Last Senior Editor of Last Word on Rugby• Words in The Rugby Paper, Telegraph, Glos Live, RugbyPass • Prem Rugby, Pro14 & WRU accredited • Open for commissions
Lewis Hamilton up for
#SPOTY19
.
But, have you noticed that great F1 drivers are named after Scottish cities?
Lewis HAMILTON
STIRLING Moss
Eddie IRVINE
And of course, Ayr Town Centre.
I'm sorry, but how is Matthew Carley being consistent there?
Yellow card straight away at one end, 4 pens at the other and nothing but a warning.
Fiji burned by officiating there.
Devastating news tonight as we hear of the passing of Scotland legend Doddie Weir.
A hero for his charity work in the face of his cruel illness and a great ambassador for MND and rugby.
RIP Doddie.
To all those that don’t watch regular rugby, but enjoyed the World Cup, get out and watch your local club/region/province. Enjoyable rugby all year round 👍
The internationals have to come from somewhere!
#RWC2019
#RWCFinal
#ENGvRSA
#LoveClubRugby
To all those that don’t watch regular rugby, but enjoyed the Autumn internationals, get out and watch your local club/region/province. Enjoyable rugby all year round 👍
Wales just made 247 tackles....
• N Tompkins 15 made/6 missed
• D. Biggar 13/3
• G. Thomas 23/3
• T. Francis 11/0
• W. Rowlands 27/0
• A. Beard 11/0
• A. Wainwright 17/1
• J. Morgan 21/5
• T. Faletau 11/0
• E. Dee 13/1
• D. Lewis 10/1
• D. Jenkins 13/1
BREAKING: BBC reporting that a letter calling on Steve Phillips & the WRU board to resign has been approved and endorsed by all four of Wales' professional sides.
Lots of comments (mostly on Facebook) saying head guards should be mandatory for rugby player's following the Ryan Jones story.
Let's get this clear. HEAD GUARDS DO NOT PREVENT BRAIN INJURIES.
The brain rattles around still, they only help cut down on cuts & improve confidence.
Seen a lot of names thrown into the ring for Wales coaching jobs.
Personally, finances allowing, I'd want.
Scott Roberston - Head Coach
Ronan O'Gara - Backs Coach
Adam Jones - Forwards Coach
🏴🏴🏴
Wayne Pivac stating Wales will be happy with a 1/4 final is such a sad statement of how far we've dropped away.
Stephen Jones' attack and Pivac in trouble.
Jonah Lomu would have been 44 today.
He’ll be fondly remembered by those in Wales from his time here. As well as New Zealander’s and other folk from around the world.
He made an impact and changed rugby forever!
Not been a bad career (so far) for Warren Gatland.
He’s transformed Wales from a laughing stock rugby nation to trophy winners and RWC contenders.
Wales fans should treasure his time in Cardiff and remember him for what he brought and not what he didn’t do, which isn’t much!
To all those that don’t watch regular rugby, but enjoyed the Six Nations, get out and watch your local club/region/province. Enjoyable rugby all year round 👍
#GuinnessSixNations
In the 35 phases in the build up to the Cory Hill try, FOURTEEN Wales players were involved in carrying.
Smith 5
Owens 4
Lewis 2
Hill 4
AWJ 3
Navidi 2
Tipuric 1
Moriarty 5
Biggar 1
Adams 1
Parkes 1
J Davies 1
North 4
Williams 1
Only Gareth Davies didn’t carry.
#WALvENG
Anscombe, Lydiate and AWJ all leaving the Ospreys.
Halfpenny leaving the Scarlets.
Navidi calling it a day.
Rob Evans, Moriarty leaving Dragons.
Really does feel like an end of an era in Welsh rugby.
12 Welsh players being told they'll be taking a £220,000 pay cut if they sign current offer of the table is scandalous!
Not even a reasonable or calculated drop that.
Nick Tompkins had such a good game, Fiji moved Semi Radradra to the wing to avoid him.
North the same outside him.
Best game they've had together in a Wales shirt.
#WAL
Turns out the head injury received by Will Hurrell in Bristol’s game against Leicester was actually a minor stroke.
An infarction of the artery on the left temporal lobe.
Wishing Will a very speedy recovery!
