Click:bearing manufacturer Early concerns were that Ireland’s victory might have come at a cost but Joe Schmidt allayed fears over the condition of Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray and Keith Earls, all of whom finished with niggles. Murray stayed on and was walking freely on the ankle he twisted towards the end while the other two…
Month: March 2019
Scotland must keep cool heads against England, says Gordon Reid
The precarious balance in Test rugby between keeping a cool head and being up for the fight is one which Scotland have not always been able to find come Calcutta Cup time, according to Gordon Reid. The London Irish loosehead prop believes that being emotionally overwrought was one reason his team lost so heavily at…
London Irish face fight for their future beyond relegation battle
Declan Kidney does not need to be a qualified maths teacher to appreciate London Irish’s number in the Premiership is all but up. On Saturday Ireland’s 2009 grand slam winning coach takes charge of his first match since being appointed Exiles’ technical consultant but victory over a Gloucester side that is starting to live up…
Eddie Jones says England are ‘coming to a peak’ after win over South Africa
Eddie Jones says he would love to arrange another Test against South Africa this Saturday, following England’s stress-relieving 25-10 victory against the Springboks. The visitors will fly home as series losers but the head coach believes his team showed crucial signs of improvement in their final game. Assisted by a 14-6 penalty count in their…
Exeter and Saracens show pedigree to promise spectacular grand finale
Major finals featuring the competition’s two best teams peaking at precisely the right moment are surprisingly few in number. Not this year. When it really counted Saracens and Exeter performed as well as they have done all season in their respective semi-finals on Saturday, paving the way for a rip-roaring Premiership finale at Twickenham. If…
Gareth Anscombe insists Wales were not denied victory by TMO ruling
Gareth Anscombe is adamant that he should have been awarded a first-half try but does not believe the failure of the television match official, Glenn Newman, to award it was the difference between victory and defeat for Wales. Anscombe appeared to have beaten Anthony Watson to the bounce in the 24th minute but Newman ruled…
Ireland prepare for Scotland and chance to secure the Six Nations a week early
Click:martial arts uniform kungfu wushu It could be over by Saturday evening. Ireland, indeed, could all but slam the door on anyone else’s chances of the title by mid-afternoon. If they beat Scotland with a bonus point, England will have to win with a bonus point in rain-lashed Paris just to retain a mathematical interest….
Scotland target victory in Italy and Six Nations third place
Scotland start the final day of the Six Nations in a familiar position, one place off the bottom of the table, but victory in Rome, where Italy have not won in the championship since 2013, could see them rise to third and finish in the top half for the first time since 2006. Gregor Townsend’s…
‘In a way, I’m lucky’: Doddie Weir on MND, rugby and his crusade for a cure
In a famous scene from Living with Lions, the seminal documentary about the 1997 victory in South Africa, Doddie Weir is told his tour is over. “Ah well,” says the big lock, his eyes betraying a deeper pain than his grimace as the doctor flexes his knee, smashed by some Mpumalanga stormtrooper. “We’ve had a…
European Challenge Cup: Anscombe boots Cardiff Blues to last-gasp victory
This was already a decent sporting week for Cardiff even before Gareth Anscombe lined up the angled 79th-minute penalty which ultimately yielded only the second Welsh triumph in the 22-year history of the European Challenge Cup. With their footballers promoted to the Premier League and their rugby players victorious on a breathless Basque evening, the…