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Tag: Brendan Gallagher

Brendan Gallagher talks to Wallaby legend Michael Lynagh

23 September 2015 0 comments

Michael Patrick, Thomas Lynagh – yes there are some Irish antecedents there for sure – doesn’t really ‘do’ drama. As a player he was unruffled, […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature Time for Rugby World Cup to make another Quantum leap

18 September 2015 0 comments

Far be it from me to heap the pressure on the already overworked organisers but RWC2015 is probably the most important tournament in the game’s […]

Brendan Gallagher – Watch out England, Leone Nakarawa has it all

16 September 2015 0 comments

Leone Nakarawa is the Fijian rugby player of everybody’s dreams and most opponents’ nightmares. Long legged, lean and mean he can run like a back […]

Relaxed, Fiji are the Brazil of rugby – so watch out if you see them smiling

16 September 2015 0 comments

Fiji’s most-capped player Nicky Little has warned his former colleagues not to go into their shells when they tackle England in the opening game of […]

Brendan Gallagher’s RWC absent friends XV

12 September 2015 0 comments

15 Israel Dagg (NZ) Arguably the star of the tournament four years ago, certainly a key player with five tries and a series of performances […]

Brendan Gallagher’s verdict: Yes Rob, the future is bright, but it’s all about the here and now…

9 September 2015 0 comments

That was an angry England team out there yesterday, especially in the first half, and I’m not surprised after their no-show in the opening 60-70 […]

Brendan Gallagher pays tribute to Bakkies Botha

4 September 2015 0 comments

It’s all a bit rock’n’roll for Bakkies Botha at present. Farewell gigs in Cape Town, Tokyo and, most recently, at the Olympic Stadium in London, […]

Brendan Gallagher recalls the biggest World Cup upsets in history

28 August 2015 2 comments

Shock results – upsets – are not a common occurrence at World Cups where generally thing go very much to form. Indeed only five teams have […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: Record-breaker Richie McCaw was on a different level from the start

20 August 2015 2 comments

It was a dirty Dublin night in November 2001 when our shambles of a taxi driver eventually located the Killiney Castle Hotel in the wastelands […]

Order your Rugby World Cup guide

14 August 2015 2 comments

The World Cup is the greatest rugby show on earth and it’s being staged right here in the UK from September 18 – October 31. […]

Brendan Gallagher’s Rugby World Cup bolters

6 August 2015 0 comments

Danny Barrett (USA): One of the great hopes surrounding the US Eagles Sevens programme is that some of the talent identified there as they go […]

Brendan Gallagher’s column: Scandalous delay that haunts the World Cup

6 August 2015 1 comment

One of the biggest drawbacks of Rugby Union’s obsession with amateurism was that the Rugby World Cup was belatedly dragged kicking into this world 15-20 […]

Brendan Gallagher previews the Bledisloe Cup

5 August 2015 0 comments

This year’s quick-fire Rugby Championship seems to be hurtling to a conclusion almost before it began but the organisers couldn’t have hoped for a more […]

Brendan Gallagher’s column: Sometimes it’s better just to put your feet up

29 July 2015 2 comments

I don’t know if Wales‘ fitness guru Paul Stridgeon and Bristol coach Sean Holley are Jos Stone fans and I certainly never had them down […]

Brendan Gallagher’s Rugby Championship preview

16 July 2015 0 comments

In a World Cup year a short sharp Rugby Championship – each of the four teams plays each other just the once – may seemingly […]

Brendan Gallagher meets up with Brad Barritt

9 July 2015 0 comments

By my count there are nine players in the current England long squad who could justifiably harbour hopes, albeit some much slimmer than others, of […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: A gentle boot-camp and warm-up for the Cup? Tell that to the Marines

8 July 2015 0 comments

The thing about World Cup camps is that the handbrakes come off and, especially among Tier One Nations, the notoriously tight-fisted Union treasurers can finally […]

Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu – Let’s have a Jerry Collins rule over eligibility

2 July 2015 0 comments

The late great Jerry Collins would be best remembered by an easing of the existing World Rugby regulations to make it possible for dual […]

Brendan Gallagher speaks to Firebrand Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu about preaching the message of alofa

2 July 2015 0 comments

As well as being a cracking Test centre and fly-half and a ‘have boots will travel’ professional for a decade or more, Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu has […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: The day South Africa was cleared for take-off

24 June 2015 0 comments

It’s 20 years ago today that President Nelson Mandela presented Francois Pienaar with the World Cup at Ellis Park to bring down the curtain on what […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: Bionic Jacques Burger is on his last crusade

19 June 2015 2 comments

After the best part of ten months at the coal face on behalf of Premiership champions Saracens, Jacques Burger is taking June off and intends […]

Brendan Gallagher: The 69-match journey to the World Cup

12 June 2015 1 comment

Nations Cup The tenth year of this competition and the ninth to be held in Bucharest. Only the inaugural tournament, in 2006 when Lisbon was […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: USA Eagles leave rugby’s old world order at Sixes and Sevens

27 May 2015 0 comments

Last Tuesday evening, when Madison Hughes and his American Sevens squad arrived back at the USA Olympic training centre in Chula Vista, near San Diego, […]

Brendan Gallagher’s Premiership play-offs preview

21 May 2015 0 comments

Northampton (1) Story of the season The reigning champions may have wobbled badly in Europe with those big defeats against Racing and, of course, Clermont […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: How the RAF revived spirit of Bader and Cooler King

14 May 2015 1 comment

Through adversity to the stars, as the RAF motto proclaims. Taking on the might of the Army and Navy has always been a tall order […]

Brendan Gallagher: Clear the air? No, Fartgate only left a very nasty smell!

