Sport Comment: World Cup has been huge credibility boost for women’s rugby August 17, 2014 IT IS the nature of our sporting world that football is the rich man from whose table every other sport has to eat the scraps, and so amid all the hoopla in the week of the resumption of the Premier League it has been particularly bad luck for English cricket and British athletics that their [...]
Cowes Week Diary: Rugby stars and royalty set to collide in Artemis Challenge August 5, 2014 IT HAS been almost 20 years since my retirement from international rugby, and although I miss playing the game I’ve been fortunate enough to attend some of the greatest sporting events on earth since, so it’s certainly far from being bad. One of those has to be Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week, and for four [...]
City Dogs come out on top of Rugby Sevens pack again July 27, 2014 They’ve only been playing together for two tournaments but City A.M. sponsored Rugby Sevens team City Dogs have made it two out of two, winning Saturday’s FRM Sevens Tournament at Ilford Wanderers, beating Oxfam 21 – 19. Captain Edward Yarnton, who is today enjoying his last day working at BP, said, “Onwards and upwards. We’ll [...]
Mike Tindall becomes last of class of 2003 to hang up rugby boots July 16, 2014 World Cup winner Mike Tindall has revealed that he decided to retire from rugby after realising he could not face playing for anyone but Gloucester. Former England captain Tindall – the last of the triumphant 2003 squad to hang up his boots – spent nine years at Kingsholm, following eight seasons at Bath. “I could [...]
Sport Comment: For Milner and England, see Michalak and French rugby June 8, 2014 CONSUMED by optimism, most of you reading this will be in front of a television next Saturday evening, believing that a combination of Steven Gerrard’s drive, Gary Cahill’s determination and the odd flash of brilliance from Wayne Rooney and/or Daniel Sturridge will upset Italy and kick-start England’s World Cup challenge in style. However, if things [...]
Rugby Comment: Ending a great season with nothing is just unthinkable May 29, 2014 WE NEED to use the frustration of losing last week as motivation to win the Premiership final tomorrow. Defeat in the Heineken Cup final was very disappointing, there is no getting away from that. But you can’t sit around moping, because then we might come away with nothing from a very good year. To end [...]
Rugby Comment: We’re vastly improved and ready for Toulon May 22, 2014 NERVES are a positive thing. They bring the best out in everyone, add something to an occasion and there are few bigger than the Heineken Cup final. The overall emotion in the dressing room though is excitement. We’ve had tough games recently in the Premiership and Heineken Cup and that’s always brought the best out [...]
Monitise triumph in O2 Rugby challenge May 19, 2014 HAVING ex-rugby player Alastair Lukies as your founder and counting ex-pros such as Matt Perry as employees makes for a formidable corporate rugby team, as Monitise proved by winning the O2 Touch Rugby challenge at Twickenham last week. They beat the likes of City of London Police and Santander to take the title. The winning [...]
More ticket woe as Rugby World Cup early seat sale postponed May 15, 2014 TODAY’S planned sale of Rugby World Cup tickets has been postponed after Ticketmaster said it needed extra time to prepare its website, just days after their Commonwealth Games sale process was plunged into chaos. The first 500,000 seats for next autumn’s showpiece were due to be available to members of the Rugby Community Ticketing Programme [...]
Rugby Comment: Nausea and headaches gone, we’re ready for Clermont April 24, 2014 I HARDLY remember anything of the incident that knocked me out and left me concussed in the Heineken Cup quarter-final win over Ulster three weeks ago. I can recall the moment just before jumping, but not the leap, catching the ball, the impact from Jared Payne, the bumpy landing, being carried off in a neck [...]