Chris Hewett

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

No Franco Mostert? That’s got to be a mistake

22 December 2024 0 comments

By Chris Hewett – Thinking Allowed Here’s a funny thing: one of the more prominent rugby sites on the worldwide web super information highway thingy […]

The global travellers who light up game

15 December 2024 0 comments

By Chris Hewett – Thinking Allowed There is nothing especially funny about short-term memory loss, but it may just have an upside when it comes […]

Oh, for a one-stop TV shop for the lot

8 December 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Gogglebox: Bath taking on La Rochelle on Friday night PICTURE: Getty Images HERE’S a brain teaser: if you happen to be […]

Scotland deserve fair share of British & Irish Lions

1 December 2024 0 comments

By Chris Hewett – Thinking Allowed We may be exaggerating here, but not by much: since the wonderful Tom Smith made the last of his […]

Kolbe’s majesty is a delight to behold

24 November 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED CHESLIN Kolbe won the “man of the match” award for his two-try contribution to South Africa’s victory over England, thereby proving […]

We will all suffer in the land of the giants

17 November 2024 0 comments

By Chris Hewett – Thinking Allowed It was the rugby version of Easy Street, the 1917 silent movie in which Charlie Chaplin, playing a policeman, […]

Pundits need that forward thinking

17 November 2024 0 comments

Ian Robertson put it most colourfully. “I work with backs,” said the celebrated BBC radio commentator on being asked to coach the Cambridge students into […]

When value for money is not part of the deal

10 November 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED ENGLAND’S bench strategy against New Zealand – goodbye “bomb squad”, hello “squib squad” – has been investigated, psychoanalysed, convicted on all […]

Shame that Georgia are kept out of sight

3 November 2024 0 comments

By Chris Hewett – Thinking Allowed The most significant contest of the November international series? Take your pick. Ireland-New Zealand in Dublin on Friday night? […]

Bath’s ‘bomb squad’ needs to be defused

27 October 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED CLOSE your eyes and imagine batting on a fiery Caribbean track in the 1980s, when West Indian fast bowlers ruled the […]

It would be grand for Wasps to return

20 October 2024 0 comments

By Chris Hewett – Thinking Allowed Prize assets: Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and, inset from top, Tom Willis, Gabriel Oghre, Alfie Barbeary, Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Greg Fisilau and […]

Worldwide Springboks still get it together

13 October 2024 0 comments

By Chris Hewett – Thinking Allowed Assuming those with their ears to the ground haven’t gone deaf, Handre Pollard, the Springbok with the Midas toecap, […]

Wallace Sititi is following in father’s footsteps, but for how long?

6 October 2024 0 comments

By Chris Hewett – Thinking Allowed Cast your minds back, those of you who are sufficiently long in the tooth, to Melbourne in late October […]

Fiji deserve to play with best in world

29 September 2024 0 comments

By Chris Hewett – Thinking Allowed Every underdog has its day, as Daniel Dubois reminded us in knocking an entire cathedral’s worth of bells out […]

Too much of a good thing can be overkill

8 September 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED “People might think it’s arrogant,” said Rian Oberholzer, the chief executive of the Springbok domain, just the other day, “but we […]

Energetic thinking urgently required

1 September 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED CRITICAL supporters of Bristol in the late amateur era believed their team was being straitjacketed by a rigidly traditional committee structure […]

Robertson needs to redress the balance

25 August 2024 0 comments

Chris Hewett Thinking allowed It was a cheap shot, admittedly, but only a pacifist or a fool would spurn the opportunity to kick the New […]

Age of protectionism must come to an end

18 August 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Powered up: Argentina scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou celebrates victory over the All Blacks last weekend PICTURES: Getty Images THE late Jack Rowell […]

Glad to see clock ticking on scrum

18 August 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THOSE of us who have spent our entire careers writing against deadline know all there is to know about the tyranny of the […]

What counts is how the money is spent

11 August 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED IT WAS a close-run thing but, after crunching the numbers harder than a caffeine-fuelled psephologist on election night, we can now […]

Why SVNS makes sense for the future

4 August 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Rugby sevens – or SVNS, as a London-based team of funkily-dressed marketing executives have somehow succeeded in rebranding it – used […]

Day when the Real McCoys stood up

28 July 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED THE governing bodies of the union game are not renowned for their speed off the mark – the average tectonic plate […]

A drop of magic is just what we need

21 July 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED STRANGE as it may sound to generations of rugby lovers raised on a fizzy-drink, dopamine-heavy diet of high-scoring matches, there was […]

European elite keen to exclude outsiders

14 July 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Whichever way you care to define the i-word, it was an interesting few hours for Canadian sport. On July 6 in […]

