Category: Rugby

Rugby News

Posted on

The new 14-team Super League is working. Why not add London too?

Bradford Bulls, York Knights and Toulouse are holding their own and the league needs more reach and diversity

By No Helmets Required

With the Rugby Football League’s next round of talks with the NRL due on 15 May, the decision whether Super League will remain at 14 clubs or expand again to add London Broncos is imminent. The club could squeeze into a 14-team league via the IMG gradings but that would send any club ranked beneath them down to the Championship, potentially putting newly promoted York or Toulouse in grave and unnecessary danger. That would be foolish given the unique markets those clubs represent.

The three teams promoted to the expanded Super League this season have defied expectations. They have won three games each, beating champions Hull KR, Hull FC, Catalans and Wakefield along the way. They also gave Wigan, Leigh and St Helens major scares. And none of them occupy the bottom two places after 10 rounds of games.

Continue reading...
Posted on

The problem with RFU’s handling of Six Nations review is that England fans aren’t stupid | Robert Kitson

If supporters want transparency, they won’t find it in the rubber-stamping of Steve Borthwick’s coaching team

There has been a lot of fuss in recent days about French TV directors not giving rugby fans the full picture. In that particular department, sadly, there remains a runaway market leader. To say the Rugby Football Union’s public response to England’s disappointing Six Nations campaign has failed to supply all the relevant angles is an understatement.

In an ideal world, there would have been a media conference with Bill Sweeney, the RFU’s chief executive, alongside Steve Borthwick, his head coach, presenting a united, purposeful front and outlining precisely why the status quo needs preserving despite England having racked up four championship defeats for the first time since 1976. Instead, there was only a “Don’t tell ‘em, Pike” statement on email best summarised in four words: “Nothing to see here.”

Continue reading...
Posted on

RFU backs Steve Borthwick to lead England for 2027 World Cup after Six Nations review

  • England suffered four defeats in dismal Six Nations

  • Bill Sweeney says improvement not ‘one simple answer’

Steve Borthwick and his coaching staff are to remain in charge of England’s men’s team despite the squad’s worst Five or Six Nations for 50 years. The Rugby Football Union has opted to back Borthwick and his lieutenants through to next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia having completed what it described as “a detailed and robust review” of England’s latest campaign.

Despite having lost four championship games in the same season for the first time since 1976, the RFU has chosen to keep faith with the Borthwick regime in the belief that things can only get better. The union has decided that sacking the head coach is not the optimal solution, having previously dispensed with Eddie Jones’s services nine months prior to the 2023 World Cup.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy diagnosed with neurodegenerative disorder

  • Rugby league veteran to stay at NRL club amid horror start to season

  • Specialists say coaching ability not affected in immediate future

Craig Bellamy has been diagnosed with an unspecified neurodegenerative disorder but will remain as coach of Melbourne Storm in the immediate future, the club has said.

The club issued a statement 24 hours out from Melbourne’s NRL clash with the Dolphins in Brisbane, with the 66-year-old Bellamy recently undergoing a series of medical tests.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Wales great George North to retire from rugby union at end of the season

  • Retired from international arena in 2024 with 121 caps

  • ‘I lived out my childhood dream for many seasons’

Think of George North and two iconic moments inevitably stand out. Both took place on the 2013 British & Irish Lions tour when he was just 21 years old. Few northern hemisphere players have made a bigger top-level impact at a more tender age than the departing North, who announced on Wednesday he was retiring from all rugby at the end of this season.

The first indelible image occurred in Brisbane in the first Test against Australia. North was inside his own half when he fielded a kick from Berrick Barnes and set off on the kind of surging run that gets longer with every breathless retelling. After 40 metres he had already burned off three Wallabies and had only Will Genia left to beat. The photo of North pointing an exultant finger at the trailing scrum-half has taken its place in modern Lions folklore.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Jarome Luai confirms he will join PNG Chiefs as NRL expansion side make first signings

  • Tigers star agrees to $1.2m-a-season tax-free deal after PNG visit

  • Try-scoring record-holder Alex Johnston also confirms 2028 move

Jarome Luai has declared he wants to grow a nation after confirming he will leave Wests Tigers to take up a tax-free contact and become the face of the Papua New Guinea Chiefs in 2028.

