Six Nations is just around the corner and new head coach will need time to grasp the nettle and make a statementTime is short. England’s next game is on 4 February against Scotland and, once Christmas and new year are over, the Six Nations will come lurching around the corner. Between now and the England squad coming together there are four tough weekends of Heineken Cup rugby and three Premiership rounds to be negotiated. Winter break? Not a chance. Continue reading...
Surely you would not sack the most successful coach you’ve had without a clear vision. So what is the RFU’s grand plan?Eight minutes to play and England are 14 points down against New Zealand. Will Stuart has just scored in the corner and Marcus Smith is standing over the conversion, on the 22, five metres in from the right touchline. It should be Owen Farrell’s kick.Farrell, who has made every shot at goal so far in the autumn, 15 out of 15 in 200 minutes of Test rugby, is on the pitch, but struggling with a dead leg. So it falls to Smith. He strides up, leans back a touch too much as he swings his boot through and the...
Bill Sweeney did his best to sell the official RFU vision of England but his media briefing ignored all the warning signalsIf you squinted hard enough into the sunshine at Twickenham on Thursday you could almost see them. The sunlit uplands and, just beyond, the promised land of 2023 Rugby World Cup glory. But that’s the problem with mirages. You end up seeing what you want to see rather than the flashing amber warning signals seemingly visible to everyone except the Rugby Football Union.In his first media briefing for 12 months – if he craves the spotlight he hides it well – the RFU’s chief executive, Bill Sweeney, at least did his best to sell the official vision. All the...
Despite changing directives, unless players take fewer blows by playing fewer games do not expect any good news soonA year ago last week, rugby was thrown into turmoil. Steve Thompson, a 2003 World Cup winner, announced that he and seven other former players were launching a lawsuit against World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union, after their diagnoses of dementia or, in the case of the 31-year-old Adam Hughes, post-concussion syndrome. The players with dementia were all in their early 40s.The eight have since been joined by another 150, drawn from the same generation, with a further 75 from rugby league. Fifty more, and counting, wait in the wings weighing up their options. Of the 150,...
Governing body has backed England coach despite poor Six Nations but its support appears to come with hidden caveatsSo Eddie Jones is still the right man to steer England forward. Or is he? The further down the carefully constructed tower of corporate Jenga-speak you descend, the less fulsome the Rugby Football Union’s vote of confidence starts to look. Where, for example, is the definitive line saying: “We’re sticking with Eddie until 2023 regardless”? Let alone any gung-ho predictions about imminent World Cup glory. Related: Eddie Jones retains ‘full support’ of RFU after review of England coach Putting a block on relegation from the Gallagher Premiership risks “devaluing” the league and undermining its long-term appeal, according to Pat Lam, Bristol’s director...