On Thursday England start their quest for the Ashes. Let’s hope they have been entirely cut off from all media channels, or they will be aware of the abysmal, disheartening, unacceptable, abject (delete as preferred) performance of their menfolk in Australia (a 0-4 defeat). Much will depend on Lisa Keightley’s powers of psychology. As an
But first, the Saturday Show Lightning v Saracens Lightning made Sarries fight desperately hard for their success, but sure enough, right on the final bell they secured their fourth try and a vital bonus point to return to the top of the tree. Neither the scrum nor the line-out was in best working order for
Quite the saddest tale to come out of France last year was the fate of the Elite 1 club Bayonne (in full ‘Association Sportive Bayonnaise Rugby’). The players – known in Basque as ‘les Neskak’ – became so upset by the way they were being treated by the club’s authorities that in November they took
From 14 January one game per round of the AIL can now be seen on live stream via irishrugbylive.ie. The first match between Blackrock College and Old Belvedere kicks off at 17.00. Hannah Tyrrell is the co-commentator. The remaining fixtures: January 22nd: Wicklow v Ballincollig January 29th: Suttonians v Galwegians February 12th: UL Bohemian v
News of three important signings prompts me to start plotting possible routes into the future of the Premier 15s. Alev Kelter, quite possibly America’s greatest player, joins Sarries; Gabby Senft (Canada) and Hope Rogers (USA) have signed on at Exeter. They add a few more knots to the heavy thinking the RFU has to do
The Welsh Rugby Union has announced the award of twelve contracts for its women’s squad. They are: Alisha Butchers, Carys Phillips, Donna Rose, Elinor Snowsill, Ffion Lewis, Gwenillian Pyrs, Hannah Jones, Jasmine Joyce, Keira Bevan, Lisa Neumann, Natalia John and Siwan Lillicrap. Since the original plan was to offer only ten, this generosity may show
The changes made at the top of English women’s rugby come as a considerable surprise. Charlie Hayter, best known as a 7s international and subsequently coach, takes on a quite mammoth brief. He is put in charge of the women’s 15s game at international and domestic level as well as the men’s and women’s England
New Zealand Rugby has announced the provision of new 30 contracts for the Black Ferns They are alleged to be set between NZ$ 60,000 and NZ$ 120,000 per annum. This compares with previous values between NZ$ 12,000 and NZ$ 25,000. Full details will follow later in the month. With various bonuses possible they would bring
Allianz Premier 15s – Round 10 Not the best welcome to 2022; in the middle of a Covid-19 surge the availability call was patchy; the Saturday weather lousy. But three sides took advantage to stake their claim, Gloucester-Hartpury, Exeter and above all Saracens. Head coaches nervously checked who had survived a week of surging infections;
Late Alterations to the Ashes Programme Of the two alterations to England’s Ashes schedule in Australia, the timing and the sequencing, it is the sequencing that should prove far more important. The tour begins one week earlier than originally planned, on 20 January; or, if you include the two warm-up matches, 12 days earlier. Placing
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