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Articles by Sandra McDonnell

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About Sandra McDonnell

As an Englishwoman married to a Scot, Sandra experiences some tension at home during Six Nations tournaments. Her enthusiasm for rugby was acquired through early visits to Fylde club matches with her father and her proud boast is that she has missed only two England home games at Twickenham since 1995. Sandra has three grown-up children, none of whom follow rugby. More Posts

Quilter autumn internationals

À friend of mine something of a rugby aficionado sent me a Guardian article forecasting this England side might provide expansive rugby. I had my doubts as over the years I have watched England i have found them plodding and in a formulaic era when coaches sit behind their computers I could see no [...]

November 9, 2025 // 0 Comments

the Autumn Internationals

Time was when the autumn internationals were a winter break from the Premiership and an appetiser between the Rugby Championship and the Six Nations but now it’s fully fledged well sponsored month long tourney between the Southern Hemisphere and Northern. It kicked off which a resounding win of [...]

November 2, 2025 // 0 Comments

The weekend rugby

The absence of any Premiership and Championship football gave Premiership Rugby a platform which it maximised with derby matches. The first between Sale Sharks and the re-branded Newcastle Red Bulls was too one-sided to be enjoyable. Northampton Saints and Leicester Tigers were better matched but [...]

October 13, 2025 // 0 Comments

Assessing The British Lions Tour …

After rain of biblical proportions and lightning had so marred the game on Saturday, causing a lengthy suspension, the Lions lost 12-22 to Australia and the series ended 2-1 in the Lions’ favour. The British Lions are something of an anachronism – one of those quirky British [...]

August 3, 2025 // 0 Comments

British & Irish Lions selection

Choosing 40 players meant there were unlikely to be any surprises but Sam Prendergast, Ben White, Jack Willis and Owen Farrell – -all at French clubs – never made it, nor did Robbie Henshaw. Prendergast paid for a poor performance for Leinster against Northampton Saints but his day will [...]

May 9, 2025 // 0 Comments

The Sporting Saturday

No doubt about the greatest sporting achievement yesterday – Northampton Saints’ monumental victory over Leinster in Dublin, 37-34 in the semi final of the Champions Cup. Leinster field an international team and had previously put 52 points past Glasgow and 62 past Harlequins. They are [...]

May 6, 2025 // 0 Comments

Six Nations/all considered

With staggered kick-offs three countries led the table but most wiseacres thought France would win it – as indeed they did, beating a spirited Scotland. I did not watch Italy v Ireland but, though the latter did not live up to their “favourites” billing, they will supply the bulk [...]

March 16, 2025 // 0 Comments

Full Contact/Six Nations documentary (Netflix)

A colleague on the Rust asked me if I had seen this documentary. As I had not, I watched it on Wednesday night and was disappointed. I am no fan of “fly-on-the-wall” documentaries. Vast amounts of money are expended in return for granting access to “where-the-fan-cannot-go” [...]

February 2, 2024 // 0 Comments

Ireland 13 South Africa 8

This epic match more than matched the billing and hype and I share my colleague Derek Williams’ viewpoint that the Boks should be beaten. Their bomb squad of 7 forwards attracted a lot of attention though few pointed out that – in the absence of Malcolm Marx – they did not have a [...]

September 24, 2023 // 0 Comments

Wales 32 Fiji 26

Wales’s victory over Fiji was the best World Cup game so far. I had watched South Africa beat Scotland but I find the Boks to be a boring bunch of behemoths. Scotland play attractively but are over-reliant on the mercurial Finn Russell and frankly it was a pea-shooter against a Panzer tank. [...]

September 11, 2023 // 0 Comments

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