Nick Cain

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

Clubs still in limbo as RFU fail to plan ahead

18 December 2022 0 comments

Wasps are in the Championship next season following the RFU board’s approval of their structure under new owner Chris Holland, and their move to a […]

Call for Sir Clive! It’s time to rebuild bridges

11 December 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE end of Eddie Jones’ seven-year era following his sacking on Tuesday has highlighted why the RFU […]

This is one ludicrous idea we don’t need

11 December 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN The RFU has plumbed the depths by considering a raft of changes which would reduce a new Premiership-Championship Cup to an experimental farce. […]

Light Blues still attract a good crowd

11 December 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN While some Premiership clubs had been struggling to draw crowds of 4,000, the annual Cambridge University v Steele-Bodger’s XV at Grange Road last […]

Time for a parting of the ways is overdue

4 December 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The RFU has finally recognised that when Eddie Jones talked after defeat by South Africa in the […]

Start by getting it right in the front row

4 December 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN England’s priorities as Eddie Jones departs are to find an interim head coach, and to unearth a front row to provide a solid […]

Angry MPs censure ‘shambolic’ leadership

27 November 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK It would be reasonable to expect that, by the time RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney and his […]

Time for RFU to be more proactive

27 November 2022 2 comments

The RFU has a habit of letting the Twickenham grass grow under its feet for too long when it comes to working out England coaching […]

Johnson’s 2003 team better than Eddie’s lot

20 November 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK There are those who believe that today’s international players are bigger, better, faster, and more skilful than […]

England’s all-court game was not good enough

20 November 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN England showed great dignity – captain Sarah Hunter in particular – after being beaten 34-31 by New Zealand in a cliffhanger of a […]

Is RFU getting value for money? Not from Eddie

13 November 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK EDDIE Jones has become a millionaire courtesy of the RFU, for doing what is essentially a six-months-a-year […]

Time to stop petty gamesmanship

13 November 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN THE high-five cheerleading that breaks out every time a decision or penalty goes England’s way is a sure sign of a team that […]

Give some thought to Belize’s struggles

13 November 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN AS a recession looms, the World Rugby mandarins who jetted to New Zealand in first or business class for the Women’s World Cup […]

Looking to learn from tales of the unexpected

6 November 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK WHEN it comes to tales of the unexpected, Argentine rugby has few peers. It is reflected in […]

Puccio’s tragic life -Puma who died in jail

6 November 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN THERE is one story from Argentine rugby’s annals that is stranger and starker than any. It concerns Alejandro Puccio, the CASI and three-cap […]

Time for ruthless focus and an iron discipline

30 October 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The 2022 autumn series is within touching distance, and with it comes a ready-reckoner for Eddie Jones […]

England facing toughest test yet

30 October 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN England are the favourites to win the Women’s World Cup, but they will only be put to the acid test when the delayed […]

Ditch the skulduggery and dismantle the cartel

23 October 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The most critical element of any reorganisation of England’s professional club league structure is that we are […]

Waltzing Dempsey’s false step

23 October 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN Crash ball: Jack Dempsey playing for Australia against Fiji at 2019 World Cup PICTURE : Getty Images The last time I saw Jack […]

Spreading sense of anger and dislocation

16 October 2022 3 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK It was always odds-on that Lawrence Dallaglio’s recent calls for Premiership clubs to stand together collectively and […]

Pumas will have inside track on England

16 October 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN Argentina will know the England players they face at Twickenham three weeks from now better than any of the teams that Eddie Jones’ […]

Jones should focus on effective rugby

9 October 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE conundrum facing England, and especially head coach Eddie Jones, is whether the triesgalore basketball rugby being […]

RFU’s Past Presidents deserve respect

9 October 2022 2 comments

Having spent all its financial reserves, the RFU administration is cutting away like Sweeney Todd, and the latest to feel the blade are the venerable […]

Amnesia in rugby’s corridors of power

2 October 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Then there were 12. Less than a month into the new season, the demise of Worcester has […]

Protectionist policy that is killing the game

25 September 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The Premiership is crumbling like a house built on dodgy foundations. Worcester are in a state of […]

Why couldn’t we see Smith take on Farrell?

