Rugby News
Pontypool will be hoping to repeat their home win over Gwent rivals Ebbw Vale in the regular Super Rygbi Cymru league season when they host them again in Pool B of the SRC Cup. Pooler are top of the table after back-to-back wins over and Swansea and Carmarthen Quins and have two games to go […]
The post Pontypool and RGC hoping to stay on track for SRC Cup final appeared first on Welsh Rugby Union | Wales & Regions.
Head coach Siwan Lillicrap has named a 41-player Wales WU18s extended training squad to prepare for the forthcoming WU18s 2025 Six Nations Festival campaign. The extended squad will meet up for training at the Welsh Rugby Union’s National Centre of Excellence over the next two months before being trimmed down to a squad of 28 […]
The post Extended Wales Women’s U18 training squad announced appeared first on Welsh Rugby Union | Wales & Regions.
The dream of sharing expertise across six sports, hoping to be supreme in all, was always likely to be a high-wire act
Five and a half years ago, Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos swept into OGC Nice with a mission statement. “We have a plan in place and we will follow it,” read one of the billionaire’s quotes amid a press release that outlined how the Ligue 1 club would become a regular player on the European scene. “I am adamant we will not be the dumb money.”
It is one of the earliest usages, in the context of sports investment at least, of a phrase dear to Ratcliffe. “Dumb money” is exactly what it says: injecting funds without genuine insight or expertise into the relevant industry. A few months later Ratcliffe deployed the same term speaking about Manchester United, who were at that point a twinkle in his eye, with specific reference to a £47m transfer fee spent on Fred by the previous regime.
Continue reading...Fly-half starred in England’s victory against France and is now set to face Scotland, the country of his father’s birth
As Gregor Townsend sweats on the availability of Finn Russell for next Saturday’s Calcutta Cup there may be a few wistful glances in the direction of England’s fly-halves. For Fin Smith, man of the match on his first Test start against France, has Scottish blood in his veins.
His grandfather, Tom Elliot, was from Galashiels – like Townsend – and represented Scotland and the British & Irish Lions as a loosehead prop. Smith’s father, Andrew, is from Dunfermline and met his wife, Judith, Tom’s daughter, at the London Scottish clubhouse. Smith Sr has eight England caps of his own but as a child would marvel at his grandfather’s collection, he and brother Angus regularly trying them on.
Continue reading...Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was the main attraction but it was Siosifa Amone who stole the show on Friday night as the Waratahs claimed a thrilling, last-gasp 37-36 win over the Highlanders.
Fin Smith’s control at fly-half looks the better option but that need not mean the end of the Harlequin’s Test career
All too often, both in life and rugby, people prefer to stick to a certain template rather than try something different. Many, for example, still envisage the perfect No 10 to be an impish genius and, ideally, Welsh. Those who do not quite fit the mould – particularly those taking over from a recently departed legend – have to work doubly hard to shift entrenched perceptions.
Dan Biggar, Wales’s most-capped fly-half, was instructive on the subject in his thought-provoking autobiography, The Biggar Picture. “Throughout my career I’d constantly had to silence the critics. I was too slow. I stood too deep. I was petulant, aggressive and one-dimensional. I kicked too much and ran too little. I was, in short, not your typical Welsh fly-half. Where Barry John would paint you a picture, I’d draw you a diagram.”
Continue reading...There are few signs of the Scarlets relinquishing their Regional Academies U18 title after going through their four pool games unbeaten. Tom Phillips’ side notched 27 tries and 179 points as they breezed past Cardiff (51-19), Dragons (50-14), RGC (24-6) and Ospreys (54-5) to take top seeding or the semi-finals on Sunday 16 February. Leading […]
The post Young Scarlets ready for final push to retain U18 title appeared first on Welsh Rugby Union | Wales & Regions.
