Tyler Offiah (right), 17, is already taller than his father, Martin (left) Tyler Offiah, the son of rugby league great Martin, will join Bath on a three-year deal after rejecting interest from Leicester Tigers, Gloucester, Sale Sharks and Wigan Warriors. The 17-year-old, who played for England Under-18s at the recent Six Nations Rugby Festival in … Read more
The next generation of English stars is being formed: jmpuk/Juan Gasparini One by one, England players emerge from an upstairs room at the Bisham Abbey National Sports Center and head to a nearby table tennis table. The group has just completed an hour-long session on the importance of mindset and personal values, delivered by the … Read more
Kerry Packer wanted to revolutionize rugby union in 1995, in the same way he had transformed cricket in 1977 It has been locked away in a vault for almost thirty years, but the original player contract from the ‘World Rugby Corporation’, the Kerry Packer-backed £200m rebel rugby circus that threatened to create a breakaway global … Read more
Losing a player of Itoje’s stature would have been huge for English rugby – Bob Bradford/CameraSport Maro Itoje and Jamie George are set to give Steve Borthwick a major boost ahead of the Six Nations Championship by signing contract extensions with Saracens following a historic financial intervention from the Rugby Football Union, who have offered … Read more
Farrell has stepped away from international rugby to protect himself and his family – Getty Images/Adam Pretty Two days before England’s Rugby World Cup warm-up match against Ireland in Dublin in August, the first warning sign sounded about Owen Farrell’s true state of mind. Until that point, Farrell had always exuded the air of the … Read more
Calum, 18, and Ewan, 14, were part of the Wasps development program before the club went bankrupt – The Telegraph/Paul Grover The traumatic impact of the collapse of three Premier League clubs last season extended beyond the devastating impact on the players, staff and supporters of Worcester, Wasps and London Irish. Subsequent headlines understandably focused … Read more
Almost everyone in English club rugby agrees on one thing. It cannot continue like this. The system, if that’s the right word for the teetering pile of Jenga bricks supporting a cash-strapped 10-team Premiership, is broken and a planned eight-year deal between the Rugby Football Union and the club’s leading owners is seen as the … Read more