For players such as Elliot Daly and Billy Vunipola, the Six Nations tie in Dublin is a final opportunity to ensure they are selected for the Lions tourWherever Warren Gatland is basing himself in the UK at the moment, I imagine a whiteboard is never far away. There’ll be about 45 names on it and I’d have thought that by this stage he has a pretty good idea of his preferred starting lineup for the first British & Irish Lions Test against South Africa. Given Warren is going to be in Dublin this weekend, it is the final audition for several players to force their way into that 45, or make sure they don’t get a strike through their names.All...
Private equity firm wants a return on Six Nations investment, so game cannot expect to just sit back and take the moneyA “new era” for rugby is how it is being portrayed. The Welsh Rugby Union has gone even further, calling it “a pivotal moment in the history of the international game in Wales”. If you listen to all the trumpet fanfares following the confirmation of CVC’s £365m investment in the Six Nations championship then “gamechanger” is indeed the obvious phrase.Or is it? The truth is that no one can be entirely sure. On paper it all sounds marvellous: more money in the coffers at a time when financial reserves are low, a shrewd commercial partner with expertise in the...
England had to be at their best to win a tense Six Nations match but this is just the start of a potentially glorious rivalryEngland have not played this well for 17 months and still it took them until the closing minutes to apply the coup de grâce. What does that say about the visitors who, despite having their grand slam dream extinguished, look destined to be serious contenders by the time the 2023 World Cup arrives? The English may have won on this occasion but this is just the start of a potentially glorious rivalry.What a spectacle it was, full of champagne moments and lacking only a mesmerised live audience to witness it. While France have still not won...
The England captain will not care about his critics but his performance against France was a reminder of his qualitiesHard as everyone else has been on Owen Farrell these past few weeks, you had best believe that they weren’t nearly as tough as he was on himself. Not that it makes much difference to him what anyone else says about how he is playing. There are not many sportspeople who hold such obvious disdain for other people’s views, and beyond a small circle of his coaches and a handful of trusted teammates, the only opinion Farrell really seems to value is his own. His teammates talk with awe about the standards he sets in training, the demands he makes on...
Having ended their Twickenham hoodoo, Gregor Townsend’s side seek to end a dismal run against another familiar foeIt is a measure of their popularity that the previous round of the Six Nations felt so empty without Scotland and France. Curse this virus. Difficult to tell which country’s absence was felt the keenest, but if Scotland wanted the perfect opportunity to remind us why we love them so much these days, while also fulfilling the tiresome directive to win, they could not have chosen much more appropriate opponents than Ireland.If exhilarating rugby is your thing, Ireland have not been such darlings of late. Probably not coincidentally, they also hold something of a hex over the Scots, having won nine of the...