Scotland flew high in the autumn but suffered a fall here. Their pre-tournament optimism was shredded by a team who beat them at their own handling game. On the 10th anniversary weekend of Warren Gatland’s first match as the Wales coach, the New Zealander showed again he has few peers by shrugging off the loss…
Category: Rugby
Joe Schmidt: Ireland will still have to ‘roll up sleeves’ to win Six Nations
Suddenly this Six Nations is Ireland’s to lose. Take maximum points at home to Scotland – as, for example, Wales did, the team they took maximum points against here – and England would need to do the same against them at Twickenham in the final round just to stand a chance. Joe Schmidt is doing…
Aaron Shingler ready to show his switch-hitting skills at Twickenham
As a teenager, Aaron Shingler dreamed of the batsmen he would like to dismiss. Shingler’s list would have included a number of Australians, but as the 30-year old travels from his hotel on Saturday to a famous ground in London, the former Glamorgan pace bowler’s destination is not Lord’s but Twickenham where he will be…
Six Nations 2018: six fans preview the tournament
England England are not being spoken about as clear favourites, which favours us. Given our injury list, I’m not expecting a macabre dismantling of Italy to be used as a benchmark for a barnstorming Six Nations. Eddie Jones has a mix of brilliant and experienced players, as well as exciting, inexperienced ones. The fixture list…
Eddie Jones welcomes David Moyes behind enemy lines before Scotland
Eddie Jones and his England assistants will pick the brains of one of Scotland’s highest-profile football coaches by welcoming David Moyes behind enemy lines on Tuesday in preparation for the Calcutta Cup match on Saturday. Moyes, the West Ham manager, along with his assistant Stuart Pearce, the former Spurs striker Les Ferdinand and the former…
Elliot Daly declares himself fit to make England comeback against France
Elliot Daly is ready and willing to help revive England’s Six Nations campaign in Paris next week. The British & Irish Lions Test wing has not played since damaging an ankle joint in mid-December but is back in full training and, if selected, is confident of being fit to face France. Daly was injured after…
Rugby Australia caught between a rock and a hard place by Israel Folau
Whether or not they are religious, Australian rugby officials will be praying major sponsors have been appeased by Israel Folau’s explanation for his recent comment about gay people being destined for Hell if they did not repent their “sins”. Folau created one of the biggest controversies in Australian sport this year when he expressed his…
Injured Jack Nowell and Billy Vunipola to spend longer on the sidelines
The physical strain on England’s leading players shows little sign of easing with the Premiership champions Exeter resigned to losing Jack Nowell and Harry Williams for several more weeks and the Champions’ Cup holders Saracens unsure if Billy Vunipola will be fit to feature in next month’s European quarter-final against Leinster in Dublin. England full-back…
Women’s rugby takes giant leap forwards with start of Super W
A new era looms as the inaugural season of Super W, the Australian women’s rugby union competition, kicks off this weekend with matches on both the east and west coasts of the continent. The competition is a new incarnation of the annual National XVs Championship, which previously ran over several days but is now a…