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Chris Hewett
/ 9 months agoPundits need that forward thinking
Ian Robertson put it most colourfully. “I work with backs,” said the celebrated BBC radio commentator on being asked to coach...
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Chris Hewett
/ 9 months agoWhen value for money is not part of the deal
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED ENGLAND’S bench strategy against New Zealand – goodbye “bomb squad”, hello “squib squad” – has been investigated,...
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Chris Hewett
/ 9 months agoShame that Georgia are kept out of sight
By Chris Hewett - Thinking Allowed The most significant contest of the November international series? Take your pick. Ireland-New Zealand in...
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Chris Hewett
/ 10 months agoBath’s ‘bomb squad’ needs to be defused
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED CLOSE your eyes and imagine batting on a fiery Caribbean track in the 1980s, when West Indian...
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Chris Hewett
/ 10 months agoIt would be grand for Wasps to return
By Chris Hewett - Thinking Allowed Prize assets: Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and, inset from top, Tom Willis, Gabriel Oghre, Alfie Barbeary, Asher...
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Chris Hewett
/ 10 months agoWorldwide Springboks still get it together
By Chris Hewett - Thinking Allowed Assuming those with their ears to the ground haven’t gone deaf, Handre Pollard, the Springbok...
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Chris Hewett
/ 10 months agoWallace Sititi is following in father’s footsteps, but for how long?
By Chris Hewett - Thinking Allowed Cast your minds back, those of you who are sufficiently long in the tooth, to...
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Chris Hewett
/ 11 months agoFiji deserve to play with best in world
By Chris Hewett - Thinking Allowed Every underdog has its day, as Daniel Dubois reminded us in knocking an entire cathedral’s...
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Chris Hewett
/ 11 months agoToo much of a good thing can be overkill
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED "People might think it’s arrogant,” said Rian Oberholzer, the chief executive of the Springbok domain, just the...
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Chris Hewett
/ 12 months agoEnergetic thinking urgently required
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED CRITICAL supporters of Bristol in the late amateur era believed their team was being straitjacketed by a...
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Chris Hewett
/ 12 months agoRobertson needs to redress the balance
Chris Hewett Thinking allowed It was a cheap shot, admittedly, but only a pacifist or a fool would spurn the opportunity...
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Chris Hewett
/ 12 months agoAge of protectionism must come to an end
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Powered up: Argentina scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou celebrates victory over the All Blacks last weekend PICTURES: Getty Images...
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Chris Hewett
/ 12 months agoGlad to see clock ticking on scrum
CHRIS HEWETT THOSE of us who have spent our entire careers writing against deadline know all there is to know about...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoWhat counts is how the money is spent
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED IT WAS a close-run thing but, after crunching the numbers harder than a caffeine-fuelled psephologist on election...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoWhy SVNS makes sense for the future
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Rugby sevens – or SVNS, as a London-based team of funkily-dressed marketing executives have somehow succeeded in...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoDay when the Real McCoys stood up
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED THE governing bodies of the union game are not renowned for their speed off the mark –...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoA drop of magic is just what we need
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED STRANGE as it may sound to generations of rugby lovers raised on a fizzy-drink, dopamine-heavy diet of...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoEuropean elite keen to exclude outsiders
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Whichever way you care to define the i-word, it was an interesting few hours for Canadian sport....
