Leicester Tigers

It's not so much about bias on the part of Owens, as about the slightly different emphasis of Rabo league refs. Some might say that he lets games flow, others that he fails to penalise blatant offences around the tackle area and in terms of offside. In my view, Premiership refereeing is generally sl...

Not remotely fair (or relevant) to make facile comparison to JW purely on DG stats. TF doesn't sit in a bunker 15 miles behind the gain line and has more to his game than kicking, whereas since 2003 JW hasn't to the best of my knowledge crossed the gain line or done anything other than kick. How man...

It's really good to see him back in the game. He certainly deserved punishing for Bloodgate but it was manifestly unfair that he took all of the hit for cheating that was rife in rugby at that point. Never noticed any of the Wasps managers and coaches (Gatland, McGeechan and Edwards amongst them) ge...

The stupid thing is that if you just take out the swear words he had a valid point which needed making, which could have been followed up later, re the opposition targetting our playmaker and captain with illegal late tackles. It's not like the one that actually caught Flood was the first effort. Un...

That's what you get if you play a FB at FH, a mediocre centre, a novice centre, a novice winger, a retired winger and a thoroughly mediocre front 5 for a Lions game. All with no time to prepare properly. The buck stops with Gatland. Poor initial choices and incomprehensible call-ups. Feel sorry for ...

Agreed. It was hard to comprehend that Farrell got selected in front of Flood in the first place (did any of the selectors watch the Premiership this year?) and is even harder to comprehend that players including Twelvetrees and Barritt are now out there and that Flood still isn't. Gatland and the L...

5 points to make: 1) I think Cockerill was correct to go and register his annoyance and views with the 4th official, and had every right to do so in view of an unquestionably late tackle of dubious intent which resulted in our captain and key playmaker being injured. He could however have done so in...

I thought the wording of the RFU verdict was interesting, they didn't need to say anything other than that they believed the evidence provided by Barnes to reach the verdict that they reached, but they have gone further and basically said that they think Hartley is telling (implausible) porkies. Not...

I'd imagine as well as feeling ill he was probably gutted that Lawes' illegal efforts had deprived him of a great opportunity to demonstrate (again) how good a fly-half he is. He'd started the game very well and I see no reason why he shouldn't still be thinking of getting a Lions call-up in case of...

Ellis also racked up a ban for a no less legitimate tackle on Dan Carter. There was a lot of stuff about Lawes being committed to the first tackle, but having watched it a few times he didn’t actually fully commit to the tackle until after he knew the ball was going and deliberately accelerated thro...

Best of luck to him for the future, and thanks for the memories, notably the try to win the Premiership against Saracens and his excellent performance in the LV Cup victory over Ospreys. A vastly underrated player - how he was ever behind the likes of Banahan and Hape in the England pecking order re...

And congratulations to Toulon's most important player, Alain Rolland. Can always count on him to reward negativity by shouting 'laissez rouge' 100 times instead of awarding pens whilst blowing instantly at the faintest hint of the attacking team hanging on, even where the defender makes no attempt t...

On a purely selfish note I'm delighted he's getting the summer off to stay fresh and continue playing brilliantly for us. I'd noticed at the game that he was involved in 3 of our tries, and fully expected that he'd be the only main protagonist not mentioned in dispatches on TV. True to form, that wa...

Agreed, best of luck to Andy at Sale, has always played well when he has played and unfortunate to be stuck behind Manu and others. Given the chance I think he could become a top class player.

You're forgetting that Dad is there to ensure he gets selected. The Farrell approach always useful. Do you think Owen would be on the Lions tour if his Dad wasn't? Good luck to Ford, but can't see how moving to Bath helps him progress, they don't exactly have a glowing record of bringing through you...