Brendan Gallagher

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

Brendan Gallagher looks back at five gems from the European Cup semi-finals

15 April 2015 1 comment

1999: Ulster 33 Stade Francais 27 The English clubs weren’t involved in the 1998-9 competition but frankly nobody really missed them and Ulster’s magical mystery […]

Brendan Gallagher feature: 125 years of Barbarians

8 April 2015 0 comments

It was 2am on the morning of April 9 1890 that the Barbarians Football club officially came into existence which in many ways set the […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature on Alan Hancock’s try against Scotland in 1965

13 March 2015 2 comments

Everybody is famously allowed 15 minutes of fame, but for Northampton wing Andy Hancock that was abbreviated to 15 seconds. That’s pretty much the time, […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: Paul O’Connell can bow out in style

11 March 2015 1 comment

It’s time to start making a fuss of Paul O’Connell which, of course, being the modest type the Ireland captain will hate but for once […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: Big Clive Norling back in charge after the long dark years of battle

27 February 2015 0 comments

Depression – proper full blown depression – can do strange things to the mind as Clive Norling discovered during the seven or eight years when […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: Glint of gilded youth in Scotland v Italy

26 February 2015 0 comments

And so to the RBS Six Nations annual wooden spoon ‘decider’ between Scotland and Italy – the two nations between them have finished last in […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: England must take heed of Irish warnings from history!

25 February 2015 0 comments

There is no disgrace losing in Dublin – New Zealand are the only team in the world to have avoided that fate and twice even […]

Brendan Gallagher comment: Why Sergio Parisse will always be a winner in defeat

18 February 2015 3 comments

Sergio Parisse fascinates me. He comfortably makes the top five all-round rugby players I have reported on over the last ten years and if I […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: When Scotland v Wales filled Murrayfield to the max

13 February 2015 0 comments

It’s always intrigued me, that six digit figure of 104,000 from a Five Nations match 40 years ago. What was that all about? How and […]

Brendan Gallagher: Mauro Bergamasco keeps on rolling!

12 February 2015 0 comments

Mauro Bergamasco was playing international rugby a year before Brian O’Driscoll pulled on an Ireland shirt and two years before Italy were allowed into the […]

Brendan Gallagher’s verdict: No more Mr Nice Guy as Robbo’s men get ruthless

11 February 2015 0 comments

Chris Robshaw isn’t one of rugby‘s great smilers but the megawatt beam on his face on Friday night at the Millennium Stadium said it all. […]

Brendan Gallagher: The demons of Cardiff that will forever haunt England

5 February 2015 1 comment

England have found the going tough in Cardiff over years both at the Arms Park and the Millennium Stadium. Indeed at one stage between 1963 […]

Brendan Gallagher: Medicine gives Tom Rees a challenge he craves

29 January 2015 0 comments

He was, all the critics were agreed, going to be the England rugby captain for a very long time. That rare thing, a natural English […]

Brendan Gallagher: The Test job? It’s a real loss but mavericks need not apply

22 January 2015 0 comments

Last November Jim Greenwood, who died in 2010, was voted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame and next week his seminal coaching books Total […]

Brendan Gallagher: Get ready for a crescendo…. just like the Olympics

16 January 2015 1 comment

Suddenly it’s World Cup year and the tournament is hurtling towards us as the pace quickens. No longer can we talk about next year and […]

Brendan Gallagher: Michael Green gets right to the heart of Coarse rugby

23 December 2014 25 comments

According to my calculations only one layman – ie somebody who didn’t play or coach at the top level or wasn’t a blazer who ran […]

Brendan Gallagher: Enforcers help to keep the game trouble free!

11 December 2014 0 comments

I’ve always had a soft spot for rugby‘s ‘enforcers’ and will rather miss Bakkies Botha, which is a sentiment I suspect that his many vanquished […]

Brendan Gallagher: Jacob takes well-trodden Rhodes to Twickenham

5 December 2014 2 comments

So little done, so much to do. They may or may not be the last words of Cecil Rhodes on his deathbed aged just 48 […]

Brendan Gallagher: Those gallant Dragons who refused to be slain

28 November 2014 0 comments

It was the day that Bleddyn Williams led Wales to victory over the All Blacks and the afternoon Olympic sprinter Ken Jones pinned back his […]

Brendan Gallagher: Trench Blacks charmed Paris during respite from carnage

21 November 2014 0 comments

The inspirational deeds of many Rugby players on the Western Front have been well documented in recent years in a number of books and will […]

Brendan Gallagher: The one cap wonders woefully short-changed

20 November 2014 0 comments

Mention of David Bishop last week and the subject of the best Welsh one cap wonders in the game has known inevitably sends you off […]

Brendan Gallagher: ‘Bish’ is an angel with a dirty face

6 November 2014 0 comments

Thirty years ago this month David Bishop fished a small bottle of water from his bag and found a quiet corner of the Wales changing […]

Brendan Gallagher: Why Brian O’Driscoll won’t be taking anyone to book unlike Kevin Pietersen

6 November 2014 0 comments

Rugby‘s oldest maxim is probably “what goes on tour stays on tour” and, as an ‘old school’ player par excellence, Brian O’Driscoll was never going […]

Brendan Gallagher: Those magnificent seven victories

4 November 2014 1 comment

England have beaten New Zealand seven times in 39 meetings, which sounds like a modest enough record until you appreciate that they are the only […]

Brendan Gallagher: Why Eagles dare on this Field of dreams

31 October 2014 1 comment

The next time the New Zealand All Blacks lace their boots in earnest in a Test match will be a week on Saturday at Soldier […]

Brendan Gallagher’s Team of the 2014 Rugby Championship

24 October 2014 2 comments

15 Joaquin Tuculet (Argentina) The exciting new Puma nudges it from Israel Folau who, although good, wasn’t quite the force of nature he was in […]

Brendan Gallagher: With all these golden oldies, why is therea youth cult?