Luai has signed a two-year deal with the Chiefs, which includes an option in his favour for a third year.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Expect divine rugby and more epic drama when Northampton and Bath meet again

Recent European quarter-final was a classic and champions’ Prem trip to the Midlands will likely produce similar

Was this the greatest game ever played, people were asking in the aftermath of that quarter-final of the Champions Cup a fortnight ago in Bath. Victory by the odd try in 11; home team roared on to successful comeback victory with that 11th try in the last five minutes; Northampton, the away team, 28-7 up after barely 20 minutes, playing rugby of the gods.

A personal opinion is that it certainly was the greatest game ever played … this month. Without wanting to prick any bubbles of enthusiasm that may have swelled in the moments after the latest epic, yes, the match was incredible – and if it had happened in the amateur era would have been consecrated as legend long ago – but have we already forgotten France v England not even a month earlier? What about Scotland v France a week before that? We could go on.

Continue reading...
Posted on

New England coach McDermott backs Connor and criticises Wane’s ‘unfair’ treatment

  • Super League Man of Steel central to World Cup plans

  • McDermott: ‘We can win it; absolutely we can win it’

Brian McDermott, the new England head coach, has insisted that Super League’s reigning Man of Steel, Jake Connor, is central to his plans for this year’s World Cup, before appearing to attack the treatment of the Leeds Rhinos half-back by his predecessor Shaun Wane.

McDermott was unveiled on Thursday as England’s coach on a short-term deal for the tournament in Australia this autumn. The former Leeds and London coach is now working in the NRL as an assistant for Gold Coast Titans and saw off competition from Sam Burgess to be named as Wane’s successor.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Brian McDermott to be named new England rugby league head coach this week

  • Coach comes out of five-man shortlist to land role

  • Will aim to help England lift Rugby League World Cup

The former Leeds Rhinos coach Brian McDermott will be named as Shaun Wane’s successor as head coach of the England men’s national team later this week.

McDermott, the most successful coach in Super League history having guided Leeds Rhinos to eight major honours during his time with the club, has seen off interest from the likes of Sam Burgess and the current Rhinos coach, Brad Arthur, to land the honour of taking England to this autumn’s Rugby League World Cup in Australia.

Continue reading...
Posted on

‘If not us, then what?’: fears grow for rugby talent lost to league amid Moana Pasifika demise

  • Coach Umaga calls for more support for union in Samoa and Tonga

  • Super Rugby club’s future in grave doubt beyond this season

All Blacks great and Moana Pasifika coach Tana Umaga fears the region’s talent will gravitate to league and derail the Tongan and Samoan Test sides without a Super Rugby presence.

The Super Rugby Pacific franchise is set to be disbanded after ownership on Wednesday confirmed it would not continue funding the “unviable” operation beyond this season.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Winter is coming … back? Super League could revamp schedule as part of NRL takeover

  • CEO Andrew Abdo: ‘There are clear pros and cons for it’

  • London Broncos key to multimillion takeover vision

Super League could move back to a winter competition to allow year-round global broadcasting of rugby league if the NRL agrees a deal to take control of the British game.

Andrew Abdo, the CEO of the NRL, told the Guardian the Australian governing body would consider the calendar switch as a key part of a potential multimillion-pound takeover and investment package that would also include a strong focus on a London-based club and major governance reform.

Continue reading...
Posted on

‘We’ve got to wake up and smell the coffee’: Tony Rowe on Exeter’s new American frontier

As West Country club join rugby’s modern-day gold rush, their chair looks forward to some US razzmatazz and a possible Prem expansion into Wales

Tony Rowe has not yet had time to ensure Exeter’s proposed new American owners feel fully at home in the west. On a damp morning at Sandy Park no one is wearing a Stetson hat and there is not even a horse tied up outside reception. Maybe that will be part of the handover package assuming the Chiefs’ 700-odd members vote in favour next month of proceeding with the sale of their 155-year-old club.

The winds of change, though, are kicking up the local dust. For the past 33 years Rowe has been integral to one of British team sport’s most romantic Cinderella stories. But romance doesn’t pay the bills in modern pro rugby and times are a-changing. At 77 years old, it is easy to understand why Rowe fancies handing over the reins to a smartly dressed stranger from out of town.

Continue reading...