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Rugby

and I missed Have I Got News For You for this …

The LV= Cup is an Anglo-Welsh competition which, like the Premiership ‘A’ League, gives non-first team starters, academy players and those coming back from injury the opportunity for some game time. Last Sunday Quins lost to their London nemesis Saracens in the Cup, narrowly enough to dispel [...]

November 8, 2014 // 0 Comments

Dinner for Roger Uttley

Ivan Conway kindly invited me to a dinner as part of the Mike Yardy benefit. His career needs no introduction: 22 games for England, 5 as captain and 4 tests for the British Lions on the 1974 tour to South Africa. From there he went into  coaching, managing the England side of 1997. In later life [...]

November 8, 2014 // 0 Comments

Remembering the fallen

Yesterday I had been invited to a small launch party in the West Stand of the RFU’s Twickenham Stadium to unveil a brand new oil painting by Shane Record, based upon a photograph of the England rugby team that played against France at Stade Colombes in Paris on 13th April 1914. It is intended to [...]

November 8, 2014 // 0 Comments

Going back where it all began

Watching rugby on a Saturday afternoon – what more could a modern girl want? I was only too delighted to accept my husband’s invitation to join him at Roehampton yesterday to meet with some of his pals at the local National League One derby match between Rosslyn Park and Richmond, two teams [...]

November 2, 2014 // 0 Comments

It’s a small step for man …

Rugby league great ‘Slammin’ Sam’ Burgess was unveiled yesterday as a Bath rugby union player amid a degree of media hoo-hah almost matching that for the build-up to the imminent autumn internationals period in the Northern Hemisphere. I am as intrigued as anyone about this switch, especially [...]

October 31, 2014 // 0 Comments

The bragging rights come home

Rugby is no exception to the general sporting rule that derby matches count for plenty and last night’s 16-23 victory over Wasps in the second round of the group stage of the Rugby Champions Cup (which has replaced the Heineken as the top European competition) was a welcome boost to what [...]

October 27, 2014 // 0 Comments

Time to knuckle down

For rugby enthusiasts around the world, the announcement of any squad from which a national coach – in yesterday’s case, Stuart Lancaster of England – will be making his next few weeks’ team selections is always a cause of anticipation and excitement. However, almost invariably, when [...]

October 23, 2014 // 0 Comments

More is sometimes less

Yesterday, with my husband away with his buddies on in his annual golfing weekend – this time in Ireland – and the rest of the family otherwise occupied, I was able to do a little shopping and then settle in for a self-indulgent afternoon watching rugby on television. In recent years the range [...]

October 19, 2014 // 0 Comments

Closer than you might think

Harlequins duly beat Castres in the first-ever Rugby Champions Cup match at the Stoop last night by a margin of 25-9, but sporting score-lines don’t always tell the full story. Given ‘nerves’ … the inbuilt intensity of the new tournament and the indifferent form of both teams in their [...]

October 18, 2014 // 0 Comments

Over to you, Conor …

Tonight I shall be travelling down to the Stoop to see the Harlequins take on Castres in the first-ever game in the new Rugby Champions Cup, the new pan-European competition that replaces the 19-years old and now defunct Heineken Cup. It’s basically the same competition with slightly more weight [...]

October 17, 2014 // 0 Comments

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