Rugby

5:11 PM GMT Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall will take “a short break due to medical reasons,” the Premiership Rugby side said on Friday. McCall, who took on the role during the 2010-11 season, has led Saracens to five Premiership titles and three European Champions Cups during his tenure. “People will always come first

5:09 PM GMT English Premiership club Exeter Chiefs will drop their Native American-themed branding in the summer after criticism from fans, the club announced on Thursday. The club said its new branding would feature the Celtic Iron Age Dumnonii Tribe which once inhabited Devon and Cornwall. “Times are changing and so are we — now

9:46 PM GMT Flying winger Louis Lynagh, son of Wallabies great Michael Lynagh, has now been approached by Italy about the prospect of playing Test rugby for the Azzurri. But Italy’s head coach Kieran Crowley accepts that he may not win the battle for the services of the brilliant 21-year-old, with Lynagh also able to

Jan 25, 2022 Trailblazing referee Amy Perrett has announced she is hanging up the whistle and stepping away from the professional game following a career that has spanned more than 10 years. The first-ever female Super Rugby match official, Perrett has been leading the way for female referees in Australia and ends her career on

5:58 PM GMT Wales captain Dan Biggar has said the upcoming Six Nations campaign feels like his first as he prepares to lead a squad missing 680 caps to injury, including regular skipper Alun Wyn Jones. Biggar will make his bow as captain in Wales’ opener against Ireland in Dublin on Feb. 5 as they

1:26 PM GMT Coach Gregor Townsend says Scotland must build on the potential they have shown in recent Six Nations championships as they seek a first title success since 1999, but face one of their biggest challenges first up in the form of old rival England. Scotland will host the fixture at Murrayfield on Feb.

10:00 AM GMT England captain Owen Farrell has been ruled out of the entire Six Nations championship after suffering a second serious ankle injury in the latest blow to head coach Eddie Jones’s preparations for the competition that begins next week. Farrell had surgery in November on an ankle he injured playing against Australia then

7:43 AM GMT George Ford and Elliot Daly have been called up to the England squad as a replacement for the injured pair of Owen Farrell and Jonny May, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) confirmed on Monday. In-form Leicester Tigers flyhalf Ford, 28, has started all 12 of Tigers’ Premiership games and is the league’s

1:08 PM GMT France scrum-half Antoine Dupont on Monday was named the British Rugby Union Writers’ Club’s personality of the year for 2021. Dupont, the World Rugby Player of the Year, succeeds Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter as winner of the Pat Marshall Memorial Award following an outstanding 12 months for the national team

9:45 PM GMT Australia’s rugby sevens women have finally been toppled after 15 successive match wins and two tournament triumphs in the World Series. The team, who’d been so dominant with back-to-back triumphs in Dubai at the end of last year, had their unbeaten run sensationally ended in Sunday’s semifinal of the Spain Sevens in