Sometimes we forget that rugby is just a game and those who play it are human beings. The outcome of Northampton’s game against Leicester at Twickenham on Saturday matters, of course, but so does raising funds for the injured Wallaby Rob Horne, whose right arm has been paralysed since last April’s fixture between the two…
Category: Rugby
Eddie Jones says old foe John Mitchell will get England thinking differently
Eddie Jones says he is testing himself by hiring the former New Zealand coach John Mitchell until the end of next year’s World Cup. Just as England’s man in charge believes there is no substitute for experience when it comes to playing in a World Cup, so he thinks successful sides are built on a…
French rugby soul-searches before Newcastle’s visit to Toulon
Newcastle’s last appearance in the European Cup was against Stade Français in Paris in the 2005 quarter-final and it is to France they travel on their reappearance this Sunday. At the start of the season, a trip to Toulon might not have presaged the happiest of returns; the club that won the tournament for three…
Kyle Eastmond try helps Leicester pin Sale to the bottom of Premiership
Few will remember this contest with affection but winning ugly, at this precise moment, is perfectly fine with Leicester. Had they lost at home to the league’s basement dwellers Sale and recorded a fourth defeat in five games a proper East Midlands crisis would have had to be declared. As it is, the Tigers now…
Matt Banahan: ‘I still don’t know why Bath let me go. It cut me deeply’
Matt Banahan will, as usual, be at Bath for their first home match of the season on Saturday but this time it will be different. His familiar and well-trodden journey from the car park to the clubhouse at the club he joined 12 years ago will involve a detour to the away dressing room. Banahan,…
Saracens win in Lyon to guarantee place in Champions Cup quarter-finals
Saracens became the first team to qualify for the quarter-finals with a bonus-point victory over Lyon and they will secure the position of top seeds if they defeat Glasgow at Allianz Park on Saturday. Glasgow will be playing for a place in the knockout stage after picking up five points against Cardiff Blues. They will…
Worcester to remain at Sixways with takeover complete
Worcester Warriors’ new owners have confirmed the team will remain at their Sixways home following a takeover by a consortium that includes the former Swindon Town chairman Jed McCrory. Worcester have been up for sale for the past year with the former owner, Sixways Holdings Limited, reportedly valuing the club at £26.7m. Since then Worcester…
Michael Schumacher turns 50, FA Cup third-round shocks and sneaky drinks
1) Today, Michael Schumacher turns 50. He won a grand prix for the first time at Spa in 1992 for Benetton. He’d go on to win five more in Belgium, and another 85 elsewhere. He didn’t win at Spa in 1998 though, and was ultra-keen on telling telling David Coulthard all about it after colliding…
Leicester’s George Ford starts try-fest in wild win against Newcastle
They reckon they have been through some turbulent times here of late but this was as wild and unfathomable as anything seen in these parts, quite possibly ever. If Leicester have become famous for anything over the years it is for something rather meaner and more curmudgeonly than this. Eighty-two points liberally shared about and…
Nathan Hughes’s England hopes worsen thanks to ‘What a joke’ tweet
Nathan Hughes’s hopes of featuring in England’s autumn internationals have suffered a further blow after a comment made on Twitter during his disciplinary hearing on Wednesday landed the Wasps No 8 in more hot water. In another setback for both -England and Wasps, Dan Robson has been ruled out until the new year by injury,…