The Lusail Stadium in Qatar, where the 2022 World Cup final between France and Argentina took place – AP/Hassan Ammar Qatar is closing in on an eight-year deal worth £800 million to host the Rugby Nations Championship final after being given exclusive negotiating rights. Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy has entered a two-month … Read more
Harlequins and Glasgow Warriors come to grips during a maul in their Champions Cup Round of 16 – Reuters/Peter Cziborra The maul is a bastion of rugby union, synonymous with the sport. Search an English dictionary and the entry will be one of a handful of nouns – alongside flanker, ruck and scrum – whose … Read more
Exeter’s director of rugby, Rob Baxter, has a hit at World Rugby – PA/Andrew Matthews Rob Baxter, Exeter’s director of rugby, has criticized World Rugby’s proposal for further legal changes to attract new fans as ‘madness’. Last month, the game’s governing body announced a five-step plan to speed up the game with a series of … Read more
Kick tennis meant Murrayfield witnessed Scotland and France playing musical images in the backfield – AFP/Andy Buchanan Some aspects of World Rugby’s five-point plan to attract the next generation will have stung current fans with irony. Because, as the global governing body itself knows, part of the battle is untangling bad habits entrenched by the … Read more
Mike Tindall (right) was a defensive leader for England – Getty Images/Nick Laham Former England rugby captain Mike Tindall has been shown a red card for inadvertent play and said rugby must embrace the physical side of the game. The Rugby World Cup-winning center questioned why cards were dealt when there was clearly no malice … Read more
Ethan Roots (left to right), Chandler Cunningham-South, Fin Smith, Fraser Dingwall and Immanuel Feyi-Waboso made their England debuts against Italy – Getty Images/Dan Mullan The quintet that made their England debut in Rome last weekend – Chandler Cunningham-South, Fraser Dingwall, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, Ethan Roots and Fin Smith – all had one interesting trait in common; … 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
Teresa O’Reilly is one of three women named in the class action: Eddie Mulholland of The Telegraph Teresa O’Reilly was sitting in her living room when she was struck by the harrowing realization that her brain had been shattered. She had decided to look Head On: Rugby, dementia and me, the heartbreaking documentary about 2003 … Read more