Another Wales-Scotland match in Cardiff, another Wales win. This, the 10th such victory in a row, will resonate least of the recent run, sneaked in at an unfamiliar time of year, the selections compromised, the motives suspect. The really important matter lay beyond rugby. The match will be remembered for the inauguration of the Doddie…
Ireland’s Jordan Larmour overwhelms Italy with Chicago hat-trick
The Ireland full-back Jordan Larmour scored a hat-trick of tries and the lock Tadhg Beirne two as Joe Schmidt’s side hammered Italy 54-7 in Chicago. Schmidt omitted many of the players who won the Six Nations grand slam this year and the Italians made it tough in the opening period, despite Beirne scoring in the…
Handré Pollard’s 18 points guide South Africa to narrow victory over Scotland
Scotland’s hopes of a first win against the Springboks in eight years were alive right until the last seconds of an engrossing encounter but in the end South African power and precision prevailed. The teams scored two tries apiece but the visiting side were never behind, and in Handré Pollard they had the game’s dominant…
Katy Daley-Mclean: ‘It’s cool to have 100 caps – women’s rugby has changed so much’
For Katy Daley-Mclean the wheel really has turned the full circle. Eleven years ago England’s fly-half made her first international appearance against Scotland in St Albans, coming off the bench where she had been sitting with another player about to make her debut, Sarah Hunter, her friend since they met as aspiring 14-year-old rugby league…
Jake Polledri: ‘Being rejected by Bristol spurred me on even more’
Talent-spotting is not an exact science, particularly in rugby. Some players develop late or fail to tick the obvious physical boxes, others are crowded out, not least in England, by the sheer weight of numbers. How many hidden gems might have worn the red rose had they not been injured at the wrong moment, been…
Bedroom coffee shop helps Manu Tuilagi gear up for England return
As and when Manu Tuilagi comes off the England bench on Saturday you can be sure of two things: first, that his arrival is greeted by the loudest cheer of the match; second, that the first time he gets his hands on the ball there will be 80,000 people holding their collective breath. ‘I was…
Weakened Scotland bidding to expose self-belief of unpredictable France
Having failed to win in Paris so far this century, Scotland will attempt to end that trend on Saturday with something akin to a second-string side. Of the team’s key quartet, only the captain, Greig Laidlaw, is in the squad, Finn Russell having joined Stuart Hogg and Willem Nel on the injury list this week….
Eddie Jones will not rule out title as Warren Gatland chases grand slam
Wales are on course to mark Warren Gatland’s final year in charge with a grand slam after their first victory over England in the Six Nations since 2013 but Eddie Jones has not abandoned hope of a third title in four years. Wales moved above England by winning the clash between the two unbeaten sides…
Alex Goode: ‘Everyone wants to knock Saracens off our perch’
It was hard not to feel sympathy for Alex Goode during England’s autumn internationals campaign. Not so much for his continued snub – the Saracens full-back is now well accustomed to life in Eddie Jones’s blind spot – but more for his role as guest pundit at Twickenham, inches from the pitch he so desperately…
Katy Daley-Mclean’s big night lit up as Red Roses overpower USA
England’s women celebrated the 100th cap of their fly-half Katy Daley-Mclean with an emphatic victory over the USA at Allianz Park last night in miserable, rainy conditions in north London. But Simon Middleton’s new-look team had unexpected help with the USA reduced to 14 players for 65 minutes of the game after the referee, Hollie…