This weekend’s Premiership match in Pennsylvania and Pro14 games in South Africa have more costs, fewer fans and a huge carbon bootprintBefore this week the most absurd away fixture in European club rugby history was probably Connacht’s 12,000-mile round trip to Siberia in November 2015. The Irish province did manage to beat their Challenge Cup opponents Enisei-STM in temperatures as low as -18C but a technical fault with a charter plane caused such travel chaos some players were stranded for days. “Energy levels at all time low … BO levels at an all-time high,” read the memorable tweet from the Connacht back-rower John Muldoon.Once upon a time crossing the Severn Bridge was the most exotic cross-border club rugby experience available....
Bath should give England’s Eddie Jones food for thought, Northampton respond after being labelled soft and Newcastle command attentionThe Premiership is an unforgiving place for teams who start slowly. Bottom-placed Worcester have lost their opening two games and injuries are already beginning to bite. Losing their strongest scrummager, Nick Schonert, to a suspected broken ankle is a major blow and the Warriors are down to two fit fly-halves with the league season barely a fortnight old. To compound matters, England’s Ben Te’o has an ongoing arm problem which has forced him off prematurely in both his team’s games to date. “He’s got a plate in it and it’s sore,” said Gary Gold, Worcester’s director of rugby. “Every time he gets...
The argument that foreign talent has stunted home growth falls flat when you think of some of the players who have graced these shores in the past 20 yearsImagine if the last 20 years of English club rugby had passed without a single player from overseas – let alone the rest of Britain and Ireland – featuring in the Premiership. How immeasurably greyer our sporting lives would have been.The thought occurred over the weekend, as Nick Evans bear-hugged his Harlequins director of rugby, John Kingston, and Kelly Brown treated Saracens’ fans to his best post-match Bon Jovi impression, that the finest imports are not measured purely by on-field deeds. Better, perhaps, to gauge their contribution by the size of the...
Alex Lozowski stakes further England claim, Ben Te’o gives reminder to Lions and Eddie Jones is busy casting his eye over options for tour of Argentina Related: Alex Lozowski sparks Saracens revival to defeat dominant Northampton • Match report: Northampton 25-27 Saracens• Match report: Bristol 21-36 Wasps• Match report: Worcester 25-19 Bath Related: Bristol go down fighting after spirited battle against Wasps • Two-tone approach may throw Warburton and Hartley a Lions lifeline• Match report: Harlequins 26-39 Exeter Continue reading...
Saracens won’t be daunted by Toulon, Eddie Jones shows his spikier side now the EPS agreement is signed and Mathew Tait revels in his injury-free runSaracens will begin the defence of their European title this week with every reason to be cheerful. Toulon may not have lost a European Cup tie on home turf but they will have to dig particularly deep to crack the toughest current challenge on the continent. Sarries have conceded just four tries in their six Premiership games, remarkable even by their standards and even more impressive given the absence of key backline figures such as Owen Farrell, Alex Goode, Duncan Taylor and Chris Ashton. “We put them under a lot of pressure,” said a delighted...