Wins for Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland have set up the prospect of some history-making in the southern hemisphereOne weekend of eye-raising rugby results does not necessarily change the world. Equally, there has never been a day to compare with Saturday. A clean sweep of wins for Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland against the southern hemisphere’s top four teams is unique in the game’s history, despite the south hosting all four of the fixtures.No Irish or Welsh team had previously won in, respectively, New Zealand and South Africa. Now here they both are, just one final push away from winning a best-of-three series. The same is true of England and Scotland, who also bounced back from first Test disappointment to...
The connoisseur’s choice of internationals this weekend is New Zealand v Ireland and the chance of history being made In the perennial struggle between domestic sport and international, more exquisitely poised in rugby than anywhere else, this weekend marks the opening of the latest window for the international game to set out its stall. The merchants mean business, too, if the strength of the teams announced, so often depleted at this time of year, is anything to go by.If international rugby gets its way, every other year we will see yet another tournament of meaning and intensity crank itself up on this first weekend of July, in a desperate bid to hold off the encroaching power and influence of the...
NZ Rugby’s chief executive Mark Robinson is only too aware of the challenges the sport faces in trying to agree a new calendarThe trickiest job in New Zealand? It used to be generally accepted that even the prime minister had it easier than the incumbent All Blacks head coach. Now, though, there is a third contender, requiring the former’s diplomatic touch and the latter’s survival instincts. To be NZ Rugby’s chief executive at this juncture in rugby history is to be caught between the devil and the deep blue Pacific.Put yourself in Mark Robinson’s jandals for a second. On the one hand he presides over the most marketable national team in the world, which is not the worst gig. On...
Fly-half’s first appearance for his country since suffering a serious knee injury more than two years ago is soured by a heavy defeat against New ZealandHave the old songs ever sounded so sweet or been sung so loud? After 18 months of Test matches played in front of piped-in crowds, they finally had a full house at the Principality, almost 80,000 in, and 80 minutes against the All Blacks ahead.In those first few moments, in the silence that fell for the haka and the first swell of Cwm Rhondda that followed, all the worries, whys, and wherefores about Wales’s missing players, the wrangle between clubs and countries, and what it all means about the state of the international game, slipped...
Wales v New Zealand has become more about dosh than bosh – change is needed if the sport wants a rosier futureRadical change in rugby union never comes galloping over the horizon. If it ever comes it meanders through multiple committees, many of whom meet for hours on Zoom without recognising the inherent irony. Quick ball is the holy grail for good teams on the pitch but, off it, a static rolling maul of conflicting interests and financial expediency is more common.Which helps explain why the sport is back scrabbling for fig leaves just when it should be displaying its most photogenic side to the world. Wales against New Zealand in Cardiff used to be one of the game’s most...