Australia’s women have bounced back from the pain of a disappointing Olympics campaign to open the new sevens series with a thrilling 28-24 win over New Zealand in Dubai as Maddison Levi showed once again why she’s the best player in the world.
‘Come a long way’: Legends throw support behind ‘promising’ Wallabies despite 60-year low
Wallabies legends are all saying the same thing after the Aussies went close to outmuscling Ireland in Sunday morning’s Test in Dublin.
Wallabies’ heartbreak as Ireland secure unwanted record in ‘gritty’ last-gasp defeat
Ireland showed character to deny former coach Joe Schmidt a winning return to Lansdowne Road on Saturday by edging Australia 22-19 in a scrappy encounter in their one-off rugby Test.
Carreras runs the show as Gloucester end Northampton’s unbeaten home run
- Northampton 17-25 Gloucester
- Santi Carreras confounds Saints’ comeback hopes
We were denied the consummation of another comeback from the dead, but we were treated to the usual entertainment all the same. Northampton’s struggles continue, here surrendering a 17-match unbeaten run at home. Gloucester, though, after an exhilarating opening 40 minutes move ever closer to the playoff zone with a win high on charisma and grit.
Rory Hutchinson missed a late penalty for the Saints, which would have earned them a bonus point, but the champions could not recover from the boundless energy with which Gloucester ran them ragged in the first half. Both sides chucked the ball around with abandon, often to their own players, but quite often to the opposition. It just added to the breathlessness.
Continue reading...Ireland 22-19 Australia: Autumn Nations Series rugby union – as it happned
A winning send off for Andy Farrell as Ireland come from behind to beat the Wallabies
8 mins. Valetini flies through the lineout to yoink the ball away before the tap down from Ryan can reach Gibson-Park; a magnificent bit of larceny from the Australian. This puts the visitors on the attack in the Irish half
6 mins. It takes a while to complete the Irish scrum just outside the Wallaby 22, which in the end results in a free kick to the home team. The ball is tapped quickly by Gibson-Park and a tidy pass from Prendergast finds Keenan on the gallop up to the line, but Kellaway rattles the ball out in the covering tackle to deny the fullback. Knock-on, and Australia clear from the scrum.
Continue reading...RGC ready to hit the road to boost SRC chances
Home might be where the heart is for RGC 1404 after they posted four wins in a row at Parc Eirias in Super Rygbi Cymru but not they are set to be tested on the road in the run up to Christmas. The first of four successive away trips begins at the Talbot Athletic Ground […]
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Premiership returns amid fanfare but old problems lurk in background | Michael Aylwin
Despite likely record ticket sales over Christmas, financial and physical health of clubs and players still a concern
With the timing of George Furbank on to a Fin Smith cutout pass, or that of any of the myriad attacking talents in English club rugby, the Premiership’s PR team ushered in the return of domestic fare this weekend by releasing a load of positive numbers. They refrained from deploying a load of exclamation marks too, but a few of those would have been perfectly consistent with the general vibe. The Premiership is back! And it’s never been better!
First, boringly, to debunk some of the hyperbole, most of the stats relating to the uptick in viewing figures and attendances across the first six rounds of this season were positioned relative to last. Apparently, cumulative audiences on TNT Sports are up by 30% on this stage of the season last year; 21,000 more matchday tickets have been sold, an increase of 15%. But the start of last season coincided with the end of a World Cup, which tends to diminish figures for the domestic game.
Continue reading...Sports quiz of the week: young guns, big leads and Formula One legends
Test your knowledge of the week in football, tennis, cricket, NFL, motor sport and beyond
Continue reading...Joseph Suaalii in despite injury concern as another debutant named in Wallabies squad
Cross-code star Joseph Suaalii will partner Len Ikitau in midfield for Australia’s season-ending Test against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.
Suaalii wins fitness battle to start in Australia’s Dublin date with Ireland
- Tane Edmed gets surprise selection in replacements
- Farrell retains Prendergast at fly-half for the hosts
Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii has won his battle to be fit for Australia’s final Test of their British Isles tour and will hope to bow out against Ireland in the spectacular fashion that he began on his debut against England.
