Toulouse’s victory over Quins is top of my list

THE greatest single performance in the Heineken Cup? That’s a tricky one, there have been so many, but when pressed I normally opt for Toulouse’s 51-10 annihilation of Harlequins in the quarter-finals of the 1997-98 competition.

Tenth defeat in a row for battling Falcons

LIONS blindside Emmanuel Tshituka scored two second-half tries as Newcastle were taken back to school by a brutally powerful South African side in Johannesburg.

Lockett's late score has Saints believing

A FEW more thunderous nights like this one and Northampton look assured of keeping hold of Courtney Lawes next season.

Cardiff push Bath's all-stars to the limit

THIS was a game for the ages, European Rugby at its’ best, with neither side deserving to end up as losers.

Bordeaux put Bears through the mixer

BORDEAUX-Begles confirmed their status as dangerous floaters in this year’s Champions Cup but there was no disgrace in defeat for a very makeshift Bristol Bears.

Russell: I've come here to win titles

WHILE Henry Arundell has chosen to stay at Racing 92 and turn down a move to Bath, Finn Russell is in no mind that he made the right decision in swapping the Parisian high life for more genteel Somerset surrounds.

Hunt is on for next generation of props

FIVE years ago there was a scrum feature in The Rugby Paper which forecast that unless England developed a world class scrum in the year leading up to the 2019 World Cup they would not be world champions.

Henry's French leave wont hold him back

IT’S time for the RFU/Premiership to wake up and go, ‘Wow, what’s wrong with us that a young player with the talent of Henry Arundell can opt out of playing for England by signing a two-year contract with a French Top 14 club like Racing 92?’

Gonzalez is enjoying his new lease of life

JUAN Martin Gonzalez proved he is another diamond to come out of the wreckage of London Irish as Saracens ended their two-match losing streak and got their Champions Cup campaign back on the road.

Sanderson: Ford and Tuilagi will stay at Sale

ALEX Sanderson is confident England outside-half George Ford will be at Sale next season, along with Manu Tuilagi.

Mann happy he made the switch from football

FOOTBALL’S loss is proving to be rugby’s gain in the case of URC top tackler Alex Mann.

Varley gets Bears back in winners' enclosure

BRISTOL Bears got back to winning ways with an eight-try victory at Franklin’s Gardens.

It's time for Lions to hunt change

THE British and Irish Lions will face Argentina in Dublin before embarking upon their 2025 tour to Australia in a repeat of the Cardiff-based 2005 fixture but, from Argentina’s perspective, things could not be more different.

A team stuffed full of captains

I WAS having one final lingering look at that 2003 England reunion picture last week before we banish all such thoughts until the next reunion – 2028 I’m guessing – when I was suddenly struck by something I had never really clocked before. My God, has there ever been a national team with so many Test captains?

Minnows can make splash of a whale

ACCORDING to Donald J Trump – you may have heard of him – “losers” are the lowest of the low, “suckers” and “schmucks”. One of the founding principles of what might loosely be called his philosophy, it applies even to the military.

Barton is on target to rescue Gloucester

A FAULTLESS kicking display off the tee from George Barton saw a coltish Gloucester side halt a run of six defeats on the trot with this hard earned win in a wet Tbilisi.

Four-try Lake guides Ospreys safely home

WALES hooker Dewi Lake helped himself to a European record equalling four tries in a match for the Ospreys as he guided his side to a bonuspoint win in Pool 2.

Fit-again Henderson out to grab his chance

CAMERON Henderson is relishing the start of Leicester Tigers’ Champions Cup campaign, seeing it as the perfect platform to state his claim for Scotland’s Six Nations squad in January.

We're not the whipping boys - Sanderson

ALEX Sanderson is relishing Sale’s novel status as underdogs as the Premiership leaders prepare to face some of the best sides in Europe, starting with a home game against Stade Francais.

Freeman double has Saints on the march

ON the move domestically, and on the march in Europe.

Slade leads Chiefs on smash and grab raid

EXETER’S struggles on the road have been well documented over the past year, but the Chiefs produced the perfect ‘smash and grab’ to win in the south of France.

Seven-try Toulouse too swift for Cardiff

BLAIR Kinghorn marked his Toulouse debut with a brace of tries as the starstuffed French outfit got their Champions Cup campaign off to a flying start.

Rampant Bath storm to the winning post

WHEN a side has an outside-half of Finn Russell’s vision and daring, it comes down to how much possession he enjoys, as well as its quality. Bath’s forwards were rampant on the club’s return to the Champions Cup on an afternoon when the scrum reasserted itself.

Ice-cool Sheedy the hero for Bears

IT WAS a night of dizzying figures. Twenty four unanswered points by Lyon in the second half. The clock five minutes into the red. And three sweet, sweet drop goal points from Callum Sheedy to win it for the Bears.

Saracens make it too easy for Bulls

THE Blue Bulls deservedly won this heavyweight clash but there was a minor triumph in defeat for Sarries who somehow prevented them claiming what had seemed like an inevitable try bonus.

French power will be so tough to overcome

ENGLISH clubs are up against it in the European Cup because they are competing against French clubs which have much bigger budgets. In fact, in the last decade, the only Premiership club that’s managed to compete successfully against the French, and Leinster, has been Saracens.

Dynamic duo put life back into Bath

BEN Spencer has partnered two of the leading outside- halves of their generation, Owen Farrell and Finn Russell, and although they have contrasting styles and temperaments, he believes they are very similar.

Vermeulen confident Chiefs will return to top

JACQUES Vermeulen is one of the old hands at Exeter following his arrival from South Africa in 2019 and after a summer of upheaval believes it will not be long before the Chiefs are back at the top.

Reed is making his mark at Sale

A NEW tattoo and a special changing room rapport between Sale Sharks' Arron Reed and director of rugby Alex Sanderson has been the catalyst in the winger finding the form of his career so far this season.

Williams: I'd back call to get rid of Sweeney

THE Championship’s joint top try scorer David Williams has called for Sport England or another organisation to get involved and provide some accountability to decisions being made at Twickenham.