Articles by Sandra McDonnell

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

Knocking heads together

Leaving mana-a-mano ‘fighting’ (viz. boxing and mixed marital arts contests) aside because some might argue they’re so patently dangerous to brain health that the argument is slam-dunk unanswerable, what might be termed full-on ‘physical contact’ team sports – e.g. American football, [...]

September 11, 2017 // 0 Comments

It all started with a Big Bang!

Despite the many issues the sport of rugby union in England is wrestling with – the plan to impose a ‘unified’ global season, new rules for the new season, a still-developing set of concussion (head injury) protocols, the rows over the salary cap and the latest Premiership plan to ‘kill [...]

September 4, 2017 // 0 Comments

It may not be cricket – or rugby – as we know it …

Drawing parallels between sports can be something of a fantasy pastime, especially in the 21st Century when the commercial demands of globalisation, social media and ‘instant gratification’ can seemingly send previous time-honoured cultures, folklore and traditions askew. In the UK the 1963 [...]

August 11, 2017 // 0 Comments

Nobody won, but nobody lost either

Our family spent nearly three hours yesterday morning watching the final test match between the All Blacks and the British and Irish Lions, one of the most exciting games of international rugby it can ever remember. That it ended as a draw via a late and controversial referring decision by Romain [...]

July 9, 2017 // 0 Comments

The fat lady is not even in the wings yet

Make no mistake about it – and irrespective of the result of next weekend’s third and final Test match – their 24-21 epic victory over the All Blacks at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Saturday morning UK time will go down as one of the greatest moments in the long history of the [...]

July 1, 2017 // 0 Comments

Well, someone’s going one-down on Saturday

These are heady days for Northern Hemisphere rugby in terms of how we’re getting on as regards our annual summer tours to the bottom end of the globe. It’s all down to the results, of course, perhaps with a bit of adrenalin-pumped anticipation thrown in to the effect that – even if [...]

June 21, 2017 // 0 Comments

Some encouraging TV rugby

[For those sports fans who did not watch British television coverage of what happened on the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand and England tour to Argentina yesterday, please refer to the match reports in your newspapers of choice. My following reflections are based exclusively upon my [...]

June 11, 2017 // 0 Comments

Tuning in on a Saturday morning

There was a point last year at which my husband and I had a semi-serious discussion about joining a tour taking British and Irish Lions fans to New Zealand. This arose from a small dinner party chez nous post-food relaxed discussion about our contemplated ‘retirement’ years and a challenge [...]

June 4, 2017 // 0 Comments

Calm before the storm

Last night I watched my recording of Beneath the Black: A Journey Through New Zealand Rugby, a Sky Sports documentary produced as part of the build-up to the opening of the British and Irish Lions tour of that country that begins tomorrow at the Toll Stadium in Whangarei (North Island) with a [...]

June 2, 2017 // 0 Comments

The mince-grinder of sporting success

The English Premiership season is drawing to its play-off stage and, appropriately perhaps, the one thing that can be said for those clubs involved [Wasps, Exeter Chiefs Saracens and Leicester Tigers] is that – over the course of the competition – there can be no dispute that the best four are [...]

May 9, 2017 // 0 Comments

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ITV COVERAGE OF CHELTENHAM

March 14, 2026 // 0 Comments

I am in the camp of watching on tv rather than attending for the 3 Cs: cost , convenience and comfort. With the cost of travelling and attending Cheltenham and last [...]
Max Schmelling/ The Good German

March 4, 2026 // 0 Comments

In the unlikely event that I would be asked to nominate a Great Life on Matthew Parris ‘ show my choice would be the Black Uhlan Max Schmelling. In the 1930s thee [...]
The Tanner Report : Fulham 2 spurs 1

March 3, 2026 // 0 Comments

Prior to Fulham ‘s comfortable win over Spurs (2-1) I watched the big match Revisited featuring Chelsea 1 Arsenal 2 i guess in the early 70s It would be foolish to [...]
The Six Nations

February 24, 2026 // 0 Comments

The Six Nations continues to throw up surprises. England could not bounce back against Ireland , a resurgent Wales gave Scotland à close game with the Millennium Stadium [...]
Brentford 0 Brighton 2

February 23, 2026 // 0 Comments

The heat is off Fabian Hürzeler with Brighton ‘s 1st win in 13 games. Club owner Tony Bloom was not at the G Tech stadium due to a long planned family engagement but had [...]