Category: Rugby

Rugby News

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Ineos and Ratcliffe’s sporting empire risks atrophy with horizons narrowing | Nick Ames

The dream of sharing expertise across six sports, hoping to be supreme in all, was always likely to be a high-wire act

Five and a half years ago, Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos swept into OGC Nice with a mission statement. “We have a plan in place and we will follow it,” read one of the billionaire’s quotes amid a press release that outlined how the Ligue 1 club would become a regular player on the European scene. “I am adamant we will not be the dumb money.”

It is one of the earliest usages, in the context of sports investment at least, of a phrase dear to Ratcliffe. “Dumb money” is exactly what it says: injecting funds without genuine insight or expertise into the relevant industry. A few months later Ratcliffe deployed the same term speaking about Manchester United, who were at that point a twinkle in his eye, with specific reference to a £47m transfer fee spent on Fred by the previous regime.

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‘I’ve told Dad to be neutral’ – Fin Smith on split family Calcutta Cup loyalties

Fly-half starred in England’s victory against France and is now set to face Scotland, the country of his father’s birth

As Gregor Townsend sweats on the availability of Finn Russell for next Saturday’s Calcutta Cup there may be a few wistful glances in the direction of England’s fly-halves. For Fin Smith, man of the match on his first Test start against France, has Scottish blood in his veins.

His grandfather, Tom Elliot, was from Galashiels – like Townsend – and represented Scotland and the British & Irish Lions as a loosehead prop. Smith’s father, Andrew, is from Dunfermline and met his wife, Judith, Tom’s daughter, at the London Scottish clubhouse. Smith Sr has eight England caps of his own but as a child would marvel at his grandfather’s collection, he and brother Angus regularly trying them on.

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Marcus Smith can become England’s pinch hitter with a licence to thrill

Fin Smith’s control at fly-half looks the better option but that need not mean the end of the Harlequin’s Test career

All too often, both in life and rugby, people prefer to stick to a certain template rather than try something different. Many, for example, still envisage the perfect No 10 to be an impish genius and, ideally, Welsh. Those who do not quite fit the mould – particularly those taking over from a recently departed legend – have to work doubly hard to shift entrenched perceptions.

Dan Biggar, Wales’s most-capped fly-half, was instructive on the subject in his thought-provoking autobiography, The Biggar Picture. “Throughout my career I’d constantly had to silence the critics. I was too slow. I stood too deep. I was petulant, aggressive and one-dimensional. I kicked too much and ran too little. I was, in short, not your typical Welsh fly-half. Where Barry John would paint you a picture, I’d draw you a diagram.”

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Young Scarlets ready for final push to retain U18 title

There are few signs of the Scarlets relinquishing their Regional Academies U18 title after going through their four pool games unbeaten. Tom Phillips’ side notched 27 tries and 179 points as they breezed past Cardiff (51-19), Dragons (50-14), RGC (24-6) and Ospreys (54-5) to take top seeding or the semi-finals on Sunday 16 February. Leading […]

The post Young Scarlets ready for final push to retain U18 title appeared first on Welsh Rugby Union | Wales & Regions.

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Anscombe, Evans and Llewellyn called up for Wales

Harlequins fly-half Jarrod Evans along with Gloucester fly-half Gareth Anscombe and centre Max Llewellyn have been called up to the Wales senior men’s squad. They will assemble in camp with the squad on Monday 17 February to prepare for the sold-out match against Ireland at Principality Stadium on Saturday 22 February. Ospreys centre Owen Watkin […]

The post Anscombe, Evans and Llewellyn called up for Wales appeared first on Welsh Rugby Union | Wales & Regions.

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One sub club: the players with the shortest careers in Super League

Some rugby league players only appear in the top flight once. They should cherish every minute of it

By Gavin Willacy for No Helmets Required

In Salford’s last regular Super League game of 2024, the coach Paul Rowley gave debuts to eight reserve players to protect his stars for the playoffs. None of them are likely to be on the field when their season begins at St Helens on Saturday evening. Their services may never be required in the top flight again. But, for one night only, they found themselves up against the world champions, live on national TV.

Dan Spencer-Tonks knows what that “for one night only” role feels like. Rowley did the same thing two years earlier, fielding six debutants against Warrington in the final regular round. Spencer-Tonks came off the bench for his only taste of Super League, earning membership of the one sub club. He has spent the last two seasons in the Championship and League One, his time at the top seemingly gone as rapidly as it arrived.

