Rugby

1:11 AM BST ESPN staff Former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has rebuffed claims from Michael O’Connor about the team’s selection process and that there was a “disturbing” lack of training execution during last year’s failed Rugby World Cup campaign. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday, O’Connor said Cheika had dominated team

1:15 PM BST Former England captain Chris Robshaw has signed a two-year deal with Major League Rugby (MLR) side San Diego Legion. The 33-year-old announced in February that he would leave Harlequins after 16 years at the club and was strongly linked to a move overseas with MLR a likely destination. And now after finishing

1:27 AM BST ESPN staff Outgoing Wallabies selector Michael O’Connor has lifted the lid on Australia’s failed Rugby World Cup campaign, revealing how Michael Cheika’s virtual autocracy and a “secret” game plan never sat well with a playing group that made countless errors at training. O’Connor is no longer employed by Rugby Australia, his role

12:33 AM BST Former Prime Minister John Howard, Wallabies great John Eales and leading Australian businessman Sir Rod Eddington are all part of an Advisory Board set up to oversee Rugby Australia’s 2027 Rugby World Cup bid. New Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan unveiled the Board on Tuesday morning, McLennan wasting little time in attempting

2:04 PM BST Associated Press DUNEDIN, New Zealand — They call one section of the stadium The Zoo, and it’s easy to see why: thousands of university students in team colours standing on their seats, steadying trays of beer, swaying to music and erupting with joy when their team scores. “Craziness,” is how 20-year-old student

8:44 AM BST Players are heading toward a “legal dispute” with the Premiership Rugby to stop the league from imposing permanent salary cuts following a salary cap reduction, the Rugby Players Association (RPA) said on Wednesday. Premiership clubs voted unanimously on Monday to cut the salary cap by £1.4 million from the 2021-22 season. In

1:22 PM BST England prop Ellis Genge has said head coach Eddie Jones and himself suffered racist abuse during the tour to South Africa in 2018. The United Kingdom, along with several countries across the world, has seen the Black Lives Matter protests in various cities, which were sparked following the death of George Floyd,

11:07 PM BST World Rugby has announced the qualification process for the 2023 World Cup in France aimed at promoting a “genuine opportunity” for all unions, the game’s global body said on Monday. Twelve teams — South Africa, England, New Zealand, Wales, Japan, France, Australia, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Argentina and Fiji — have already qualified

10:35 AM BST French club Pau announced that they have dismissed former All Blacks fly-half Tom Taylor for leaving the country in March without permission during the coronavirus pandemic. Taylor, who played three tests for the All Blacks in 2013, left France on March 17 despite being asked to remain in the country in case

5:06 AM BST Crowds will be permitted to attend the opening round of Super Rugby Aotearoa this weekend, after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed the country would shift to Alert Level 1 from midnight Monday [NZT]. In what is believed to be a first since the coronavirus pandemic put most professional sports on

6:44 PM BST Former France captain Jefferson Poirot has retired from international rugby at the age of 27 due to a lack of motivation. The Bordeaux-Begles prop said that he made the decision to retire from France duty immediately after his side’s 20-19 defeat to Wales during the Rugby World Cup in October and that

3:06 PM BST The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is seeking clarity on whether the UK government’s social distancing rules can be reduced from two metres to one so they can admit 40,000 fans into Twickenham Stadium for the November internationals, chief executive Bill Sweeney has said. Elite sport in England was given the green light

8:36 AM BST The Gallagher Premiership will aim to restart the season on Aug. 15, it announced on Friday. The league was originally scheduled to return on April 24 but has since been suspended indefinitely due to the coronavirus crisis. Last week, the UK government gave permission for elite sport to return behind closed doors

3:17 AM BST Injured rugby union player Michael Fatialofa will be discharged from a British hospital on Friday, his wife said, just five months after breaking his neck and fearing he would never walk again. “My delightful husband is coming home tomorrow night,” Fatialofa’s wife Tatiana said on her Twitter account on Thursday. “5 MONTHS

11:31 AM BST ESPN staff Two-time World Cup winner Dan Carter lobbed at Blues training on Thursday morning, five years after he left New Zealand and Super Rugby. Rumours of Carter’s impending return to New Zealand rugby emerged on Wednesday evening after a WhatsApp message from Blues coach Leon MacDonald was leaked. All that was

11:07 AM BST New Zealand Rugby is “optimistic” about hosting northern hemisphere teams in an international schedule later in 2020 as the country edges closer to lifting social distancing restrictions. New Zealand will decide on Monday whether it is ready to lower its COVID-19 alert system a notch to level 1, which would end curbs

10:00 PM BST New Zealand’s Super Rugby teams will be able to replace red-carded players and drawn matches may be decided by a golden-point tiebreaker when the country’s domestic competition starts on June 13, New Zealand Rugby (NZR) said on Tuesday. The changes are aimed at making the game more exciting for fans and will

12:05 PM BST England’s Gallagher Premiership and second-tier Championship clubs have been given the green light to resume individual training from Tuesday with strict social distancing measures, the Professional Game Board announced. Competitive sport has been suspended in the UK since March in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 39,000 people.