farrell, Stuart Hogg,…
Silly season revisited: Seven more surprising signings
ONCE THE big announcements started, it was hard to stop. Like a snowball rolling down a High Street in February, the rumours gathered pace while more and more players decided…
RBS 6 Nations: Ireland analysis: Round 3
SOMETIMES THE stats do lie. If you didn’t know the score at Murrayfield on Sunday and were just handed the match data afterwards, everything would suggest that Ireland had beaten…
RBS 6 Nations: England analysis: Round 3
ENGLAND TOOK a giant step towards their first Grand Slam in a decade with a 23-13 victory over France. The most important statistic is that Stuart Lancaster's men found a…
RBS 6 Nations: Scotland analysis: Round 3
ON SUNDAY there were so many numbers being thrown around, but the shock of it all was that it was Ireland, rather than Scotland, whose number was up. Heads spun…
RBS 6 Nations match review: Scotland 12 – 8 Ireland
LAST TIME Scotland won two Six Nations matches on the bounce, Greig Laidlaw was 15 years old. That was in 2001, since when Scotland have only won more than one…
RBS 6 Nations match review: England 23-13 France
WILL CARLING said it this week – forget the form guide, every Six Nations match is a huge hurdle. France finally turned up at this championship and England were made…
RBS 6 Nations match review: Italy 9-26 Wales
WALES TRAVELLED to Rome with a fragile confidence but they will have returned from their Italian sojourn with more than a little gladiatorial swagger about them. In dank, wet conditions,…
RBS 6 Nations: Laying down the Lawes
HIS STUDS had barely begun to sink into the sodden, windswept turf of the Aviva Stadium before the robust Courtney Lawes was damaged by the more compact figure of Rob…