Moment In Time

This is where you will find all of The Rugby Paper’s Moment In Time news, interviews, opinion and other content.

Exeter’s back to back delight

23 July 2023 0 comments

MOMENT IN TIME: EXETER, NATIONAL LEAGUE 3 CHAMPIONS 1996-97 SPECIAL REPORT BY NEIL FISSLER Exeter had just achieved one promotion from Courage League Division 4 and, […]

Kids bring joy to Geordie land

16 July 2023 0 comments

MOMENT IN TIME NEWCASTLE FALCONS, 2001 TETLEY BITTER CUP WINNERS BY NEIL FISSLER IT was once suggested that you don’t win anything with kids and […]

No stopping the Baa-Baas’ game

31 December 2022 0 comments

MOMENT IN TIME SPECIAL REPORT BY NEIL FISSLER LEICESTER vs THE BARBARIANS, 1973 Where are they now? BACK ROW Chalky White: Dubbed the best coach […]

Quins double up at Twickenham

23 December 2022 1 comment

Moment in time: Harlequins, 1988 John Player Cup and Middlesex Sevens winners BY NEIL FISSLER Harlequins were without a win over Bristol in 15 years, […]

Moment in Time: Psycho front row set platform for Sale’s return to top flight

7 August 2022 0 comments

Sale – Courage League 2 Champions 1993/94 Sale had been out of the top flight for six seasons after being relegated at the end of […]

We had plenty of with none of the success but razzmatazz

31 July 2022 1 comment

Moment In Time: Leicester Tigers Courage National League One Champions 1988 Neil Fissler talks to Malcolm Foulkes-Arnold Fireworks and confetti greeted Leicester Tigers, becoming the […]

Visionary Alf Wyman was beaten to the punch

15 August 2021 0 comments

COVENTRY fixture secretary Alf Wyman was a rugby visionary, well before his time in many respects as a strong advocate of sponsorship and league rugby. […]

Moment in Time: England trailblazers of 1991 changed women’s game

1 August 2021 0 comments

Neil Fissler tracks down the England Women’s team who reached the final of the 1991 Rugby World Cup

Moment in Time: Oxford University beat South Africa in 1969

12 September 2014 2 comments

South Africa‘s 1969-1970 tour to Great Britain and Ireland remains to this day one of the most controversial in the history of rugby union. South […]

Moment in Time – the Cross Code Challenges of 1996

5 September 2014 0 comments

One hundred years of animosity and bad blood were about to be forgotten and an attempt made to answer the age old question which was […]

Moment in Time: the 2006 Challenge Cup final

29 August 2014 25 comments

Cup finals are often tight, tense affairs decided by a mistake or controversial penalty. But not on this particular occasion as two sides packed with […]

Moment in Time: the 1967 County Championship final

22 August 2014 0 comments

Surrey were the draw specialists of 1967 County Championship rugby so it is no surprise that they were forced to share the title with Durham. […]

Moment in Time: Leicester and their triumph at Thomond Park

15 August 2014 0 comments

It was deemed the impossible task. Nobody had ever beaten Munster in a Heineken Cup tie at their Thomond Park fortress – a run that […]

Moment in Time: The day London Irish avoided relegation

8 August 2014 0 comments

It would be no exaggeration to say that the future of London Irish was at stake. Powergen Cup winners and fourth in the Zurich Premiership […]

Moment in Time: Sharks show class to rip chunks out of the Tigers

2 September 2013 1 comment

Leicester and Wasps had dominated English rugby for seven years. The Tigers, under Dean Richards, had claimed four consecutive league titles between 1999 and 2002, […]

Sanderson and his Quins have a day to remember

26 August 2013 1 comment

This was a remarkable cup final victory on so many levels. For starters, Harlequins had endured a shocking Premiership campaign, winning just two of their […]

Moment in Time: Walder flies in under the radar to lift Falcons

18 August 2013 0 comments

Little did supporters of Newcastle Falcons realise it at the time, but this supremely riotous Twickenham cup final would represent the high water mark of […]

Moment in Time: Day it all came right for the Cherry and Whites

12 August 2013 0 comments

Whether they like it or not, Gloucester’s 2002-3 campaign will always be defined by two stunning defeats: the 6-33 reverse at Munster, which they still […]

Moment in Time: Elvis is the hero as Bath battle back to avoid drop

29 July 2013 4 comments

Ten years ago, Bath Rugby stood on the precipice. A hostile takeover bid from Bristol owner Malcolm Pearce had driven supporters of both clubs to […]

Playing on, survivors of the Andean miracle

4 January 2013 0 comments

SUNDAY December 13, forty years ago, was the moment that a team of rugby players, who had been forced to the very limits of endurance, […]

Moment in Time: Gloucester and the 2003 Powergen Cup Final

5 September 2012 0 comments

It is perhaps typical of Gloucester’s ill-fortune down the years that their 2002-3 campaign is best remembered for two complete and utter disasters: the humiliating […]

Moment in Time: Saracens and the 1998 Tetley Bitter Cup final

27 August 2012 0 comments

Emotion is an oft-used word in rugby, but this is a day that sticks in the minds of Saracens people on many counts. For starters, […]

Moment in Time: Newcastle and the 2001 Tetley’s Bitter Cup final

20 August 2012 0 comments

Sensational game, sensational finish. Widely considered to be one of the best cup finals of all time, two star-studded teams went at it from first […]

Moment in Time: Sale Sharks and the 2002 Parker Pen Shield

14 August 2012 1 comment

Lift-off for Sale Sharks. This was the day when chairman Brian Kennedy’s vision of creating a powerhouse team in the north-west of England finally came […]

Moment in Time: Northampton Saints and the 2000 Heineken Cup final

6 August 2012 0 comments

Few people had rated Northampton’s chances of lifting the Heineken Cup. Still fewer gave them a prayer after they had lost their second Pool match […]

Moment in Time: London Wasps and 2004 Heineken Cup Semi Final

24 July 2012 0 comments

Stunning game. Truly stunning result. Quite simply, this Anglo-Irish showdown in Dublin was one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, Heineken matches of all […]

Moment in Time: Worcester Warriors and the 2004 Premiership promotion game

20 July 2012 1 comment

It was Boy’s Own stuff. Twelve years earlier, Worcester had been a modest rugby club minding its own business in the backwaters of Midlands Two […]

Moment in Time: London Irish and the 2002 Powergen Cup final

10 July 2012 0 comments

London Irish had been written off as relegation fodder at the start of season 2001-2. They were a team without stars. Some talented players, yes, […]

Moment in Time: Harlequins and the 2004 Challenge Cup Final

3 July 2012 0 comments

They enjoy dramatic finishes at Harlequins. And there was none more thrilling than the 2004 Parker Pen Cup final at Reading, where for all the […]

Moment in Time: Birmingham and the 2004 Powergen Cup quarter-final

26 June 2012 1 comment

No one gave Pertemps Bees a prayer before this Powergen Cup quarter-final. Wasps, the English champions, were well on course to defend their title and […]

Moment in time: Leicester and the 2002 Heineken Cup final

21 June 2012 0 comments

Leicester Tigers arrived at the iconic home of Welsh rugby seeking to complete an historic league and Heineken Cup ‘double-double’. A fortnight earlier, Dean Richards’ […]