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

The eagles have landed but (just) remain in touch

Having yesterday forsaken the drudgery of Britain for a week’s recuperation sampling the delights of the Tuscan/Umbrian border with my husband and three other couples, regular Rust readers may react with a variety of emotions to the news that I spent the early evening contemplating the novelty of [...]

August 23, 2015 // 0 Comments

Much ado about something

Last night – Saturday 15th August – in front of a less-than-full Twickenham Stadium (official attendance circa 63,000), Stuart Lancaster’s makeshift England team held on to beat Phillipe Saint-Andre’s French equivalent by 19-14 in the first of two ‘warm up’ clashes between them [...]

August 16, 2015 // 0 Comments

Time to turn the screw

With less than forty days to go to the opening or the 2015 Rugby World Cup the anticipatory excitement is growing. I must declare an immediate interest – I shall reporting on the tournament from the relative safety of my sofa and, unless something radical happens, have no plans to attend a single [...]

August 11, 2015 // 0 Comments

Down there but coming up

Anyone who watched the South Africa versus New Zealand match in the Southern Hemisphere’s Rugby Championship at Ellis Park (kick-off 4.05pm UK time) on Sky Sports yesterday, eventually won 20-27 by the All Blacks, would have marvelled at the spectacle. This was a full-bloodied Test Match of [...]

July 26, 2015 // 0 Comments

Sports and broadcasting (again)

Today I wish to return briefly to an issue that continues to rumbles on this august website, that of whether – these days, and especially when one is beyond the first flush of youth – it is better to go to the trouble of actually attending sporting events or (alternatively) at some [...]

July 9, 2015 // 0 Comments

Tribute to a rugby great

The news broke yesterday morning that Jerry Collins, the former All Black, and his wife had been killed in an horrific motor accident in southern France and their young baby girl is still fighting for her life. Collins, 34, was a larger-than-life sporting character, respected and admired by fans [...]

June 6, 2015 // 0 Comments

Pretty vacant, really

Yesterday a young England team beat the Barbarians at Twickenham by the embarrassing margin of 73-12 in front of a crowd of barely 30,000. As a contest it was little more than a training run-out. Danny Cipriani deservedly won the man-of-the-match award for kicking 11 out of 11 and in all scoring [...]

June 1, 2015 // 0 Comments

You can’t always get what you want

Yesterday at Twickenham Stadium Saracens defeated Bath 28-16 to win rugby’s Premiership. It was not the result that romantics like me were hoping for but – fair play to the victors – they ran out to a 25-3 lead by half time and dug deep to retain control after Bath’s second half efforts [...]

May 31, 2015 // 0 Comments

Someone’s got to win

Last night Worcester Warriors drew 30-30 to win rugby’s Championship (59-58 on aggregate over two matches, home and away) and gain promotion to the Premiership. I have only read reports of the game, in which Bristol led 30-16 with ten minutes to go to the final whistle, but by all accounts it was [...]

May 28, 2015 // 0 Comments

Rugby’s the poorer …

The Aviva Premiership season ground on at the weekend: Leicester Tigers 22 Northampton Saints 14; Exeter Chiefs 44 Sales Sharks 16; London Irish 40 Wasps 40; London Welsh 17 Saracens 68; Bath 50 Gloucester 30; Newcastle Falcons 37 Harlequins 21. These results leave the play-off semi-finals as [...]

May 18, 2015 // 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 [...]