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ON THE BLINDSIDE - NEIL FISSLER Ealing Trailfinders are still looking to strengthen their squad for next season despite finding their path to the Premiership

By GARY FITZGERALD England can be World Cup dark horses who “sneak up” on the rail and gallop off with rugby’s biggest prize. Mike Tindall

By PETER JACKSON Ospreys are demanding a transfer fee for Wales prop Tomas Francis, France-bound after completing business at the World Cup. “Tomas has one

By SAM JACKSON London Irish’s hopes of Premiership survival are hanging by a thread after the club was hit with winding-up petitions by HM Revenue

By LUKE JARMYN All men’s and women’s County Championship finals should take place at Twickenham as part of a weekend festival of rugby, according to

By BEN JAYCOCK Leicester Tigers new attack and backs coach Alan Dickens is excited about reuniting with the multitude of players he coached while in

By GARY FITZGERALD Quade Cooper is bubbling about Australia’s World Cup chances, now they have Eddie Jones back holding the reins. The 35-year-old also believes

By BRYN PALMER Scotland's players need to swiftly “front up” to the reality of their World Cup pool if they are to avoid a second

By PAUL REES Sale took their pain to Spain. The day after the Premiership final defeat to Saracens at Twickenham, the players and management flew

WORLD Rugby should abandon their ‘player welfare’ platitudes and make the game safer by merely enforcing its own laws. A fortnight ago in The Rugby

SARACENS proved they are still ahead of the field with last Saturday’s triumph over Sale, but I back Alex Sanderson’s side to give them an

By BEN JAYCOCK HAVING turned away from the sport as a teenager, Sevens flyer Ellie Boatman is now revelling in the newly formed Great Britain

The Jersey and former London Scottish, Rosslyn Park, Henley and Wasps academy centre, chooses the best XV he has played with or against... 1. Beno

JEREMY GUSCOTT OUTSPOKEN AND UNMISSABLE... EVERY WEEK It's hard to predict whether this will be the start of a period of dominance for Saracens but

Cardiff prop Rhys Carre has been released from Wales’ World Cup training squad having “failed to meet individual performance targets”. “Rhys Carre has been released

By JON NEWCOMBE EXCLUSIVE Homeless, a second child on the way and no job. That is the brutal reality confronting Gary Graham as one of

NICK CAIN READ HIS EXPERT OPINION EVERY WEEK Where can Steve Borthwick find the X-factor players to take England back to the top of the

Georgia's U20 victory over England is an example of one country making the most of their resources, while the other is failing to do so,

By FERGUS MAINLAND Wasps.......................22 Bristol....................... 41 After 38 years in the top tier of women’s rugby, Wasps bowed out with a loss to Bristol Bears.

By HARRY SCOTT-MUNRO Loughborough....... 14 Saracens................. 21 SARACENS secured a 12th straight bonus-point win but results elsewhere meant they will travel away from home in

By JAMES FOWLER Gloucester-H.......... 19 Exeter.......................58 EXETER Chiefs produced a scintillating performance to thrash table topers Gloucester-Hartpury at the ALPAS arena. The visitors were the

By SAM BYTHEWAY Worcester...............33 Harlequins..............33 HARLEQUINS and Worcester ended their seasons with a thrilling draw in fabulous conditions at Sixways. Lauren Brooks opened the scoring

By TOM BULMER DMP Sharks.............. 5 Sale Sharks............34 AN entertaining clash saw Sale Sharks win the battle over their northern namesakes in Round 18. Sale

ON THE BLINDSIDE BY NEIL FISSLER Wigan Warriors have moved to put distance between themselves and a reported big-money cross-code move to take England skipper

ON THE BLINDSIDE BY NEIL FISSLER Bath will waste no time this week to cherry-pick the best talent if, as expected, on Tuesday, London Irish

ON THE BLINDSIDE BY NEIL FISSLER Lions lock Pieter Jansen Van Vuuren, who is reaching the end of his deal with the Ellis Park-based outfit,

ON THE BLINDSIDE BY NEIL FISSLER Cardiff are keen on signing Bath tighthead prop D’arcy Rae, below, but they are facing a late bid for

ON THE BLINDSIDE BY NEIL FISSLER At the end of last week, Ralph Rimmer was appointed as an independent adviser by the government to work

Paul Rees talks to Chris White about the specialist programme which has trained some of the top refs in world rugby CHRIS White refereed in

CHRIS HEWETT GUEST COLUMNIST "No story lives unless someone wants to listen.” So said J KRowling, who knows a thing or two about storytelling: the