Is it really such a crime for the centre to move overseas and expect to add to his 43 caps after leaving Leicester for reasons not of his own making?As he sat overlooking the Mediterranean, sipping a cafe au lait, Manu Tuilagi smiled wryly to himself. No need to jump into any harbours these days, he thought, pondering his lucrative move to the south of France after falling out with Leicester and enjoying a profitable stint in Japan. Didn’t moving to warmer climes do wonders for Jonny Wilkinson’s body back in the day? Perhaps he should have headed across the Channel years ago.Fact or fiction? The latter, for now, but you can see how the idea might one day appeal...
It’s 149 years to the day since Scotland and England played the first rugby union international. From the archive, here are half-a-dozen great stramashesThis article was first published on 3 February 2012 Related: The Joy of Six: champions | Daniel Harris Related: The Joy of Six: unsung sporting heroes of 2017 Continue reading...
Punches flew and the crowd bayed for blood on that fevered day in Paris when England rode the storm to a famous victoryFrance v England in the quarter-finals of the 1991 Rugby World Cup wasn’t really rugby: it was an 80-minute history play, a piece of pure malevolent theatre.Some might say that’s over the top. They might be right but they can always ask Will Carling, the England captain that fevered day. I did, via email. Related: The Forgotten Story of … France v England, 1992 Continue reading...
The Rugby Football Union says respect is a core value – so why the silence over Eddie Jones’s broadside aimed at Ben O’Keeffe?When Peter Wheeler, then the chief executive of Leicester, used a newspaper column to criticise the referee Steve Lander for some of his decisions in the match against Bristol in 2002, he was summoned to appear before a Rugby Football Union disciplinary panel and, after being found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute, relieved of £3,000.“The RFU will not condone public criticism of match officials through the media, because it will damage the game by undermining confidence and creating divisions,” said the panel’s chairman, Jeff Blackett, who was then in charge of discipline at Twickenham. “This sentence,...
Suddenly, if Ireland can get everything right, an improbable title is firmly back on the radarSo farewell, then, “Super Saturday”. Hello instead to “At Least There’s Still One Game On Saturday” which is not the catchy promotional slogan the Six Nations organisers ideally wanted. At least the pub and bar owners of Cardiff can breathe a sigh of relief. Even if the coronavirus situation in Wales ramps up significantly, the income raised from 70,000 thirsty rugby punters should insulate them for a while.Tournament officials will also be grateful for small mercies. Had the spreading virus taken hold in Europe a month earlier the entire championship would have been decimated. There would have been insufficient spare weekends to replay the games,...