England have scored 21 tries in an autumn series that will give them grounds for optimism when they challenge France for their Six Nations title in the spring. Simon Middleton’s Red Roses crossed the Irish line seven times at Twickenham, with the wing Lydia Thompson scoring a superb second-half hat-trick. England are playing an expansive…
Author: THEJOHNANTONIOBLOG
Lions’ 2021 tour preparations take big hit in remodelled rugby union season
Click:tapered roller bearing The future of the British & Irish Lions is under threat after they emerged as the biggest losers from the remodelled English domestic season, which confirmed the tourists will have one less week to prepare for the 2021 series against South Africa. The 2021 tour has been cut to five weeks from…
Bath’s Alex Davies misses late penalty in a 10-try draw with Wasps
Bath want to replay last week’s Champions Cup defeat to Toulouse and their owner, Bruce Craig, would doubtless love this result to be amended as well. On balance neither side deserved to lose a frenetic 10-try thriller but, for the second Saturday in a row, a late Bath penalty miss deprived them of a crucial…
England call up Charlie Ewels as cover for injured Courtney Lawes
Maro Itoje has not been deemed fit enough to take a full part in England’s training camp in Oxford this week and Charlie Ewels has been called up in place of the injured Courtney Lawes. Eddie Jones is hopeful that Itoje will recover from a knee injury in time to face Italy on Saturday week…
Gloucester out after Munster’s Joey Carbery eclipses Danny Cipriani
Gloucester did not so much bow out of Europe last night as sink without trace on another bruising evening for English self-esteem. Munster may not be quite the force of old but they were still comfortably too strong for the Cherry and Whites, this bonus-point victory all but ensuring the Irish province a place in…
Wales surprised after France mix brute force and flair in Six Nations opener
Wales have been surprised by France’s selection for the Six Nations opener in Paris on Friday. They had been expecting a beast of a pack and duly got one with an average weight heading towards 19st but were wrong-footed by an element of beauty behind, where the bulldozing centre Mathieu Bastareaud does not even make…
Siya Kolisi, captain and symbol of South African rugby’s progress
There are people who believe Nelson Mandela died years before he really did, who swear they remember reading about his funeral in the 1980s, hearing it on the radio, even watching it on TV. It is such a common mistake that the phenomenon’s got its own name: the “Mandela effect”. Time was when that phrase…
Scarlets sunk by late penalty try as Racing 92 triumph in the rain
This 80 minutes will not make any Champions Cup highlights reel, and the fact the Scarlets went down to a last-gasp defeat made a drab evening worse still for their head coach, Wayne Pivac. Racing 92 emerged with the spoils as their huge pack – to which the Scarlets had stood up impressively – won…
Passing of Dr Z adds extra motivation for rugby Eagles in Chicago
One by one they have gone, and this week the last of them took his final breath. Paul Zimmerman, known to anyone who ever took a passing interest in the NFL as Dr Z, has died. He was 86, and had lived with aphasia for the past decade. What a cruel fate to befall a…