7 May 2015 0 comments

It was 20 years ago today – the Sunday of the early May Bank Holiday – that one of the strangest cameos of the fast […]

Brendan Gallagher’s verdict on Toulon’s Champions Cup win: The old Sea Wolves are simply majestic

6 May 2015 2 comments

I ceased caring about how many millions Toulon allegedly spend on their squad a long time ago. In fact the more people enviously criticise them […]

Brendan Gallagher’s Champions Cup team of the tournament

30 April 2015 0 comments

15 Nick Abendanon (above) – Clermont For some reason his stellar performances for Clermont seem to have attracted more attention than similar displays for Bath. […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: Never call Carl Hayman a mercenary… he’s been a galactico!

30 April 2015 0 comments

Three giants of the game – metaphorically and physically – depart the European scene at Twickenham on Saturday as the clock rapidly runs down on […]

Brendan Gallagher’s column: Clermont reap benefits from hunting cleverly

16 April 2015 0 comments

Money invariably encourages envy and bad-mouthing but money per se has never guaranteed success in any sport. Winning is much more complicated than that. Some […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: Can Saracens exploit scars of 2014?

16 April 2015 2 comments

The two stand-out performances in European Cup history have both come within the last 12 months and on Saturday the two teams responsible meet in […]

Brendan Gallagher looks back at five gems from the European Cup semi-finals

15 April 2015 1 comment

1999: Ulster 33 Stade Francais 27 The English clubs weren’t involved in the 1998-9 competition but frankly nobody really missed them and Ulster’s magical mystery […]

Brendan Gallagher feature: 125 years of Barbarians

8 April 2015 0 comments

It was 2am on the morning of April 9 1890 that the Barbarians Football club officially came into existence which in many ways set the […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature on Alan Hancock’s try against Scotland in 1965

13 March 2015 2 comments

Everybody is famously allowed 15 minutes of fame, but for Northampton wing Andy Hancock that was abbreviated to 15 seconds. That’s pretty much the time, […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: Paul O’Connell can bow out in style

11 March 2015 1 comment

It’s time to start making a fuss of Paul O’Connell which, of course, being the modest type the Ireland captain will hate but for once […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: Big Clive Norling back in charge after the long dark years of battle

27 February 2015 0 comments

Depression – proper full blown depression – can do strange things to the mind as Clive Norling discovered during the seven or eight years when […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: Glint of gilded youth in Scotland v Italy

26 February 2015 0 comments

And so to the RBS Six Nations annual wooden spoon ‘decider’ between Scotland and Italy – the two nations between them have finished last in […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: England must take heed of Irish warnings from history!

25 February 2015 0 comments

There is no disgrace losing in Dublin – New Zealand are the only team in the world to have avoided that fate and twice even […]

Brendan Gallagher comment: Why Sergio Parisse will always be a winner in defeat

18 February 2015 3 comments

Sergio Parisse fascinates me. He comfortably makes the top five all-round rugby players I have reported on over the last ten years and if I […]

Brendan Gallagher’s feature: When Scotland v Wales filled Murrayfield to the max

13 February 2015 0 comments

It’s always intrigued me, that six digit figure of 104,000 from a Five Nations match 40 years ago. What was that all about? How and […]

Brendan Gallagher: Mauro Bergamasco keeps on rolling!

12 February 2015 0 comments

Mauro Bergamasco was playing international rugby a year before Brian O’Driscoll pulled on an Ireland shirt and two years before Italy were allowed into the […]

Brendan Gallagher’s verdict: No more Mr Nice Guy as Robbo’s men get ruthless

11 February 2015 0 comments

Chris Robshaw isn’t one of rugby‘s great smilers but the megawatt beam on his face on Friday night at the Millennium Stadium said it all. […]

Brendan Gallagher: The demons of Cardiff that will forever haunt England

5 February 2015 1 comment

England have found the going tough in Cardiff over years both at the Arms Park and the Millennium Stadium. Indeed at one stage between 1963 […]

Brendan Gallagher: Medicine gives Tom Rees a challenge he craves

29 January 2015 0 comments

He was, all the critics were agreed, going to be the England rugby captain for a very long time. That rare thing, a natural English […]

Brendan Gallagher: The Test job? It’s a real loss but mavericks need not apply

22 January 2015 0 comments

Last November Jim Greenwood, who died in 2010, was voted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame and next week his seminal coaching books Total […]

Brendan Gallagher: Get ready for a crescendo…. just like the Olympics

16 January 2015 1 comment

Suddenly it’s World Cup year and the tournament is hurtling towards us as the pace quickens. No longer can we talk about next year and […]

Brendan Gallagher: Michael Green gets right to the heart of Coarse rugby

23 December 2014 25 comments

According to my calculations only one layman – ie somebody who didn’t play or coach at the top level or wasn’t a blazer who ran […]

Brendan Gallagher: Enforcers help to keep the game trouble free!

11 December 2014 0 comments

I’ve always had a soft spot for rugby‘s ‘enforcers’ and will rather miss Bakkies Botha, which is a sentiment I suspect that his many vanquished […]

Varsity match PREVIEW

11 December 2014 1 comment

Two long standing records will be broken at Twickenham on Thursday if Oxford can continue their recent dominance and win the 133rd Varsity match. The […]