John Reason was a great rugby correspondent. His books on the Lions tours of the 1970s are essential reading. And he could be provocative. His son Mark followed in his footsteps, writing on the game for a number of British newspapers. Then he moved to New Zealand. He has taken the opportunity to rubbish his
I’m not at all sure about this frequent reference to a lack of a Plan B in England’s armoury. It can refer only to the sequence of games against France, which have – almost without exception – been tight in the extreme. Every other match, going back to Ireland’s heroic defeat 27-0 at Doncaster in
If it is true that England deliberately avoided using their strongest hand, the driving maul, to test out other approaches, the most we can say is they brought a victory. Over the past two seasons we have seen the Red Roses use all manner of game-plans, from persistent forward-domination to flowery, inventive back-play and above
It was the pool fixture that caught the eye from the moment the Rugby World Cup draw was made. England and France, the two leading sides in Europe filed alongside one another in Pool C, a clash of the class of the north in Northland and an October 15 date ringed in the calendar. England’s
First the results: Scotland 12 Australia 14 USA 30 Japan 17 France 7 England 13 Italy 12 Canada 22 Wales 12 New Zealand 56 Fiji 21 South Africa 17 Here are the top 2 in each pool: A. NZ 10 pts; Australia 4 B. Canada 10; Italy 5 C. England 9; France 6 The two
England v France Result: England 13 France 7 Player of the Match: Alex Matthews This was a first chance for Kiwis to experience a Crunch live. Now they know exactly what all the fuss is about. Sadly the game was distorted early on by two vital injuries to leading French players, Laure Sansus and Romane
It has saddened me to see adverse reports of Clara Munarini’s handling of the crucial Scotland-Wales game. Specifically, she didn’t show Wales a yellow card till the 65th minute, despite giving a flurry of penalties against them as they defended by all means at their disposal. A penalty kick completed by Keira Bevan was the
Black Ferns coaches have made a raft of changes ahead of their second Rugby World Cup fixture against Wales at Waitakere Stadium this Sunday (kick off 3.15pm). The team is; Awhina Tangen-Wainohu (3) Georgia Ponsonby (8) Tanya Kalounivale (4) Maiakawanakaulani Roos (9) Chelsea Bremner (7) Alana Bremner (8) Kendra Reynolds (7) Charmaine McMenamin (29) Ariana
England v France World Cup, Round Two At last a meeting between two top-rated teams in a setting even more prestigious than the 6 Nations. England So the English player-choice for the Fiji game was merely a run-out for the big test against the French. To considerable surprise, Simon Middleton has made only one change
Here is the line-up for the second round of matches (timings are all BST): Sat Oct 15, Scotland vs Australia 3am, Northland Events Centre, Whangarei Sat Oct 15, USA v Japan, 5,30am, Northland Events Centre, Whangarei Sat Oct 15, France v England, 8am, Northland Events Centre, Whangarei Sun Oct 16, Fiji v South Africa 5.45am,
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