2013 A Year In Rugby

2013 has been a strange year in rugby, with moments of brilliance often overshadowed by politics and the laws of the game. The scrum, new TMO laws, European rugby crisis, this years list of issues in rugby seems longer than normal. However, there have been moments on the field to talk about, many of these moments were of the very highest quality.

Warren To Stay With Wales

Warren Gatland has confirmed that he will extend his stay in Wales until after the 2019 World Cup. He began his tenure in Wales in 2007, honouring his new contract until 2019 would comfortably make him the longest serving top flight international coach. A record that would hold significance for Gatland after he was unfairly sacked by Ireland after just three years. His only venture into international management before he arrived in Wales. There is a feeling that Gatland wants that record to prove that he has matured into a successful international manager.

FIFA World Cup - Six Months To Go

There is now only six months to go until the FIFA World Cup finally arrives in Brazil. The stage is set, we know the 32 teams that will be in Brazil, what we don't know is where the matches will be played. The organization process has been a comedy of errors, leaving people worried if the stadiums will be ready in time. If there is one thing that the poor organization has shown us, it is that football fans can only focus on one badly organised World Cup at a time. Its been a long time since anybody mentioned the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Heineken Cup Welsh Review

Another mixed week for the Welsh sides in a weekend littered with shock results. One of the problems for the Welsh sides is that their games proved to be no shock whatsoever, and they were very much as expected.

Robertson Makes History In York

Neil Robertson, has become only the eighth player in the history of the game to win Snooker's Triple Crown of the Masters, the UK Championship and the World Championship. These remain the three most prestigious events in the Snooker calender despite the game having a heavy schedule in China currently. It is no coincidence that the most prestigious events are also the three that the BBC cover, because they are held within Britain. As this is Triple Crown of trophies is entirely based in Britain, it is no surprise to learn that Robertson is the first overseas player to achieve the feat.

Back In Blue

Cardiff Blues welcome Glasgow to the Cardiff Arms Park tonight, and also welcome pack some key players after international duty. Phil Davies has been speaking about tonight's game, about having star men back and a new signing ready to start.

Sports Personality of the Year: The Contenders

It’s that time of year again Sports Personality is on the horizon. An award that sportspeople really do appreciate because it is voted for by the public. The personality of the person is still important and if anyone showed that it was Bradley Wiggins last year. Cycling is a minority sport still in the UK but his cheeky chappy attitude was a big factor in that success. Not many have a personality like Wiggins, but all the contenders have as good a sporting appetite.

The Same Old Story

If I'd written an article for the game last year, I could have copied and pasted it and very few people would have noticed. The ref, the stadium, the result, and the story none of these changed. In fact the only thing that did change was the Wallaby team, a raft of new faces compared to the team that played Wales last Autumn. The headline makers being James O'Connor and Kurtley Beale being forced out of the squad. Only to be replaced by Quade Cooper and Israel Folau, not a bad set of replacements my eyes. The Welsh team stayed very much the same, a few knocks here and there left some players out but not enough to make excuses for. Yet, as always the result was the same the Australians won, but only just.