The Australia fly-half was below par for much of the year but is back in form and is set to be a key player on Saturday at Twickenham – where he has run rings round England beforeOf all the enduring images from England’s 20-point thrashing by Australia at last year’s World Cup – and there were a fair few – perhaps Joe Launchbury’s misery when collecting a thoroughly undeserved man-of-the-match award best sums up the stark humiliation of it all.There were numerous better performers that night, all wearing green and gold, and none more so than Bernard Foley, scorer of two tries – the first of which left Launchbury with a face full of grass - and 28 points in...
Next year’s Six Nations will promote more open play but the number of tries is increasing across the board as several top countries look to change their styleThe Six Nations has for years resisted the bonus point system, citing various reasons including tradition and the possibility of a team winning the grand slam but not the championship, but next year’s tournament will trial a system that is used in every major professional tournament in the world in a bid to encourage more open play.This year’s Six Nations would not have been affected by bonus points, with England still going into the final round as champions, but its 15 matches produced an average of 4.7 tries. Take away the matches that...
Rio Olympic Games were a gold medal fest and Eddie Jones has transformed England but only one team induced panic at bookmakers and forced Gary Lineker to go on live TV in his underwearFootball has tended to be under-represented in the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year awards, partly due to the fact team games do not always advance individuals for special recognition and partly because it has been a while since teams made the sort of statement beyond these shores that they did in 1966 or 1999.Traditionally the award for team of the year has gone to World Cup winners or significant European champions such as Celtic in 1967 and Manchester United a year later. There has been only...
‘If he wants to play it that way that’s totally fine with me,’ says Cheika after coaches swap taunts over scrummaging styles before Saturday’s TestPerhaps it was the embarrassment of being the first Australian coach to lose a home series to England that did it, or possibly it was being mocked up as a clown last month. Or maybe just a bad night’s sleep, but after turning the other cheek to Eddie Jones time and again during the summer Michael Cheika has now shown a willingness to engage with his compatriot. And then some. Related: Michael Cheika: Eddie Jones’s ‘vitriolic’ Australia comments tarnish his legacy Related: Michael Cheika retaliates by accusing Dan Cole of illegal scrummaging Continue reading...
Famous victories combined with the improvement of England and Scotland will have Warren Gatland believing a historic series win is not impossibleEngland still have one game to go but for the rest of the home nations the autumn internationals are done. Regardless of Saturday’s Twickenham outcome it will be remembered as one of the more intriguing periods of recent times, particularly in relation to the British and Irish Lions tour next year. Suddenly there are glimmers of realistic hope where once there was only dense black nothingness.For this Ireland, above all, deserve immense credit. As well as defeating New Zealand for the first time in 111 years they saw off Australia and South Africa as well, breathing encouraging fresh Gaelic...