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Jeremy Guscott: Once a Lions series is won, it’s hard to go again

Jeremy Guscott — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 02:59:38 +0000

The sports science and analysis available in the game now would almost certainly tell us that the Lions were not anywhere near physically done when they played Australia in the third Test in Sydney last weekend. However, it is the mental stuff that you cannot measure as easily. Where you could programme a robot to […]

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Nick Cain: Wallabies paid price for unprofessionalism during Lions Tour

Nick Cain — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 02:59:34 +0000

The Lions are back on the winning trail, but the high stakes surrounding the 2025 tour, whether sporting or commercial, means that getting an objective appraisal of its impact and benefits is no longer as straightforward as looking at a win-loss ledger. Despite record profits for the tour being projected, with cash-strapped Rugby Australia alone […]

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Nick Cain: No return to Australia for the Lions without legal guarantees

Nick Cain — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 02:59:33 +0000

Should Australia get the Lions back in 12 years? The answer is that Rugby Australia would have to commit to a far more competitive pre-Test itinerary than it provided in 2025, and it would have to be legally binding. Without that, the answer should be no. There is also no guarantee that even with the […]

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Chris Hewett: Andy Farrell not alone with his ‘home’ Lions selections

Chris Hewett — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 02:59:29 +0000

“There's an epidemic sweeping through the England team, but it isn’t catching.” Attributed to John Arlott (who else?), the exquisite one-liner sprang to mind as a flurry of butterfingered spillages helped India build their winning second innings total at The Oval last weekend. On the other side of the world, meanwhile, there was something highly […]

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Chris Hewett: Wallabies make the obvious choice with Giteau Law change

Chris Hewett — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 02:59:28 +0000

Inevitable. Had to happen. Written in the stars. Quite why the Australian rugby hierarchy spent so long umming and aaahhing about picking Wallaby-class players from overseas is a mystery that passeth all understanding, for the very good reason that without them, there were never enough Wallaby-class players to fill a team. As of now, the […]

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Peter Jackson: The British and Irish Lions fail to impress Paul Turner

Peter Jackson — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 02:59:26 +0000

From the early days in Newbridge through to Sale’s rise as champions of England, Paul Turner has built an admirable track record for innovation, an endless quest to make the game more entertaining. He saw none of that from the Lions in Australia. “Boring rugby from the Lions,’’ Turner wrote on X. “No invention. No […]

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Paul Rees: Money was the theme for the Lions – and that will not change

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 02:59:23 +0000

Paul Rees says that, as the Lions chase every pound, the home unions can't complain if players do the same As weary Lions’ supporters, some 40,000 of them, returned home last week broke but satisfied, they received an e-mail inviting them to fork out on a limited edition watch to commemorate the series victory. Called […]

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Brendan Gallagher: British and Irish Lions tour no longer rugby’s Everest

Brendan Gallagher — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 02:59:09 +0000

The dust is beginning to settle on the 2025 Lions tour and that is a process that should be encouraged and indeed accelerated. One of the problems with Lions rugby is that it occupies too much of our rugby consciousness to the detriment of everything else. It uses up too many gigabytes. Already, for example, […]

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Once again, officials fail to punish the Lions

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 02:58:57 +0000

JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME SO the tour is over, and the Lions return home happy at a result that perhaps they didn’t really deserve, winning two of the three Tests – particularly as, yet again, match officials failed to punish the Lions for on field law breaking. Leinster hooker Dan […]

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Brendan Gallagher: These tourists have been nowhere near as good as they should have been

Brendan Gallagher — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 02:59:51 +0000

For a long while I have held the sometimes unpopular view that Nic White was the most influential player at Sandy Park during those peak Exeter years and last night, in a sodden Sydney, we saw why. He is sharp, edgy, confrontational, takes it to the opposition and he brought all that to the table […]

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Jeremy Guscott: A defeat, yes, but the British and Irish Lions should be proud

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 02:59:50 +0000

The third Test might not have given the Lions the 3-0 margin they wanted, but this was a fierce contest in Sydney in very difficult conditions, in which one team wanted to redeem themselves and the other wanted to finish in style. Australia were far better in defence in this Test than they had been […]

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Paul Rees: Nic White and Will Skelton put Wallabies in driving seat for Third Test

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 02:59:49 +0000

Where there is a will there is a way to win – not just big Will Skelton but the collective determination of a side that had come within a disputed refereeing decision of squaring the series seven days before. The Wallabies used the desperate disappointment of that night in Melbourne as fertiliser and the conditions […]

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Nick Cain: Joe Schmidt’s bogus words jeopardise Lions’ future

