Rugby Australia has bought a supremely marketable, freakishly talented player who will also be a powerful bargaining chipJoseph Suaalii will not begin playing for the Wallabies until 2025 but make no mistake: he started working for Rugby Australia the moment news broke of his signing.Suaalii will become the standard bearer for rugby’s new golden age, Australia’s poster boy for the 2027 Rugby World Cup, for leading the women’s game to professionalism and for restoring growth at the grassroots across the nation. Continue reading...
A record 91 tries, a match for the ages, Italy’s ‘Florence Dallaglio’ shining, and an England side who ‘weren’t good at anything’France may not have won the title but, once again, they possessed the best player in the tournament. Antoine Dupont was so good against England it was almost laughable: sharp, clever, strong, able to kick off both feet … if he looked slightly weary at the start of the championship, he was back to his best by the end of it. Damian Penaud, Jonathan Danty, Hugo Keenan and Caelan Doris also deserve honourable mentions. Continue reading...
England caught Ireland out in the opening exchanges but any doubts were snuffed out after the unfortunate red cardThe rain rolled across Dublin in mid-morning. A timely cooling blanket, perhaps, to regulate the collective temperature on this unique weekend in the Irish capital. It felt as if you could sink your teeth into the sheer excitement, anticipation and nerves of the occasion; Ireland’s opportunity to clinch a grand slam on home soil for the first time.With St Patrick’s Day falling on Friday, a dominant display by the Irish contingent at the Cheltenham Festival and a grand slam simply waiting to be sealed and delivered, the mood around the city had been, shall we say, buoyant. As one distinguished Irish writer...
Talismanic fly-half’s air of maturity suggests it could be his time to halt opponents and help ensure a fitting championship finaleIn a not unfamiliar plotline Scotland enter the penultimate round of the Six Nations desperate for a win. Refreshingly, this time such a result would mean not the avoidance of a wooden spoon but a tilt at their first championship of the century – a first Six Nations title, full stop.Perhaps desperate is the wrong word then. Would-be champions are never desperate for anything. If Scotland want to convince as such, they will be using bold words, such as “confident” and “ambitious”, and they must play accordingly at Murrayfield on Sunday afternoon. Continue reading...
The fly-half debate will rage on after Marcus Smith failed in conditions that George Ford would have been better suited forThere is something very English about fly-halves being hung out to dry in the rain. England did not lose this match because of Marcus Smith, rather they were thumped by a fabulous France team who ruthlessly exposed the limits of Steve Borthwick’s side and gave an exhibition in how to handle the heavens opening. Still, the cold hard facts are that Smith did not deliver the statement performance he was expected to and England’s fly-half debate rages on. The biggest call of Borthwick’s tenure to date can unequivocally be called the most damning of failures.All the more so when you...