Slipper deserves place at top table

14 July 2024 0 comments

Wallaby props? How we used to snigger at them over here in England as Jason Leonard, Phil Vickery and Andrew Sheridan chucked their weight around […]

Trio who tempt us to search for genius

7 July 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED What do we mean when we talk of genius? It is a question as old as Noah, an early candidate for […]

Whistler’s authority must be protected

30 June 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED In the middle: Sara Cox took charge of the Women’s Premiership final between Gloucester-Hartpury and Bristol last weekend PICTURES: Getty Images […]

Cheika’s first job: to speak ‘Tiger’

30 June 2024 0 comments

As top-flight English clubs go, none are as English as Leicester, with their grizzled battalions of steadfast Midlands yeomanry – all those Johnsons and Garforths […]

Why less might not be more for stars

23 June 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED MARTIN Johnson spent a rugby eternity perfecting his survival skills in the engine room of the scrum – the nearest thing […]

Sorry, but Obano did not have to do that

16 June 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED The best definition of madness in rugby? There are several contenders: picking a fight with Eben Etzebeth springs immediately to mind, […]

Another lesson from the French

16 June 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT Now that Vannes have made it into the top tier of French rugby and the people running things across the water are preparing […]

Let the ‘waterboys’ just get on with it

9 June 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED It’s the burning question of the moment: what is Jacques Nienaber? Not “who is Jacques Nienaber”, or “why is he here”, […]

Then and now: It’s tough to compare

2 June 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Whenever the incomparable Antoine Dupont does the kind of things he did in dragging Toulouse over the line in a Champions […]

Talk of jeopardy is wide of the mark

26 May 2024 0 comments

THINKING ALLOWED It happened during the early stages of the 2003 World Cup in Australia, when two of the union game’s leading administrators – Syd […]

Time for us to see some new thinking

26 May 2024 0 comments

Remember the elderly joke about the flight from Australia to New Zealand? “There’s a time difference between the two countries,” the captain tells his passengers […]

Too many coaches taking liberties in selection

19 May 2024 0 comments

It should not be difficult to distinguish between a Premiership rugby match and a game of county cricket: one, full of nuance and subtlety, lasts […]

Mako reinvented job of loosehead

19 May 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Eddie Jones coached Mako Vunipola during a brief spell in charge of Saracens, and coached him again during a much longer […]

Rugby’s holy trinity prove the difference

12 May 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED SINCE time immemorial, rugby has been cloaked in its own cliches: Prince Obolensky was always “dashing”; Colin Meads lived his life […]

Mo’unga likely to be back in black

12 May 2024 0 comments

SO he hasn’t gone for good, after all. Not quite. If the All Blacks have their way, as they invariably do in these circumstances, Richie […]

The boys down west who know how to win

28 April 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED The way they see it down Exeter way, only one team is flying the flag for the region as the Premiership […]

The day Sir John picked up the bill

28 April 2024 0 comments

Steve Diamond always had a way with words – some of his stories concerning Danny Cipriani during the wayward outside-half ’s time on the Sale […]

Robertson will cash in on Barrett move

21 April 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED LOOKING at it from Leinster’s point of view, the signing of the world’s best inside centre is a proper coup. Jordie […]

Try-fest with big issues below the surface

21 April 2024 0 comments

The Paris Games, more formally known as the XXXIII Olympiad, are almost upon us and the Rugby Sevens schedule is full to overflowing. Yet there […]

Time for props to take their share of the glory

14 April 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED OVERMATCHED teams usually find themselves facing the music without having to listen to any. It was different for Lyon, who schlepped […]

We need Biarrtitz back to their best

14 April 2024 0 comments

SERGE Blanco, the finest full-back ever to grace the union game, spent his entire club career at Biarritz. So did the celebrated loose forward Michel […]

Modernise the scrum, don’t allow it to die

7 April 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED IF WE take the Book of Ecclesiastes as our guide – ancient though it may be, it makes far more sense […]

It’s all a difficult question of trust

7 April 2024 0 comments

Leicester’s latest fine for salary cap irregularities – their second in as many years – throws up an interesting question or two about the structure […]

Let’s hope the Lions can find their roar

31 March 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED IN THE unlikely event that anyone out there is still searching for something nice to say about the British and Irish […]

Take TMOs seriously? That’s up to you…

31 March 2024 0 comments

IT was a close-run thing, but on the balance of predicatability, the TMO system just sneaked home ahead of Owen Farrell’s behavioural tendencies in last […]

Beware this move to 15-a-side Rollerball

24 March 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED IF THE Six Nations failed to meet expectations, it was in a good way. Italy’s knee-clenching World Cup humiliation turned out […]

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