Nick Cain

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

Nick Cain column: Matt Burke’s law on summer season is good sense

31 August 2016 0 comments

Matt Burke was not only a great Wallaby full-back, he is a measured and respected commentator on the game. That’s why when Burke recently cut […]

All Blacks will have to dig deep to keep that No.1 tag

18 August 2016 0 comments

By the time England are next scheduled to play New Zealand in the autumn of 2017 it will have been three years since the teams […]

Nick Cain: Fiji were fab but 7s is a glorious sideshow

17 August 2016 0 comments

Congratulations to Fiji for winning their first medal of any sort at the Olympics, and making it gold by dominating the Rio Sevens in scintillating […]

Nick Cain column: Feed the Championship before it dies of neglect

11 August 2016 0 comments

There are very few players in the England squad who have not benefitted from the time they have spent with a Championship club, whether it’s […]

Tom Youngs in? Richard Cockerill must have Eddie Jones’ ear

10 August 2016 0 comments

Tom Youngs was a surprise addition to the Provisional England Elite Player Squad of 45 announced last Monday. That’s because when Stuart Lancaster was England […]

Nick Cain column: Stop these TV chiefs from censuring matches

3 August 2016 0 comments

Partisan television coverage in which host broadcasters lose the capacity to be objective is a growing problem for Rugby Union. The ‘dirty-tricks’ antics of Fox […]

Nick Cain column: England’s U20 stars would thrive at Rio Olympics

28 July 2016 0 comments

Here’s hoping that the GB Sevens side for the Rio Olympics which was announced last week come back from Brazil with a medal. If they […]

Nick Cain talks to Nigel Wray and Simon Halliday about the Club v Country crisis

27 July 2016 0 comments

When the new club-country accord between the RFU and the Premiership is announced on Monday, unless there is a cast-iron clause limiting the increase in […]

Cain column: Burgess effect still rumbling through Bath

15 July 2016 0 comments

By Nick Cain THE saying, “be careful what you wish for” is tailor-made for the wreckage left at the Rec after Bath’s £500,000 p.a. dalliance […]

Nick Cain column: European scales look finely balanced at last

7 July 2016 0 comments

Where’s the ‘pool of death’? That’s the first thought that struck me when looking at the European Cup draw announced this week in that great […]

Nick Cain marks the England touring party

7 July 2016 0 comments

Test players Dylan Hartley (c) Top-quality leadership. Attended impressively to the core skills of hooking, and the longer he stayed out of trouble, the greater […]

Nick Cain: Now England must strive for sustained excellence

6 July 2016 0 comments

If outside praise makes you as weak as Eddie Jones says, then England are in grave danger of shuffling out on their knees when they […]

Shakespeare lover Paul Hill is writing his own drama

1 July 2016 0 comments

Paul Hill is a 21-year-old who has relished being stuck between a rock and a hard place during England‘s victorious tour Down Under. That’s because, […]

Nick Cain column: ‘Respect’ is the key to James Haskell’s rejuvenation

30 June 2016 0 comments

James Haskell is proof that you can’t keep a good man down. The sheer storm-force belligerence with which he bowled over the Wallabies, and then […]

Nick Cain column: Eddie Jones turns the tables on his Aussie tricksters

22 June 2016 0 comments

England have won the Test series…and head coach Eddie Jones has won the mind games just as conclusively. Yesterday’s succes in Melbourne was even sweeter […]

Nick Cain column: Slave-driver Eddie Jones will whip squad into shape

16 June 2016 0 comments

Phil Kearns is no shrinking violet, and this week he launched a clever strike aimed at destabilising the England squad coached by that nation-hopping member […]

Nick Cain looks at the Wallabies’ key personel

9 June 2016 0 comments

All’s fair in love and war – and baggage searches – when England play Australia in any sport. That’s why, after promising his fellow Aussies […]

Nick Cain column: Self-policing the salary cap wrong from the off

8 June 2016 0 comments

The salary cap “investigation” surrounding Saracens and Bath last season, and the stampede by almost every other club in the Premiership to identify them by […]

Nick Cain column: It’s another dangerous Maverick manoeuvre

2 June 2016 0 comments

Chris Ashton is a maverick. Ever since he crossed codes by leaving Wigan for Northampton he has never been far from the headlines. Whether it […]

Nick Cain’s Team of the Year

1 June 2016 0 comments

When Saracens became the first Premiership side to win the European Cup for eight years in Lyon a fortnight ago, they put the seal on […]

Nick Cain column: Lions tour schedule devised by donkeys

27 May 2016 0 comments

A year from now the 2017 Lions will be travelling to the other end of the world with the aim of cracking the hardest nut […]

Nick Cain column: Wallabies will be formidable on fast ground Down Under

19 May 2016 0 comments

George Smith has always defied convention, and the 35-year-old veteran Aussie openside continues to do so, capping his first – and most likely last – […]

Nick Cain column: Mercenaries under fire as Agustin Pichot cries foul

18 May 2016 0 comments

Agustin Pichot was always a visionary scrum-half and the former Argentine captain has wasted no time in getting stuck into the three-year international residency ruling […]

Nick Cain column: Saracens can batter down the gates of Europe

12 May 2016 0 comments

Two years ago Saracens hit the wall. Then, as now, there was a European and Premiership double for the taking, but at that time Mark […]

Nick Cain column: This jealous snub only undermines the awards

11 May 2016 0 comments

There is something badly amiss in the shortlist for the 2016 Players’ Player of the Year award. The absence of a single Saracens player among […]

Nick Cain column: Andrew Cosslett’s new broom sweeps out Rob Andrew

5 May 2016 0 comments

Rob Andrew’s departure from the RFU as their professional rugby director may have been presented as a long-planned exit, but his so-called “resignation” has been […]

