England’s supposed rebuild is yet to establish rock solid foundations October 8, 2023 England came just metres away from an historic defeat at the hands of Samoa last night at the Rugby World Cup, and it would have been a loss they deserved. Steve Borthwick’s men were all over the place, struggling in the midfield and unable to take the chances they were given. The 18-17 victory in [...]
Springboks in no rush to replace Leinster-bound Jacques Nienaber October 30, 2023 World Cup champions the Springboks are in no rush to replace their outgoing head coach, Jacques Nienaber, according to reports in South Africa. The 51-year-old from Kimberley announced before the Rugby World Cup that he would be departing the Springboks for Irish province Leinster come the end of the tournament, replacing former England head coach [...]
Rugby race scandal: World Rugby clears Mbonambi over Curry ‘white ***t’ claim October 26, 2023 World Rugby has said South Africa captain Bongi Mbonambi does not have a case to answer over claims he called England flanker Tom Curry a “white c**t” in last weekend’s rugby world cup semi final. Curry made the claims to the referee during the game and English authorities made a formal complaint to World Rugby earlier [...]
The future is orange for rugby referees as chiefs ponder new card for World Cup April 12, 2023 World Rugby is considering giving referees the option of “orange cards” at this year’s World Cup, according to the governing body’s head of match officials. A form of the yellow card review system is currently being trialled in Super Rugby Pacific and it could be fast-tracked into the global showpiece hosted by France this autumn. [...]
Number of Brits buying sports tickets for overseas events skyrockets December 18, 2023 The number of Brits buying tickets for sporting events outside of the United Kingdom rose by 41 per cent in 2023 as the post-pandemic urge to attend live action continues to increase. It comes as the trend for overseas sport has risen by 50 per cent globally, according to Viagogo. This overseas demand was driven [...]
English rugby ‘digging its own grave’ with outdated coaching, says Danny Cipriani August 20, 2023 Former fly-half Danny Cipriani has accused English rugby of “digging its own grave” and appeared to compare coach Steve Borthwick to football manager Sam Allardyce after the national team’s Rugby World Cup plans descended further into disarray. England lost 29-10 to Ireland on Saturday in their penultimate warm-up match for the tournament and saw Billy [...]
Scotland and Italy may not make World Cup quarters, but warm-up is important July 29, 2023 I was over the moon this week when I discovered that the northern hemisphere Rugby World Cup warm-ups were getting underway this week. It may not be the likes of France or England but it’s good to see international rugby back ahead of one of the biggest and most unpredictable World Cup events in a [...]
Matt Dawson on World Cups, England, Fiji and drop goals October 10, 2023 It has been 16 years since Fiji last reached the knockout stages of the Rugby World Cup and this weekend confidence will be high when they take on an England side they beat at Twickenham just two months ago. The Pacific island overcame Australia to reach the quarter-finals and the pressure will be on England [...]
Rugby’s disciplinary process betrays the very reason tough rules are in place August 17, 2023 Utterly ridiculous. Hugely embarrassing. Total disaster. These are some of the thoughts that have crossed my mind this week when I should instead be getting excited for the Rugby World Cup next month. Why? Because with the overturning of Owen Farrell’s red card from last Saturday, all of the sport’s decision makers have put the [...]
Referee Brace: We have responsibility but players like Sexton can’t abuse us December 6, 2023 Irish referee Andrew Brace wants tougher punishments for those who set a bad example.