Aviva sign deal worth £4.5m per season for major stadium November 11, 2025 Insurance giant Aviva has extended its stadium sponsorship agreement for Dublin’s Aviva Stadium through until 2030 in a deal reportedly worth around £4.5m per season. The 51,000-capacity Lansdowne Road site has been sponsored by the London headquartered insurance firm since 2010 and the new deal – with the Irish rugby and football unions – is [...]
745 Game for MND raises £110,000 as rugby union and league come together November 10, 2025 Legends of rugby union and league clashed on Sunday as the 745 Game raised £110,000 to help fight motor neurone disease. The match, played at Prem Rugby club Gloucester’s Kingsholm Stadium, saw the likes of Mike Tindall run out while figures including Jonny Wilkinson watched from the sidelines. It was won 43-45 by Team Burrow. [...]
Six Nations should stage Ireland matches in USA, but not England ones November 7, 2025 There have been calls this week for Six Nations matches to be played in the United States, and I agree. But it should never be England crossing the Atlantic, and should almost always be Ireland. Andy Farrell’s Ireland successfully staged an epic spectacle at Soldier Field in Chicago against New Zealand. The game was pretty [...]
International rugby player charged over alleged £70,000 crypto theft November 5, 2025 An international rugby player has been charged with fraud over an alleged crypto theft worth £70,000. Former NRL rugby league star Trent Merrin was arrested this week and charged with dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception. The seven-time Australia international and former Dragons and State of Origin forward, 36, stands accused of stealing from [...]
Fatter, lazier, more inactive: How businesses like Canterbury rely on healthy population November 3, 2025 Canterbury is a globally recognised brand, but it relies on a healthy population to invest in pro sports deals. By the end of the decade 3bn of us could be insufficiently active – a figure not far short of the world’s population, minus Asia, right now. It is something that Simon Rowe describes as a [...]
World Rugby Nations Championship silence is deafening but predictable October 31, 2025 The World Rugby Nations Championship starts next year after the last ever autumn internationals campaign this year. Or does it? This is the last ever autumn rugby union series, not that you’d have any idea. Gone will be the days of friendly matches on chilly November evenings and in will come games with a trophy [...]
New Principality Stadium naming rights deal ‘challenging’, says former negotiator October 30, 2025 The timing of a new deal for the naming rights of Cardiff’s Principality Stadium has been described as “challenging for Welsh rugby” given the state of the game across the River Severn. The 73,931-capacity stadium on the banks of the Taff is the fourth largest in the UK and plays host to the Wales rugby [...]
Exclusive: Wembley interested in hosting NRL rugby league match in 2027 October 28, 2025 The FA has expressed interest in staging an NRL game at Wembley in 2027 after attracting a crowd of over 60,000 for last Saturday’s Test match between England and Australia, the highest ever crowd in the UK for a rugby league Ashes clash. The NRL is planning to launch its 2027 season with a so-called [...]
Barbarians: Inside rugby team playing All Blacks in London this weekend October 28, 2025 The Barbarians are taking on an All Blacks XV this weekend at Premier League club Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium in London. Rugby’s financial structure is bizarre at the best of times: on one hand you’ve got teams playing every week struggling to make ends meet, and on the other hand you’ve got the British and [...]
Welsh rugby should keep Scarlets but scrap Cardiff, Ospreys and Dragons October 24, 2025 With a decision expected at the end of the month, I back radical change to Welsh rugby’s regional structure. I wasn’t entirely shocked to read this week that there were over 80,000 tickets remaining for Wales’s autumn internationals, even though they’re taking on three of the southern hemisphere’s Big Four, plus Japan. What did flabbergast [...]