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoSlipper deserves place at top table
Wallaby props? How we used to snigger at them over here in England as Jason Leonard, Phil Vickery and Andrew Sheridan...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoTrio who tempt us to search for genius
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED What do we mean when we talk of genius? It is a question as old as Noah,...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoWhistler’s authority must be protected
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED In the middle: Sara Cox took charge of the Women’s Premiership final between Gloucester-Hartpury and Bristol last...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoCheika’s first job: to speak ‘Tiger’
As top-flight English clubs go, none are as English as Leicester, with their grizzled battalions of steadfast Midlands yeomanry – all...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoWhy less might not be more for stars
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED MARTIN Johnson spent a rugby eternity perfecting his survival skills in the engine room of the scrum...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoSorry, but Obano did not have to do that
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED The best definition of madness in rugby? There are several contenders: picking a fight with Eben Etzebeth...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoAnother lesson from the French
CHRIS HEWETT Now that Vannes have made it into the top tier of French rugby and the people running things across...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoLet the ‘waterboys’ just get on with it
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED It's the burning question of the moment: what is Jacques Nienaber? Not “who is Jacques Nienaber”, or...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoThen and now: It’s tough to compare
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Whenever the incomparable Antoine Dupont does the kind of things he did in dragging Toulouse over the...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoTalk of jeopardy is wide of the mark
THINKING ALLOWED It happened during the early stages of the 2003 World Cup in Australia, when two of the union game’s...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoTime for us to see some new thinking
Remember the elderly joke about the flight from Australia to New Zealand? “There’s a time difference between the two countries,” the...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoToo many coaches taking liberties in selection
It should not be difficult to distinguish between a Premiership rugby match and a game of county cricket: one, full of...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoMako reinvented job of loosehead
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Eddie Jones coached Mako Vunipola during a brief spell in charge of Saracens, and coached him again...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoRugby’s holy trinity prove the difference
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED SINCE time immemorial, rugby has been cloaked in its own cliches: Prince Obolensky was always “dashing”; Colin...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoMo’unga likely to be back in black
SO he hasn’t gone for good, after all. Not quite. If the All Blacks have their way, as they invariably do...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoThe boys down west who know how to win
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED The way they see it down Exeter way, only one team is flying the flag for the...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoThe day Sir John picked up the bill
Steve Diamond always had a way with words – some of his stories concerning Danny Cipriani during the wayward outside-half ’s...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoRobertson will cash in on Barrett move
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED LOOKING at it from Leinster’s point of view, the signing of the world’s best inside centre is...
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Champions Cup
/ 1 year agoTry-fest with big issues below the surface
The Paris Games, more formally known as the XXXIII Olympiad, are almost upon us and the Rugby Sevens schedule is full...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoTime for props to take their share of the glory
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED OVERMATCHED teams usually find themselves facing the music without having to listen to any. It was different...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoWe need Biarrtitz back to their best
SERGE Blanco, the finest full-back ever to grace the union game, spent his entire club career at Biarritz. So did the...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoModernise the scrum, don’t allow it to die
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED IF WE take the Book of Ecclesiastes as our guide – ancient though it may be, it...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoIt’s all a difficult question of trust
Leicester's latest fine for salary cap irregularities – their second in as many years – throws up an interesting question or...
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British and Irish Lions
/ 1 year agoLet’s hope the Lions can find their roar
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED IN THE unlikely event that anyone out there is still searching for something nice to say about...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoTake TMOs seriously? That’s up to you…
IT was a close-run thing, but on the balance of predicatability, the TMO system just sneaked home ahead of Owen Farrell’s...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoBeware this move to 15-a-side Rollerball
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED IF THE Six Nations failed to meet expectations, it was in a good way. Italy’s knee-clenching World...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoIt’s time to consider talent, not geography
If everyone is heading to French club rugby, including the England centurion Courtney Lawes, it makes Courtney Lawes right: rival unions...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoWe must not take road to Hulkism
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Message from receptionist to doctor: “We have an invisible man in the waiting room.” Doctor to receptionist:...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoA stark reminder of rugby finances
CHRIS HEWETT Rugby's political scene is quite lively enough when the arguments are being conducted in a sporting echo chamber. When...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoIt’s a long walk but Wales on right road
CHRIS HEWETT We've all heard it: “You don’t beat Wales at rugby – you just score more points than them.” Like...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoCome on, Joe! Time to pay attention
JOE Schmidt, the recently-appointed coach of a Wallaby vintage who wear the same colours as Matthew Burke, David Campese, Tim Horan...
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Chris Hewett
/ 1 year agoBorthwick should put faith in this trio
CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED PETER Winterbottom knows a thing or three about our sport, so you would expect him to make...
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