The Weekly Armchair

Kiwis Announce Their 2019 Super Squads Thirty-three new players feature among the 190 professional players contracted by New Zealand’s five Super Rugby franchises for the 2019 season. The five New Zealand based Super Rugby franchises, the Blues, Chiefs, Wellington, Crusaders and...

36-Man Springbok Squad for November Tour. There are no real surprises in the November Tour Springbok squad announced by Rassie Erasmus. The squad includes a trio of uncapped players, and recalls for a couple of others, all pretty much as...

Rassie's End-Of-Year Bok Practice Squad The 107-capped Tendai “the Beast” Mtawarira will miss the end-of-year Springbok tour to the north due to an injury that he picked up in the last Rugby Championships Test against the All Blacks. He is...

2018 Rugby Championships New Zealand vs Argentina Saturday 8th September 2018   Venue: Trafalgar Park, Nelson Kick-off: 19:35 local, 08:35 BST, 07:35 GMT, 09:35 SA Time Referee: Pascal Gaüzère (France) Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), Nic Berry (Australia) Television match official: Rowan Kitt (England)   During the last week or so, the New Zealand...

2018 Rugby Championships Bledisloe Cup 2nd Leg. New Zealand 40 vs Australia 12 Saturday 25th August 2018 Venue: Eden Park, Auckland Referee: Wayne Barnes (England) Assistant referees: Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Luke Pearce (England) TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa) Michael Hooper has said that there is something wrong with the Wallabies...

2018 Rugby Championships Argentina 32 vs South Africa 19 Saturday 25th August 2018   Venue: Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia) Assistant referees: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand), Andrew Brace (Ireland) TMO: Simon McDowell (Ireland) Last week it was the Wallabies that had talked the talk in the run-up to...

2018 Rugby Championships Bledisloe Cup 2nd Leg. New Zealand vs Australia Saturday 25th August 2018 Venue: Eden Park, Auckland Kick-off: 19:35 local, 08:35 BST, 07:35 GMT, 09:35 SA Time. Referee: Wayne Barnes (England) Assistant referees: Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Luke Pearce (England) TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa) Australia will need to do something...

Rugby Championship Preview: New Zealand. Steve Hansen might be suggesting that the Wallabies are the favourites to win the Bledisloe and Rugby Championship trophies, but that simply is not true. The All Blacks remain the Number 1 team in world rugby,...

World Rugby Hall Of Fame World Rugby has announced that five legends of the game in Liza Burgess (Wales), Stephen Larkham (Australia), Ronan O’Gara (Ireland), Pierre Villepreux (France) and Bryan Williams (New Zealand) will be inducted into the World Rugby...

  SANZAAR To Review The TMO!!! I very much doubt whether any of SANZAAR’s suits have read any of my frequent complaints about their officials and match officiating faux pas and match-influencing blunders. They are far too busy and important to...

What is Wrong in Australia? A series loss to England in 2016, followed by losses to Ireland and England again at the end of that year. Losing to Scotland twice and England once again in 2017. A series loss to...

Test Match Review New Zealand vs France 9th June, 2018 Final Score: New Zealand 52 – France 11   Referee: Luke Pearce (England) Assistant referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), John Lacey (Ireland) Television match official: George Ayoub (Australia)  Oy Vey! A Test Match between New Zealand and France, and what happens? Somewhat predictably,...

Rassie’s Picks Andries Coetzee, Ruan Combrinck, Dillyn Leyds, Lionel Mapoe, Rohan Janse van Rensburg, Jan Serfontein, Raymond Rhule, Pat Lambie, Ross Cronje, Cobus Reinach, Jano Vermaak, Warren Whiteley, JP Pietersen, Vincent Koch, Coenie Oosthuizen, Eben Etzebeth, Malcolm Marx, Rudy Paige,...

It’s Broken! Fix It! When you see a storm brewing outside, when those heavy bellied purple clouds are stacking up, and the lightning is flashing continuously as the thunder gets louder and louder, closer and closer, you would be a...

Eddie’s Conundrum, the World Aghast! Or: The Eddie & Brad Show!   Eddie Jones was hired to coach England to World Cup glory. Period. Anything else Eddie achieves is bye-the-bye – collateral success or collateral damage. It really does not matter, as long...