French Focus: Top 14 Final

THE FRENCH domestic season reaches its climax on Saturday evening as Toulon take on Toulouse in front of a full house at the Stade de France. Reigning champions Toulouse are…

French focus: Top 14 Semi-final play-offs

AS THE Home Nations gear up for Down Under, across the Channel in France the Top 14 is coming to the boil, writes Gavin Mortimer. The French domestic season is…

London Welsh were crowned kings of the Championship last night at the Kassam Stadium — a palace deemed unfit for the round table of Premiership rugby by the RFU, writes…

Blues coach Pat Lam welcomes back a couple of players from the squad’s lengthy injured list to the starting 22 this week. Fullback Rudi Wulf returns to the side after…

Kieran Read back for Crusaders

ALL BLACKS loose forward Kieran Read returns to the Crusaders starting line-up to face the Highlanders. Read sustained a bruised pelvis during their 28-19 defeat to the Rebels, nearly three…

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  By Bea Asprey, Rugby World Writer  In a nutshell Shane Williams said farewell to professional rugby with a trademark 78th minute try to win the RaboDirect Pro12 Final. The…

By Owain Jones, Rugby World Editor In a nutshell HARLEQUINS CELEBRATED their first Premiership title beating Leicester 30-23 in a fine advertisment for the Aviva Premiership at a sweltering Twickenham.…

IN FRANCE they call them ‘les barrages’, in English we’d call them ‘play-offs’; perhaps the best description is the Top 14 quarter-finals, which is in effect what unfolds on Saturday…