Rugby

  Today I wish to offer a small salute to Ugo Monye who has just announced that he would be retiring from rugby at the end of the season after thirteen years as a one-club Harlequins man. Let’s get the stats out of the way first. He has his 32nd birthday coming up on 13th April. Having made [...]

  In prospect I viewed the contrived denouement of the final round of the 2015 Six Nations on Saturday afternoon with mix of trepidation and nostalgia for the old days, i.e. when men were men and the Northern Hemisphere’s premier national tournament was what it was and not a rugby vehicle [...]

Scots north and south of the border are steeling themselves for the forthcoming Calcutta Cup match next Saturday, a annual clash that brings us the hope of triumph but also the expectation of something slightly less palatable that will leave us with the pain and resentment of ’small nation [...]

  Yesterday to the Stoop with great expectations. Yes, Quins were in a trough of a run results-wise and in the back of one’s mind one feared the worst – especially since we were playing local [well local in the sense they now play out of Reading’s Madejski Stadium] arch-rivals London [...]

The Sale fly half Danny Cipriani, now aged 27, has long been a ‘Marmite’ character – one of those people whom you either love or hate. I first saw him play at international age group level (captaining the England Under 19 team) for England at the age of 18 in a Six Nations game at the Stoop. [...]