Category: Rugby

Rugby News

Posted on

Henry Pollock handed first England start in Six Nations clash with Ireland

  • Curry and Lawrence recalled to Borthwick’s side

  • Arundell avoids ban and starts, Freeman moves to wing

Henry Pollock has been handed his first England start against Ireland while Steve Borthwick has recalled Tom Curry and Ollie Lawrence as he seeks to get his side’s Six Nations campaign back on track.

Henry Arundell has been retained after escaping a suspension while Tommy Freeman shifts back to the wing to accommodate Lawrence and Marcus Smith comes back on to the replacements bench.

Continue reading...
Posted on

The Breakdown | France’s creative heart ‘Jalipont’ can easily join rugby’s great double-acts

Antoine Dupont and Matthieu Jalibert have thrilled during Les Bleus’ storming start to the Six Nations

The greatest double acts roll off the tongue. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Morecambe and Wise, Lennon and McCartney. It’s the same in sport: Lillee and Thomson, Torvill and Dean, Redgrave and Pinsent. After a while their individual talents complement each other so perfectly it becomes hard to mention one without the other.

Which is what is now happening on the rugby fields of Europe. For Butch and Sundance read Antoine Dupont and Matthieu Jalibert, the creative partnership behind a France team weaving the prettiest of Six Nations patterns. Between them “Jalipont” are helping to fashion some of the most spectacular attacking rugby anyone could wish for.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Former NRL star Matt Utai shot in alleged ‘brazen ambush’ outside home in western Sydney

Premiership-winning Canterbury winger hit in stomach and leg in Greenacre shooting

Former NRL star Matt Utai is in hospital fighting for his life after being shot multiple times on his front lawn, in what police are treating as an ambush attack with no clear motive.

The 2004 premiership-winning Canterbury winger was left with serious leg wounds after the attack in Greenacre, in western Sydney, at about 6am on Tuesday.

Continue reading...
Posted on

‘I struggled without realising’: Tommy Freeman reveals mental toll of workload

  • Northampton coaches eased post-Lions burden

  • England back played 34 games last season

England’s Tommy Freeman has revealed the extent of his mental struggles after the victorious British & Irish Lions tour of Australia at the end of a season when he exceeded the player welfare limits for the number of appearances.

Freeman played in 34 games last season – 19 for Northampton, nine for England and six for the Lions – and has spoken of a “built-up anxiety” as a result of the workload. The mandated limit is 30, but players were given dispensation for the Lions tour on the proviso they were allowed five weeks off on returning from Australia and missed the first two rounds of the 2025-26 season.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Keith Wood: ‘After a Lions series, every player that went on tour is wrecked’

The former Ireland hooker on his rugby family, why Andy Farrell’s side need to rebuild and the physical toll of touring with the Lions

I have known Keith Wood for nearly 30 years and so it’s easy to talk about life and death long before we move on to rugby. But the game always provides context and, last Friday afternoon, the 54-year-old former Lions hooker and Irish captain drove to Cork to watch his youngest son, Tom, play for Ireland against Italy in the Under-20 Six Nations.

The previous weekend Tom made his first-team debut for Munster to match his dad and the grandfather he never met. Gordon Wood played for Munster, as well as Ireland and the Lions, before he died, aged 50, in 1982. Keith was only 10 when that first tragedy occurred but he went on to play for the same three teams as his dad.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Revitalised Scotland trample all over Steve Borthwick’s lofty ambitions | Robert Kitson

A humbling Six Nations defeat at Murrayfield has left the England coach with significant questions to answer

Some of life’s certainties are impossible to sidestep. And to the trinity of death, taxes and rail delays can now be added a fourth familiar staple. When Scotland play England at Murrayfield it is now all but guaranteed the hosts will raise their game to Ben Nevis‑type heights and the visitors will be taken down a peg or three.

Thus it was again at the weekend as Scotland reignited the bonfire of English vanities and once more sent the auld enemy homewards tae think again. A chastened England were exposed repeatedly in thought and deed by opponents unrecognisable from the sodden losers in Rome the previous week and, as a result, the visitors were brutally consigned to a fifth Calcutta Cup defeat in the past six editions.

Continue reading...
Posted on

England’s attacking options narrow with Arundell facing ban for crunch Ireland game

  • Wing to learn fate after red card in Scotland

  • Immanuel Feyi-Waboso also out with injury

Steve Borthwick is facing a selection headache as England seek to get their Six Nations campaign back on track against Ireland on Saturday, with Henry Arundell set for disciplinary action after his red card against Scotland.

