Rugby News
Northampton survived a late scare to snatch a narrow 35-34 victory over Newcastle at Kingston Park.
A thrilling encounter saw Craig Wright cancel out Jamie Blamire’s opening try and after Brett Connon sent the Falcons ahead again from the tee, Northampton seized control just before half-time with Luke Green, Fin Smith and debutant Will Glister all scoring.
Continue reading...Second to seventh all play each other this weekend but European calendar threatens to stall momentum
The Premiership season is rounding the final bend and entering the home straight. Organisers like to call this point in the campaign “The Run-in” and they could hardly have wished for a better set of fixtures this weekend to begin it with. Sixth host fourth when Saracens entertain Gloucester, fifth go to seventh with Sale travelling to Harlequins and on Sunday, second and third lock horns with Bristol facing Leicester.
As was the case last season, the race for the playoffs is shaping up to be a blanket finish. Bath are out in front in first but with five matches remaining, only four points separate Leicester in third and Harlequins in seventh. Bristol are a further five ahead in the runners-up spot and with second to seventh all playing each other this weekend, through rose-tinted glasses it is the perfect way to showcase the sprint finish.
Continue reading...With the clubs occupying first and second spot in the standings, the stakes are high for their Good Friday derby
Nestled at the eastern tip of the M62, the city of Hull may sit on the very tip of British rugby league’s geographical landscape but, right now, it is the epicentre of Super League.
Few cities are driven by a passion for rugby league quite like it. Both of the city’s clubs – Hull FC and Hull KR – have enjoyed spells in the upper echelons of Super League over the past 30 years but not since the early 80s, long before the advent of summer rugby, was there a time when both East Riding clubs were simultaneously competing for honours.
Continue reading...Steve Diamond’s season-ending ban was meted out because he called a group of match‑day officials “cunts” before telling the television match official he should retire.
The Newcastle director of rugby was given a six-match suspension last week after a disciplinary hearing into an incident that took place in the dying throes of the Falcons’ late defeat by fellow strugglers Exeter last month.
Continue reading...Hull lost their unbeaten record on Friday but they are building something special and trophies will surely come
To say Hull Kingston Rovers are a club on the up would be a huge understatement. Eight years ago they were playing Championship games against Batley, Swinton and Dewsbury. Now they are Super League leaders, aspiring to overthrow Wigan. They are inspiring other mid-sized clubs, showing what can be done with a bit of money, a lot of hard work and many good decisions. They were beaten 28-12 by Wigan but Friday night at Craven Park was more evidence of dreams manifest.
Forty years after they last lifted a major trophy, Hull KR fans are desperate to see this current wave of success be crowned with silverware. They sold their 4,000 tickets for the Hull derby in 12 minutes, their 6,000 Challenge Cup semi-final allocation in two hours. Craven Park is sold out most games, seats only left empty by absent season-ticket holders or folk enjoying the food and drinks area on Craven Streat, the dilapidated southern terrace replaced by a fortnightly festival. It was busy from two hours before kickoff on Friday, with local musician Tom A Smith playing on the pitch before the game and on the Craven Streat stage at half-time. Fireworks went off randomly. It was the Super Bowl brought to you on a budget.
Continue reading...The NSW Waratahs have stunned the rugby union world with a phenomenal 102-metre team try during their upset Super Rugby win over the Chiefs in Sydney on Friday night.
Have you been following the football, horse racing, golf, cycling, cricket, rugby union, darts and hockey?
Continue reading...Rugby Australia has signed a five-year extension to its broadcast rights agreement with Nine Entertainment in a deal worth up to $240m. It runs from 2026-2030 and includes performance incentives linked to Wallabies wins, Nine-owned newspapers reported.
“[It] represents a significant uplift on Rugby Australia’s current broadcast agreement and follows a successful organisational reset in 2024,” RA said in a statement.
Continue reading...English club rugby is being undermined by a “dysfunctional” fixture schedule that is making it harder to compete with other top European sides, according to Northampton’s director of rugby, Phil Dowson. Saints are the only English team still involved in the Champions Cup this season but Dowson believes Premiership teams are being handicapped by their own domestic calendar.
Northampton were crowned Premiership champions last season and also made the Champions Cup semi-finals, but Dowson believes it will require a “monumental effort” for any Premiership club to challenge successfully on two fronts given the current structure and salary cap restrictions.
Continue reading...Any potential deal for the NRL to take control of Super League depends on the continued presence of French clubs in the British game, with Australian powerbrokers likely to abandon plans to purchase a stake if Catalans Dragons and Toulouse are ejected by clubs leading a review into the sport in the UK.
British rugby league is on the verge of a hugely critical period. There is an increasingly hostile power struggle developing, after a number of clubs – spearheaded by Leigh Leopards and Batley Bulldogs – successfully removed Simon Johnson as the the Rugby Football League chair, and installed as his replacement the governing body’s former chief executive Nigel Wood.
Continue reading...Young gun Maddison Levi was breaking records and making game-changing saves as she starred for Australia during the weekend’s Singapore Sevens.
Warrington Wolves edged a pulsating Challenge Cup quarter-final with St Helens to set up a semi-final showdown with Leigh Leopards next month.
Two of the cup’s most successful clubs met on a sun-drenched afternoon in Warrington, in a contest that was level at half-time and which ebbed and flowed for most of the match. But in the end, it was Sam Burgess’s side who came through a thrilling tie with the England captain, George Williams, scoring the decisive try with 10 minutes remaining.
Continue reading...While Harlequins forward focuses on Saturday’s Champions Cup test at Leinster, future opportunities are on his mind
There is a colossal game looming in Croke Park on Saturday afternoon and Chandler Cunningham-South’s pre-match routine is now established. First he likes to step into a cold shower to wake himself up properly. Then the big Harlequins and England forward will open the notebook he carries everywhere with him, pick up a pen and write down exactly what he plans to do to Leinster.
The precise wording – “It’s quite personalised to me” – is less important than the confident mindset it encourages. The basic idea is to reinforce one of two key objectives – “It’s just confirming what’s in my head already,” he says – and ensures he goes into battle “with a clear mind”. Unthinkingly following the herd has never been his style.
Continue reading...The Welsh winger injured his achilles in 2022 while playing league for St Helens. He’s back – playing union for Cardiff
Regan Grace’s career – and life, in many ways – changed on the last day of July 2022 in the final minute of a Super League game between St Helens and Salford. Returning the ball inside his own half in the dying seconds of a shock defeat for the league leaders, Grace collapsed on to his chest, untouched by another player. His left achilles had ruptured. His St Helens career was over, having scored 300 points from 75 tries in 128 Super League games.
Three years later, he’s been at four clubs in three countries and two rugby codes. No wonder he’s not the player he was. Yet. But last Saturday night in the Italian city of Treviso, he completed a competitive rugby match for the first time in 979 days. The last time Grace had completed a game, in July 2022, his try helped St Helens come from behind to beat Wakefield by a single point. This time, Cardiff let a lead slip and lost by a point in Treviso. But there was more at stake for Grace than the result.
Continue reading...Jordan Petaia has taken a giant step towards becoming the first Wallaby to play in the NFL, after being signed by the Los Angeles Chargers.