Chris Hewett

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

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 […]

It’s time to consider talent, not geography

24 March 2024 0 comments

If everyone is heading to French club rugby, including the England centurion Courtney Lawes, it makes Courtney Lawes right: rival unions need to rise above […]

We must not take road to Hulkism

17 March 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Message from receptionist to doctor: “We have an invisible man in the waiting room.” Doctor to receptionist: “Tell him I can’t […]

A stark reminder of rugby finances

17 March 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT Rugby’s political scene is quite lively enough when the arguments are being conducted in a sporting echo chamber. When it finds itself up […]

It’s a long walk but Wales on right road

10 March 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT We’ve all heard it: “You don’t beat Wales at rugby – you just score more points than them.” Like many sporting quips masquerading […]

Come on, Joe! Time to pay attention

10 March 2024 0 comments

JOE Schmidt, the recently-appointed coach of a Wallaby vintage who wear the same colours as Matthew Burke, David Campese, Tim Horan and John Eales but […]

Borthwick should put faith in this trio

3 March 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED PETER Winterbottom knows a thing or three about our sport, so you would expect him to make some telling points over […]

Best ever? It has to be NZ’s 1987 masters

3 March 2024 0 comments

ON the subject of six-seven-eight combinations from dreamland, those of us who spent our rugby careers (for want of a better description) pretending to be […]

Waugh’s battle is going to be tough

25 February 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED WHO has the toughest job in rugby? It certainly doesn’t belong to the loadsamoney establishment lawyers plotting a course across the […]

Ealing showed they are worthy

25 February 2024 0 comments

Ealing Trailfinders knew it was a big day and they gave it a proper lash. A single point behind Leicester with 90 seconds left on […]

The piano shifters are playing modern tune

18 February 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Much of the “tactical” kicking across the opening rounds of the Six Nations would have left Fred Flintstone wondering what happened […]

Prepare for scrum time ad breaks…

18 February 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT OF all the unlikely questions to be asked in this corner of the paper, try this one for size: could it be that […]

All Blacks in Dublin will be the acid test

11 February 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED EARLY February is not obviously the moment to select a highlight of the calendar year. Especially if that highlight is still […]

Short-term ban means Willemse is evading natural justice

11 February 2024 0 comments

Natural justice is conspicuous by its absence in the union game. Think of the relegation-free protectionism of the Six Nations and the Premiership, or the […]

Top dogs who build teams in own image

4 February 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED According to an article on the American website “Psychology Today”, there is scientific evidence to suggest that dogs not only look […]

The Lions show still sets the standard

4 February 2024 0 comments

Living with Lions, the film released off the back of the compelling British and Irish tour of South Africa in 1997, set the standard for […]

Tier Two deserve a fair shake of the dice

28 January 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED YOU don’t have to be a marketing genius of Steve Jobs magnitude to dream up a better name for Rugby Europe’s […]

Let’s see more put on to the fast track

28 January 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT IT is just about possible to use the phrase “sweet bird of youth” when discussing the 24st teenager Posolo Tuilagi, thanks to the […]

We need a more exclusive guest list

21 January 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED HERE’S a little brain-teaser, just to make sure you’ve been paying attention at the back of the class: since 2014, when […]

Let Louis enjoy his crack at stardom

21 January 2024 0 comments

No one ever accused Louis Rees-Zammit of “training like Tarzan and playing like Jane”, to excavate a funny one-liner from the dim and distant past, […]

This year, Scotland can take high road

14 January 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED HE was born in the Old Town of Edinburgh, died in the New Town and spent much of his life within […]

Too few actually want to be promoted

14 January 2024 1 comment

Iain Sharpe makes some excellent points (Letters, Jan 7) in taking issue with views on the RFU’s second-tier revamp expressed in this column at the […]

Class acts who have inspired a generation

7 January 2024 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Jack Rowell, the man behind Bath’s “golden decade” at the back end of the amateur era, bore the mark of a […]

Time for Borthwick to look to the future

7 January 2024 0 comments

According to reports, as the television news broadcasters like to say, Billy Vunipola is toying with the idea of a move to Japan at season’s […]

