Premiership Rugby has threatened World Rugby with legal action in an escalating row over player insurance that is set to hamper a number of nations severely, including Wales and Scotland in the buildup to next year’s World Cup. The Guardian understands Premiership Rugby on Thursday wrote to World Rugby, giving it 21 days to agree…
Author: THEJOHNANTONIOBLOG
Warren Gatland calls England’s Kyle Sinckler an ‘emotional timebomb’
Warren Gatland has responded to Eddie Jones’s attempts to wind up Wales before the Six Nations game on Saturday by describing the England tighthead Kyle Sinckler as an “emotional timebomb”. Gatland also called England’s decision to delay their journey to Cardiff until Friday afternoon as a “significant mistake” and dismissed Jones’s claim that Gatland’s current…
Saracens made to battle by Harlequins in TV thriller for US viewers
If gallant failures are as popular in the US as they are over here, then this agonising defeat for Harlequins will be a smash hit as the first Premiership match to be screened free-to-air across the pond. Billy Vunipola’s try with 10 minutes remaining settled it but Saracens were given an almighty scare at a…
‘He doesn’t play in a dinner suit’: the 25 best rugby union quotes of 2018
“Is the international game under threat? I think it is. Look at the balance sheets of some nations and you can see exactly where we stand. If you ask me as a businessman, the business side of rugby is not working. By the 2019 World Cup we need to have a blueprint for the next…
England’s co-captains still to decide who leads team out at Twickenham
Owen Farrell and Dylan Hartley are so laid-back about Eddie Jones’s move to joint leaders that they will wait until a few hours before kick-off against South Africa to decide who will lead the team on to the field, Farrell has revealed. England were due to meet the match referee Angus Gardner on the eve…
Wales turn England changing room into a theatre for Ray Gravell play
Wales have turned to Gareth Bale to ensure they maintain their winning start to the Six Nations against England at the Principality Stadium on Saturday. They were at the ground on Monday night to hear his impassioned one-man performance of one of the Welsh game’s most lauded figures, the late Ray Gravell. Not the Wales…
Lima Sopoaga: ‘Losing can affect players. I take it all quite personally’
Lima Sopoaga is not the first All Black – and will not be the last – to take time to adjust to his new surroundings. Gazing out of the window at the lashing rain whipping across the pitches of Broadstreet RFC is not the vision he was sold when he signed for Wasps as one…
No hiding place for Eddie Jones and Twickenham is getting restless
Sometimes international sport feels less like a game than a game show. Supply the right answers under pressure and you can stay. Get it wrong and you are gone. Entertain before the ad break or get the hell out of town. Twickenham, once the spiritual home of English restraint, is as obsessed these days with…
RFU appoints BOA’s Bill Sweeney as new chief executive
The Rugby Football Union has appointed Bill Sweeney as its new chief executive. Sweeney has spent five and a half years as the British Olympic Association’s chief executive and, while he has little rugby experience, does have a proven commercial track record and will be charged with guiding the RFU out of financial turmoil. Sweeney…
Michael Cheika mixes praise of Eddie Jones with dig at England’s tactics
Michael Cheika and Eddie Jones go back a long way, right to their playing days when they used to pack down together in the suburbs of Sydney for Randwick. All these years later, they still act as if they have got each other’s backs. ‘I was buzzing when I heard’ – George starts in England…