17 October 2014 2 comments

I have absolutely no idea who comes up with these ideas but today – October 5 – has been designated as ‘Silver Sunday’ in which […]

Brendan Gallagher: Discovering the secrets of those great schools XVs

9 October 2014 0 comments

What makes a great schools rugby team? And which were the best ever school XVs? Two perennial questions that always enliven a clubhouse beer or […]

Brendan Gallagher and boot camps

1 October 2014 0 comments

It is difficult to be precise about these things but the first whiff of a training camp – or something out of the ordinary – […]

Brendan Gallagher: One hundred years on…the Varsity heroes are honoured

26 September 2014 1 comment

It was a Cambridge man, and a half decent rugby player to boot, who famously mused that should he die there would be “some corner […]

Brendan Gallagher: When rugby passed its screen test

19 September 2014 0 comments

Gareth Thomas is launching his new updated biography Proud on Thursday – which is probably why that amiable old Hollywood slugger Mickey Rourke was on […]

Brendan Gallagher: We should never forget the ghosts at the feast

11 September 2014 2 comments

Relegation is a fact of life in any sport with leagues, or at least should if that league structure is to retain its long term […]

Brendan Gallagher: These All Blacks are just fitter, not better

10 September 2014 0 comments

With the undoubted exception of England, circa 2001-2003, I’ve always thought New Zealand, year-in year-out, look at least ten per cent fitter than any other […]

Brendan Gallagher: Lions must show their teeth in South Seas

4 September 2014 0 comments

Having been among those agitating for New Zealand finally to pay a debt of honour to the Samoan people and play a full Test in […]

Brendan Gallagher – So, is Maggie Alphonsi the retiring type?

3 September 2014 0 comments

All good things come to an end but you can sense Maggie Alphonsi’s reluctance to leave the international scene. England’s openside flanker has been having […]

Brendan Gallagher: They think the ball’s over … it isn’t now!

28 August 2014 1 comment

Today – August 17 – is exactly 20 years since a certain George Gregan made his Bledisloe Cup debut in Sydney and pulled off possibly […]

Brendan Gallagher: GB’s road to Rio at sixes and Sevens

15 August 2014 1 comment

The Commonwealth Games Sevens at Ibrox may have been a huge success on and off the field but it further confused the picture as far […]

Brendan Gallagher: To Siberia with Keeef Woodie, Dolly, yoga and a hint of vodka

8 August 2014 0 comments

It was the strangest rugby trip of my life and also, in many ways, the most memorable despite chronic jet lag, sleep deprivation and a […]

Brendan Gallagher: Where are they now? The 2003 RWC-winning England squad

31 July 2014 0 comments

What did rugby and life have in store for England’s triumphant World Cup-winning squad from 2003? Following the recent retirements of Mike Tindall and Iain […]

Brendan Gallagher: Vermeulen and Namibia, a tale of defiance and pure maths

25 July 2014 1 comment

If Namibia coach Danie Vermeulen could jump for joy he would have been in orbit last Sunday, instead he stayed very earthbound in his wheelchair […]

Brendan Gallagher: Agony of 2010 can spur us to title in WRWC

23 July 2014 0 comments

A hard core of determined World Cup veterans may lay at the heart of England’s World Cup squad but equally it will need fearless younger […]

Brendan Gallagher: Kenya national side hope to lift the nation

17 July 2014 0 comments

They could be dancing in the streets of Nairobi by sundown tonight, well more than normal. Nearly 1,500 miles away to the south east in […]

Brendan Gallagher: Girls go full-time and and full-on for big prize

8 July 2014 0 comments

Without fanfare or fuss a minor revolution has been taking place in and around Surrey Sports Park in Guildford this summer with the England Women’s […]

Brendan Gallagher: Let’s lament passing of cricketing rugby stars

1 July 2014 3 comments

Whatever happened to the rugby playing cricketer or indeed the cricket loving rugby player? There was a time when the most gifted sportsmen in the […]

Brendan Gallagher: It’ll be a fight to the death for Saracens and Toulon

19 June 2014 2 comments

The seeding process for the inaugural European Champions Cup is just as unfathomable as its Heineken Cup predecessor but one thing is for certain, it […]

Brendan Gallagher: Yes, it’s time for All Blacks to end their Pacific shame

18 June 2014 2 comments

Guys, it’s not the dark side of the moon. No fewer than four airlines, including the national carrier Air New Zealand, with whom I understand […]

Brendan Gallagher: Gory story of Welsh failure in South Africa

13 June 2014 1 comment

South Africa. The graveyard of Welsh rugby. Nowhere in the world, over the last 50 years, have Wales been put away with less fuss and […]

Brendan Gallagher: We’ve had hell and miracles, so what next for England?

5 June 2014 0 comments

England rugby tours of New Zealand – with some just fleeting visits in these furious fast forward times – are always an occasion nonetheless and […]

Brendan Gallagher: You’ve been in overdrive, BT, but keep the brake on Austin Healey

29 May 2014 0 comments

It’s that time of the year when self-opinionated columnists dispense gongs, and the occasional brickbat, to those who deserve them and this week I’m concentrating […]

Brendan Gallagher charts the career of Jonny Wilkinson, the player who has transcended the game

28 May 2014 1 comment

Talk about synchronicity. When confirmation of Jonny Wilkinson’s much-touted retirement was filtering through this week I was actually rummaging around my garage looking for a […]

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