Rugby

The Rugby Championship has been run and won for another year, with the All Blacks securing their seventh title despite the weekend’s loss to the Springboks. SANZAAR on Tuesday declared the tournament had delivered “high-quality” rugby to fans across the southern hemisphere, lauding its ability to play the Championship across three countries amid the difficulties

10:54 PM BST Captain Sam Cane has been recalled to the All Blacks squad for their northern hemisphere tour later this month as locks Scott Barrett and Patrick Tuipulotu return to New Zealand for family reasons. Cane, who missed New Zealand’s involvement in the just-completed Rugby Championship in Queensland due to injury, will join up

2:52 PM BST A consortium of investors has agreed terms to acquire a majority controlling stake in Premiership side Saracens for £32 million ($43m), the club said on Saturday. Saracens, four times Premiership champions and three times European Cup winners in the last five years, were relegated last season as punishment for multiple salary cap

6:02 AM BST Thirty-eight-year-old prop Greg Holmes has seen a few different incarnations of the Wallabies in his time. The Queenslander made his Test debut way back in 2005, in the final year of Eddie Jones’ reign, and has since played under both John Connolly and Michael Cheika within the national setup. And he will

1:59 AM BST ESPN staff Sean McMahon will make his long-awaited return to the Test arena with confirmation he will be named among the Wallabies replacements for their closing Rugby Championship clash with Argentina. McMahon hasn’t played for the national team since the Wallabies were thumped 53-24 by Scotland in the final game of their

1:49 AM BST Liam Napier With due respect to Tonga, Fiji, Australia and Argentina, the Springboks were always going to provide the litmus test for the All Blacks. Setting aside their great rivalry, and the occasion surrounding last week’s 100th Test, the Boks are the antithesis to the All Blacks. Where the Wallabies and Welsh,

1:06 PM BST Rugby Championship organisers have ordered players and staff to isolate in their hotels amid a COVID-19 outbreak in Brisbane ahead of the final match of the competition. New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and hosts Australia are allowed to continue training outside their hotels at closed sessions but cannot mix with the public,

2:01 AM BST ESPN staff The Chiefs have announced a change in coaching structure for the inaugural Super Rugby Pacific season with Warren Gatland moving into a director of rugby role on his return from British & Irish Lions duty. The decision means Clayton McMillan will remain coach of the Chiefs next year having led

5:30 AM BST While he’s been earmarked as a long-term fullback option at Test level, Jordan Petaia is set to take advantage of the absence of star Wallabies winger Marika Koroibete. Workhorse Koroibete will miss the final round of the Rugby Championship on the Gold Coast on Saturday, as the Wallabies aim to secure their

5:58 AM BST SANZAAR and Rugby Australia have apologised to Argentina for an “error” that led to a photo of the Rugby Championship captains, minus Pumas skipper Julian Montoya, being taken in Townsville last week. RA and SANZAAR officials had for the past fortnight been trying to coordinate a picture of all four captains to

3:41 PM BST Argentina coach Mario Ledesma has launched a scathing attack on his Rugby Championship rivals, slamming a photo opportunity in Townsville that was without Pumas representation. Ledesma unloaded on his fellow tournament combatants after his side had been beaten 27-8 by the Wallabies at Queensland Coountry Bank Stadium on Saturday night, the Pumas

2:43 PM BST Job done. The Wallabies managed to string a third successive Rugby Championship win together for the first time in six years on Saturday night in Townsville, but they were unable to find the “ruthless edge” skipper Michael Hooper was after to put away the Pumas. Australia’s 27-8 win was comfortable enough in

4:19 PM BST Rugby World Cup winner Steve Thompson, who was diagnosed with dementia aged 42, has pledged to donate his brain for research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the former England hooker said on Thursday. Thompson is one of a group of nine former players who filed a class-action lawsuit against World Rugby and

6:35 AM BST Wallabies coach Dave Rennie and All Blacks counterpart Ian Foster both say they were unaware of World Rugby’s move to place a limit on the amount of full contact players are involved in at training. The governing body on Thursday [AEST] released a set of “guidelines” which it hopes will lead to

2:33 AM BST ESPN staff World Rugby has reinforced its commitment to improving player welfare with the introduction of guidelines for the amount of contact and set-piece training undertaken each week. In conjunction with International Rugby Players [IRP], World Rugby has created guidelines that will seek to reduce the amount of injuries “while maintaining or

4:14 PM BST Sara Cox is set to make history as the first woman to referee a Gallagher Premiership game, at Twickenham on Saturday. In 2016, Cox became the first referee who is female in the Rugby Football Union, and in 2020 became the first to work as an assistant referee in English rugby’s top

9:00 AM BST England boss Eddie Jones has named eight uncapped players in a 45-player squad for the next training camp, but there is no place in the mix for Saracens quartet Mako Vunipola, Billy Vunipola, Jamie George or the injured Elliot Daly. The large squad will meet for a two-day training camp next week

6:26 AM BST All Blacks forwards coach John Plumtree is expecting a “titanic” battle up front when New Zealand and South Africa meet in their 100th Test match in the Rugby Championship on Saturday. Plumtree, who coached for many years in South Africa, did not expect the Springboks to vary much from the strategy that