Rugby

Last night’s crucial Premiership match between Bath and Northampton Saints at the Recreational Ground in Bath – depending upon who had won – could have either secured Bath a play-off finish or the Saints a home semi-final. In the event, with me watching live on BT Sport, it did neither by [...]

Last night, in a match affected by torrential rain that had been falling all day, Northampton Saints defeated the Harlequins 18-10 at Franklin’s Gardens to reach the final of the junior European (Amlin) Cup. I wasn’t on hand to lend my support. It could be an age thing, but the days when I [...]

This week England head coach Stuart Lancaster paid a visit to Toulon in order to assure brothers Steffon and Delon Armitage that the ‘door was not wholly closed’ as regards them playing for England at some point in the future – by which he presumably meant between now and the end of the  [...]

[As ever, for a detailed report on last night’s Premiership clash between Harlequins and Leicester Tigers – televised ‘live’ on BT Sport – National Rust readers should turn to their favourite newspaper rather than rely upon my heavily-personal angle upon proceedings.] I am not a fan [...]

You may call me sad if you wish, but – in classic ‘busman’s holiday’ mode – at 3.00pm yesterday afternoon I settled down to watch BT Sport’s ‘live’ coverage of the Premiership match between Gloucester and Bath. I could have gone shopping, prepared the family evening meal, done the [...]

For logistical reasons, nobody in their right mind would choose their sport to be played on a Friday. Last night, given that the Harlequins had travelled the best part of 200 miles ‘Oop North’ to take on Sale Sharks in a dog-eat-dog clash that would leave one of them out of Premiership [...]

The esteemed National Rust has never been a media organ shy of breaking new ground and today is no exception. In the world of Fleet Street, stories – apocryphal and otherwise – of journalists filing stories of wars, soccer matches and similar events of world importance whilst nowhere near [...]

It remains mathematically possible that the Harlequins could still make the last-four Premiership playoffs: with four matches to go, the ‘top six’ points scores are Saracens 72, Northampton Saints 65, Leicester Tigers 58, Bath Rugby 55, Sale Sharks 51 and Quins 49. However, with four points [...]

Every true club fan, whether they support an elite team or their local village side, has a relationship with dejection. In his feature film Clockwise, John Cleese – playing a stressed school headmaster – summed it up neatly with the line “It’s not the despair, I can take the [...]