Columnists

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

Gopperth misses out on top flight

2 June 2024 0 comments

FRENCH COLUMN By JAMES HARRINGTON Jimmy Gopperth won’t be the oldest-ever player to feature in the Top 14 next season after all, after his Provence […]

We will have a full deck of cards next season – McKellar

26 May 2024 0 comments

By PAUL REES Leicester’s dejection at finishing well short of the play-off positions was compounded by the sight of their fierce rivals Northampton sitting at […]

Bath and Saints to win – but only just

26 May 2024 0 comments

JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE… EVERY WEEK It’s hard to see Northampton changing the way they’ve played all season when they face Saracens in the […]

Once again, the French wizard calls the shots

26 May 2024 0 comments

PAUL REES Is there anything Antoine Dupont cannot do? Drop a goal with his left foot from his own half, perhaps? Wrestle a scrum penalty […]

Good to see the winners party like they meant it

26 May 2024 0 comments

BRENDAN GALLAGHER Well it was good to see the Sharks celebrate on Friday night like the European Challenge Cup really meant something to them because, […]

Try tsunami sends a mixed message

26 May 2024 0 comments

Peter Jackson looks at an increase in points scored but suggests the figures may be hiding a problem for the Premiership. Over the last seven […]

Collier fits the bill for NZ challenge

26 May 2024 0 comments

READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK England finished the Six Nations with a resurgence, but their next destination, New Zealand, is usually a Red Rose […]

Lawes still has Lions in his sights

26 May 2024 0 comments

Courtney Lawes was typically modest when he was presented with the Rugby Union Writers Club’s prestigious Pat Marshall Award as the outstanding Rugby Personality of […]

Diamond Dupont is surrounded by stars

26 May 2024 0 comments

Match-winning moments, men, and money is what sets Toulouse apart. Foremost among those men is Antoine Dupont, whose brilliance earned him both man-of-the-match and player […]

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 […]

Fantastic four face final tests

26 May 2024 0 comments

PAUL REES LOOKS FORWARD TO THE PREMIERSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINALS: NORTHAMPTON v SARACENS AND BATH v SALE NORTHAMPTON The Saints finished at the top of the […]

Diamond out to add some steel

26 May 2024 0 comments

By PAUL REES Even someone without Steve Diamond’s coaching experience would have known that taking over at Newcastle was never going to turn them into […]

Day O’Reilly missed out on Hollywood

26 May 2024 0 comments

THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW When he last spoke in public, at his old Dublin rugby club a few hefty punts from the church […]

The £20m circus which led to a World Cup

26 May 2024 0 comments

David Lord would kick off every email to The Rugby Paper during the last years of his life in the down-to-earth manner of a fair […]

The time Tony did plenty of learning

26 May 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS – A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER It might surprise some to learn that the only sports trophy […]

Resting players for big games isn’t on

26 May 2024 0 comments

JEFF PROBYN – A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME It was just a couple of weeks ago that certain people were up in arms […]

TV deal hits the €700m jackpot

26 May 2024 0 comments

By JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN Jeroboams of champagne all round at Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR) headquarters earlier this week, after its TV rights tender […]

Sarries’ star exits generate extra fuel

19 May 2024 0 comments

JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE… EVERY WEEK Saracens are the defending Premiership champions, and Mark McCall’s side are looking more and more capable as we […]

Diamond’s rough support loses sparkle

19 May 2024 0 comments

By NICK CAIN What makes this season even more of a travesty is that Steve Diamond, Newcastle’s consultant rugby director, who reiterated his support for […]

Top flight losing its soul, and integrity

19 May 2024 1 comment

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK GLOUCESTER’S 90-0 capitulation to Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens last weekend reflected all that is rotten about a […]

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 […]

‘We have to manage load’

19 May 2024 0 comments

PAUL REES EXAMINES THE FALLOUT FROM GLOUCESTER’S 90-0 HIDING BY NORTHAMPTON SAINTS George Skivington has had better weeks. He knew his decision to field a […]

Cup final is genuine clash of the giants

19 May 2024 0 comments

By PAUL REES Nearly half of the Champions Cup finals have involved Toulouse or Leinster, the two most successful sides in the competition, but Saturday […]

