Stuart Barnes

20 hours ago | thetimes.com | Stuart Barnes

Friday afternoon and Carlos Alcaraz, the sensational Spanish tennis star, was playing for a place in the French Open final. He was struggling deep into the second set. John McEnroe, in the commentary box, offered this opinion of the defending Roland Garros champion: “He can hit his way out of trouble.” The reference was to his all too obvious power on the tennis court. He seemed to be trying to batter his opponent into submission.

2 days ago | thetimes.com | Stuart Barnes

It has been another intriguing week in the world of rugby. It started with the news of a potential franchise-led takeover, as Mike Tindall’s name and picture dominated the back pages. But a week is a long time in sport. By the end, the RFU had struck back on behalf of the clubs. To perform outside the Gallagher Premiership — as a million-pound player in the new R360 venture backed by Tindall — would mean exiling yourself from England opportunities.

5 days ago | einnews.com | Stuart Barnes

Hubject, Heliox, Accelera by Cummins, & Blue Bird Announce First Commercial Deployment of Intl.

6 days ago | thetimes.com | Stuart Barnes

The Premiership has been whittled down to four remaining clubs. A fortnight from now, only one team will be left standing: the champions. It takes consistency to make the play-off’s, followed by the knockout mentality to measure up to the excitement of sudden death. Bath’s consistency allowed them to field a third team at Saracens on Saturday, safe in the knowledge that they were the top seeds. On Friday night they will battle it out with fourth-placed Bristol Bears for the trip to Twickenham.

1 week ago | thetimes.com | Stuart Barnes

The Premiership has been exciting, entertaining and often extremely ambitious. Ever since English club rugby emerged from Covid, the game has been galvanised. But it is any good? Bristol Bears have been brilliant in patches — think back to their devastating first half against Leicester Tigers at Welford Road. Gloucester have gone away from their glorious tradition of ferocious forward play and are capable of scoring at will but, like Bristol, also of conceding tries in the blink of an eye.