FRANCE'S Grand Slam-winning coach Marc Lievremont says Les Bleus' clean sweep of the 2010 Six Nations is just the beginning of his team's journey to great things.The nervy 12-10 defeat of England in Le Crunch secured a first Grand Slam in six years but their credentials amongst those at the top table of world Rugby will come under severe examination ...

WORTH PUTTINB a BLUE ON ABOUT MANY in the Rugby community were concerned when the storm clouds started to gather over the once proud Parramatta club in Sydney's greater west.The Two Blues are one of only two clubs in the Sydney first grade competition - Randwick being the other - who have never been relegated, but their numbers have been ...

THEIR wider fit makes them perfect for the big, beefy blokes in the scrum but Le Coq Sportif boots are making a huge impact in and around the game.Wallabies of the ilk of Al Baxter, Benn Robinson and Adam Freier swear by them, saying that their unique stuff pattern makes them perfect for the grunt work that needs to be ...

WHEN all the Post-mortem examination s were analysed after the 2007 World Cup, it was generally agreed that the rocks on which the Wallabies had foundered were lack of succession planning and lack of imagination. Among other things.A measure of youthful exuberance has always been a Rugby fundamental, and the 2007 team lacked enough of it. Too many old hands ...

IN THE week leading up to the opening Super 14 Rugby match of the season, a bunch of young Reds players were dragged, kicking and screaming into the Queensland Rugby commercial offices, issued with phones and lists, and told to get calling.It was the hardest possible sell, a challenge for even the most resilient of door salesman, accustomed to having ...

HERE'S no doubt that the Bundaberg Rum Rugby series, the Tri Nations and the Spring tour will play a crucial role in the shaping of our hopes at next year's Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.If you are going to play a role in New Zealand next year, you are going to have to make an impression in 2010. We ...

IR: Do you feel as though you're a better coach now than you were when you came in two years ago?RD: It doesn't matter what I feel but yes, as a coach every experience is good as long as you take the meaning out of it and you keep going. So yes, I've got more experiences behind me and I'm ...

POOL aNew ZealandOVERVIEWTHEIR winning percentage on home soil is overwhelming but there is still element of doubt about how the All Blacks will perform in this Rugby World Cup. The Kiwis have made an art of peaking \ between Cups and their every move will be closely followed throughout the six-week tournament. There is still a lot to like about ...

PICTURE the scene. It's a warm Friday night in Melbourne on February 18, 2011. The new Rectangular Stadium, purpose built by the Victorian Government for Rugby, league and the round-ball game, is filled with 30,000 boisterous fans. As the excitement builds before kick off the crowd bursts in to the official home team song - Do You Hear The People ...

OKAY, boys, now listen up. Especially you backs. You're the ones with the bigger numbers. Silly that: You've got the smaller jumpers but bigger numbers. Perhaps that's where the confusion began. Should never have changed the numbering system. Never mind, just pay attention and it will all become clear.Now I'm from the old school and we old codgers have no ...

THERE are two ways to go: you can either wrap yourself in cotton wool all your life, or you can get amongst it. I'm hoping to do the latter. So said Julian Huxley to Inside Rugby in November of 2008, some six months after he'd been told he would never play again. With the benefit of hindsight, we know just ...

IT ISN'T a bad year to be a Rugby fan in 2011. With an enlarged Super 15 set to kick off, including the addition of a new Australian team - t h e Melbourne Rebels - a Rugby World Cup to enjoy and a Tri Nations squeezed in between, it's going to be bumper-to bumper action from mid-February right through ...

IF MARTIN Johnson has been told time is running out once, he has been told it 50 times. Not that Johnson, England's team manager, needs telling; he can count, he knows that this close-season tour to Australia and New Zealand is the last opportunity he has to experiment, that the team he picks for England's nine internationals in the 2010-11 ...

TICKETS to the Wallabies Test matches in 2010 including the big Bledisloe Cup matches in Melbourne and Sydney have been discounted substantially.An exclusive Juniors/Schools Family offer will see adult tickets available at children's prices - this represents in many cases up to a 50 percent saving on the standard adult price for games in Canberra, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.The ...

5 JuneQantas Wallabies v Fiji (Bundaberg Rum Rugby Series) Canberra Stadium, Canberra12 JuneQantas Wallabies v England (BRRS) Subiaco Oval, Perth19 JuneQantas Wallabies v England (BRRS) ANZ Stadium, Sydney26 JuneQantas Wallabies v Ireland (BRRS) Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane24 JulyQantas Wallabies v South Africa (Bundaberg Rum Tri Nations) Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane31 JulyQantas Wallabies v New Zealand (Bundaberg Rum Tri Nations) Etihad Stadium, Melbourne11 ...

WHILE you couldn't exactly say that the Wallabies new jerseys in 2010 are bulletproof, they may well be the closest thing to that.Unveiled in the wake of Australia Day in January earlier this year the jersey is the most technologically advanced ever used by the national team and features materials including carbon fibre and hydrosteel.The jersey is the first to ...

JUSTIN HARRISON is not Forrest Gump. Indeed far from it. He might look like a lock from central casting; a breed of Rugby player rarely associated with -S the computer they call Deep Thought. But talk with Harrison for any length of time and you'll encounter a thoughtful, articulate, honest and even philosophical fellow. And you'll find a Rugby man ...

WE HAD taken a nasty gash to his left eyebrow. The blood was still streaming from the wound, but as he walked off the field, the crowd beckoned him. The youngster smiled and made his way to the adoring fans, while his team-mates disappeared through the tunnel. He stood signing autographs and posing for pictures. One girl gave him a ...

THE trophy cabinet has been a little bare at Rugby HQ in Sydney for a while and we've gone overseas to grab a Wallabies coach in Robbie Deans, so is it reasonable to think we may have become second class citizens of the Rugby world.But a quick scan of the world's leading competitions tells a different and inspiring story, one ...

THE year was 2009, and the Stormers had wrapped up yet another mediocre Super 14 campaign. The scientists retreated to their Bellville laboratory to analyse the data in an attempt to discover a cure for their perennial ails (no silverware). True, they had all the raw materials - vibrant youth structures, experienced Springboks and excellent coaches - but they just ...

YOU think of a little curly haired kid growing up in Papua New Guinea and certain images are inescapable. Involuntarily, we're swamped with mental pictures of heavily forested highlands, dense rainforest and high rolling hills, thinning and dropping to lush green fields. Winding dirt roads, weaving their way from villages to village, potholes along the way. And north east of ...

THE indicators that the Test season are just around the corner are varied and many. Talk in the media, at the bar and at the water cooler on Monday mornings tend to focus on what teams are going to make the Super 14 finals and who is going to get the call from Qantas Wallabies coach Robbie Deans for the ...

CLOSE your eyes and imagine yourself in a packed national stadium in Hong Kong waiting for the start of the north v south showdown between the 1 Queensland Reds and Munster.The winner of the first running of the Super 15 competition have come from oblivion under Ewen McKenzie to win the southern hemisphere showpiece, while the men from Munster have ...

FLANKER-of-the-future Liam Gill has been snapped up on a two- year deal by the Queensland Reds at just 17 to avoid any repeat of the angst at missing out on Dave Pocock at the same age. Signing up last year's Australian Schoolboys standout is a positive move after he showcased his skills so well for the Australian Sevens side in ...

THE Croatian Rugby Union believes that their next Test star could be alive and well and playing in the Tooheys New Shute Shield competition.Representatives of the CRU made a flying visit to Sydney in early April to establish official links with the NSW Rugby Union and Australian Rugby Union with a view to offering players with Croatian heritage a shot ...