JD Sports sells rugby kit brand Canterbury to Pentland for £1 August 23, 2012 JD SPORTS, the sportswear retailer, has agreed to sell its Rugby brand Canterbury to its majority shareholder Pentland for £1, three years after the group bought it out of administration. Pentland, which owns brands including Beghaus and Speedos and holds a 58 per cent stake in JD Sports, will pay a token £1 for shares [...]
RFU appoint Beaumont as chairman July 8, 2012 Former England captain Bill Beaumont has been appointed as the Rugby Football Union’s new chairman as the governing body progress towards staging the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Paul Murphy, meanwhile, has taken over as President.
Now team is fixed, let’s sort Twickenham transport February 24, 2013 ENGLISH rugby is undeniably on the right tracks. The management team has a clear set of objectives, and the team under Chris Robshaw have an admirable team ethic that eschews ego for the greater good. They beat France comprehensively in the end, helped by the odd refereeing aberration and more than the odd bizarre French [...]
Blair calls time on Scotland career January 7, 2013 RUGBY UNION: Former Scotland scrum-half Mike Blair has retired from international rugby. Blair won 85 caps, including 14 as captain, but opted to end his Test career after deciding a place in the squad for the 2015 World Cup was unrealistic. Welsh flanker Morgan Stoddart has also announced his retirement from rugby, after failing to [...]
O’Shea: Spring weather will favour Quins January 13, 2013 HARLEQUINS boss Conor O’Shea believes the odds of success for his side in the Heineken Cup have shortened after they saw off Connacht 47-8 on Saturday to book a quarter-final place. The Quins’ director of rugby saw his troops claim a resounding bonus-point win over the Irish outfit at the Stoop with Tom Williams scoring [...]
No one is too talented to discard January 22, 2013 MOUSETRAPS nestle behind the sink in the gents’ toilets. Rugby training kit crowds shelves in a tiny clubhouse bar, which is improbably squeezed under railway arches. The spartan, chilly “office” upstairs is strewn with cobwebs. In many ways, humble Millwall RFC is the ideal setting to meet Stuart Lancaster. For the England rugby head coach [...]
Ashton double hands Saracens Ulster home tie January 20, 2013 SARACENS boss Mark McCall hailed the return to form of Chris Ashton after he scored twice against Edinburgh to send his side into the Heineken Cup quarter-finals. Yesterday’s 40-7 victory was a fine way to bid farewell to a snowy Vicarage Road with the bonus point ensuring the Aviva Premiership side a last eight home [...]
Women’s sport: a perennial chicken and egg dilemma February 3, 2013 ENGLAND started slowly but proved simply too powerful, and the second half was something of a nonsense as the Scottish defence capitulated. England had left out half of their best players, so the gulf between the sides was laid bare. Sadly, it wasn’t a great advert for the sport. You’re right. That’s not the game [...]
Deighton joins board for 2015 December 17, 2012 ENGLAND Rugby 2015, the board organising the 2015 World Cup, has recruited Locog’s Paul Deighton to try to replicate the success of the London 2012 Olympics. As chief executive officer of Locog, the organising committee for the London Games, Deighton was responsible for raising the £2bn budget from the private sector and for relations with [...]
Saracens edge Munster to lift Euro ambitions December 16, 2012 CAPTAIN Steve Borthwick insists Saracens will not be getting ahead of themselves despite moving into the box seat for Heineken Cup qualification with a 19-13 victory over Munster yesterday. Fourteen points from Owen Farrell did the damage for the Aviva Premiership outfit with David Strettle also crossing for a try as Sarries moved to the [...]