Brendan Gallagher

This is where you will find all of The Rugby Paper’s Brendan Gallagher news, views, opinion and other content.

My take on the good, the bad and the ugly of rugby in 2024

29 December 2024 0 comments

Rugby Matters by Brendan Gallagher – A Weekly look at the game’s other talking points The Good Lorenzo Pani: His exquisitely crafted try for Italy […]

My Christmas day XV

22 December 2024 0 comments

Rugby Matters – A weekly look at the game’s other talking points by Brendan Gallagher Backs 15 Mark Mapletoft (England): Born December 25, 1971: Made […]

MY CHRISTMAS DAY XV

22 December 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Versatile: Mark Mapletoft lines up a kick for England PICTURE: Alamy 15 […]

MY CHRISTMAS DAY XV

22 December 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Versatile: Mark Mapletoft lines up a kick for England PICTURE: Alamy 15 […]

Hellfire Corner gives a warm welcome to all

15 December 2024 0 comments

Rugby Matters by Brendan Gallagher – A weekly look at the game’s other talking points Rugby was undergoing a massive boom 150 years ago so […]

The Six Nations logo is an AI experiment that’s gone wrong

8 December 2024 0 comments

Rugby Matters by Brendan Gallagher – A weekly look at the game’s other talking points I see the new Six Nations logo has got a […]

Good to see the Eagles soaring again

1 December 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points – By Brendan Gallagher That’s a wrap for the autumn Tests and it would […]

Time to recognise Etzebeth’s talents

24 November 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER IT’S THE World Rugby annual awards tonight, held of course in that […]

Why does it always go wrong in the last quarter for England?

17 November 2024 0 comments

By Brendan Gallagher Where do England minds go in the final quarter of big rugby games? Why do they lose focus and intensity and why […]

Chalking off White’s try was a mistake

17 November 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER No try: Ben White’s touchdown was ruled out PICTURE: Getty Images IT […]

Let’s get truth on Eddie’s regime

10 November 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Trying times: Eddie Jones coaching England PICTURES: Alamy THIS Eddie Jones stuff. […]

Don’t let these tasty clashes pass you by

3 November 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER IT’S always famine or feast with international rugby and I guess that’s […]

Call time on this pantomime ploy

27 October 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER THIS 60-second shot clock twaddle. If we must continue to plough down […]

Confused path to rules of combat

20 October 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Man in the middle: Former Wasps prop Will Green PICTURE: Getty Images […]

Mark Ella & Co were the true pass masters

13 October 2024 0 comments

Rugby Matters by Brendan Gallagher – A weekly look at the game’s other talking points Nineteen eighty four might have been one of the most […]

Antoine Dupont & Co need to take on the very best

6 October 2024 0 comments

Rugby Matters By Brendan Gallagher – A weekly look at the game’s other talking points I think we established long ago that my admiration of […]

Los Pumas have worked hard to forge own identity

6 October 2024 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher reports on how one country has built a rugby stronghold down in South America There was a time back in the noughties when […]

Drop group action and examine selected cases

29 September 2024 0 comments

Rugby Matters – A weekly look at the game’s other talking points by Brendan Gallagher I was very struck the other day by our conversation […]

15 who have a chance to shine in the Premiership

29 September 2024 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher selects a team of young, and not so young, players in the Premiership to keep an eye on this season. The new season […]

Rugby Rivalries that don’t stand the test of time

22 September 2024 0 comments

Rugby Matters by Brendan Gallagher – A weekly look at the game’s other talking points Eyes down all you pub quiz fiends, it’s quiz time […]

Time for Steve Borthwick to prove his worth

15 September 2024 0 comments

Rugby Matters – A weekly look at the game’s talking points By Brendan Gallagher Honeymoon periods are not set in stone and in my estimation […]

Time we stopped indulging the haka

8 September 2024 1 comment

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER THERE is so much disingenuous hypocritical twaddle surrounding the Hollywood production that […]

Catch this team of nations on camera

1 September 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER FLY on the wall sporting documentaries seem to be back in vogue […]

