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3 weeks ago | 
rugbypass.com | Jamie Lyall |Nick Bishop
If he ever gets bored with rugby, Wallabies supremo Joe Schmidt could always try his hand at cricket. With Super Rugby Pacific reaching the knockout stages, the head coach urged one of the two remaining Aussie sides to go deeper, in terms familiar to supporters of Australia’s favourite summer sport. “The longer you stay at the crease, the more chance you’ve got to accumulate runs,” he said.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
rugby365.com | Nick Bishop
If the spirit of the South African game can be epitomised by a single word, it is the same word repeated thrice by 1906 patriarch Paul Roos in a telegram to the 1937 tourists, on the eve of a historic series win in New Zealand. It said simply: “Skrum. Skrum. Skrum.”That remains the only occasion on which either of the two great nations of the game carried off the spoils on a tour of their biggest rivals in the amateur era.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
rugbypass.com | Nick Bishop
If the spirit of South African rugby can be epitomised by a single word, it is the same word repeated thrice by 1906 patriarch Paul Roos in a telegram to the 1937 tourists, on the eve of a historic series win in New Zealand. It said simply “Skrum. Skrum. Skrum.”That remains the only occasion on which either of the two great nations of the game carried off the spoils on a tour of their biggest rivals in the amateur era.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
rugbypass.com | Nick Bishop
A single glance at the Gallagher Premiership is enough to tell you professional rugby is getting faster and providing more entertainment value than ever before. Ball-in-play time is rising steadily towards the 40-minute watermark, and several high-profile games have exceeded that threshold. The much-touted ‘Grand Slam decider’ between Ireland and France in February 2023 ended in a 32-19 win for the men in green and contained over 46 minutes of ball-in-play, which was probably a record at the time.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
rugbypass.com | Nick Bishop
Catch Steve Borthwick in a more contemplative, private moment, and he will tell you. The position of England head coach is really two jobs rolled into one: the meat of the tactical direction and on-field coaching of the team; and the frills of a media-facing function designed to popularise the sport and bring rugby to the attention of the public. In practice the second too often overwhelms the first.
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Jan 6, 2025 | 
rugbypass.com | Nick Bishop
To go or not to go? That is the question. The power struggle over eligibility criteria for All Blacks selection has provoked a tug of war in the minds of Kiwi players plying their trade abroad. Razor Robertson wants more flexibility in the rules, but the instinct at home is to batten down the hatches and keep the system which has served New Zealand so well for so long, utterly airtight. Ex-Crusaders wingman Leicester Fainga’anuku is the latest to feel a pull that goes both ways.
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Jan 1, 2025 | 
rugbypass.com | Nick Bishop
You have written an article on Sir Wayne Smith’s Black Ferns and the romance of the 2021 Rugby World Cup, then backed it up with Pat Lam’s Bristol Bears averaging over five tries per game in the English Premiership – both gesturing towards a rosy attacking future for the game. Then along comes Alex Sanderson and his aptly named Sale Sharks to spoil the party. Wagging a reproving finger, and twisting the signpost until it points in precisely the opposite direction.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
rugbypass.com | Jamie Lyall |Nick Bishop
Before the All Blacks’ end of year tour set off for Europe, Scott Robertson was asked a leading question by the local media about the repeat selection of senior internationals TJ Perenara and Sam Cane. He laughed it off: “You’re framing me nicely there, mate.”The real question is whether Razor has been setting himself up for a fall by holding on to known quantities for too long for the good of his team, and that is no laughing matter for New Zealand rugby supporters.
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Dec 9, 2024 | 
rugbypass.com | Nick Bishop
The British and Irish Lions seldom amount to more than the sum of their parts. Many a tour, even in the professional era, has finished as an uneasy mishmash of cultures working at cross purposes. On one or two, the aggregate of four nations has not proved better than one single country with a well-honed and unified sense of intent. Far from it.
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
rugbypass.com | Nick Bishop
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” [Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities]. The best of times and the worst of times: Franco Mostert has seen them both in a 12-year career spanning half the known rugby world – South Africa, England and Japan.
