The News Review:
- A Rugby World Cup winners’ tale
- Europe new hotbed of club rugby
- Times rugby writer Chris Irvine pays tribute to dual code hero Jason…
- Hook picks up rugby writers award
A Rugby World Cup winners’ tale
BBC News – Aug 30, 2007
Maybe four years of mediocrity will be rendered irrelevant and a new winning formula forged from the adversity of failure. But the odds are against England still being able to call themselves world champions by the end of ctober. Chances are that mantle will be moving on whether to the All Blacks the Springboks or the French and the memory of that night of nights in Sydney will become ever more distant. A dozen of the 2003 squad have survived the ravages of the intervening period and will head to France aiming to become the first team to successfully defend the Webb Ellis Trophy. But for other World Cup winners now retired the arrival of rugby’s next global gathering brings cause for reflection on that momentous day and the scenes that followed.
Europe new hotbed of club rugby
Independent nline – Aug 30, 2007
But the post-World Cup exodus of a raft of top-flight internationals from Australia New Zealand and South Africa will help confound that long-standing belief. It used to be the case that players from the southern hemisphere looked on signing up for a European club as merely a good retirement pay-off. Club owners in England France Ireland Scotland and Wales are continuing to welcome the foreign legion but the players they are signing are top-notch competitors often at the peak of their careers. ‘There’s rugby but there’s also life outside rugby’An unprecedented number of All Blacks and Springboks head for the World Cup in France with one-way tickets after succumbing to the lure of lucrative European club contracts.
Times rugby writer Chris Irvine pays tribute to dual code hero Jason…
Times nline – Aug 30, 2007
God bless you please Mr RobinsonHeaven holds a place for those who pray (Hey hey hey hey hey hey)ne last World Cup and Jason Robinson will ride off into the sunset. To aWaltons lifestyle with his wife and six kids so he says. Goodnight JaseBob!From the days when Simply the Best would belt out at the old Wembley after yetanother of Wigan’s Challenge Cup triumphs to his still dazzling brilliancein an England shirt four years after his tryscoring contribution in the2003 Rugby World Cup final Robinson is a rugby Colussus who has straddledthe two codes like no other. Small in stature the little lad from Leeds has been a rugby giant for morethan 15 years a tribute to his physical endurance. The World Cup provides afitting swansong for Billy Whizz.
Hook picks up rugby writers award
BBC News – Aug 30, 2007
Hook shot to prominence during last season’s autumn internationals and Six Nations campaign. He also had a fine season domestically for the spreys helping his side win the Magners League and reach the final of the EDF energy Cup. He said: "I am thrilled to follow in the footsteps of some great Welsh rugby players and win this award. " [3].