James will prove to be a star at Racing

25 August 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER HERE’S a little prediction that will either leave me with egg on […]

Vivre Le Stade! I’m smitten by fabulous stadium

18 August 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS Stunning: The Stade de France during the Olympics closing ceremony PICTURE: Alamy IT has taken decades to fall in love with the Stade […]

Road to next World Cup lacks jeopardy

18 August 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points UNLESS I’ve missed something pertinent – and it’s not unknown – qualification […]

How the sun keeps shining for Spain

11 August 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Impressive: Joel Merkler in action for Toulouse PICTURE: Getty Images IT’S been […]

It was good to see Scotland support for T2

4 August 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Captured: Gus Warr in action against Canada PICTURE: Alamy SCOTLAND, for reasons […]

Richardis goes the distance with pearler of a kick

28 July 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points Delight: Spain U20 celebrate victory over Fiji PICTURE: World Rugby HISTORY will […]

No stopping the American battlers

21 July 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER A weekly look at the game’s other talking points IT’S exactly 100 years ago since France and the USA met in […]

Don’t let our sport move to summer

21 July 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS NOT for the first time I offer a heartfelt warning against those who continue to argue for a switch to summer rugby in […]

Spanish youngsters show how to tackle low

21 July 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS I DON’T know if you caught any of Spain’s game against Italy at the Junior World Cup last Sunday but it was an […]

Injury and illness can’t stop the fun

14 July 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER IT’S time to dip back into the 1974 Lions tour again and […]

Don’t lose Six Nations bonus on a Sunday

14 July 2024 0 comments

By Brendan Gallagher There have been more reports recently about the Six Nations wanting to do away with Sunday games and have more Super Saturdays […]

There’s more than money to Toulouse

7 July 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER There have, rightly, been acres of words written about Toulouse in recent […]

Dangers of brain trauma not new

7 July 2024 0 comments

The perceived wisdom is that rugby was not overly aware of the dangers of concussion and brain trauma back in the day but I’m not […]

Scratch XV that downed Boks

7 July 2024 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher was at Sixways when a National League One team caused a big upset – here he looks back to the year 2000 and the […]

25 years on and it’s still a special place

30 June 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER It was the 25th anniversary of the first-ever game at the Millennium […]

Try from the end of the world…

30 June 2024 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher looks back to 1994 when New Zealand last lost at Eden Park, beaten by a brilliant French team that scored one of the […]

There is no warm welcome for Spain

16 June 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Gone but still winning. Sort of! London Irish may have met with […]

Team Brittany show what might have happened in Cornwall

16 June 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS GO west young man. The phrase, attributed to American newspaper editor Horace Greeley, became a byword for the expansion of the United States […]

It’s close but Dupont edges out Edwards

9 June 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER Your columnist fell in love with rugby watching Gareth Edwards in the […]

Portugal looking to old guard

9 June 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS SCRUM-HALF and former skipper Samuel Marques is not the only Portuguese veteran being tempted out of retirement this summer by the prospect of […]

Pink city deserves its place at the top

2 June 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER – A weekly look at the game’s other talking points Anybody watching the crowd scenes in front of the big screen […]

Good to see the winners party like they meant it

26 May 2024 0 comments

BRENDAN GALLAGHER Well it was good to see the Sharks celebrate on Friday night like the European Challenge Cup really meant something to them because, […]

The time Tony did plenty of learning

26 May 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS – A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER It might surprise some to learn that the only sports trophy […]

Lawes is level with England’s greatest

19 May 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS Members of the Rugby Writers club have recently been voting for the Pat Marshall award which we scribes use to honour the outstanding […]

Mias made his mark in land of the giants als

19 May 2024 0 comments

Lucien Mias, below, who died this week aged 93, was never a giant of a man physically but when the force was with him, the […]

50 years ago, the Lions start to sweat

12 May 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER At the start of the year, this column promised to dip into […]

GB face Monaco battle for Olympic decider

12 May 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER ANY rugby tourist, or indeed anybody who finds themselves in striking distance of Monaco, should consider looking in on the Olympic […]

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