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Rugby

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

Red Bull Newcastle v Harlequins & The Rugby Championship

Just like in cricket there are are too many rugby tournaments. No doubt TV is responsible : Sky sports and TNT are paymasters and ringmasters. Quins played Red Bull Newcastle – the latter  re-branded from Newcastle Falcons – in the Premiership Cup. Players are now so overloaded that [...]

September 14, 2025 // 0 Comments

New Zealand 17 South Africa 14 ( Rugby Championship)

If I had to describe this match between the two titans of Southern Hemisphere rugby in a single word it would be “intense“. Yes, the Boks were uncharacteristically sloppy, with poor handling by scrum half Grant Williams and skipper Siya Kolesi unimpressive but their renowned scrum has [...]

September 7, 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

Thoughts on the weekend sport

I enjoy summer sport – when football is off the back pages – although there is still endless transfer speculation, no doubt fuelled by agents. There are new tourneys to enjoy every week: Wimbledon glides into The Open, then the Tour de France, not to mention as well an absorbing-matched [...]

July 28, 2025 // 0 Comments

The sporting weekend

The sporting weekend exposed many clichés and platitudes. In beating fancied Australia in the ICC Trophy South Africa proved that they are not chokers and the quota system has produced successful captains in the Springboks and Proteans. England rugby union’s Gallagher Premiership Final was a [...]

June 16, 2025 // 0 Comments

Danny Care: thanks for the memories

Harlequins had a typically close but exciting win over Exeter Chiefs yesterday but the result had to play second fiddle to the farewell of their legendary scrum half Danny Care. Danny notched up 394 appearances for Quins and gained 101 caps for England – all the more remarkable a statistic as [...]

May 19, 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

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