Marcus Smith is in at 10 and as cover at 15, with Blair Kinghorn likely to miss the first two or three games because of his commitments with French club Toulouse. Elliot Daly is another who can deputise as 15. Scotland would have been hoping to get Tom Jordan picked in that utility role but...
Watch as British & Irish Lions head coach Andy Farrell names Saracens forward Maro Itoje as captain for the 2025 tour of Australia. Read full article at source...
Backs Bundee Aki (Connacht Rugby/Ireland) Elliot Daly (Saracens/England) Tommy Freeman (Northampton Saints/England) Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) Mack Hansen (Connacht Rugby/Ireland) Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors/Scotland) Hugo Keenan (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) Blair Kinghorn (Toulouse/Scotland) James Lowe (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) Alex Mitchell (Northampton Saints/England) Garry Ringrose (Leinster Rugby/Ireland) Finn Russell (Bath Rugby/Scotland) Fin Smith (Northampton Saints/England) Marcus Smith (Harlequins/ England)...
Maro Itoje is set to be confirmed on Thursday as the British and Irish Lions captain for the tour of Australia. The 30-year-old will become the first Englishman since Martin Johnson in 2001 to be named Lions captain, and will lead a party of around 40 players. Itoje, who will tour with the Lions for...
We live in different days, thankfully. This team and these tours have endured despite bloody conflict abroad and at home. They have prospered despite having their existence threatened by the march of professionalism and an ever more crowded fixture calendar. They have survived the flak that flew after despicable violence in matches from the wild...
Might one of the two horses in the race to captain the Lions have fallen at the final hurdle? Ireland number eight Caelan Doris picked up a shoulder injury in Leinster’s Champions Cup semi-final defeat by Northampton this weekend, putting his touring hopes in danger. Maro Itoje may well have earned the accolade ahead of...
“I’d pick Owen Farrell. Who do you want in there when the going gets tough? Test-match animals.” Back in October when he was asked by the Times who should start at fly-half, external for the first Test against the Wallabies, Johnny Sexton was retired from playing, working for a glass company and publicising his autobiography....
“Fans are close to the pitch and really in sync with the players,” explains Gaizka Atxa, founder of a supporters’ group named after Fred Pentland, a legendary former English coach of the club. “The environment is usually overwhelming for rivals that come to San Mames. It’s intimidating, especially in La Liga. In Spain, I don’t...
Pollock is harder to warm to when you are up against him. Woolford, Pollock’s Bedford team-mate, also faced him in the Blues’ annual pre-season fixture against Saints. “On the pitch he is very loud, very confrontational, very in-your-face,” Woolford remembers. “He just exhausts you, as much mentally and emotionally as physically. But he has backed...
Getty Images Ireland’s interim head coach Simon Easterby has been disqualified from driving for six months after being caught speeding. The former rugby player was caught exceeding the 70mph speed limit on a dual carriageway in Bodmin, Cornwall, last August. On Monday, Cardiff Magistrates’ Court considered Easterby’s work and family commitments that require him to...
Former Ireland fly-half Johnny Sexton will join Andy Farrell’s British and Irish Lions coaching team for this summer’s tour of Australia. Sexton, who retired after the 2023 Rugby World Cup, played on two Lions tours in 2013 and 2017. The five-time Six Nations winner has been working with Ireland in a casual coaching capacity since...
For 20 years, Rj LaMendola found peace while paddling in the water on his surfboard. But last month off the coast of Southern California, the ocean turned hostile after a sea lion lunged at him, bit him and dragged him off his board. “It looked possessed,” Mr LaMendola wrote in a Facebook post, saying the...
Former British and Irish Lions and Wales fly-half Dan Biggar has announced he will retire from rugby at the end of the season. Biggar will finish his 18-year career with French club Toulon, who he joined in November 2022. He won 112 caps for Wales in a 15-year Test career and scored more than 600...
Glasgow Warriors: Rowe, Dobie, McDowall, Jordan, Steyn, Hastings, G. Horne, McBeth, Stewart, Talakai, Brown, Du Preez, Ferrie, Vailanu, Venter. Replacements: Matthews, Sutherland, Z. Fagerson, Samuel, Oguntibeju, Darge, Afshar, Cancelliere. Lions: Q. Horn, R. Kriel, Rass, Louw, van der Merwe, Lombard, Steyn, J. Schoeman, Botha, Ntlabakanye, R. Schoeman, Landsberg, Pretorius, Venter, F. Horn. Replacements: Marais, Kotze,...
Head coach Farrell said that there are as many as six players in contention for the Lions captaincy, with the skipper not learning of his appointment until shortly before the squad’s announcement on 8 May. “There are maybe four, five, six on the list,” he said. “When you narrow it down – this is the...