Nick Cain — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 02:59:38 +0000

There was a chance of three whitewashes taking place this weekend. The first was whether the Lions would claim a 3-0 series win over the Wallabies, and the second was an unacceptable provincial itinerary in Australia being airbrushed from an accurate picture of the tour by the euphoria of a winning series. The third was […]

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Chris Hewett: Tough calls needed to take the initiative

Chris Hewett — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 02:59:28 +0000

The Lions may have reaffirmed their rugby sovereignty over the Wallabies during 80 mesmerising minutes in Melbourne, but they were well and truly subordinated by the footballing Lionesses before the weekend was out. It’s the name of the game these days. You can’t expect an open-top bus tour and a bottomless brunch in Downing Street […]

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Paul Rees: This triple lock will give the British and Irish Lions longer life

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 02:59:26 +0000

Paul Rees looks into whether the Lions should stick with visiting Australia, New Zealand and South Africa Who would have thought it, the whinging Wallabies? After all the flak sent the way of Pommy sporting teams over the years, Australia did not take the loss of the series to the Lions gracefully last weekend after […]

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Props who were able to go the distance

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 02:59:22 +0000

PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW THE Lions used to replace their props during Test matches once every 29 years, long enough for at least ten blue moons to have come and gone. Jason Leonard’s last-minute entry in Cape Town for the magnificent Tom Smith against the Springboks in 1997 ended a sequence […]

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Paul Rees: George Skivington sets his sights on building another crop of Kingsholm legends

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 02:59:20 +0000

Paul Rees continues his summer series reviewing the Premiership season, with the focus this week on Gloucester Gloucester did not win a trophy last season, unlike the one before, but they took considerably more out of the campaign. It sounds counter-intuitive, although Bath were the only English club that needed to rearrange its trophy cabinet […]

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Ray loved the game

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 02:59:18 +0000

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER SO farewell Ray French, for many years the voice of rugby league but also a rugby union man through and through, which may sound contradictory but was entirely true. This is the man who played Union for St Helen’s and England – […]

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Charles Rylands: We need to build interest in Champ Rugby

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 02:59:15 +0000

With the announcement this week of the Prem Cup fixtures, I was gutted to learn that teams from the second division of English rugby won’t be competing against the best sides in the country this season. It’s understandable why Champ clubs have chosen to step away. They’ve long been frustrated with receiving no share of […]

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As we all well know, history is set in stone

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 02:59:09 +0000

JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME SURPRISE, surprise the Lions won the series last week so it really didn’t matter what happened yesterday as, win or lose, the Lions had won their tour and will come home to a heroes’ welcome. Although the game last week raised a lot of questions as […]

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Jeremy Guscott: Lions vs Wallabies second Test such fantastic drama, a sporting spectacular

Jeremy Guscott — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 02:59:51 +0000

The Lions second Test win over Australia at the MCG in Melbourne last night had everything. It was a match of fantastic sporting drama, played in a great stadium, between two teams who gave their all – and with the Lions clinching the series, which for someone like me, who has skin in the game […]

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British and Irish Lions: Once again, Tom Curry empties the tanks to show he’s one of world’s best

Brendan Gallagher — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 02:59:50 +0000

Finally, a Lions match and spectacle to really get our teeth into and a reminder of why, despite so many challenges and occasional failings on their part, we still love them. When the on to score close to the posts it was Test matches are good…… they the tireless flanker who kept going are very […]

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British and Irish Lions leave it late to find fitting way to win series against Wallabies

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 02:59:49 +0000

At last, a proper test for the Lions in Australia. And it was decided at the last when Hugo Keenan scored 50 seconds from the end, time Finn Russell used up for the conversion. The Lions won despite never having been ahead when the ball was in play: the clock keeps ticking for a conversion […]

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Nick Cain: Henry Pollock must play with 7 on his back

Nick Cain — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 02:59:39 +0000

Henry Pollock looked lost at times against a First Nations & Pasifika selection which wanted to get in the faces of the Lions and show that Australian rugby still has a bit of “biff ” about it. The match at the Marvel Stadium in Melbourne on the Tuesday before the second Test highlighted some of […]

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Chris Hewett: It’s a long, hard road for – Bank of Dad, or not

Chris Hewett — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 02:59:30 +0000

Ten thousand hours seems a suspiciously convenient round number, but there are plenty of big brains who see it as the key to the universe. Looking for mastery in your chosen field, from playing the saxophone to playing scrum-half? All you need is a strict regime of hard yakka: nine to five, seven days a […]

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Paul Rees: Wales need dose of harsh reality

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 02:59:28 +0000

Paul Rees says Scotland's defence coach Steve Tandy is the right man to take over from Warren Gatland Wales' five month search for a head coach to replace Warren Gatland ended last week when Steve Tandy was appointed on a three-year contract. He became the first Welshman to take charge of the side full-time for […]

