What sport is on the TV this weekend? March 31, 2023 This weekend sees the return of the Premier League and IPL while the sporting calendar is seemingly getting bigger each week. Here’s what sport is on the TV this weekend. Cricket: IPL 2023 – Friday It’s the biggest franchise cricket competition in the world and it returns today. The IPL has been the leading domestic [...]
Champions Cup rugby: ‘I predict eight home wins out of eight’ March 31, 2023 Though the fixtures suggest a couple of upsets, I am going out on a limb and saying that there will be eight home wins in the Champions Cup round of 16 ties this weekend. It’s one of those weekends where I will be putting my phone on vibrate and just enjoying what is set to [...]
Rugby World Cup Barometer: Who’s in form for France 2023 March 30, 2023 | Sponsored In the lead up to the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Morning Wire have put together a barometer in partnership with City Index to look at which players are hot and not in the race to be part of the quadrennial event in France later this year. Player of the week London Irish back-row Tom Pearson [...]
London Irish confirm players WILL be paid amid uncertainty March 29, 2023 Premiership club London Irish have confirmed that all staff will be paid amid reports of players waiting growing anxious over payday. This comes as a buy-out for the club has reportedly been delayed, according to the Daily Mail. Premiership Rugby are doing “everything possible” to help a takeover of the club with current owner Mick [...]
Premiership Rugby’s Newcastle Falcons deny plan of voluntary relegation March 29, 2023 Newcastle Falcons have denied suggestions that the club’s recent cost-cutting is paving the way to voluntarily drop out of the Premiership next year. Morning Wire has learned of a growing belief in English rugby that the Tyneside team could be looking to ease their financial situation by joining the Championship as part of a wider [...]
Cross-code skills: Why we’re seeing rugby league coaches in union March 28, 2023 So often sports cross-pollinate: sharing ideas from one discipline to another, exchanging mindsets and capitalising on strengths. Rugby is no different. And while some of the game’s leading lights step into completely different sports – such as Gilbert Enoka, responsible for New Zealand Rugby’s “no dickheads” policy, joining Chelsea – others stay closer to home, [...]
Football and rugby are still getting head injury wrong. Is this headband the answer? March 27, 2023 It is a dark irony that football and rugby have never been more concerned with head injury and concussion, yet the approaches of both sports remain dangerously misguided. In their attempts to prevent the trickle of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and early-onset dementia cases becoming a torrent, football has experimented with a ban on heading [...]
Scottish centurion full-back Stuart Hogg to retire after 2023 Rugby World Cup March 27, 2023 Scotland full-back Stuart Hogg has said that he will retire from rugby after the 2023 Rugby World Cup. The 30-year-old is set to leave the game having played for Scotland, the British and Irish Lions and a number of clubs. The Scot played his club rugby for Glasgow Warriors and Exeter Chiefs. Hogg statement “After [...]
London Irish: Club can end 13 years out of play-offs with form surge March 27, 2023 And there we have it, the once-chronic Premiership rugby underachievers and serial drawers London Irish are in the top four and storming towards the play-offs. Director of rugby Declan Kidney and head coach Les Kiss have taken a side that won just one of their opening eight games – excluding their match against the now-dissolved [...]
Welsh rugby clubs overwhelmingly vote for WRU reform March 26, 2023 Local clubs across Wales today voted for major reform to the way the Welsh Rugby Union is governed. Of the 282 clubs eligible to vote for changes to the way the rugby union structures its board, 252 clubs voted with 245 voting in favour of reform. The successful vote at the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) [...]