England have promised an “honest and emotional” review into their dismal Calcutta Cup defeat before Borthwick decides how to configure his backline against Ireland, with Arundell facing the prospect of a suspension for his two yellow cards against Scotland.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Wales 12-54 France: Six Nations 2026 rugby union – as it happened

Wales suffered a heavy defeat in front of the lowest Six Nations Cardiff attendance in 24 years

5 mins. A hanging Edwards kick is dropped by Jalibert, but it went backwards and so Attissogbe can tidy it up around halfway. Wales are soon back on the ball with Edwards again kicking deep; way too deep as it bobbles dead.

The first try was in some measure due to missed tackles and then another basic error is made with that kick. Unforgivable, really.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Ireland 20-13 Italy: Six Nations rugby union – as it happened

Ireland fought back to earn a narrow victory in Dublin after a resurgent Italy had threatened a major upset

The Opta supercomputer has crunched the numbers and chucked out a predicted result.

Drumroll please….

Hi Daniel.

I am REALLY looking forward to this match. I’ve been “with” Italy ever since they made it a 6 Nations but obviously reasons to be cheerful have been thin on the ground. Until now. Sergio Parisse was world class and was surely only a question of time before other high class Italians emerged.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Relegated, liquidated, resurrected: Bradford Bulls are back in the big time

After hitting rock-bottom, the four-time Super League champions are finally returning to the top flight

By No Helmets Required

When Super League was cut to a dozen teams at the end of the 2014 season, it lost two of its biggest cities in Bradford and London, which followed big markets such as Paris, Tyneside and Sheffield out of the top flight, seemingly never to return. London Broncos have popped back to the party twice but only stayed for a season each time. Seeing the Broncos become a penniless and homeless part-time operation was sad; seeing Bradford do the same was shocking.

The Bulls went into financial meltdown, were liquidated, relegated to the third division and even left their famous Odsal Stadium for a while. Now, 20 years after being crowned world champions for the third time in five seasons, Bradford are back in the big time and preparing to kick off their season at Hull on Saturday.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Itoje calls for ‘bulletproof’ England approach to slay their Murrayfield ghosts

  • Scotland boast strong recent Calcutta Cup record

  • England have not won at Murrayfield since 2020

Maro Itoje has called on his England side to be “bulletproof” as they seek to clinch a first win at Murrayfield in six years on Saturday. England can keep their grand slam pursuit alive by successfully defending the Calcutta Cup and Itoje has urged his side to create their own history despite their recent wretched form in Edinburgh.

With England on a 12-match winning streak and Scotland suffering a shock defeat by Italy last week, Steve Borthwick’s side are clear favourites for victory. Their only victory at Murrayfield since Eddie Jones’ first game in charge came in miserable weather in 2020, however, with Scotland securing victories in 2022 and last time out in 2024.

Continue reading...
Posted on

Wales beef up pack for France visit in bid to end 12-game Six Nations losing streak

  • Ollie Cracknell one of four changes in the Welsh team

  • Doris urges Ireland team to take greater responsibility

The Wales coach, Steve Tandy, has made four changes to his starting XV for the daunting visit of France to the Principality Stadium on Sunday, including Ollie Cracknell at No 8 as they seek to arrest a 12-game losing streak in the Six Nations.

Following last weekend’s 48-7 defeat to England, beleaguered Wales have beefed up their pack with the inclusion of Cracknell for a first Six Nations start, and two changes in the front row as the props Rhys Carré and Tomas Francis replace Nicky Smith and Archie Griffin.

Continue reading...
Posted on

‘It’s ridiculous’: Maro Itoje dismisses Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s ‘colonisation’ comments

  • Ratcliffe’s remarks on immigration sparked controversy

  • England captain says remarks are ‘so far from the truth’

The England captain Maro Itoje has piled into the ruck surrounding Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s comments about immigration, dismissing the Manchester United co-owner’s views as “ridiculous”. Itoje, whose parents both came to Britain from Nigeria, has criticised the phrasing and accuracy of Ratcliffe’s remarks.

Itoje, who recently missed the start of England’s pre-Six Nations training camp to attend his mother’s funeral in Nigeria, did not hold back when asked about Ratcliffe’s opinion on the eve of his side’s Calcutta Cup showdown at Murrayfield. “Obviously I don’t condone the language he used,” said Itoje.

Continue reading...