Better a Thinker than a Blessed...
Paris – Friday - Different players find different ways of preparing for a big match. Some smash their heads repeatedly against the changing room wall, some insist on grabbing team-mates by the collars...
View ArticleMind games, James Bond and Gordon Brown
Paris - For a man supposedly not comfortable with the media spotlight, England coach Brian Ashton played a blinder on Friday. In Friday's final news conference before England play South Africa in...
View ArticleIt's the final countdown!
Paris, Friday evening - Right – let’s get down to business. Like my Bloggernaut compadre Dirsy, my nerves are currently clanging like a fire engine bell. And while Ben is dealing with his personal...
View ArticleFive-a-side rugby anyone?
Honesty is the best thing I think. You see, the editor of the blog wants us all to pick our team of the tournament. But I don’t want to. I want to talk about how rugby needs to get its act together....
View ArticleAnd rugby was the winner...
So it’s all over. After all the waiting, the hype and all the expectation, the tournament seemed to pass in the blink of an eye and leaves us with another four years to dwell over the next one. What a...
View ArticleEngland v South Africa ratings
Paris - Hello all. I watched the final alongside my colleague Mark Orlovac at the Stade de France and rated the South African players. "Orlo" was in charge of England. Here's how we scored them. Do you...
View ArticleEngland's World Cup dream dies
Stade de France, midnight on Saturday - Can I make this blog sigh? Can I make this page shed a soft tear? Can I make these words jump off the screen and link arms with you? Tonight, the nerve-frying,...
View ArticlePicking an England team
London - England's World Cup final defeat brings to the end another era and there will be a new-look side when the team take on Wales in the Six Nations opener on 2 February. Not wholesale changes,...
View ArticleWhere do England go now?
Paris – I doubt whether planning for the future of the England team was foremost in the minds of the bleary-eyed fans I saw wandering around the streets of Paris this morning. After all the partying...
View ArticleTeam of the Rugby World Cup
Well, it’s all over folks. Forty-eight matches, 44 days, 12 different venues and one winner. South Africa took the ultimate honour, but many other teams and players gave us plenty of memories to...
View ArticleThe Bloggys
Waterloo station/ a cross channel ferry, Monday - As a final parting World Cup gift, myself, Tom and Ben (remember them?) thought we'd dish out a few prizes from the last seven weeks. First prize goes...
View ArticleBest job in the world
Paris, Sunday - My mother phoned me this morning and asked me what I want for dinner on Monday night. Mrs Dirs is a quality cook, but that’s not what I wanted to hear the morning after England played...
View ArticleHeading back to old Blighty
Calais ferry port, Monday morning - C’est tout. Seven weeks to the day that we set sail from Dover, hope in our hearts and three clean pairs of socks apiece in our luggage, the time has come for Ben...
View ArticleNow That's What I Call Tom and Ben (in photos)
Hang out the bunting, strike up the band, Tom and Ben are home. Not quite in a jet draped with flags, awaiting a press corps and tumult of fans, more in a campervan, on a ferry, still wearing those...
View ArticleThank you and goodnight
London - The Rugby World Cup blog is now closed for comments. Thanks to all of you for reading - we have had some 10 million page views since launching back on 28 August. And particular thanks to all...
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