WRU chiefs should eat humble pie over empty Wales rugby stadium November 14, 2025 The redeeming factor for Wales in their 28-52 loss to Argentina in Cardiff is that only 50,000 had to watch it inside the Principality Stadium. That’s not because the team’s national arena has a 50,000-seat cap for this game, or because renovation works forced the closure of a stand. It was because millions of Welsh [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
England Rugby should buy London Stadium and flog Twickenham land October 17, 2025 How do you solve a problem like increasing the revenues for England Rugby? Up sticks and buy the London Stadium, suggests Ollie Phillips Given the obstacles being thrown towards Allianz Stadium and England Rugby from local residents relating to the number of concerts the home of rugby wants to stage, it is no surprise that [...]
Rugby unions vs R360 spat is the sport’s failures in a nutshell October 10, 2025 When I look from the outside at the recent statement spat between many of the leading rugby unions and the rebel R360 start-up, I cannot help but hark back to the 2020 election for chairman of World Rugby. In the blue corner was the incumbent Sir Bill Beaumont, backing the status quo but wanting to [...]
Allianz Stadium Twickenham can be hub for global overseas sport October 3, 2025 On Saturday Argentina and South Africa will play a regular season Rugby Championship match at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham. But this is not out of the ordinary for the capital; next month the Springboks will take on Japan at Wembley and an All Blacks XV will face the Barbarians in Brentford. Looking back, too, there [...]
Prem Rugby: Four business stories to watch this season September 25, 2025 English top flight rugby is back this evening with a snazzy new brand: the Premiership has become the Prem, and Thursday nights are the new Fridays. Sure, tonight’s opener between Sale Sharks and Gloucester is a one-off to accommodate the Women’s Rugby World Cup final at Allianz Stadium, but a lot is going on in [...]
Maher, mauls and moneyballing women’s rugby September 19, 2025 Much has been said about USA rugby player Ilona Maher’s potential move to wrestling and the WWE, and she herself has mentioned how she’d like to follow in the footsteps of people like The Rock in going from sport and entertainment into acting. The confidence of the most followed rugby player in the world is [...]
Rugby is crying out for celebrity investment September 12, 2025 If you take a gander across the sporting landscape there’s a plethora of celebrity faces propping up a new kind of club. Take Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney at Wrexham, or Tom Brady at Birmingham City; both clubs have been propelled to stardom off the field as a result of celebrity investment – with the [...]
