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

Toulon 19 Toulouse 15

Yesterday I joined the Rusters in Nice as I had a ticket for Toulon v Toulouse, two of the powerhouses of French rugby. So much so that the match is played in the Orange Velodrome Stadium of Olympique Marseilles and attracted a sell out crowd of 64,580. I was saddened that Toulouse chose to rest [...]

April 24, 2022 // 0 Comments

The Trailfinders won’t be trailblazers next season

Yesterday brought the news that Ealing Trailfinders – who came top of rugby union’s Championship 2021/2022 league table, thereby becoming entitled to be promoted to the Premiership but then were judged by the RFU to have failed to meet the set criteria required, specifically including a minimum [...]

April 23, 2022 // 0 Comments

European Rugby Champions Cup results

There exists a small but committed group of columnists on this organ who would admit variously to past, current or even relatively recent adherence to the fortunes of Premiership rugby club Harlequins FC. [For the purists or ‘anoraks’ amongst our readers interested in such things, until the [...]

April 11, 2022 // 0 Comments

Eddie Jones in the dock

The fall-out ramifications from England’s loss to Scotland in the Calcutta Cup match on Saturday evening continue to dominate the sporting media and – justifiably, many fans and pundits believe – Eddie Jones continues to cop most of the flak for England’s spectacular slide from [...]

February 7, 2022 // 0 Comments

Scotland hold on for a famous victory

Writing as a Scot now residing in the English home counties, yesterday’s 20-17 rugby union victory over England at Murrayfield comfortably qualified as a welcome not to say exhilarating opening to the annual Six Nations campaign. Statistically, it is very rare that a team losing its opening game [...]

February 6, 2022 // 0 Comments

Big Game 13 (looking back)

Today I am taking up my esteemed sports editor Mr Hollingworth’s general invitation issued to Rust contributors who might like to post upon the subject of England Premiership club Harlequins’ Big Game 13 which took place last Monday (27th December) at RFU Twickenham. The ‘Big Game’ concept [...]

December 29, 2021 // 0 Comments

And now for the Six Nations …

With the Northern Hemisphere’s autumn international series now concluded the question now to be addressed is in what state the home nations (and France) have emerged as we enter the two and a half month “fallow period” before the commencement of the 2022 Six Nations tournament. The first [...]

November 22, 2021 // 0 Comments

England v Australia rugby preview: Eddie gets it wrong (again)

Yesterday Eddie Jones formally announced his England squad to take on Australia at RFU Twickenham tomorrow afternoon [kick -off 5.30pm GMT] and it is no surprise that the bulk of rugby media reaction has centred around the return of incumbent captain Owen Farrell to the back line and – in the [...]

November 12, 2021 // 0 Comments

A sporting issue that is not going to go away

From time to time this organ has covered developments on the ‘live’ issue of instances of diagnosed dementia (both the ‘early onset’ type and generally) in elite sportsmen and women and the extent to which it has potentially been directly or indirectly caused by their [...]

November 4, 2021 // 0 Comments

English Premiership in a strange place at the moment

This morning I read with interest Tom Hollingworth’s excellent review of his weekend of sports-watching and venture with some nervousness a comment or two upon the Premiership rugby match between Bath and Saracens yesterday which I also happened to watch on television. Many rugby union fans hold [...]

October 18, 2021 // 0 Comments

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Quilter autumn internationals

November 9, 2025 // 0 Comments

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 [...]
Fiorentina sack Pioli

November 5, 2025 // 0 Comments

With Fiorentina bottom of Serie a, it came as no surprise that head coach Stefano Pioli was sacked yesterday. Results have been terrible and last Saturday we lost 0-1 at home [...]
Annabelle Croft

November 2, 2025 // 0 Comments

The highlight of my sporting weekend was not the ATP tennis, not the sports on offer, but Annabelle Croft’s appearance on Michael Berkeley’s Radio 3 programme [...]
The Premiership

November 2, 2025 // 0 Comments

Who would have thought that Sunderland promoted in the play-offs would stand just one point behind Liverpool with a game in hand? It’s surely Arsenal’s to lose with their [...]
the Autumn Internationals

November 2, 2025 // 0 Comments

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 [...]