Category: Rugby

Rugby News

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Immanuel Feyi-Waboso on track for England return on Argentina tour

  • Steve Borthwick ‘delighted’ with wing’s recovery
  • Mike Brown announces retirement from rugby

Immanuel Feyi-Waboso is on course to make his England comeback on the summer tour of Argentina and keep hopes of a late British & Irish Lions call-up alive. Steve Borthwick said the Exeter wing was straining at the leash during a mini training camp on Tuesday.

Feyi-Waboso has been sidelined since late December after finally undergoing shoulder surgery that was put off amid confusion as to whether he would go under the knife or not. The delay, which exposed faultlines in the new club and country agreement, was exacerbated because Feyi-Waboso also had a tooth infection but ultimately cost him the chance to stake his claim for a place in the Lions squad.

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The Breakdown | Rare English double in Europe would be a dream result for Premiership

Northampton and Bath have a chance to restore English rugby to its pedestal, but French foes will have other ideas

It has not happened very often. Just once in the past 20 years, to be precise. Winning a single trophy is hard enough but English clubs hoisting aloft both the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup in the same season would be a proper rarity. Other than the Covid-afflicted year of 2020 when Exeter Chiefs and Bristol Bears prevailed in mostly empty stadiums, the last time there was a Premiership double was in May 2004.

Back then Wasps and Harlequins were the happy couple, beating Toulouse and Montferrand respectively. This week also features two Anglo-French finals with Northampton facing Bordeaux-Bègles in the main event and Bath tackling Lyon in Friday night’s amuse bouche. A measure of the challenge facing the English duo is that French clubs have hoovered up seven of the past eight available trophies, with South Africa collecting the other.

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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Men’s Six Nations starts midweek and is cut shorter for 2026

  • Winter Olympics shifts France v Ireland to Thursday
  • Only one fallow week set to raise player welfare concerns

Next year’s Six Nations will kick off on a Thursday night for the first time in the competition’s history, with the defending champions, France, hosting Ireland, and will take place across just six weeks after organisers removed one of fallow weeks for the championship.

It is understood the unprecedented move to begin the championship on Thursday 5 February next year has been made after input from broadcasters, with the 2026 Winter Olympics ceremony taking place in Milan the following day. It has also been made with the agreement of all six unions.

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Incoming Australia coach Les Kiss to take charge of Lions tour invitational team

  • AUNZ Invitational XV play British & Irish Lions in Brisbane in July
  • Former Wallaby Toutai Kefu to coach First Nations and Pasifika XV

Incoming Wallabies coach Les Kiss will get an early taste of international rugby when he oversees the AUNZ Invitational XV against the British & Irish Lions in Adelaide.

Queensland Reds mentor Kiss will team up with former All Blacks coach Ian Foster, who was already announced as an assistant for the July fixture, the first time since 1989 that Australia and New Zealand have combined on the field.

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State of Origin: Isaah Yeo to captain NSW as Bulldogs prop handed shock debut

  • Blues call up Max King to start on bench in Game 1 against Maroons
  • Payne Haas to undergo a scan that will decide if he plays in Origin I

Laurie Daley has delivered a selection shock with Max King to make his State of Origin debut as the NSW coach also sweats on a Payne Haas quad injury.

Daley confirmed his side for the series opener on Sunday, with Dylan Edwards retaining the fullback role and Mitch Moses to partner Nathan Cleary in the haves.

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Tom Dunn shines on record-breaking appearance as Bath crush Leicester

  • Bath 43-15 Leicester
  • Dunn scores try in 184th Premiership match for Bath

It could yet be that these two teams will meet again in this season’s Premiership final at Twickenham. If so Leicester will have to look for some different solutions. This meeting of the leagues’s top two was compared to a “heavyweight boxing clash” by Bath’s head of rugby, Johann van Graan, but even the ability of Leicester’s defence to soak up plenty of punishment could not save them in the end.

