Can a Royal Hug make the Difference? The Black Ferns were invited to Buckingham Palace. The Red Roses became so many Cinderellas not invited to the ball. The decisive factor? Here are the teams the two Kiwi head coaches have conjured up: England 15 Ellie Kildunne 14 Abby Dow 13 Emily Scarratt 12 Tatyana Heard
In contrast to the England-New Zealand match, two English head coaches announced their teams for the fascinating clash between Ireland and Australia next Saturday. They are: Ireland: 15. Eimear Considine, 14. *Vicky Elmes Kinlan, 13. Aoife Dalton, 12. Enya Breen, 11. Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, 10. Dannah O’Brien, 9. Molly Scuffil-McCabe, 1. Niamh O’Dowd, 2. Neve
Ireland v England – Third ODI Let’s put a few building-blocks in place first. Ireland were reappearing after a disastrous performance two days earlier, 45 all out. England were 2-0 up. A few changes: Davis and Wong out for England; Macdonald-Gay and Baker in. For Ireland Alana Dalzell replaced Arlene Kelly. The weather was a
Next year’s fixtures have been published gratifyingly early. The programme lasts from 22 March to 26 April. There’s a single rest week after Round Two. The first four rounds follow the pattern: two Saturday matches, one Sunday As usual the final round finishes on a single day. How about calling it Super Saturday? That would
Next Saturday will be unusually busy with no fewer than three one-off international matches taking place across the British Isles. They are: Ireland v Australia at the Kingspan Stadium, Belfast; KO 14.30 England v New Zealand, at the Allianz Stadium, London; KO 14.30 Scotland v Fiji, Hive, Edinburgh; KO 16.45 Quite apart from the excitement
John Mitchell has his own way of producing a match-day squad. I hope his players approve of it. Once again he lists a large group from whom a final selection will be made (see below). This time it’s 35-strong, so a round dozen are going to be disappointed on the big occasion. If I’m anything
Stormont, Belfast First a scene-setter: This was a sort of Second XI that the selectors sent across the Irish Sea, though far from it, according to those who disagreed vehemently with the choices. Bess Heath and Freya Kemp were the two players invited to take part before moving on to the T20 World Cup in
Blame the Parents When a child misbehaves, it’s often the parents who are blamed. How many of the complainants are parents themselves? In the rugby world the damning finger will point to the coaches. After another French loss at Gloucester, is that fair? In some respects, yes. Not for the first time, we can look
Lucky Fourteen Kingsholm, Gloucester As expected, England gained their fourteenth win over France in fourteen attempts, but you can be sure John Mitchell and his staff will have plenty of criticisms to make to the team in the post-match analysis. First, the nineteen points against. The Red Roses pride themselves on their defence and their
The Hive, Edinburgh Alisha Butchers ran out first to mark her 50th cap. She and her team were unrecognisable in their new alternate strip of white and light green. Nor did they start as they intended; Scotland soon dominated proceedings. Lana Skeldon took advantage of a huge gap in midfield to gallop many metres. The
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