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Puzzling games without frontiers

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 02:59:25 +0000

PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW DURING the last fortnight, seven players from distant shores stood to attention for the national anthems of their new countries. When it comes to switching rugby allegiance, no frontier is ever too far away. The masses locked into life with the Lions will probably be oblivious to […]

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Saints alive! The power and glory: Northampton Saints’ all-time XV

Brendan Gallagher — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 02:59:23 +0000

What would be the greatest all-time XV your club could field if you could travel back in time and select everybody playing in their pomp. Brendan Gallagher continues his series doing precisely that for the ten Premiership sides, selecting Dream Teams for all concerned. Preference will generally be given to those who had a reasonably […]

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Brendan Gallagher: Now, let’s see the Sables take flight at the World Cup

Brendan Gallagher — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 02:59:21 +0000

So, welcome back Zimbabwe whose dramatic 30-28 Africa Cup Final victory over Namibia in Kampala last weekend saw them qualify for the Rugby World Cup Finals for the first time since 1991. It’s been a long haul to say the least, with, at various stages, dire political, military and economic issues within their country putting […]

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Jeff Probyn: The British and Irish Lions abandoning Australia would be big mistake

Jeff Probyn — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 02:59:12 +0000

I am amazed by the idea that if the Lions are successful in completing a three-Test clean sweep over the Australians next weekend that the Lions committee would even consider that it could be the last time the Lions tour there. The so called clamour for a more local tour to France maybe more attractive […]

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French Column: Ten players who could hit the spot in ProD2

James Harrington — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 02:59:09 +0000

It's high summer in France – not that you’d necessarily know it given the weather over recent days, which has been more mid-April than end of July. Holiday season is in full swing and next weekend is, officially, the worst one of the year to even attempt a long road trip in l’Hexagone. But time […]

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Paul Rees: Andy Farrell will take it, but a lot more is required from the British and Irish Lions

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 02:59:53 +0000

No team that has won the first Test in a full series between Australia and the Lions has gone on to claim the second – and only once have they taken the series. And so it is history, rather than form and reinforcements, that will fuel the Wallabies this week after they were outfought and […]

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Jeremy Guscott: Cut penalty count and the British and Irish Lions will win again

Jeremy Guscott — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 02:59:44 +0000

The Lions played a powerful, physical game to beat Australia 27-19 in Brisbane yesterday, and you cannot underestimate the importance of a winning start to the series. They took it to Australia, and overpowered them with simple, basic, direct rugby, and effectively, by doing it for the first 42 minutes, it earned them the victory. […]

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Nick Cain: Maverick Rassie Erasmus is doing us all a service

Nick Cain — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 02:59:39 +0000

Rassie Erasmus is one of rugby union’s most controversial characters, but he is also an international coach who thinks deeply about the game. It doesn’t matter whether it is tactics, selection, or sports psychology, the South African often brings an innovative left-field perspective. His latest two offerings in South Africa’s second Test 45-0 swamping of […]

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Paul Rees: England’s aim must be 2027 World Cup final

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 02:59:25 +0000

Paul Rees says that Steve Borthwick's men must build on their series success in Argentina, and aim for glory at the next World Cup England's summer tour has created a mere ripple of interest compared to the tidal surge in Australia the Lions have been riding on, and that is the way head coach Steve […]

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Chris Hewett: France v the British and Irish Lions would be a stretch

Chris Hewett — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 02:59:17 +0000

Suddenly, rugby’s 24-hour news cycle is full of chatter about a French seat at the British and Irish Lions table. Abdel Benazzi, perhaps the finest Les Bleus forward of the professional era and certainly one of the heavier hitters currently to be found among the sport’s governing classes, is pressing for a one-off match ahead […]

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Peter Jackson: Wales, a once-proud nation with nothing to offer for the British and Irish Lions

Peter Jackson — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 02:59:13 +0000

When the Lions last won a series in Australia, they picked a starting team borrowed so heavily from one small country as to justify renaming it: Wales & The Rest. Even without their injured tour captain Sam Warburton, the tourists banked on ten Welshmen to win the decider in Sydney, albeit with a little help […]

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Paul Rees: With the stars they have, Harlequins should be winning many more games

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 02:59:09 +0000

Paul Rees continues his summer series reviewing the Premiership season, with the focus this week on Harlequins It is only four years ago that Harlequins won the Premiership, coming from nowhere in the second half of the campaign after a coaching shake-up to run away with the title in their very own way by backing […]

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French Colummn: Bayonne in the fast lane for No.9 Leo Coly

James Harrington — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 02:59:00 +0000

