Brendan Gallagher

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

Top 20 wasted rugby talents countdown: No 5-1

18 April 2020 0 comments

Out countdown reaches its conclusion…

Top 20 wasted rugby talents countdown: No 10-6

17 April 2020 0 comments

An All Blacks career derailed and the Caribbean-English trailblazer born in the wrong era

Top 20 wasted rugby talents countdown: No 15-11

16 April 2020 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher rankings of talents who didn’t fulfil their potential continues…

Rugby Matters: The past was a different country for rugby thrills

16 April 2020 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher believes conservative play has etched into modern rugby

Top 20 wasted rugby talents countdown: No 20-16

14 April 2020 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher ranks the players who could have achieved so much more in the game

Dave Gallaher drilled his touring New Zealand team like a fighting machine

10 April 2020 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher recalls the early and outstanding All Blacks and Australian tours

Top 20 try saving tackles of all time: No.10-6

9 April 2020 0 comments

An expert tackle from All Blacks great Ben Smith on Manu Tuilagi

Rugby Matters: Rugby’s quickest ever player? Look no further than the man dubbed ‘Marlon Brando’

9 April 2020 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher pieces together rugby’s fastest ever players in a 100m heat – speedster John Young features

Top 20 try saving tackles of all time: No.15-11

8 April 2020 0 comments

Featuring Ben Cohen’s crucial stop against the All Blacks in 2002

Top 20 try saving tackles of all time: No.20-16

7 April 2020 0 comments

One of the great World Cup tackles from Japan’s Ayumu Goromaru

Top 20 tries of all time countdown: No.1-5

6 April 2020 0 comments

Our countdown of the greatest tries reaches No.1

Rugby Matters: Kenny’s challenge taught me when to fold ’em!

2 April 2020 0 comments

You’re a rugby writer in a Paris hotel room at the 2007 Rugby World Cup, and you call Kenny Rogers…

Top 20 tries of all time countdown: No.6-10

2 April 2020 0 comments

A British & Irish Lions classic from 2017 features as Brendan Gallagher continues his countdown

Top 20 tries of all time countdown: No.11-15

1 April 2020 0 comments

Part Two of our four-part special features Jonah Lomu and JPR Williams

Top 20 tries of all time countdown: No.16-20

31 March 2020 0 comments

The de facto list of rugby’s best ever tries. Part one of our four-part story drops with Christian Cullen featuring

Rugby Matters: All our yesterdays come gloriously alive again

31 March 2020 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher has found himself looking at the treasure trove of rugby videos on Youtube…

Rugby Matters: High time Sale Sharks got the recognition they merit

20 March 2020 0 comments

Underappreciated in the sporting hub of greater Manchester? Brendan Gallagher looks at the unheralded success of Sale

When Fran Cotton folded Paper, England’s Grand Slam was on

20 March 2020 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher recalls England’s triumphant Five Nations Grand Slam in 1980

Rugby Matters: Llandow disaster turned triumph into tragedy

19 March 2020 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher recalls the tragedy of the Llandow Air Disaster

Rugby Matters: The greatest teams have had special joy of six

5 March 2020 0 comments

As Eddie Jones pilots hybrid players in his Six Nations teams, Brendan Gallagher looks at the role of a No.6

Rugby Matters: Farewell to Garrett Fitzgerald, the man who made Munster great

26 February 2020 0 comments

The man who built Munster into a modernised giant of European rugby

Rugby Matters: 2020 is no comparison to the thuggery of 1980

20 February 2020 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher recalls the most brutally physical of Five Nations championships in 1980

Rugby Matters: Game in Spain flying high after Rugby World Cup anguish

14 February 2020 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher insists Spain shouldn’t be disappointed by their defeat to Georgia last weekend, as they close the gap in the world rankings

Gallagher column: Small, strong – Dupont is ideal for the French way

4 February 2020 0 comments

Morgan Parra, Maxime Machenaud and Jonathan Pelissie have all come and gone – Antoine Dupont represents the real France

Rugby Matters: Can lieutenant Andy Farrell cut it as head honcho?

