40 years ago Phillip Oppenheim, MP for Amber Valley in Derbyshire set up the Commons & Lords rugby team, 3 or 4 of the original players are still involved and play alongside their sons. The aim of team/club is to play other parliaments and charitable organisations to raise funds and to raise the profile of … More Commons & Lords V Wooden Spoon
What does the future hold for Women’s Rugby? … More Women’s Rugby in England
On 25th September 2020 the worst thing happened to Police Sergeant Matt Ratana, he was shot dead inside a police custody facility in London. The New Zealand born officer had served 30 years in the force and was nearing retirement. Matt was born in the Hawke’s Bay Region and was of Maori descent. But he … More The Matt Ratana Rugby Foundation – Family Day
In late 2019, before Covid Life struck , I met with Joeri Peperkamp, the Founder of a project based on rugby and its values in Holland, aimed at helping young people onto a different path. At that time he was hoping to start the project in the UK after it had proved to be a … More Project Turn-Over UK
I’ve been a fan of Leinster from afar for many years but had no idea how this provincial rugby team came across its players. I asked Nathan Johns a very talented young writer and Co-Founder of the excellent https://tightspiral.substack.com/ to write an article to explain just where and how they’ve grown such a successful set … More Leinster Rugby – How has it’s success been grown?
A Twitter connection led me to Bob Broomhead and his Go Again project, it looked like the sort of thing that pressed a lot of buttons for me, we had a good Zoom chat back in February. Having interviewed David Priestley, a Consultant Psychologist, while he was at Saracens a few years ago it was … More Go Again – What’s it all about?
I wrote an article during the enforced break due to Covid about the Disciplinary goings on this year, out of 8 hearings, only 2 of the offences had seen a red card brandished https://debsknigsport.com/2021/01/30/disciplinary-matters-does-sir-need-to-brush-up/ Based on the fact that 5 red cards were shown over the weekend of 19-21st February it suggests a Zoom meeting … More Red Card Shenanigans – The Disciplinary Process
The Premiership Clubs have just had a 2 week break from playing; which means the officials have had the same time to have a bit of chat and a brush up of the laws and their interpretation. Since the Barbarians debacle, involving 13 players, there have been 6 appearances before the Disciplinary Committee for those … More Disciplinary Matters – Does Sir need to brush up?
A comment by a young rugby writer about Italy and project players got me thinking and on the back of that I wrote an article on Italy and where they are in 2020. https://debsknigsport.com/2020/10/25/the-6-nations-italy-when-is-enough-long-enough/ In their Autumn Nations Cup match against Scotland on the first weekend of the tournament they had just one ‘project player’ … More Project Players and International Rugby 2020
2021 sees a change to the way the Champions Cup is structured. The competition will consist of 2 Pool of 12 teams. The 24 teams, 8 from each league – the Premiership, The Top 14 and the Pro 14 have been put into 4 tiers. A draw was held to decide which team from each … More European Rugby 2021 – What will it look like?
365 Sporting Days 