#GallagherPrem
Wales - 10 points
Fiji - 6 points
Australia - 6 points.
What a pool we have on our hands!
Wales v Australia is absolutely massive.
Fiji will want 9 points minimum from their last 2 games.
WRU changing the college finals to Ystrad Mynach from the Principality Stadium is a massive blow for the young lads who've worked so hard to play in their national stadium.
Have approached the WRU for comment, but appears groundwork is the reason why.
Wales need to start Dee and Assiratti next week up front.
Grady into midfield with Tompkins.
Ioan Lloyd and Tomos Williams ad the half back pairing.
#WALvSCO
#GuinnessSixNations
🏴🏴
Those with early-onset dementia would certainly disagree. Waking up and fearing you've forgotten your kids. Steve Thompson can't remember winning the RWC!
72,968 fans watched
#WALvNZL
in Cardiff.
It doesn't matter if they don't know who some of the players are, or if they wear a daffodil hat.
It doesn't matter if they don't support a club or region, or go to any games at all.
They're the ones paying to support the game.
Wales have the best red zone efficiency of any side at the
#RWC2023
.
They have made the most tackles (253).
Most turnovers (11). Will Rowlands with 4 of those.
Rowlands also tops the tackle charts with 27 (0 missed).
Dmitry Arhip's message. Harrowing stuff.
"In autumn, we were promised a start in (contract) negotiations... it's been very difficult to focus on games and training and how we provide for our families."
Lions schedule 🗓
26 June: v Japan [Edinburgh]
3 July: v Stormers
7 July: v South Africa Invitational
10 July: v Sharks
14 July: v South Africa 'A'
17 July: v Bulls
24 July: v Springboks – Johannesburg
31 July: v Springboks – Cape Town
7 August: v Springboks – Johannesburg
Disappointing to see Channel 5 won't be getting any highlights programme for the Gallagher Premiership.
FTA coverage always adds to the exposure, just see Match of the Day.
Superb analysis from Flats & Mark too.
CVC's push to expand the game won't be helped by moves like this.
Thought Grady and Hawkins were superb today, had a great game together and individually.
Wingers did well.
Faletau impressed after a difficult tournament.
Still need more dynamism from front 5.
Good news for Gloucester, Exeter, Saracens & Leicester fans.
Realistically, barring injuries, Louis Rees-Zammit, Christ Tshiunza, Daf Jenkins, Nick Tompkins, and Tommy Reffell could all re-sign with no risk of international career being over at the time.
Liam Williams set to sign for the Steelers in Japan.
The exodus of Welsh talent is well and truly underway.
The average wage decrease for professional players will be 20%!!!
Still can't believe Owen Farrell has got out of ANY ban. Unbelievable and proves how unworthy the citing systems are and how unseriously rugby takes the head injuries.
Clear head shot, entry was 6 weeks, no tackle school mitigation and it's been recinded.
🚨 HUGE NEWS 🚨
The Welsh Rugby Union has agreed a structure with the Wales Women playing squad with 12-month contracts offered to some 25 female international players.
In a week where players were told by board that £4.8m was being spent on areas such as corporate hospitality (which is less than 2 years old), 12 welsh/regional players are facing 90% wage cuts.
Priorities wrong again.
Big statement from Joe Hawkins on why he chose to move, stating he's gone for the security it gives him and that the contract he was under meant he was underpaid as an international.
PRB Chair Malcolm Wall said: “The cold facts are that the WRU and clubs have been paying salaries that their businesses cannot afford."
Says the average salary of a Welsh rugby player in the new framework will be £100k.
More to come on
@ITVWales
at 6pm.
BREAKING: World Rugby announce that you can no longer score a try at the base of the post.
It was impossible to defend at times and makes sense to alter the law.
Amazon have the potential to be a great Six Nations broadcaster.
• It's production values were pretty good, & will only get better with experience.
• Superb punditry & commentary teams.
• Cheap compared to BT or Sky.
• Easily accessible.
• Plenty already have Prime
Ifan Phillips' Just Giving page has surpassed £27,000 already!
Rugby community pulling together for a young man whose career has been cut short in a traffic accident.
Fingers crossed he'll be able to live a normal life and have a successful career outside of playing rugby.