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3 days ago | 
rugbypass.com | Jon Newcombe
Bristol Bears failed to sell out their 2,135 ticket allocation for Friday night’s West Country Premiership play-off showdown against league leaders Bath. Despite appearing in the play-offs for the first time in four years and only having 14 miles to travel to The Rec, the Bears returned some of their allocation to Bath before the 4pm Tuesday deadline. Bath didn’t disclose exactly how many tickets had been returned, but it is thought to be in the hundreds rather than tens.
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3 days ago | 
rugbypass.com | Jon Newcombe
As someone who has coached in rugby union and rugby league concurrently, with Argentina and Lebanon, Michael Cheika has never shied away from taking an unconventional approach to the sport, which is why talk of a new R360 league doesn’t faze him. If anything, the Australian, who has led Leicester into the Gallagher Premiership playoffs in his only season in charge of the Tigers, welcomes any initiatives that help to bring more investment into the game and eyeballs on it.
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3 days ago | 
rugbypass.com | Jon Newcombe
mens united-rugby-championship Copied to clipboard 0 Despite being runaway league leaders for much of the campaign, Leinster only have two representatives in the United Rugby Championship’s Elite XV, which is voted for by the media. Giant South African lock RG Snyman is the only forward from Irish rugby’s most dominant province to make the cut, after media were presented with a shortlist of 10 players in each position based on stats.
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3 days ago | 
rugbypass.com | Jon Newcombe
Barbarians head coach Robbie Deans has called up players with 170 caps between them for the historic clash with the Springboks in Cape Town at the end of this month. Centurion Cian Healy, Ireland and Leinster’s most-capped player, and All Black Shannon Frizell have been confirmed as the latest names on the Barbarians roster as rugby’s most famous invitational side prepares to face the world champions in South Africa for the first time.
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4 days ago | 
rugbypass.com | Jon Newcombe
Gloucester’s Tomos Williams has made history by becoming the first scrum-half to be named Premiership Player of the Season at the Rugby Awards on Tuesday evening. Williams has been one of the main driving forces behind Gloucester’s much-improved season, with his form earning him a British and Irish Lions call-up for this summer’s trip to Australia.
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4 days ago | 
rugbypass.com | Jon Newcombe
mens club-rugby Copied to clipboard 0 Former England hooker Tommy Taylor has been appointed as forwards coach at National 1 side Sedgley Park, after impressing as new England coach Byron McGuigan’s sidekick at Lancashire outfit Rossendale. The former Sale Sharks team-mates led Rossendale to promotion to National 2 North in 2024/25, but Taylor will be working a level up at nearby Sedgley Park next season, alongside his new full-time job in leadership and performance.
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4 days ago | 
rugbypass.com | Jon Newcombe
Ever since the Premiership Play-Offs were introduced at the end of the 2002/03 season, replacing the traditional first-past-the-post method of deciding the league champions, away team wins have been rarer than a Leicester head coach with a long service award. The miracle of Bristanbul in 2021, a result that defied all logic, is the last time a team has gone to an opposition ground and conquered them in the play-offs.
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4 days ago | 
rugbypass.com | Jon Newcombe
mens united-rugby-championship Copied to clipboard 0 Stuart Lancaster has made a swift return to frontline coaching after being named as the new head coach of Connacht Rugby on a two-year contract. Lancaster, who has been out of work since being fired by Racing 92 midway through the Top 14 season, will start his new role in July. The former England head coach, aged 55, enjoyed seven years at Leinster before the ill-fated move to France, working under Leo Cullen as senior head coach.
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4 days ago | 
rugbypass.com | Jon Newcombe
Slightly-built Wales and Cardiff full-back, Cameron Winnett, has been rewarded for his durability by winning the United Rugby Championship’s ‘Ironman’ award. The URC Ironman award recognises the player who has played the most minutes during the campaign, with Winnett. who weighs 85kgs and stands 1.80m tall, clocking up 1,427 minutes. Winnett started all 18 rounds of the regular season for Cardiff, missing just 13 minutes all season.
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5 days ago | 
rugbypass.com | Jon Newcombe
Former England attack coach and GB 7s 2016 Olympic Games silver medal-winning coach, Simon Amor, is heading back to Hong Kong in a wide-ranging role. The well-travelled Amor, who has extensive playing and coaching experience in sevens and 15s, recently stepped down from his position as head coach of the USA men’s sevens team and has already started work as the new executive director of performance and representative rugby for the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union.