Harlequins fly-half Jarrod Evans along with Gloucester fly-half Gareth Anscombe and centre Max Llewellyn have been called up to the Wales senior men’s squad. They will assemble in camp with the squad on Monday 17 February to prepare for the sold-out match against Ireland at Principality Stadium on Saturday 22 February. Ospreys centre Owen Watkin […]
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Some rugby league players only appear in the top flight once. They should cherish every minute of it
By Gavin Willacy for No Helmets Required
In Salford’s last regular Super League game of 2024, the coach Paul Rowley gave debuts to eight reserve players to protect his stars for the playoffs. None of them are likely to be on the field when their season begins at St Helens on Saturday evening. Their services may never be required in the top flight again. But, for one night only, they found themselves up against the world champions, live on national TV.
Dan Spencer-Tonks knows what that “for one night only” role feels like. Rowley did the same thing two years earlier, fielding six debutants against Warrington in the final regular round. Spencer-Tonks came off the bench for his only taste of Super League, earning membership of the one sub club. He has spent the last two seasons in the Championship and League One, his time at the top seemingly gone as rapidly as it arrived.
Continue reading...‘Doing it for the town’: Super League’s all-conquering machine have a unique way of involving their community
It is Tuesday morning and there are just 48 hours to go until Wigan begin their Super League title defence against Leigh, not that you would know that when you walk into their Robin Park training complex.
To suggest the mood is relaxed would be an understatement. Some players are taking part in a cricket match on the indoor athletics track, while others are chatting to members of the public and upstairs, their head coach, Matt Peet, is relaxing with a coffee. “If someone said describe a high-performance environment, I don’t think this would be the first place you’d think of,” their former captain and assistant coach, Sean O’Loughlin, smiles.
Continue reading...WRU CEO Abi Tierney reached ‘a mutual decision’ that meant Warren Gatland would leave his post as Wales head coach. That was the explanation when Tierney was questioned about the move that saw Wale’s most successful coach of all time (three Grand Slams, two World Cup Bronze Finals, a 14-match winning streak and guiding Wales […]
The post Tierney: ‘We really need systemic change that is going to make a difference’ appeared first on Welsh Rugby Union | Wales & Regions.
Wigan have no weakness, Hull face a rebuild and newcomers Wakefield will quietly fancy their chances
Super League’s 30th season gets under way on Thursday evening, with the biggest opening-night crowd in the competition’s history anticipated to watch the reigning champions, Wigan Warriors, take on their local rivals, Leigh Leopards. Matt Peet’s side completed an historic quadruple last year and have all the hallmarks of a side that could sweep aside all comers again.
Will Wigan dominate 2025 just like they did in 2024? Can the likes of Warrington, Hull KR and Leeds put up a credible challenge? And who is in a struggle to avoid finishing bottom? Here is the Guardian’s team-by-team guide to the new season.
Continue reading...Warren Gatland’s second tenure as Wales head coach has ended by mutual agreement. Cardiff Rugby head coach Matt Sherratt has been appointed as head coach to lead the Wales senior side for the final three matches of the 2025 Guinness Six Nations Championship. Welsh Rugby Union CEO Abi Tierney has expressed her gratitude to Gatland […]
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Cardiff’s Matt Sherratt has been handed the Wales coaching reins on an interim basis after Warren Gatland’s second spell as head coach ended abruptly on Tuesday. Welsh supporters have been warned, however, there is “no magic bullet” that will instantly revive the national team after their dismal 22-15 defeat by Italy on Saturday.
Gatland has departed “by mutual agreement” after 14 successive Test defeats, the worst run in the country’s 144-year international rugby history. Gatland, 61, had been contracted until the 2027 World Cup but Abi Tierney, the Welsh Rugby Union chief executive, acknowledged “there was a mounting sense that it wasn’t working” and said the decision was “in the best interests of the Wales squad”.
Continue reading...Filo Tiatia has been named as the permanent head coach at Dragons RFC on a multi-year contract after serving as interim boss since November The former Ospreys back row man arrived at Rodney Parade at the start of the season to take over as defence coach at the region but was then thrust into the […]
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