25 September 2022 0 comments

Nick Cain A Premiership that kills its own prime promotional opportunities, like preventing Marcus Smith from playing for Harlequins in a fly-half head-to-head with Saracens‘ […]

Time for England to get Sevens game in order

18 September 2022 2 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK There is no nation in the Rugby Union family that was not disrupted by Covid. However, while […]

£500m debt could bury 13-club cartel

11 September 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK If Premiership owners had made the same mistakes in the multi-million pound enterprises that put them on […]

Time for England to get act together

11 September 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK We are a year out from the 2023 World Cup – and three years into England “kicking […]

England’s Jersey trip leaves RFU all at sea

4 September 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK English club rugby has never been more in need of coherent, strong, farsighted leadership as it enters […]

Rising stars who give us reasons to be cheerful

21 August 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Peerless: England’s Freddie Steward scores against Australia PICTURE: Getty Images Now for the good news. The silver […]

Time to apply law on forward passes

21 August 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN The only blot on the landscape in last weekend’s Rugby Championship clashes was the continued tolerance for forward passes. It had an ironic […]

Jones blaming others for his own failings

14 August 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Eddie Jones pressed the class-war button this week with a blanket criticism of the public school contingent […]

We need the figures on schools

14 August 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN Before the 2015 World Cup, when most aspects of English rugby union looked rosy, the RFU launched a scheme called “2015 & Beyond […]

Best packs dominate

14 August 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN The pick of the forwards on show over the course of the season has underlined the primacy of the three best packs in […]

England lack thrust to get to destination

7 August 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK NEXT year will be the 20th anniversary of England’s single World Cup-winning campaign, and that great achievement […]

Nienaber has his team on right track

7 August 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN Consistent, coherent selection is a hallmark of the most successful teams at international level, and right now there is no-one who can match […]

So unfair that Ireland are on this path of pain

31 July 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Ireland have become the green giants of the game after doing what no home unions nation, or […]

Mayor ban highlights dangers of HGH

31 July 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN The four-year ban given to Chris Mayor (right), the former Sale, Northampton and Wasps centre, after the RFU charged him with attempting to […]

A veil of secrecy which keeps us all in the dark

17 July 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK There is a complete contradiction at the heart of the English Premiership having a salary cap at […]

Beware promises in the land of the free

10 July 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THE USA may bill itself as “the land of the free, and the home of the brave” […]

Life in the front row is tough for Stuart

10 July 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN All Test props have to relish the head-to-head confrontations with their opposite number, and the chance physically and psychologically to put their team […]

We must protect this jewel in club rugby

3 July 2022 2 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is common-sense wisdom that should apply to the European Cup. […]

Funding plans for women just bizarre

3 July 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN The RFU revealed a bizarre £220 million 10-year plan for professional women’s rugby that appears to be based more on fantasy than on […]

England need to rewrite the script quickly

26 June 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The roll call for England’s three-Test tour of Australia reads as follows: two old guard rejects, eight […]

This merry-go-round is fraught with danger

19 June 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK BY the time Eddie Jones selected his England team to take on a formidable Frenchflavoured Barbarians side […]

Collier can help turn scrum into a weapon

19 June 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK THIS is a testing time at tighthead, an England problem position which must be fixed before the […]

Write off Cheika’s Pumas at your peril

12 June 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK ARGENTINA under Michael Cheika will be as aware as Eddie Jones’ England of the opportunities to progress […]

Eddie beware! This beast holds all the keys

5 June 2022 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK IN the last fortnight Eddie Jones and his England squad have had a rude awakening. The ‘future […]

France are the giants, Prem just sleeping

5 June 2022 1 comment

NICK CAIN THE English Premiership has just been described as a “sleeping giant” of sport by Simon Massie-Taylor, its chief executive. He got the ‘sleeping’ […]

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