Coach Joe Schmidt, hoping to down the team he once led to glory for six years, has also offered up one final surprise selection to finish the rugby year as he’s primed to make replacement fly-half Tane Edmed the Wallabies’ record-extending 19th debutant of 2024.
Continue reading...Josh Adams is back and raring to go!
Warren Gatland could get a post-Autumn Nations Series boost this weekend with the return to action of British & Irish Lions wing Josh Adams for Cardiff Rugby in their BKT United Rugby Championship derby clash with the Dragons at the Arms Park. Adams joined up with the Wales Squad for training during this month’s trio […]
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Search for next head coach to lead Wales Women begins
The Welsh Rugby Union today began its search for the next head coach of its Wales Women’s senior side. This appointment will underline the WRU’s commitment to the women’s game and its new headline five-year strategy for Welsh rugby, launched in June. The new head coach for the national side will lead a 37-strong squad […]
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RFU’s annual report shows a worrying decline. Has it lost its purpose? | Gerard Meagher
Beneath headline figures of the chief executive’s bumper income, what does the RFU stand for and want to achieve?
There have been suggestions in recent years, little more than rumours – though plenty of them – that the Rugby Football Union’s chief executive, Bill Sweeney, might have been preparing his exit strategy. That finding a replacement for Eddie Jones could be his parting gift, that negotiating the new eight-year agreement with the Premiership could be his intended legacy. Eventually the whispers grew loud enough that Sweeney publicly denied it and, after it emerged on Monday he was paid £1.1m thanks to the maturation of a bonus three years in the making, we appear to have a pretty good idea as to why.
The first thing to say about Sweeney’s eye-watering raise – a performance-based payment of £358,000 on top of a base salary of £742,000 – is that you can hardly blame him for taking it. Admittedly, he will have likely negotiated the details of the long-term incentive plan that has so lined his pockets but would you really expect him to turn it down? The blame lies with the RFU’s board and remuneration committee for signing off on a scheme that has made Sweeney the best-paid chief executive of a UK sports governing body – excluding payouts – at a time when 42 redundancies have just been made and a loss to reserves of £42m has just been announced.
Continue reading...Williams quits Japan and rejoins Saracens
Wales and British & Irish Lions full back Liam Williams has rejoined Saracens for the rest of the season. The 33-year-old has won 92 caps to date for his country and played in four tests for the Lions on two tours. He spent the last year playing for Kubota Spears in Japan. He made his […]
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The Breakdown | Modern Test margins can be wafer thin but winners and losers are clear
The Springboks are head and shoulders above the chasing pack and the Autumn Nations Series has raised the stakes
First among equals There is still the small matter of Ireland v Australia on Saturday but that is not going to alter this autumn’s unavoidable fact: South Africa remain the best team in the world. Or, to boil it down to its essence, the hardest to beat. They can bash teams up, slice them open out wide, kick them to death or simply outlast them: in short, they have every angle covered. The outstanding Pieter-Steph Du Toit was a deserving winner of this year’s men’s World Player of the Year award in Monaco on Sunday but, in truth, it could have been any one of several Springboks. Eben Etzebeth and Ox Nché were right on Du Toit’s tail and Cheslin Kolbe and Siya Kolisi, among others, finished the year in splendid form. France were the other unbeaten autumn side, beating the All Blacks, Argentina and Japan, but Ireland’s sub-par home defeat by New Zealand raised some uneasy questions with Andy Farrell about to switch his focus to the 2025 British & Irish Lions.
Winners and losers Modern Test margins can be wafer thin, as England can testify. But the two sides who have made unquestionable strides since the summer have been Scotland and Australia. The Scots have been building a decent squad for a while, without nailing down all the results they would have wanted. Sunday’s convincing victory over the Wallabies showcased the growing depth and composure of Gregor Townsend’s side; had it not been for a couple of belated Wallaby tries it could have been an even more emphatic statement. Australia, though, were good value for their thrilling win against England and, in the nick of time, have raised hopes of a highly competitive Lions series next year. The biggest losers? Look no further than Wales who have just completed their first winless calendar year since 1937. There is no shame in losing to a team as strong as South Africa but Saturday’s 45-12 home defeat in Cardiff starkly illustrated the issues now facing the Welsh game.
This is an extract taken from our weekly rugby union email, the Breakdown. To sign up, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
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