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Wigan, the people’s club, keep their doors wide open in pursuit of perfection

‘Doing it for the town’: Super League’s all-conquering machine have a unique way of involving their community

It is Tuesday morning and there are just 48 hours to go until Wigan begin their Super League title defence against Leigh, not that you would know that when you walk into their Robin Park training complex.

To suggest the mood is relaxed would be an understatement. Some players are taking part in a cricket match on the indoor athletics track, while others are chatting to members of the public and upstairs, their head coach, Matt Peet, is relaxing with a coffee. “If someone said describe a high-performance environment, I don’t think this would be the first place you’d think of,” their former captain and assistant coach, Sean O’Loughlin, smiles.

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Tierney: ‘We really need systemic change that is going to make a difference’

WRU CEO Abi Tierney reached ‘a mutual decision’ that meant Warren Gatland would leave his post as Wales head coach. That was the explanation when Tierney was questioned about the move that saw Wale’s most successful coach of all time (three Grand Slams, two World Cup Bronze Finals, a 14-match winning streak and guiding Wales […]

The post Tierney: ‘We really need systemic change that is going to make a difference’ appeared first on Welsh Rugby Union | Wales & Regions.

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Super League 2025: team-by-team guide to the new season

Wigan have no weakness, Hull face a rebuild and newcomers Wakefield will quietly fancy their chances

Super League’s 30th season gets under way on Thursday evening, with the biggest opening-night crowd in the competition’s history anticipated to watch the reigning champions, Wigan Warriors, take on their local rivals, Leigh Leopards. Matt Peet’s side completed an historic quadruple last year and have all the hallmarks of a side that could sweep aside all comers again.

Will Wigan dominate 2025 just like they did in 2024? Can the likes of Warrington, Hull KR and Leeds put up a credible challenge? And who is in a struggle to avoid finishing bottom? Here is the Guardian’s team-by-team guide to the new season.

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Sherratt given Wales job for rest of Six Nations after Gatland’s abrupt exit

  • Six Nations defeat by Italy was 14th consecutive reverse
  • Wales sit 12th in world rankings, lowest-ever position

Cardiff’s Matt Sherratt has been handed the Wales coaching reins on an interim basis after Warren ­Gatland’s second spell as head coach ended abruptly on Tuesday. Welsh ­supporters have been warned, ­however, there is “no magic bullet” that will instantly revive the national team after their dismal 22-15 defeat by Italy on Saturday.

Gatland has departed “by mutual agreement” after 14 successive Test defeats, the worst run in the country’s 144-year international rugby ­history. Gatland, 61, had been contracted until the 2027 World Cup but Abi Tierney, the Welsh Rugby Union chief exe­cutive, acknow­ledged “there was a mounting sense that it wasn’t working” and said the ­decision was “in the best interests of the Wales squad”.

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The Breakdown | Time for Wales to face the Six Nations music as faith and form nosedive

If Welsh rugby sinks any lower, big questions about the tournament’s long-term health may have to be asked

The difference is a mere 0.1 of a ranking point. And rankings, in isolation, do not necessarily foretell the future. Even so the news that Wales have slipped to 12th in World Rugby’s official pecking order, one place below Georgia, was a hugely symbolic moment. After 14 Test defeats in succession, another unwanted record, it was a new low in a season increasingly full of them.

Faith seems to be ebbing away, too. “It can’t carry on like this,” their erstwhile fly-half Dan Biggar said on ITV Sport over the weekend. “That looks like a team shot of belief and confidence.” Sam Warburton, who was leading Wales to Six Nations titles and grand slams not so long ago, was similarly downbeat as he sifted through the ashes of the defeat against Italy in Rome on Saturday. Neither were putting the boot in for the sake of it, they were just saying it as it is.

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‘We’ll be brothers forever but business is business’: Sam Burgess on family, infamy and fears for Luke Littler

The Warrington head coach reflects on high expectations, learning from pain and a Super League opener against Huddersfield and his younger brother Thomas

“A lot of pain or adversity can be a great foundation for future success,” Sam Burgess says as we track back through the dark times, as well as the glory years, which have shaped him. Burgess, the once imperious rugby league player from Yorkshire who earned searing fame and then infamy in Australia, is about to start his second campaign as the head coach of Warrington Wolves.

Having guided Warrington to third place in Super League and to the Challenge Cup final last season, Burgess aims to end the club’s 70-year wait for another championship. It is a sign of the calm hope he feels now that the 36-year-old can reflect on the tumult and strife he has endured – starting with the death of his father from motor neurone disease when Burgess was a teenager to playing with a shattered cheekbone and fractured eye socket while inspiring the South Sydney Rabbitohs to their first NRL title in 43 years in 2014.

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