Rugby Union
Heroes of Marseilles backed to upset the hosts
Published: 11 October 2007
What fool said the age of miracles had passed? England, perhaps the most unstable team in international rugby in terms of selection, will field an unchanged team for the first time in almost two years when they play France in the World Cup semi-final on Saturday night
Paris the perfect setting for reunion of 'Invincible Lions'
Published: 11 October 2007
Chris Hewett: Robinson savours his chance to conjure fitting finale
Published: 11 October 2007
Jason Robinson has given quite enough to English rugby union over the last seven years to warrant a little respect and veneration from his colleagues, but West Country forwards of Phil Vickery's stamp are not exactly renowned for bending the knee, bowing the head and tugging the forelock. "I remember watching Jason when he was playing league for Wigan and Great Britain," remarked the World Cup captain yesterday. "I was eight at the time."
Unchanged France keep with Beauxis the boot
Published: 11 October 2007
Bernard Laporte usually makes Rafael Benitez, the tinkerman of Anfield, appear a model of consistency in his team selections, but the France coach made a demi-tour yesterday in announcing his side to play England on Saturday.
Corry stays cool after walloping Wallabies
Published: 10 October 2007
A nation rejoices, or does it? How the French have reacted to their success
Published: 10 October 2007
IRB's Kiwi referees manager steps in to defend Barnes from vitriolic New Zealanders
Published: 10 October 2007
Four days after the All Blacks' fifth consecutive World Cup failure, that section of the stricken New Zealand rugby community finding it impossible to accept that their team were beaten fair and square by an inspired band of Frenchmen are still scouring the planet for someone to blame.
Sheridan can be the greatest, says Rowntree
Published: 09 October 2007
Graham Rowntree is fast becoming a talismanic figure for England as they close in on their World Cup semi-final with France on Saturday.
Pumas thrill a nation with World Cup tango in Paris
Published: 09 October 2007
James Lawton: France's resurrection lies at the heart of tournament rewriting the rules
Published: 09 October 2007
Ashton revels in sense of northern triumph
Published: 08 October 2007
A World Cup semi-final against France in Paris is nobody's idea of a vicarage tea party, but it is a whole lot better than a last-four tie against the All Blacks. England's head coach knows what it is to prepare a side for a Test against Les Bleus, and he knows what it is to pass that test.
France 20 New Zealand 18: Michalak condemns All Blacks
Published: 08 October 2007
France will travel back to Paris today, not in some Napoleonic-style retreat but as conquering heroes rejoining, as it were, their own World Cup. They will stay in one of the tournament's designated hotels, though they plan to train as normal at their national rugby centre in Marcoussis, a few miles outside the city. The All Blacks are going home too, but theirs is a much longer journey, to the other side of the world and deep into their own souls. Once again their status as firm favourites the pursuit of the Webb Ellis Cup has come to nothing. Four more years, boys, four more years.
Leicester 17 Gloucester 30: Lloyd returns to haunt Leicester
Published: 08 October 2007
The Leicester team and crowd celebrated England's stunning quarter-final win over Australia with everyone else, but it rapidly dawned on them that the success had deprived them of five key players for a further two weeks at least.
Worcester 16 Saracens 21: Ruddock fears for Worcester
Published: 08 October 2007
In case you have forgotten, Worcester beat Saracens twice last season, the second time on the final Saturday, which consigned Northampton to relegation and saved the Warriors. There was just a point in it. This season, Worcester are one place off the bottom of the table, which is occupied by Leeds Carnegie, who, like Wasps, have yet to win a game.
England 12 Australia 10: Regan's pack sound warning to doubters
Published: 08 October 2007
It has taken the world champions an age to remind the watching multitudes that they are of the bulldog breed. Against the United States, they performed with all the dynamism of an elderly retriever; against the Springboks they played like poodles. Here on the shores of the Mediterranean, they rediscovered the Martin Johnson in themselves – the Brian Moore in the blood, the Dean Richards in the genes, the Neil Back in the DNA – and smashed the Wallabies clean out of France.
South Africa 37 Fiji 20: Fiji take Boks to the brink
Published: 08 October 2007
This is getting ridiculous. Or rather, it was getting ridiculous – gloriously ridiculous – until one of the lower-profile Springboks, the wing JP Pietersen, made a beeline for the Fiji lock Ifereimi Rawaqa and wrestled him over the touch-in-goal line. But for that one tackle, the Springboks might have gone the same way as their Tri-Nations brethren from Australia and New Zealand. That is to say, they might have gone home. In a World Cup blessed with major shocks, this would have been the most seismic of all.
Argentina 19 Scotland 13: Contepomi kills Tartan dream
Published: 08 October 2007
The evening after the all-night Parisian party – the Champs Elysees log-jammed with locals honking horns, dancing on car bonnets, waving flags naked from the top of lamp-posts and lining up to perform Schadenfreude hakas in front of larger-than-life images of Dan Carter and Co in the window of the adidas store – the World Cup champagne feeling turned more than a little flat here on the north side of the French capital last night. A muted atmosphere of hungover disinterest prevailed as Argentina and Scotland plodded through a quarter-final depressingly short of fizz.
Top team on the planet but Kiwis were undercooked and hesitant
Published: 08 October 2007
James Lawton: Wallabies go down under a tide of champion qualities
Published: 08 October 2007
Whatever a team's level of talent, there is nothing better than seeing it give both its body and its soul. This, against most serious expectation, is what England delivered. Yes, the world champions, finding at last some of the best of themselves, came good. And marvellously, powerfully and courageously so.
Why engine-room mastery drives world domination charge
Published: 08 October 2007
Brian Ashton, the England coach, played his rugby as a scrum-half and has spent the last 20 years inspiring generations of backs to attack space, make the ball do the work and revel in the glories of self-expression. Yet he also understands that in the union code, there is no beauty without the beast.
England 12 Australia 10: Champions shock the world with Wallaby mauling
Published: 07 October 2007
Ashton: from joke to genius
Published: 07 October 2007
France 20 New Zealand 18: All Blacks beaten by Michalak's magic on crazy night in Cardiff
Published: 07 October 2007
Boks will release mongrel to eclipse sunshine boys
Published: 07 October 2007
Behind the Fijians, the men who have lit up the Rugby World Cup, lies a priceless quality that endears them to all who share their company. It is the ability to smile, to have fun. At 8am, as the sun climbed above the old fort overlooking Marseille's ancient harbour, we asked lock Kele Leawere what he thought of the team's luxury hotel in the historic French port. His great eyes lit up, almost bulging out of their sockets.
Scots wary as purring Pumas go in for the kill
Published: 07 October 2007
