Dan Carter may be one of the leading rugby players of any era, a World Cup winner and the record points scorer in Test rugby, but he admits to being captured by nerves as he prepares for the end of his career in Europe before moving to Japan. The New Zealand fly-half, whose three-year stint…
Author: THEJOHNANTONIOBLOG
Scarlets’ James Davies: ‘I’d rather have fun than be boring and have more Welsh caps’
Not since Llanelli’s fabled win over the All Blacks in 1972 has west Wales felt so much love for its local rugby heroes. At last there is modern-day competition for sepia-tinted legends such as Ray Gravell and Phil Bennett, particularly if the Scarlets become the first Welsh team or region to win Europe’s ultimate club…
Tom Youngs ‘under no illusions’ about Leicester-Newcastle showdown
Leicester have never failed to qualify for the Premiership play-offs since the current system was introduced in 2005-06, but defeat to Newcastle at Welford Road on Friday night would all but end that record. The Falcons are fourth in the table, two points above Leicester, and their director of rugby, Dean Richards, spent his playing…
Leinster’s James Ryan spearheads twin Irish assault on Champions Cup
It bears repeating that James Ryan, the Leinster and Ireland lock, is yet to lose a senior first-team match for club or country. It is now 19 and counting for the 21-year-old who began the season with more Ireland caps than Leinster appearances, and may finish it with a grand slam, Pro14 title and a…
New Zealand dominance remains a concern for Australian Super Rugby sides
It couldn’t possibly happen again, could it? Last year no Australian team won a single game against New Zealand opposition in Super Rugby. The Rebels’ 50-19 loss to the Hurricanes in Melbourne on Friday night has raised the alarming prospect of another trans-Tasman whitewash. Surely not, but the Kiwi sides are looking as strong as…
Leinster’s Dan Leavy: ‘The culture here is all about winning’
As Eddie Jones ponders his options at openside flanker for the summer tour to South Africa, England’s head coach could be excused for reflecting on Ireland, whose fourth choice in the position at the start of the season enjoyed a standout Six Nations and has spearheaded Leinster’s push to the European Champions Cup final. Dan…
Eddie Jones hopes inside knowledge can help England beat South Africa
Eddie Jones believes his intimate knowledge of South African rugby can help England “beat history” to claim a first away series win against the Springboks. Jones expects South Africa to be highly motivated because of “cultural issues” between the countries, highlighting a “dislike of the English”, but is sticking to his stated aim of a…
Eddie Jones seeks end to losing run for weary England in Cape Town
Preparing for the third Test in the shadow of Table Mountain has merely heightened the sense of England’s rugby players being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Even Eddie Jones has been gazing out of his hotel window in the lead-up to the season’s final game and using the view as a metaphor…
Leicester’s Ben Youngs: ‘It definitely feels like I dodged a bullet’
If the enduring image of England’s opening Six Nations victory in Italy was a quartet of Exeter players deep in celebration, oblivious to the downward spiral that was to follow, then the lingering sound was unmistakably that of Ben Youngs crying out in pain. Youngs’ tournament lasted only 10 minutes before suffering a knee injury…
Danny Cipriani is unlikely to change, and why should he?
Gloucester is less a king’s home for Danny Cipriani and more a pretender’s bolthole. The fly-half is being released by Wasps at the end of the season but instead of making an expected lucrative move to France, he is taking a pay-cut to put himself in contention for next year’s World Cup after his international…