All Blacks destined to regain top spot

31 December 2023 1 comment

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED IT USED to be said in New Zealand that failure to win the World Cup endangered the government of the day. […]

At last we are going in right direction

31 December 2023 0 comments

It is always easier to bury English rugby’s alleged leaders than to praise them, but it would run counter to the seasonal spirit not to […]

Toulouse are the most entrancing side of them all

24 December 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED Dupont or no Dupont, Ntamack or no Ntamack, this latest edition of the Champions Cup may well turn out to be […]

Gorging on a Christmas feast of non-stop rugby

24 December 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT Rugby has always been a game of Big Ideas: Carwyn James, the patron saint of Stradey Park, was a thinker of weight and […]

England don’t need a comfort blanket

17 December 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED According to the industrious Alex Sanderson, who will surely be in the running for a senior place in the England coaching […]

Dungeon of obscurity needs to be shut

17 December 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT Barely able to buy a round of drinks, let alone a win – the good men and true of Kingsholm are up against […]

Minnows can make splash of a whale

10 December 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED ACCORDING to Donald J Trump – you may have heard of him – “losers” are the lowest of the low, “suckers” […]

We need outcome that we can trust

10 December 2023 0 comments

It has been heading our way for many months, but now it seems horribly real. The concussion lawsuit laid against three governing bodies – World […]

Falcons are trapped with nowhere to go

3 December 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED IT WAS a clear-cut case of “capitalism gone mad” as the loadsamoney class snapped up English club rugby in the spending […]

Exodus of talent isn’t always a disaster

3 December 2023 0 comments

Sabbaticals are all the rage. Sam Cane, the New Zealand captain who chased gold at the recent World Cup but ended up seeing red, is […]

Dupont deserves to be on Olympic stage

26 November 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED There are exceptions to the general rule – the best three-minute pop songs, James Joyce’s stories in Dubliners, the wonderful actor […]

Without any mystery, it’s barely a game at all

26 November 2023 0 comments

Here’s a brain-teaser for you: why do so many techno-wizards at the cutting edge of “artificial intelligence” seem to be missing something – quite a […]

Launchbury can make Borthwick think again

19 November 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED SIMON Shaw mastered a wide range of rugby’s arts and sciences, but not even he could find a way of shedding […]

Good to see Phil pick up whistle

19 November 2023 0 comments

So Phil de Glanville, an England captain in his prime and a smooth-operating sports administrator in the years since, has reached for the whistle in […]

Change of culture is needed to compete

12 November 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED A slippery subject, rugby culture, and easily misrepresented in its narrowest sense. Across great swathes of the sporting landscape, the English […]

It’s better late than never to pick Zach

12 November 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT IF we’re being harsh – and heaven knows, the Cherry and White flock who congregate on the steps of the Kingsholm Shed once […]

Separated by 28 years – and a whole lot more

5 November 2023 0 comments

The bungled move to professionalism and the turf wars that followed; the “Bloodgate” scandal and the soul-destroying bankruptcies; the player welfare class action, the private […]

Boks greater than sum of their parts

5 November 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED THERE was much wailing and gnashing of teeth at the unveiling of the 2023 “supreme” side by the planet brains at […]

It’s time to decide who we really are

29 October 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED JUST the other day, during a sandstorm stoppage at a Cricket World Cup match, the commentators on the wireless were discussing […]

Choosing the right word is not easy

29 October 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT Does language matter? We are not talking Bongi Mbonambi-Tom Curry here, although no one should underestimate the importance of getting to the heart […]

Next time, Dupont will take what is his

22 October 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT THINKING ALLOWED DID the spirit of rugby romance go to meet its maker in the immediate aftermath of the World Cup quarter-final weekend […]

Kolbe’s magic hidden from view

22 October 2023 0 comments

CHRIS HEWETT AMONG the many mysteries of this World Cup –Why isn’t Patrice Lagisquet coaching a competitive nation? Why doesn’t Ben O’Keeffe put a sock […]

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