Just listen, Leighton had ability to be rugby star

19 May 2024 0 comments

PETER JACKSON – THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Upon his death last month at the age of 71, Leighton James bequeathed a treasure trove […]

Lawes is level with England’s greatest

19 May 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS Members of the Rugby Writers club have recently been voting for the Pat Marshall award which we scribes use to honour the outstanding […]

Mias made his mark in land of the giants als

19 May 2024 0 comments

Lucien Mias, below, who died this week aged 93, was never a giant of a man physically but when the force was with him, the […]

New law changes will hurt the game

19 May 2024 0 comments

JEFF PROBYN Am I the only one who thinks that something is wrong with ‘those in charge’ of our game as once again the laws […]

Dramatic finale puts Brive into play-offs

19 May 2024 0 comments

By JAMES HARRINGTON The ProD2 supplied a final glorious regular-season round for the ages in a perfectly timed reminder to broadcasters interested in bidding for […]

Leicester have the class to rule again

12 May 2024 0 comments

JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE… EVERY WEEK Leicester are not where their fans want them to be – and a minority have been warned by […]

Time to put an end to marquee players

12 May 2024 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK ARE marquee players, or coaches, worth it, or are they just a Premiership owners’ vanity project? Judging […]

Mistake to reduce value of the scrum

12 May 2024 0 comments

The danger World Rugby’s high-handed law-makers face with their insistence on trying to marginalise the scrum is that it could easily lead to non-compliance, and […]

Calling MPs will add to pressure

12 May 2024 0 comments

The decision of Championship clubs to contact their local MPs to ask for Government to mediate in its gridlocked negotiations with the RFU/Premiership, is putting […]

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 […]

Power of the four musketeers

12 May 2024 0 comments

A common theme of last weekend’s Champions Cup semi-finals was the influence of the four scrum-halves, the catalysts of teams that look to get the […]

Davies the leading light in Welsh quartet

12 May 2024 0 comments

PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW Four international fly-halves took flight from Wales last year, understandably so given the alternative of staying put […]

When Goodall was the bigger man

12 May 2024 0 comments

Ken Goodall shall forever be remembered as one of Ireland‘s greatest back row forwards, a humble man with a freakish talent ever willing to bust […]

50 years ago, the Lions start to sweat

12 May 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER At the start of the year, this column promised to dip into […]

GB face Monaco battle for Olympic decider

12 May 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS BRENDAN GALLAGHER ANY rugby tourist, or indeed anybody who finds themselves in striking distance of Monaco, should consider looking in on the Olympic […]

Don’t only blame RFU for lack of confidence

12 May 2024 0 comments

JEFF PROBYN A FRONT ROW VIEW OF THE GAME IT WAS interesting to read last week’s comments by Simon Halliday in The Rugby Paper and […]

I may sell Toulon for €1 – Lemaitre

12 May 2024 0 comments

JAMES HARRINGTON FRENCH COLUMN A matter of weeks after ProD2 strugglers Biarritz were sold for €1, Toulon owner Bernard Lemaitre suggested he might be willing […]

Wales will be caught out if Carre steps up

5 May 2024 0 comments

Rhys Carre’s imminent exit from the Arms Park comes at the end of a season when Wales steadfastly ignored him while picking 11 other props […]

Quins have to climb very steep mountain

5 May 2024 0 comments

JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE… EVERY WEEK WHEN Harlequins face Toulouse this afternoon in their first European Cup semi-final in south-west France, it will be […]

RFU’s still killing the dreams of investors

5 May 2024 0 comments

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK The RFU’s indecision is final. It does not know what to do about promotion-relegation – or, if […]

Don’t put Dickson in that position

5 May 2024 0 comments

If the Karl Dickson furore in the Harlequins v Northampton clash last weekend at Twickenham tells us anything, it is that if a former pro […]

Without referees, there is no game

5 May 2024 0 comments

Paul Rees looks at the pressures on the men and women in the middle and asks what can be done to help them Who would […]

Louis has sights set on Kansas gold rush

5 May 2024 0 comments

PETER JACKSON THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW The latest phase of his footballing reincarnation took Louis Rees-Zammit to a school run by an American […]

Delighted to see Titans stand tall

5 May 2024 0 comments

RUGBY MATTERS A weekly look at the game’s other talking points BRENDAN GALLAGHER There are some teams you grow particularly attached to over the decades […]

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