Click:Poly bag making machine A year ago this weekend, Saracens slumped to their seventh successive defeat, a run so out of kilter with the norm it was like going back in time to find Henry VIII supping with the Pope. The Premiership champions arrived here nursing a 21-match unbeaten record stretching back to April Fool’s…
Rugby union: talking points from the European Champions Cup
Pool 1: Robson offers Wasps some consolation Dan Robson’s performance for Wasps was one of the few shining lights on what was a difficult day for the home side, even if they avoided the thrashing they received in Dublin. He looks back to the kind of form he began the season in before the injury…
Jimmy Peters: race pioneer of English rugby who emerged from the circus
A century later the truth of exactly what happened to Jimmy Peters is just out of reach. One can find little scraps of it, titbits, facts and hints. In the last few years different writers, historians and academics have tried to stitch it all together but the story is thin and full of holes no…
New Zealand’s Portia Woodman ‘more influential’ than All Blacks counterparts
Black Ferns winger Portia Woodman has made the top 10 of a list of rugby union’s most influential people, ahead of any of her male All Blacks counterparts and two spots below All Blacks coach Steve Hansen. Woodman comes in at ninth on the list, which is published biannually by respected magazine Rugby World and…
Manu Tuilagi: ‘I’m feeling better and better … I know I’ll get there’
Even on the worst of days Manu Tuilagi never completely gave up hope. “Mentally I always think I will get back to where I was, no matter what,” he murmured on Wednesday, reflecting on the multitude of injuries that, latterly, have ruled him out of England contention. “I always think there will be a light…
Santiago Cordero: ‘England should worry. Argentina are getting better and better’
It is Santiago Cordero’s own choice but a life in rugby exile can be testing. On Saturday the 24-year-old could have been running out against the All Blacks in Buenos Aires, facing the haka and standing shoulder to shoulder with his best mates for the national anthems. Instead he will be in distant Devon, plying…
Rugby union power rankings: Ireland overtake New Zealand to be top dogs
1) Ireland ▲ (1 place from September) Steve Hansen knew what he was doing when anointing Ireland as the world No 1 side, even if the official rankings have not done so, saying: “It’s their turn at the moment so we’ll see how they cope with that.” So far they are not doing a bad…
Newcastle seal thriller over Montpellier with 39-phase, 89th-minute try
Is it written in the stars for Newcastle Falcons? How else to explain a grandstand finish as remarkable as this, finally ended by Callum Chick’s matchwinning try after a staggering 39 phases, deep into the 89th minute. Newcastle have claimed two major French scalps – the three-times winners Toulon and now Montpellier, dark horses to…
Rugby union: talking points from the Premiership’s weekend action
1) Set pieces separate New Zealanders Two New Zealand coaches presided over an old-school British game in which the set pieces shaped the outcome. Todd Blackadder is in his third season in charge at Bath while Chris Boyd moved to Northampton in the summer. Bath’s supremacy up front plus their lineout mastery gave them the…
This must not be the year when rugby union trashes its finest qualities
If ever there was a year for rugby union to show the best side of itself it is 2019. A first Rugby World Cup to be staged in Asia, fresh financial investment offering club rugby a chance to take a significant next step, a Six Nations championship requiring only a sprinkle of on-field brilliance to…