Joe Marler has admitted he would love to be playing for England against Wales on Saturday but insists he has no regrets over his international retirement despite Mako Vunipola’s injury-enforced absence. England head to Cardiff light on experience at loosehead prop after Vunipola was ruled out for the rest of the Six Nations with an…
Author: THEJOHNANTONIOBLOG
Freddie Burns’ costly clanger was unforgivable, says Jeremy Guscott
Freddie Burns has been made to look a fool after his clanger cost Bath victory against Toulouse on Saturday, according to the club legend Jeremy Guscott, who also described the mistake as “unforgivable”. The Joy of Six: sporting hubris Burns looked certain to score the match-winning try in the dying minutes of the game –…
Injury worries for England after Saracens’ bruising win in Glasgow
Eddie Jones’s plans for the autumn internationals next month are in serious danger of being thrown into disarray after Billy and Mako Vunipola were among a host of England players to fall victim to injury during Saracens’ tempestuous victory against Glasgow Warriors. Billy Vunipola trudged off with 30 minutes to go and required ice on…
A decade of decline: the sad malaise in modern French rugby
On Thursday, the French rugby club Carcassonne announced that they were entering into a commercial partnership with the pornographic website Jacquie et Michel, on the grounds that they “share values of power, endurance, and vigour”. Carcassonne’s general manager, Christine Menardeau-Planchenault, explained that “as a family club” they had put limits on what Jacquie et Michel…
Ben Foden: ‘Anything that’s published about me is never very good’
“It was probably a good time to come to New York,” says Ben Foden, “because it got me away from the British media.” He catches himself and laughs. Here he is, having coffee on the corner of Bowery and Bleecker … with the British media. We have been talking about the former Sale, Northampton and…
Wales given big fright by Italy before gaining 11th straight win
Warren Gatland saw Wales given a real scare by Italy and then warned his team of potential embarrassment if they repeat a similar performance against England. There are both positives and negatives for Gatland to consider; he made 10 changes here and afterwards alluded to the fact that may have been a mistake. Still, Rome…
Conor Murray ruled out of Ireland autumn Test against New Zealand
Conor Murray will not play for Ireland against New Zealand in Dublin on Saturday in an encounter between the leading two teams in the world rankings. The Lions scrum-half, who has not played since the summer because of a neck injury, has resumed training but will make his comeback for Munster in the coming weeks….
All Blacks fearing autumn fall after Rassie Erasmus’s surprise lesson
New Zealand have looked down on the rest from the top of the world rankings for more than 10 years, but their position appears a little less secure after a Rugby Championship campaign during which they lost at home against a resurgent South Africa and avoided being doubled on Saturday only by fashioning two late…
‘I was buzzing when I heard’ – George starts in England XV to face Australia
England’s final teamsheet of the year marks a new beginning. For the first time in a major Twickenham Test against a leading nation, Jamie George has been picked at hooker in preference to a fit Dylan Hartley, while Manu Tuilagi is finally ready to rejoin the international fray off the bench for the first time…