Nick Cain column: Joe Lauchbury is fixing a steely gaze on his new challenges

4 May 2016 0 comments

Joe Launchbury knows what it is like to be the young, blue-eyed boy of the England pack. The Wasps lock also has painful first-hand experience […]

Nick Cain column: Mercenaries must be mixed with local talent

27 April 2016 0 comments

Jake White’s mercenary march at Montpellier has been gathering a head of steam. South Africa’s 2007 World Cup-winning coach may have been spurned by England […]

Nick Cain: Nathan Hughes must prove he has the clout to withstand the wolfpack assault

22 April 2016 0 comments

When it comes to individual clashes the Wasps against Saracens line-ups in the European Cup semi-finals at the Madejski flash like a slot-machine stuck on […]

Nick Cain: No bluffing, Eddie Jones wants improvement– and fast!

21 April 2016 0 comments

If anyone was under any illusions about the relentless work-rate that Eddie Jones expects of himself, and, more significantly, of those wanting to wear the […]

Nick Cain Column: Refs must crackdown to prevent this abuse

20 April 2016 0 comments

The growing unease in English Rugby Union’s refereeing ranks about the rise in football-style abuse of officials, as well as a marked decline in sportsmanship […]

Nick Cain column: Gypsygate opens a can of worms for World Rugby

13 April 2016 0 comments

Where does offensive, derogatory or discriminatory language, or behaviour, begin and end? That is the question that World Rugby are going to have to adjudicate […]

Nick Cain column: James Haskell can add muscle to GB’s bid for Rio gold

1 April 2016 0 comments

Great Britain’s campaign to become the first team to win Sevens gold at the Rio Olympics is in such dire straits that England head coach […]

Nick Cain talks to Eddie Jones about the way ahead for his Grand Slam team

30 March 2016 0 comments

Eddie Jones clearly believes in the saying that “success starts on Monday”. No sooner had the England head coach returned from Paris to the squad’s […]

Nick Cain picks his Lions team based on their Six Nations form

25 March 2016 0 comments

It may still be some 14 months before the British & Irish Lions leave these shores to take on the formidable challenge of the All […]

Nick Cain column: Lay off Joe Marler, PC brigade – boys will be boys!

24 March 2016 0 comments

When did the word gipsy, which has been used to describe Romany people in Britain for centuries, become non-permissible? To my knowledge, never. For crying […]

Sean Fitzpatrick: Lions will have the talent to test All Blacks

18 March 2016 0 comments

Sean Fitzpatrick and Jason Robinson come from different sides of the rugby spectrum in every sense, but this week the indestructible former All Black captain […]

Nick Cain’s column: Kurtley Beale’s hit jackpot, now he must deliver

17 March 2016 0 comments

Kurtley Beale has made a habit of unsettling Australia‘s rugby suits, and he was at it again this week with the news that he is […]

Nick Cain column: Cage this monster by downsizing the game

10 March 2016 0 comments

The biggest monster facing the healthy future of Rugby Union is the ‘Nanny State’, and it is far more dangerous than any muscle-bound meathead. This […]

Nick Cain talks to Quins’ Aussie hard man James Horwill

4 March 2016 0 comments

James Horwill is part of an Aussie invasion that has taken English rugby by storm this season. However, the big former Queensland Reds and Wallaby […]

Nick Cain column: No prizes for tact, but Eddie Jones was honest about Jonny Sexton

3 March 2016 0 comments

The attempt to bracket the Eddie Jones comments about Jonathan Sexton over the fitness of the Irish fly-half to play Test rugby as malevolent mind […]

Nick Cain column: Nothing Super about these new franchises

25 February 2016 0 comments

It’s the start of the new, expanded Super 18 season next weekend, but the rumblings of discontent south of the equator over the enlarged format […]

Eddie Jones – We’re playing with the big boys now

24 February 2016 0 comments

The second division instalment of the Six Nations is over, and, despite away wins over Scotland and Italy, England have done nothing yet according to […]

Nick Cain column: Bonus points would make Six Nations even better

17 February 2016 0 comments

The World Cup has them, and so does the European Champions Cup. So, too, does the Rugby Championship, the Southern Hemisphere’s flagship international tournament. We […]

Nick Cain column: All that cash is going down Bath plughole

12 February 2016 0 comments

Is money the root of all evil at Bath? It was something for their fans to ponder as last season’s Premiership runners-up slipped to defeat […]

Nick Cain talks to former hard man hooker Graham Dawe about what he brought to red rose training

11 February 2016 0 comments

Graham Dawe was the incarnation of uncompromising. That is one of the reasons why Eddie Jones invited the grizzled former Bath and England hooker, who […]

Nick Cain: My arrows of desire point to an anthem for England

4 February 2016 0 comments

Having (reluctantly) once had to regale a packed Marseille restaurant with a solo rendition of God Save the Queen on the eve of a France […]

Nick Cain: Eddie Jones starts off with a laugh, but will the joke be on England?

3 February 2016 0 comments

Just as Eddie Jones and Dylan Hartley were about to hold forth about England’s preparations for Murrayfield a huge gust courtesy of Storm Gertrude nearly […]

Nick Cain column: Can Guy Noves make the real France stand up?

27 January 2016 0 comments

Is Guy Noves a greybeard version of D’Artagnan arriving to put the cut and thrust back into French rugby, or an ageing coach who is […]

Nick Cain column: Could Johnno make Lions roar again in New Zealand?

22 January 2016 0 comments

Martin Johnson has not attended many Press conferences since he resigned as England manager just over four years ago. However, he made a rare appearance […]

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