30 January 2020 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher on why Andy Farrell should be wary of the trap of being labelled a No.2

Rugby Matters: New Broom Galthie has the leeway to go for broke with France

23 January 2020 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher writes how a new-found desire to nurture homegrown talent in the Top 14 has allowed Fabien Galthie to rewrite the rhetoric

Rugby Matters: England game provides Sergio Parisse with perfect curtain fall

16 January 2020 0 comments

Italy’s talismanic No.8 can bow out on his own terms, with a stock of flourishing back rows ready to pick up the mantle

Rugby Matters: New breed of coaches take centre stage in 2020

3 January 2020 0 comments

Only Eddie Jones and Gregor Townsend remain from the World Cup as the Six Nations nears

Rugby Matters: Macho Makis can make their mark in Sevens

27 December 2019 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher marks Madagascar as one of rugby’s growing nations who can utilise the creation of the Challenger Sevens Series

Rugby Matters: No more false starts, cull the scrum cheats

19 December 2019 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher points to the outright disqualification for false starting in athletics as something rugby should adhere with scrum resets

Gallagher column: Root of Israel Folau case grew from shame of apartheid

12 December 2019 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher examines the vitriol espoused by sacked Wallabies star Israel Folau and how it correlates with attitudes during the apartheid era

Seeds of Springboks multi-racial glory were sewn by student ‘yobs’

6 December 2019 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher recalls the ‘Protest Tour’ of 1969, fifty years on

Three years of refining Italy, Conor O’Shea got the selection wrong for Azzurri

30 November 2019 0 comments

A look at Conor O’Shea’s time in charge of Italy which yielded a 23 per cent win rate in Tests

Gallagher column: Saracens embodied the old pioneering spirit

28 November 2019 0 comments

The Premiership has become safe and conservative, writes Brendan Gallagher

100 years of Loughborough: Yes, history truly is made inside these walls

27 November 2019 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher charts the remarkable 100 year history of Loughborough University and the institution’s contribution to British sport

Verdict: Siya Kolisi brings fresh hope to a troubled land

6 November 2019 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher on the significance of Springboks no.6s to the modern history of South Africa

Rugby Matters: Make Pacific Islands rugby’s West Indies

17 October 2019 0 comments

The West Indies cricket team can be selected from 15 Caribbean island nations. Brendan Gallagher asks if the same can be applied to rugby and the Pacific Islands

Gallagher column: Tonga and Samoa should have a base in Auckland

26 September 2019 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher’s focusses on the lineage of Tonga, Samoa and Fiji’s squads, most of whom are based in New Zealand and Australia

Gallagher column: So troubling to see Devin Toner replaced by a mercenary

13 September 2019 0 comments

South Africa-born lock Jean Kleyn will be playing in the World Cup for Ireland

Chester Williams dazzled in spite of post-Apartheid racial frictions

10 September 2019 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher recalls the life of Springboks wing Chester Williams

Gallagher column: Agustin Pichot is right to question his own world rankings

4 September 2019 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher looks at where the World Rugby rankings model is weakest

Gallagher column: Scrap the World Cup warm-up games and take a short tour

16 August 2019 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher recalls England’s wins over Australia and the All Blacks in a short tour prior to the 2003 World Cup

How English rugby shattered the All Blacks mystique on the same anniversary as their 2003 World Cup triumph

21 November 2018 0 comments

November 22 is a big day for some in the North West Counties…

Gallagher column: Where have Eddie’s bullying forwards got to?

2 November 2018 0 comments

Time is running out for Eddie to sort out his pack

Gallagher column: I still feel the stress of that French fightback in 1999

18 October 2018 0 comments

New Zealand 31-43 France, a match that had the heart racing even for the neutrals

Ronan O’Gara leads the latest list of players inducted to rugby’s Hall of Fame

12 September 2018 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher takes a look at the inductees

De Klerk puts mighty spring into the new South Africa

14 June 2018 0 comments

By Brendan Gallagher I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that Sale’s Faf De Klerk could well have been the Premiership player of the season […]

Gallagher column: Hero pathfinders fought the cause of black players in Apartheid-era South Africa

7 June 2018 0 comments

Brendan Gallagher looks at the trailblazers who paved the way for Siya Kolisi to become the first black Springboks captain 24 years on from the end of Apartheid