Ollie Phillips: It’s time for RFU axe its short-sighted England selection policy April 15, 2023 I won’t hold my breath, but Jack Willis’s decision to stay at Toulouse ought to sound alarm bells at the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and cause them to reconsider their refusal to pick overseas-based players for the England team. That stance might be sustainable when your clubs can pay the same as those in France [...]
London Irish confirm players WILL be paid amid uncertainty March 29, 2023 Premiership club London Irish have confirmed that all staff will be paid amid reports of players waiting growing anxious over payday. This comes as a buy-out for the club has reportedly been delayed, according to the Daily Mail. Premiership Rugby are doing “everything possible” to help a takeover of the club with current owner Mick [...]
Premiership Rugby’s Newcastle Falcons deny plan of voluntary relegation March 29, 2023 Newcastle Falcons have denied suggestions that the club’s recent cost-cutting is paving the way to voluntarily drop out of the Premiership next year. City A.M. has learned of a growing belief in English rugby that the Tyneside team could be looking to ease their financial situation by joining the Championship as part of a wider [...]
Football and rugby are still getting head injury wrong. Is this headband the answer? March 27, 2023 It is a dark irony that football and rugby have never been more concerned with head injury and concussion, yet the approaches of both sports remain dangerously misguided. In their attempts to prevent the trickle of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and early-onset dementia cases becoming a torrent, football has experimented with a ban on heading [...]
Welsh rugby clubs overwhelmingly vote for WRU reform March 26, 2023 Local clubs across Wales today voted for major reform to the way the Welsh Rugby Union is governed. Of the 282 clubs eligible to vote for changes to the way the rugby union structures its board, 252 clubs voted with 245 voting in favour of reform. The successful vote at the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) [...]
The barking mad merger: What experts think of potential Ealing and Ospreys deal March 22, 2023 With the flow of stories about financial woes in rugby resembling an everlasting hospital drip, one development has caused much less of a stir than it might otherwise have. It revolves around Ealing Trailfinders, who are top of the second-tier English Championship, a position they have been in or around for the past decade. They have [...]
Exclusive: MP slams TikTok sponsorship with Women’s Six Nations as ‘disappointing’ amid calls to be wary of app and its data gathering March 20, 2023 A senior UK Parliamentary committee chair has questioned TikTok’s sponsorship of the Women’s Six Nations, calling the deal “disappointing”. Alicia Kearns, MP for Rutland and Melton and chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told City A.M. of her concerns that the Chinese-owned social media platform is “being promoted through European and British Sport”. The app, [...]
Chelsea yet to make formal approach over playing matches at Twickenham Stadium March 20, 2023 Chelsea are yet to make a formal approach about playing matches at Twickenham Stadium while Stamford Bridge is rebuilt, City A.M. understands. The Blues are reported to have drawn up a shortlist of possible venues at which to play home fixtures should they demolish their ground and build a new 60,000-seater arena. Twickenham, seven miles [...]
World Rugby wades into tackle height debate with new recommendations March 13, 2023 World Rugby has waded into the debate over tackle height by asking national unions to trial “belly tackles” at grass roots level in a bid to make the sport safer. England’s Rugby Football Union provoked a fierce backlash earlier this year when it announced plans to ban tackling above the waist in the community game [...]
Exodus Chiefs: How Exeter, a modern dynasty of English rugby, lost its aura March 7, 2023 If in any normal season Premiership side Exeter Chiefs announced the mid-season departure of a brilliant young winger such as Facundo Cordero there would have been a slight feeling of disappointment among the fanbase. But the Argentinian’s move north to Scotland’s Glasgow Warriors instead heaped further dismay on supporters of Exeter, because Cordero’s exit represents [...]