Category: Rugby

Rugby News

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‘Important but not the biggest’: Gatland denies Italy game is Wales’s most crucial in 20 years

  • Coach disagrees with Biggar’s view of Six Nations clash
  • Taulupe Faletau to make first appearance since 2023

Warren Gatland has dismissed the notion Wales are facing their biggest game for two decades against Italy in Rome on Saturday.

The former Wales outside-half Dan Biggar described the Six Nations fixture match as Welsh rugby’s biggest game for the “last 15 to 20 years” after an opening 43-0 thrashing by France left Gatland’s side surveying a record-breaking 13th consecutive defeat. A 14th at the Stadio Olimpico would leave Wales with the very real prospect of a second winless Six Nations campaign and ­championship wooden spoon and put Gatland in almost an ­untenable position.

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Borthwick rolls dice with Marcus Smith a ‘gamechanger’ for England after switch

  • Fin Smith starts at fly-half with Marcus at full-back
  • Borthwick: ‘Marcus sees space that other players don’t’

Steve Borthwick believes Marcus Smith can be England’s “gamechanger” against France after shifting the Harlequins playmaker to full-back and handing Fin Smith a first start at fly-half for Saturday’s crunch clash.

Marcus Smith has started England’s last eight Tests at fly-half but with Borthwick keen to exploit his sparkling talents from deep and introduce a second playmaker to the side, the head coach has rolled the dice as he seeks to end his side’s miserable run of seven defeats in nine matches.

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Challenge Cup romance returns but has RFL’s revamp backfired?

New format was supposed to send Super League teams to lower-league grounds but things haven’t quite gone to plan

It is officially the start of the new Super League season this weekend, but not quite as you may remember it. The road to Old Trafford begins next Thursday when the reigning champions, Wigan, take on Leigh in a mouthwatering local derby. But before then, all 12 top-flight clubs enter a revamped and remodelled Challenge Cup much earlier than usual.

In recent years, Super League clubs have entered as late as round six. This year, they come into the competition at round three after the Rugby Football League decided to try to pump some magic into the cup’s earlier rounds by guaranteeing all Super League sides would be drawn away at lower-league opposition. However, it hasn’t quite gone to plan.

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Jalibert at fly-half as France make two changes to starting XV against England

  • Ntamack’s three-match ban prompts team tweaks
  • Penaud returns for role on the wing after toe injury

France’s Matthieu Jalibert will start at fly-half against England in the Six Nations on Saturday in place of the suspended Romain Ntamack, one of two changes from the team that beat Wales in the opening game.

Jalibert asked to be sent back to his club, Bordeaux-Begles, when he was left out of the 23 to face the All Blacks having been second in the pecking order at flyhalf to Thomas Ramos during last November’s autumn series but the France head coach, Fabien Galthié, said there was no grudge held against the 26-year-old.

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Joe Schmidt to stand down as Wallabies coach after Rugby Championship

  • Huge blow for Rugby Australia before home World Cup
  • New Zealander to face All Blacks for last match in charge

Joe Schmidt will step down as Wallabies coach at the end of this year’s Rugby Championship in a blow to Australia’s hopes in the 2027 World Cup.

The New Zealander confirmed on Thursday he would extend his contract beyond the British and Irish Lions tour, but won’t continue through to the showpiece tournament on home soil. His last Test in charge will be against the All Blacks in Perth on 4 October.

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Ntamack suspended for England clash with Jalibert likely to step up for France

  • Ntamack sent off in 43-0 defeat of Wales in Paris
  • Fly-half will be available again to face Ireland

The France fly-half Romain Ntamack has been suspended for the match against England on Saturday, forcing Les Bleus into a reshuffle, but he will be available for their fixture against Ireland later in the tournament.

Ntamack was sent off in the emphatic victory against Wales last Friday and has been handed a three-week suspension. In his absence, Bordeaux’s mercurial fly-half Matthieu Jalibert is the favourite to come into the No 10 jersey at Twickenham.

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England team’s struggles remind me of Manchester United, says Wigglesworth

  • England attack coach expects both teams to turn corner
  • ‘We’re seeing green shoots – we play fast and score tries’

Steve Borthwick’s England squad has been compared to Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United side before the massive Six Nations fixture at home against France on Saturday. Both teams have been having difficult seasons but inside the red rose camp there remains a firm belief that, given a little patience, the tide will eventually turn for them.

England’s attack coach, Richard Wigglesworth, also happens to be a United fan and sees similarities between the respective situations at Twickenham and Old Trafford. He thinks Amorim will eventually deliver success for United, now 13th in the Premier League, and is also backing England, who have won just two of their past nine Tests, to turn the corner in the not-too-distant future.

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Rugby’s concussion trial moves a step closer to reality after high court progress

  • Judge confident of issuing directions for trial this year
  • Class action contains 386 union players, 177 from league

The class action being brought by hundreds of former rugby union and league players over the devastating effects of repetitive head injuries has taken a significant step forward at the high court in London.

Four years after the Guardian first reported that a group of eight former union players, including the World Cup winner Steve Thompson, had been diagnosed with neurological problems which they claimed were caused by their playing careers, the presiding judge, senior master of the king’s bench division Jeremy Cook has set out a roadmap for the landmark case.

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Injury forces Tuipulotu out of Women’s Six Nations

The Welsh Rugby Union can confirm Wales prop Sisilia Tuipulotu will miss the forthcoming Guiness Women’s Six Nations campaign. Tuipulotu, 21, has undergone an operation due to a hamstring injury and will be out for the rest of the 2024/25 season. The 25-times capped prop has been a mainstay of the Wales side for the […]

The post Injury forces Tuipulotu out of Women’s Six Nations appeared first on Welsh Rugby Union | Wales & Regions.

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Humphreys: ‘Our execution has to improve’

Jonathan Humphreys says nobody needs to underline the importance of Saturday’s Round 2 clash against Italy in Rome in the Guinness Six Nations to any of the players or coaches in the Welsh squad. But the former Wales captain, nowadays the Wales forwards coach, believes that every game is equally important. “Every single game in […]

The post Humphreys: ‘Our execution has to improve’ appeared first on Welsh Rugby Union | Wales & Regions.

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England set to name both Smiths in starting XV for France Six Nations clash

  • Fin Smith to start at No 10 with Marcus Smith at full-back
  • ‘We’re blessed with three 10s who can play to a high level’

England are poised to select both Fin Smith and Marcus Smith in the same starting team to face France in the Six Nations this weekend.

The young Northampton fly-half is in line to make his first start in the No 10 jersey with his Harlequin namesake expected to be redeployed at full-back against France at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.

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