Pontypool boost top four chances with big win over Quins in SRC

Pontypool boosted their hopes of a top four finish in Super Rugby Cymru with a comprehensive 42-17 victory over Carmarthen Quins. Holding a narrow 18-17 lead at half time, having been outscored three tries to two in the first half, Pooler then ran in four tries, scoring 24 unanswered points in the second to down […]

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Pontypool boost top four chances with bit win over Quins in SRC

Pontypool boosted their hopes of a top four finish in Super Rugby Cymru with a comprehensive 42-17 victory over Carmarthen Quins. Holding a narrow 18-17 lead at half time, having been outscored three tries to two in the first half, Pooler then ran in four tries, scoring 24 unanswered points in the second to down […]

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Finn Russell returns to lead Bath past Gloucester to consolidate lead at top

  • Bath 42-26 Gloucester
  • Leaders score six tries against West Country rivals

Bath cemented their position as the team to catch in the Premiership race this season with an entertaining victory against their West Country rivals Gloucester. Assisted by the return of their chief playmaker, Finn Russell, after the Six Nations, the hosts scored six tries and, in a neat example of symmetry, are six points clear of the field with six regular-season fixtures to play.

It has already been a good month for Bath, who won the Premiership Cup last weekend to secure their first trophy for 17 years, and here was further evidence of the significant squad depth at their disposal.

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Amazing Maisie ready for next step up Welsh pathway ladder

Two years ago, Maisie Davies and Alaw Pyrs were lining up for Wales U18 against their Scottish counterparts in the Six Nations U18 Festival. Today the talented teenagers will make their first starts for the senior Wales Women’s team in the Guinness Six Nations. Their dramatic rise through the ranks is testimony to their form […]

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From one crisis to another: rugby league in dire need of real leadership

Clubs ousting the RFL chair to demand a third review in eight years is a retrograde step that takes yet more focus off the actual rugby

Remember Super League’s historic trip to Las Vegas? The hype, the excitement and the feeling that after years of trying, perhaps British rugby league had finally broken a glass ceiling and could be set for a bright future? That all unfolded only three weeks ago, but given what has happened since, it feels like a lot longer.

Few sports do off-field issues quite like rugby league, but even by its own ridiculous standards, these are unique times. It is perhaps pertinent to start with Salford Red Devils, given their very existence has appeared under threat of late. They have twice been placed in special measures by the Rugby Football League over the winter, the latest coming when their new owners failed to pay their players on time in February, days after a takeover of the club that had fuelled optimism.

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Defence coach Murphy joins Wales Women

Dan Murphy

The Welsh Rugby Union is excited to announce Dan Murphy, the Gloucester/Hartpury coach, has been drafted in as defence coach for the Wales Women’s Six Nations campaign. Murphy is part of new Wales head coach Sean Lynn’s title-winning coaching team at Gloucester/Hartpury in the PWR. He is the Gloucester/Hartpury scrum coach but his remit with […]

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No wages and little clarity: what next in the Salford Red Devils fiasco?

As Salford and the RFL battle to see who can look the most shambolic, we answer the questions you might be asking

By No Helmets Required

Fiasco, farce, omnishambles, call it what you like – even Malcolm Tucker would struggle to put a gloss on events at Salford Red Devils and the RFL in the last few months. With their new owners repeatedly failing to lodge the funds that would guarantee the club can get through the season, Salford remain in special measures, administered by a governing body that has seen the majority of its board resign, other senior staff leave under black clouds and a former deposed leader return in a remarkable coup. As Salford and the RFL battle to see who can look the most shambolic, we answer the questions you might be asking.

How can Salford finish fourth last season and lose their first four games this time? Winning the battle of the pointless against Huddersfield on Thursday night was a rare moment of joy for Salford since bowing out of the Super League playoffs six months ago. On paper, Paul Rowley’s side should challenge for silverware. Instead, they have played like relegation fodder, their star players totally undermined by not being paid and their employers in disarray.

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Premiership ready to rumble again with a post-Six Nations glow

The English top flight has clouds on its horizon but it returns with Derby Weekend full of promise and intrigue

Premiership Rugby executives have been picking the brains of their counterparts at World Wrestling Entertainment of late. The bad news is that rugby union’s version of the Royal Rumble is not in the pipeline, the good is that there is no better organisation when it comes to selling its stars and the Premiership has evidently been doing its homework over how to follow suit.

The findings were instructive. Better to encourage profiles to develop organically than force growth and it was interesting to hear the Rugby Football Union (RFU) chief executive, Bill Sweeney, suggest recently that Netflix might have mis-stepped by opening this year’s Six Nations documentary with an episode all about Marcus Smith, Twickenham’s golden boy, buying a car. Rugby is not football was the gist of Sweeney’s argument in his latest podcast appearance.

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Drovers do it again to add SRC Cup to trophy cabinet

Ebbw Vale’s long Wait for a cup final success continues after they were blown apart by Llandovery at Church Bank as the Drovers won the inaugural Super Rygbi Cymru Cup 39-7. Euro Evans’s side ran in fvie tries as they turned the screw in the second half to turn their slender 13-7 interval lead into […]

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Encouraging start to Wales U18 campaigns

Carwyn Leggatt-Jones

Both the Wales U18 Women’s and Men’s teams came up with victories at the weekend as they warmed-up for the upcoming Six Nations Festivals. Siwan Lillicrap’s women’s side beat Italy 17-10 in Treviso while Richie Pugh’s men’s side were convincing 33-17 victors’ against Scotland in Newcastle. “We played three ‘halves’ of 25 minutes in what […]

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Lynn names Wales Women’s side to face Scotland

Hannah Jones

Head coach Sean Lynn has picked his first Wales side for the Guinness Women’s Six Nations opener away to Scotland at the Hive, Edinburgh on Saturday, March 22nd (4.45pm). Hannah Jones will captain the side with Keira Bevan as vice-captain for the trip to the Scottish capital. Props Maisie Davies and Jenni Scoble and lock […]

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Ebbw Vale chasing title in first cup final in 27 years at Llandovery

Jason Strange’s development plan at Ebbw Vale will reach a new milestone when The Steelmen play in their first cup final in 27 years at Llandovery’s Church Bank. When Strange returned as head coach at his hometown club he had a massive clear out of players, scoured his locality for talent and three seasons on […]

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Six Nations Under 18 Festivals return

U18s

 The Six Nations Under 18 Festivals return in 2025, with Wellington College in England hosting the Women’s Festival from 11th – 19th April, and Vichy in France the stage for this year’s Men’s Festival which runs from the 10th – 18th April. As a vital development platform for the women’s and men’s game, the festivals […]

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