Rugby Union 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 […]
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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 […]
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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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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.
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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If Welsh rugby sinks any lower, big questions about the tournament’s long-term health may have to be asked
The difference is a mere 0.1 of a ranking point. And rankings, in isolation, do not necessarily foretell the future. Even so the news that Wales have slipped to 12th in World Rugby’s official pecking order, one place below Georgia, was a hugely symbolic moment. After 14 Test defeats in succession, another unwanted record, it was a new low in a season increasingly full of them.
Faith seems to be ebbing away, too. “It can’t carry on like this,” their erstwhile fly-half Dan Biggar said on ITV Sport over the weekend. “That looks like a team shot of belief and confidence.” Sam Warburton, who was leading Wales to Six Nations titles and grand slams not so long ago, was similarly downbeat as he sifted through the ashes of the defeat against Italy in Rome on Saturday. Neither were putting the boot in for the sake of it, they were just saying it as it is.
Continue reading...New Zealand Rugby (NZR) has launched legal action against Ineos after the company, which is founded and run by the British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, allegedly dropped a sponsorship agreement with three years remaining.
Ineos branding appears on jerseys and other clothing worn by the men’s and women’s senior sides – the All Blacks and Black Ferns – as well as the New Zealand Māori team and New Zealand sevens teams after a deal signed in 2022, which was due to continue until 2028.
Continue reading...Warren Gatland has pledged to continue working hard to try to get his players to put into practice what they’ve been working on in training following Wales’ Guinness Six Nations defeat in Rome. Next up for Wales is their first home assignment of the campaign against Ireland at a sold-out Principality Stadium in two weeks’ time. Then there is a […]
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