‘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...
Ireland’s latest bruising win shows they are the real deal, England’s set-piece strength will be key against Australia, and New Zealand are human after allWhen Ireland beat New Zealand on 5 November, and the All Blacks returned the favour two weeks later in Dublin, there was a sense that the two best teams in the world were slugging it out. But in that second game, Ireland were not just beaten, but beaten up, left bruised and bloodied by the brutal All Blacks. They were forced into three early changes, with Johnny Sexton and Robbie Henshaw ruled out of the clash with Australia. Simon Zebo had a knock, and CJ Stander overcame a head injury. On matchday morn, Sean O’Brien joined...
A year after the then captain and his team were booed at the Rugby World Cup there is respect for his doggedness and not only because of their winning runOdd little memories stand out crystal clear from the great mêlée of Saturday’s match, which was otherwise one long blur of flying bodies, boots and balls, reset scrums, rolling substitutions, red and yellow cards. One is from 25 minutes in, when Facundo Isa leapt to catch Ben Youngs’ box kick. Isa spilled the ball forward and it landed slap in the lap of Chris Robshaw. He puffed out his cheeks, punted it 30 yards downfield and set off in pursuit. Robshaw galumphed along like a happy labrador chasing a stick on...
Eddie Jones’ side make case for defence against the Pumas before taking on Michael Cheika’s Australia and Six Nations has edge over Rugby Championship Related: England and Owen Farrell dig deep to win 14-man battle with Argentina Related: Eddie Jones sets his sights on Australia after ‘outstanding performance’ Continue reading...