What’s in The Rugby Paper: 04/02/24

Find all the action from one of the most keenly anticipated Six Nations opening weekends in living memory in The Rugby Paper this Sunday.

Paul Rees will provide his take on France and Ireland’s titanic curtain raiser, Nick Cain will be across a much-changed England’s trip to Italy and Peter Jackson will cast his eye over Wales and Scotland’s crunch clash in Cardiff.

Brendan Gallagher provides comment on each of the weekend’s games, while Lawrence Dallaglio says it is crucial England win more games than they lose in this year’s Six Nations in an exclusive interview.

As well as all the action from the U20s Six Nations we also sit down with Leicester Tigers back row Finn Carnduff after taking over the England captaincy, following in the footsteps of senior stars like Maro Itoje and Jack van Poortvliet who have gone before him.

From one of our former Young Guns to this week’s wonderkid – meet Newcastle full-back Ben Redshaw who starts alongside Carnduff for England U20s tonight. 

Elsewhere in our weekly features ex-Scotland wing Iwan Tukalo looks back on his career in the game in My Life in Rugby, while Hartpury centre Robbie Smith names the best team he has played with or against in Dream Team.

In our Red Roses feature meet Lilli Ives Campion, Loughborough Lightning’s tyro second row who recalls watching England’s Six Nations Grand Slam decider at Twickenham in the stands and now dreams of becoming a star in her own right after being called up to the senior squad.

Though the women’s Six Nations will get underway after the men’s tournament, keep up with the latest from the domestic game with reports from the Women’s Premiership Rugby.

Ben Jaycock speaks to TNT Sports pundit and former Harlequins & England winger Ugo Monye on his thoughts on the Men’s Premiership ahead of the Six Nations interval.

And EPCR Chairman Dominic McKay talks about the levels of interest in hosting European club rugby finals after announcing Cardiff and Bilbao as the venues for 2025 and 2026 Champions and Challenge Cup showpieces.

Stream this week’s TRP Podcast on YouTube (also above), Apple, Spotify (also below), Castbox, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast app.

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