It was mid-August last year – the 13th, to be precise – when Racing 92 suddenly confirmed their highly rated and, at the time, still uncapped scrum-half Nolann Le Garrec was to leave at the end of the season still to come to join La Rochelle. Soon after, Ronan O’Gara’s side confirmed his arrival, adding […]

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Jeremy Guscott: I see too much clunk and not enough click with the British and Irish Lions

Jeremy Guscott — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 02:59:39 +0000

Before you get to the last two provincial matches of a Lions tour, the head coach knows what his best team look like, and that’s why we saw Andy Farrell’s strongest team picked against the Brumbies ten days out from the first Test. However, because we haven’t seen a really emphatic performance so far from […]

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Nick Cain: Joe Schmidt may force British and Irish Lions to move on

Nick Cain — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 02:59:33 +0000

Joe Schmidt will be hailed as a miracle man if the Wallabies succeed in blindsiding the Lions to edge the forthcoming Test series which starts in Brisbane on Saturday. However, while it would permanently enhance the New Zealander’s international coaching CV, there is another long-term consideration that Aussies would do well to consider before they […]

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Nick Cain: Felipe Contepomi committed selection hara-kiri against England

Nick Cain — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 02:59:32 +0000

England deserved most of the plaudits lavished on them after their comprehensive four try 35-12 dismantling of Argentina last weekend. Fin Baxter, Jamie George and Joe Heyes punished the Pumas’ desperately weak scrum – as I’m sure Asher Opoku-Fordjour (at loose-head) and Afo Fasogbon would have also done – and the acute attacking orchestration and […]

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Paul Rees: No more talking, it’s time for the British and Irish Lions to roar…

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 02:59:27 +0000

Paul Rees says that, unless Joe Schmidt has been cultivating a banana tree, the Lions are unlikely to slip up The Lions last weekend scored 14 points in the first half against the Waratahs, leading 14-5 at the break, but then managed just seven more. Less than 24 hours later, Australia did the same, although […]

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Paul Rees: It’s a free hit for the Wallabies against the British and Irish Lions

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 02:59:26 +0000

Australia needed the run-out against Fiji last Sunday, but an unwanted consequence was a neck injury suffered by Noah Lolesio that ruled the outside-half out of the series. The 25-year-old may not be among the world’s leading 10s and would lag behind all four in the Lions’ squad, but he had come to provide some […]

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Chris Hewett: One kick to win it… so who do you want?

Chris Hewett — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 02:59:20 +0000

Whoever it was, it couldn’t have been Carwyn James. For one thing, the most celebrated coach of all was a Welshman who revelled in victories over New Zealand every bit as much as he enjoyed plotting the downfall of any English opposition he might encounter; for another, the silver-ferners hardly needed the services of a […]

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Peter Jackson: Bundee Aki takes the long road to be a British and Irish Lion

Peter Jackson — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 02:59:12 +0000

Back home amid the volcanic craters of South Auckland, a ‘very skinny kid’ would have seen Brian O’Driscoll’s reign as Lions captain come to a brutal end after 45 seconds. Twenty years on from the pulverising spear tackle which smashed the Dubliner’s left shoulder within the first minute of a wretchedly one-sided series, the under-nourished […]

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Paul Rees: Northampton Saints paid the price for battling on two fronts

The Rugby Paper Team — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 02:59:11 +0000

Paul Rees continues his summer series reviewing the Premiership season, with the focus this week on Northampton Northampton Saints finished two off the bottom of the Premiership a year after beating Bath to clinch the title, but showed they had not regressed by reaching the Champions Cup final and pushing Bordeaux-Begles all the way in […]

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Jeff Probyn: Steve Borthwick has to rethink his England squad

Jeff Probyn — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 02:59:07 +0000

Last week the England rugby team showed some character in their game against Argentina that has been missing in many of their recent games and managed an outstanding win for their first Test in Argentina. Head coach Steve Borthwick seems to have at last found a better balance of his playing squad with a number […]

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French Column: Top c14 lubs getting back in the swing

James Harrington — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 02:59:03 +0000

The Top 14 final brought the curtain down on the 2024/25 French rugby season just 15 days ago, with Toulouse lifting the Brennus for the 24th time following a thrilling 100-minute final against Bordeaux at Stade de France – exactly a year to the day after the two sides had played out a rather more […]

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Jeremy Guscott: British and Irish Lions need to be firing from the first whistle

Jeremy Guscott — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 02:59:42 +0000

Maro Itoje says that he felt pressure to perform this week, but that’s just standard for a Lions tour, and even more so when you are the captain. Itoje also knows that the expectations you have of yourself, and those coming at you from the outside, is a big part of professional sport. When Maro […]

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