ELITE level hookers are in many cases standing in the playing area, and in some instances walking into the playing area with the ball in […]

WHEN oh when are the English camp going to stop talking themselves up pre match. Before suggesting England can win the Championship (even the most […]

SOON after the start of the 2020 England-Wales match, Jonny May when in the air catching the ball was felled by an elbow in the […]

ALL the great teams have a manager who gets his off-field decision-making correct, from long-term strategic planning and tactics to team selection and appropriate deployment […]

IRELAND had 11 Leinster players against Wales, in vital positions (mainly in the pack). The result being a 22 points win difference for the Irish. […]

IN LAST week’s TRP Colin Boag made the point that during this Six Nations, both Leicester and Saracens each have five England players in the […]

I READ Chris Hewett’s article in last week’s edition with great interest as the idea of a B&I League is one that has intrigued me […]

I AM a Falcons supporter so I read Jeremy Guscott’s column with interest last week on the progress of Adam Radwan. I was surprised when […]

IF this game ‘gets its very breath from the Community’ as Derek Gilbert states, and we have lost 65 per cent of participants in the […]

JEFF Probyn is right to flag the reduction in participants in rugby but, while the misguided diversion by some clubs of resources away from their […]

REGARDING the growing gulf between ‘elite’ and ‘community’ rugby, Jeff Gage felt that Colin Boag’s debatable views meritted a response from the RFU. If the […]

Colin Boag wrote in last Sunday’s Rugby Paper that Rugby Union should be split between the professional game, i.e. England, the Premiership and Championship and […]

I KNOW the piece is under the section “views” but I’ve rarely read such illinformed nonsense by Colin Boag. To paraphrase he says there are […]

REFRESHING to see that the Women’s game doesn’t get off light, with the Sale player being yellow carded for not retreating ten yards. The shame […]

COLIN Boag’s article calling for the professional and amateur games to be split, sights the gulf in ability, concussion and the hit on club finances […]

COLIN Boag’s article graphically exposes the fault-lines in English rugby. He writes that ‘he has believed for a long time that a schism between the […]

WHEN it was revealed Saracens had broken the salary cap and were to be relegated to the Championship two years ago, it shocked the rugby […]

IN LAST week’s Rugby Paper, Alec Jones, who regularly writes in support of lower league rugby lamented the supposed withdrawal of CS Stags from London […]

CINDERFORD DoR Paul Morris (TRP Dec 13) described another part of rugby being let down by the RFU. We all know how badly treated are […]

COVID has exposed the ridiculous situation European rugby is in. The revised Champions and Challenge Cups were doomed from the moment teams were stranded in […]

COVERAGE of the Premier 15s is getting better, but I don’t think that it goes far enough to increase the popularity of the game. I […]

IN last week’s paper, Jeff Probyn congratulated Luke Pearce for penalising Saracens for their back-chat. I do wish that referees would punish the same team […]

SOME memorable international matches, but 2021 proved a traumatic year for rugby. While Covid disrupted sport worldwide, rugby faced its own crisis threatening its future. […]

AMONG programmes shown on terrestrial TV last week were horse racing, women’s football, Formula One and Rugby Union (Cardiff v Toulouse on a Welsh language […]

WITH a 13-team Premiership there are going to be free weekends. Looking ahead, Bristol have no game on the weekend of the January 8/9. Surely […]

IF THE Championship is such a good product as Martin Stonecliffe suggested last week, why does its ability to develop players missed by Premiership Academies […]

WHY do TV’s rugby pundits always give the Man of the Match award only to a player from the winning team? I was a ‘neutral’ […]

I DO not like the new law where a goal-line drop out is awarded after the ball is ‘held up in goal’. A goal-line drop-out […]

I AM a long-time season ticket holder at Bedford Blues and last weekend the Championship was at its best. Not only did the Blues put […]

I BELIEVE a major catalyst to making many fans ‘three sheets to the wind’ at rugby games is not the land’s largest public house, the […]