Bath’s first-choice forwards are increasingly taking no prisoners and this seven-try victory on a glorious early summer evening was the latest reason to fancy they will eventually end up as champions. The highlight was a memorable score from Tom Dunn, setting a new club record for the most Premiership appearances in the famous blue, black and white striped jersey. The hooker’s extravagant dummy and subsequent 20-metre sprint to the line would have been collector’s items even in a game of social tag rugby

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Will Steve Borthwick give untested England youth a chance in Argentina? | Gerard Meagher

With England’s Lions away in Australia, selecting a callow squad would bring pitfalls as well as opportunities

When Warren Gatland named his British & Irish Lions squad to tour New Zealand in 2017 he included 16 England players. Stalwarts such as Dylan Hartley, Chris Robshaw, Joe Launchbury and George Ford were still notable absentees but England had won the previous two Six Nations titles, 17 of Eddie Jones’s first 18 matches and, accordingly, their contingent was substantial.

The very next day Jones named his England squad for a tour of Argentina. He refused to engage in the merits of the selected Lions touring party but at the time you sensed Jones did not particularly like Gatland hogging the spotlight. England might have lost their most recent match, against Ireland in Dublin, denying them another grand slam, but the Australian was still basking in an extended honeymoon period and all eyes were on his old adversary. Jones proceeded to make a statement with his squad selection and it did not feel like coincidence that he was doing so 24 hours after Gatland.

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Women’s Super League is light years behind Australia but kicks off with hope

England’s thrashing in Las Vegas looked bleak but Wigan coach Denis Betts and the RFL see it differently

Rugby league’s return to Las Vegas in 2026 was confirmed this week for the best of Super League and Australia’s National Rugby League but there was one notable omission from the billing.

This year’s four-match card was always likely to be reduced after administrators admitted they would cut one match and, unfortunately, it was always likely the women’s international between England and Australia would miss out. This year’s match, which the Jillaroos won 90-4 against Stuart Barrow’s side, illustrated the gap between the two nations.

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NSW Blues wrap up Origin series with 26-6 win over Queensland Maroons

  • Olivis Kernick scores two tries in rain-soaked victory
  • Blues recover from shaky start in Sydney

Olivia Kernick has helped NSW claim the women’s State of Origin series with a game to spare after powering the Blues to a 26-6 victory over Queensland.

Kernick, who was controversially overlooked for the Australian Test team after winning the 2024 NRLW Dally M Medal, scored two tries and set up another on Thursday night as the Blues inflicted more misery on the Maroons to win game two.

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Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii injury not as bad as feared as Wallabies get boost for Lions tour

  • Player still needs surgery but fractured jaw is on lower scale
  • ‘Just a four-week injury,’ says NSW Waratahs coach Dan McKellar

Wallabies fans can breathe easier after NSW Waratahs coach Dan McKellar allayed fears of Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii missing any Tests against the touring British & Irish Lions.

Despite Suaalii requiring surgery for a broken jaw, McKellar on Thursday said the injury was of a lower scale and the 21-year-old was already back in the gym working out to maintain his conditioning.

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Rugby by rail: the romance (and regret) of going to games by train

Railway lines formed rugby league as we know it but out-of-town stadiums mean some journeys are easier than others

By No Helmets Required

Like the more adventurous of you, I’ve reached matches via bus, tube, ferry, plane, train and, mainly, automobile. You might also have gone by tram or bike. But when ill health stopped me from driving to rugby for several years, I embraced the horseless carriage to get to St Helens, Newcastle, Coventry, Leeds, London Broncos and more. The train certainly took the strain.

A sport that was born before cars and buses needed the Victorian railway routes that allowed teams and their supporters to leave their locale and establish a national competition. The railways begat professional rugby league as we know it.

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Wallabies blow with Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii to undergo surgery before Lions clash

  • Australia star suffers fractured jaw after on-field collision
  • Suaalii may miss rest of NSW Waratahs’ Super Rugby season

Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii is in a race against time to be fit to face the British & Irish Lions, with the Wallabies star set to miss the rest of the Super Rugby Pacific regular season with a fractured jaw.

Suaalii will undergo surgery on a “small undisplaced fracture” he sustained in an accidental collision with a NSW Waratahs teammate against the Queensland Reds on Friday night.

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