Category: Rugby Union

Rugby Union News

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Inside the Exeter meltdown: Rowe’s revival plan not for the faint-hearted

A 79-17 defeat for the 2020 champions’ set the alarm bells ringing and the ‘embarrassed’ chair is pulling no punches

How swiftly the sporting wheel can turn. Less than five years ago Exeter were the Double-winning darlings of English club rugby, their fairytale rise ranking alongside Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest, Sir Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen and Wimbledon’s Crazy Gang as the most romantic success stories in British team sport.

And now? Second bottom of the Premiership table, 79 points conceded at Gloucester last time out, coaches being summarily jettisoned, the chairman storming into the dressing room. The one thing everyone in Devon can agree on is that the season’s end cannot come quickly enough.

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Maro Itoje’s chance of Lions captaincy grows with Caelan Doris set for surgery

  • Injury to Ireland No 8 looks ‘serious’, says Leinster coach
  • Andy Farrell due to name tour squad on Thursday

Maro Itoje’s chances of being named British & Irish Lions captain this week have been strengthened after Caelan Doris – one of his closest rivals for the role – emerged as an injury doubt for the tour of Australia.

Doris, the Ireland captain, will undergo shoulder surgery this week but, after a worrying assessment by the Leinster coach, Jacques Nienaber, he is in danger of missing the series against the Wallabies in a potentially momentous development before Andy Farrell names his squad on Thursday.

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‘He’s mad for it’: Northampton’s Henry Pollock back in Dublin after rise to Lions contender

A year ago he was with the fans: now he’s an England player before Saints’ Champions Cup semi against Leinster

Henry Pollock is bouncing around the south stand at Franklin’s Gardens. He is in demand at Northampton’s media session and in between interviews he seems most preoccupied with reminding his teammate Tommy Freeman who won their latest battle on the golf course. As has been clear since his emergence, Pollock has no problem with the spotlight.

His restless energy is not confined to the pitch but soon he sits down for a chat, ostensibly to preview Northampton’s Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster on Saturday, but essentially to discuss Pollock-mania. How and why it has taken hold and whether at any stage in the 20-year-old’s fledgling career he has experienced a shred of self-doubt.

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Quarter of World Rugby’s test group of ex-players ‘at risk’ of cognitive problems

  • New service refers quarter of those seen for treatment
  • Concern over high numbers of participants dropping out

A significant number of former elite players who have participated in World Rugby’s new brain health ­service programme have been identified as being “at risk” of cognitive problems in later life.

So far 131 former rugby union players have registered to take part after last April’s launch, although only 65 have completed the process. Of those, one quarter were referred for specialist treatment. The service is not designed to provide a diagnosis, only to provide a risk assessment for former players.

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Les Kiss confirmed as next Wallabies coach with Joe Schmidt to stay on until 2026

  • Kiss to see out Super Rugby Pacific contract with Queensland Reds
  • Schmidt to remain in charge for end-of-season European tour

Joe Schmidt will remain as Wallabies coach until next mid-2026 before Less Kiss takes over, Rugby Australia has confirmed.

Schmidt was to have finished up after this year’s Rugby Championship but RA was keen for “minimal disruption to the Australian rugby ecosystem” and for Kiss to complete his Super Rugby Pacific contract with the Queensland Reds in 2026.

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Saints’ Phil Dowson fears Premiership clubs ‘sleepwalking’ towards financial crisis

  • Director of rugby backs plans for franchise league
  • Expansion would end promotion and relegation

The Northampton director of rugby, Phil Dowson, fears the sport is “sleepwalking” towards another club going bust and endorsed plans for the Premiership to become a franchised league on the basis it would be more appealing to investors.

Premiership and Rugby Football Union executives have drawn up plans for an “expansion” league, akin to a franchise model, that would allow for teams to be added to the current 10 top flight clubs should they meet certain criteria. The RFU chief executive, Bill Sweeney, revealed that there is the possibility of expanding for the start of next season.

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Rugby Australia set to announce Les Kiss as next Wallabies coach

  • Reds coach expected to confirmed as Joe Schmidt’s successor
  • Kiss will become fifth Wallabies coach in six years

The protracted process to secure Les Kiss as the next Wallabies coach has been finalised with the Queensland Reds mentor to be the fifth man to fill the seat in six years. Kiss is expected to front the media in Sydney on Wednesday before flying to Suva to join the Reds squad ahead of Saturday’s crucial Super Rugby Pacific encounter with Fiji.

He is contracted until the end of next year at the Reds, who sit fourth and are eyeing a title push this season. But it is understood the Queensland Rugby Union and Rugby Australia have negotiated a release for the former representative rugby league winger, who arrived at Ballymore last year after two decades in Europe.

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‘You give everything in that first scrum’: meet Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Sale and England’s killer baby Shark

The 20-year-old prop is making a name for himself with eye-catching displays but visit of Saracens is a serious test

Some of English rugby union’s biggest names will be front and centre in Salford on Friday evening. Maro Itoje, Jamie George, Ben Earl and Tom Willis all start for Saracens while Tom Curry, George Ford and Luke Cowan-Dickie, among others, will trot out for Sale Sharks. Most 20-year-old props, invited to mix in such lofty company, would be feeling seriously intimidated.

It is increasingly obvious, however, that young Asher Opoku-Fordjour is different gravy. As anyone who saw his eye-catching performance against Harlequins last weekend will be aware, his strength and bullocking presence with ball in hand are quite something. “If last week’s anything to go by he’s tracking well, isn’t he?” nods Alex Sanderson, the Sharks’ director of rugby.

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Jacob Umaga and the English rugby players driving Benetton to success

Five players raised in England have swapped the Premiership for life in the beautiful Italian city of Treviso

By No Helmets Required

The weather starts to warm up nicely in Treviso at this time of year and so does the race for playoff places in the United Rugby Championship. Benetton – Treviso’s team and the cream of Italian rugby – are fifth in the league table and on course to reach the URC quarter-finals, booking a place in next season’s European Champions Cup in the process, but they could slip out of the top eight with just one defeat.​

The club’s annual budget of €8m is half what league leaders Leinster spend, but the Benetton family expect a return on their money. With three games to play in the regular season and their place in the top eight still not secured, the heat is on. “There’s a lot more focus now,” says Jacob Umaga, the former England international who joined the club in 2022 when Wasps went into administration. “We’ve not reached our ceiling and we’ve got such a good squad. We’ve got two of our last three games away and know one poor performance will take us straight out of the top eight.”

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Ben Youngs, England’s most-capped male player, to retire from rugby in June

  • Scrum-half has played 332 matches for Leicester
  • He won a record 127 England caps and toured with Lions

The end of the road is finally approaching for England’s most-capped male player. Ben Youngs, who made a record 127 appearances for his country, has confirmed he will be retiring from professional rugby in June after more than 500 senior games for Leicester, England, the Barbarians and the British & Irish Lions in a career spanning 18 years.

Youngs has been a one-club man since his Tigers debut as a 17-year-old in 2007 but, at 35, will hang up his boots at the end of the current Premiership season. A five-times Premiership winner and three times a runner-up, he has played 332 matches for Leicester to date. In an England jersey he appeared in four World Cups and toured Australia in 2013 with the Lions, alongside his brother Tom. He was chosen for the 2017 Lions squad as well but withdrew from the tour of New Zealand for family reasons.

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