Category: Rugby

Rugby News

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What happened to the rugby league Lions – and could they be revived?

While Andy Farrell’s team are winning matches and fans in Australia, the league Lions remain in hibernation

By No Helmets Required

If the British & Irish Lions complete a clean sweep against the Wallabies on Saturday in Sydney, there will be more talk of Australia no longer being a sufficiently challenging destination for a Lions tour. It’s a mirror image of what has happened to the rugby league Lions over the past 15 years, with Australia deciding that neither Great Britain nor England brought the jeopardy, ticket sales or eyeballs required to justify an incoming tour. Instead, the Kangaroos will visit London, Liverpool and Leeds later this year to play England.

It has been 33 years since Great Britain toured Australia. Martin Offiah lit up that series in 1992, scoring seven tries in six Tests against Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. Offiah, who won 33 caps for Great Britain, as well as five for England, cannot believe the Rugby Football League and Australian Rugby League have allowed these showcase events to fade from view. “As a nation we’ve got to have regular fixtures against Australia,” says Offiah. “Not playing them since the World Cup final in 2017 is crazy. When you’re trying to get across that bridge and match them, that’s a massive gap. And we should have been Great Britain for this series – then gone back to England for the World Cup.”

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Super League votes to add two clubs and return to 14-team competition for 2026

  • Top-flight clubs agree to expansion for next season

  • Bradford Bulls and London Broncos could go up

Super League will become a 14-team competition again in 2026 after rugby league’s elite clubs opted to expand by two teams for the start of next season.

The league has operated with 12 teams for the last decade but clubs agreed to the expansion on Monday at a meeting in Leeds which opens the door for at least two Championship teams to join the elite ranks for 2026.

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Ray French, former BBC rugby league commentator, dies aged 85

  • Played internationally in union and league

  • Led BBC coverage for 38 years

Ray French, the former rugby league commentator, has died at the age of 85. He had been living with dementia.

He played internationally in union, winning four caps in the second row for England in 1961, before moving to league and joining his home town club, St Helens, that year and helped them win the Challenge Cup in 1966. He appeared four times for Great Britain, in 1968.

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Judge criticises solicitor acting on behalf of players with brain injury lawsuits

  • More than 1,000 players from both codes taking action

  • Solicitor under ‘misapprehension’ about responsibilities

The judge presiding over the two brain injury lawsuits in rugby league and union has issued an extraordinary criticism of the solicitor acting on behalf of the injured players, saying that he had been under a “misapprehension” about his responsibilities and that “he seems to have a problem with the English language”.

Senior master Jeremy Cook said that Richard Boardman, whose firm Rylands Garth is representing more than 1,000 players across both codes, had failed to disclose material to the defendants, World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union, the Welsh Rugby Union, and Rugby Football League.

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Ben Te’o: ‘Guys were fighting for spots. After too many drinks sometimes that spills over’

The Brisbane Broncos assistant coach on the Lions, union’s struggle in Australia and that World Cup fight

Ben Te’o emerges from Brisbane Broncos’ headquarters, umbrella in one hand and walking a little gingerly. As we head for the cafe at the Broncos’ lavish training base, where Te’o is now an assistant coach, he explains he has just spent two nights in hospital due to a burst appendix. To his great credit, he still felt obliged to meet, and he is good company. It is entirely complimentary to remark that Te’o has never struck as an overly complicated person. He says it how he sees it. And there is plenty to say.

It is 8am, the day before the first British & Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Te’o has been in demand of late, for the local press wants to know how the Lions measures up against NRL’s State of Origin and the former England centre is the only man to both represent the former and play in the latter.

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Embattled Salford players out to avoid tag of Super League’s worst ever team

The Red Devils are showing spirit and improving on the field, but they may still finish the season on zero points

By No Helmets Required

For much of last Friday’s game at Leeds, no one could possibly think they were watching one of the worst teams in rugby league history. Salford eventually sank to a 40-6 defeat, a harsh scoreline given they were the better side in the first half and conceded 18 points in the 10 minutes they had a man sin-binned. Despite a week of huge upheaval – players threatening a strike, crisis meetings with the Rugby Football League and a squad stripped by injuries of another three senior players – Salford competed heroically.

It was another spirited display after their victory over Castleford – just their second win of the season – but coach Paul Rowley is not expecting things to keep getting better over the remaining eight rounds of the season. Wages are due next week, with some players extremely concerned that, once they play the final game of the campaign at home to Wakefield on 19 September, they may not receive the final two paychecks of their contracts. Threats of a strike were quashed after a meeting with the RFL, but the players know they face an uncertain future.

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