By Alex Shaw The 12 Aviva Premiership clubs will be writing their letters to Santa Claus this week packed with requests to help them take the next step both domestically…
Tournaments
Saints and Sinners: The weekend’s talking points
THE SAINTS Finn Russell With Johnny Sexton, George Ford and Owen Farrell all strong options for the Lions, Finn Russell must still be viewed as a ‘bolter’ in the race…
Dylan Hartley polarises opinion but his ban signals good news for England
Depending on which side of the fence you sit on, and no-one is sitting on it, Dylan Hartley is either a brilliant England captain who has made the odd mistake,…
Ireland: Four proud provinces stand up in Europe
By Alex Shaw Four proud provinces. That’s the mantra of Irish rugby and it certainly lived up to that billing this past weekend. There were a lot of premature European…
Saints and Sinners: The weekend’s talking points
The Saints Jamison Gibson-Park Leinster’s Kiwi scrum-half is a hero for his province after he conjured their bonus-point try out of nothing six minutes from the end of their Champions…
Five rugby talking points from November
Six Nations finally gets bonus points November saw the Northern Hemisphere’s premier test competition finally adopt the bonus point system. It is long overdue. Many will argue that the new…
Bristol Rugby: Was Andy Robinson shown the door too soon?
It is ironic that the Springboks were in London when Andy Robinson lost his job as director of rugby with Bristol – ten years ago it was the South Africans…
Saints and Sinners: The weekend’s talking points
The Saints Conor Murray and Ireland Are there enough superlatives in the dictionary to describe Ireland’s 40-29 win over New Zealand? It was their first victory over the Kiwis in…
Mass exodus predicted at Stade Francais
Why are so many of the Stade Francais Top 14-winning squad set to leave the Parisian club?
Downtime with… All Blacks great Dan Carter
Former All Blacks fly-half Dan Carter on Racing 92, rats and ‘The Rock’