Ireland’s coach, Joe Schmidt, gave a positive update on Johnny Sexton’s fitness when naming his squad for the opening two rounds of the Six Nations on Wednesday. Sexton, the reigning World Player of the Year, has been troubled by a knee tendon issue and will miss Leinster’s final European Champions Cup pool match at Wasps…
‘Never underestimate underdogs’: Wallaroos buoyant ahead of women’s rugby Test
Australia are massive underdogs for their women’s rugby Test with New Zealand, but try telling the Wallaroos it’s a mission impossible assignment. Things have changed dramatically since the teams last met in 2016, when the Black Ferns produced a 67-3 demolition job at Eden Park. New Zealand claimed last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup as…
Wallabies hit Rugby Championship floor after Springboks loss
Kurtley Beale has done his best to recover from a first-minute brain explosion, but it wasn’t enough to stem the bleeding as the struggling Wallabies fell 23-12 to the Springboks in Port Elizabeth. Things couldn’t have started worse for the visitors after Beale’s ambitious pass was intercepted in the 24th second and South Africa quickly…
Exeter keep slim Champions Cup hopes alive with win over Castres
There has been precious little joy for English clubs in Europe this season – or last – but at least Exeter are still valiantly flying the flag. Unlike five of their Premiership compatriots the Chiefs’ qualification prospects remain alive heading into the final pool weekend, though there remains the small matter of defeating Munster at…
Northampton’s Twickenham tribute to Rob Horne after horror injury
Few Australians, Eddie Jones included, receive heartfelt standing ovations at Twickenham but Saturday will be different. In rugby, one man’s misfortune still has the power to unite the best of enemies and those attending the Premiership game between Northampton and Leicester in aid of Rob Horne will be supporting the worthiest of causes. Last April,…
Money in European rugby is too good to resist, says Wasps’ Lima Sopoaga
The Wasps fly-half Lima Sopoaga believes the player drain from New Zealand to Europe will increase because the lure of the All Blacks jersey no longer outweighs the financial incentives on offer in the northern hemisphere. Sopoaga has 16 New Zealand caps – two of which are starts – and signed a lucrative two-year deal…
Alex Goode leads the charge for irrepressible Saracens against Bath
For all that Saracens’ swashbuckling style, led by the irrepressible Alex Goode, caught the eye in a record-breaking fifth consecutive bonus point win, it is Todd Blackadder’s post-match revelation – that the sum total of Bath’s ambitions was a losing bonus point – which resonates most. Blackadder made 13 changes to his side, resting his…
Duncan Weir: ‘An opponent’s size doesn’t bother me. I love tackling’
Duncan Weir is not a fly-half who illuminates matches with eye‑catching moments but he is what Worcester have long needed. Apart from Andy Goode at the start of the decade Worcester have lacked a No 10 who could play off the back foot, put his forwards in the right areas and minimise mistakes. Last season, they…
Danny Cipriani: ‘It’s been the same story for six years, hasn’t it?’
If Danny Cipriani feels messed around by England he hides it well. You might expect confusion, resentment, even betrayal at how he again finds himself on the outside looking in after the briefest of comebacks over the summer but on a chilly afternoon in Gloucestershire there is nothing but positivity from the exiled fly-half. To…
Wales’s 1969 wing wizard Maurice Richards: ‘I scored the tries but forwards won it’
They used to say the wind blew hardest at Cardiff Arms Park when it was trying to catch Maurice Richards. It had no more success than the England team that arrived in the Welsh capital 50 years ago chasing a share of the Five Nations title but left resembling the rubble where the north stand…