Rugby

1:20 PM GMT South Africa and Saracens prop Vincent Koch will join Wasps next season, the club announced on Thursday. The 31-year-old, who has 31 international caps and played a crucial part in the Springboks side that lifted the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, has played his club rugby in England since joining Saracens

4:21 PM GMT Leicester Tigers have signed South Africa’s World Cup-winning fly-half Handre Pollard ahead of the 2022-23 season, the English Premiership leaders said on Tuesday, to replace departing fly-half George Ford. Pollard, who has won 60 caps for South Africa since making his debut in 2014, will join Leicester next season after leaving French

4:05 PM GMT England’s Simon Middleton has become the first coach of a women’s team to win World Rugby Coach of the Year, the sport’s governing body announced on Tuesday. Middleton guided England’s “Red Roses” to their third successive Six Nations title in April and the team finished the year with an unbeaten record, winning

11:09 AM GMT England will begin their quest for a fourth consecutive Women’s Six Nations title away at Scotland on March 26 after the fixtures for next year’s competition were announced on Thursday. The 2022 edition, returning to its traditional format after COVID-19 enforced changes this year, will take place in a six-week window in

10:03 PM GMT Wallabies star Quade Cooper has revealed he will be taking the citizenship test on Friday that he’s happy should finally allow him to “officially call Australia home”. The New Zealand-born 33-year-old, who’s played 75 Tests for Australia, had been unhappy that his four previous applications for citizenship had been rejected because of

8:51 AM GMT Scotland rugby international Siobhan Cattigan has died at the age of 26, Scottish Rugby and her club Stirling County said on Wednesday. Cattigan, who won 19 caps for Scotland between 2018 and 2021, died on Friday Nov. 26, her club said. She was described as an “inspiration” and a “talented back-row forward

6:24 PM GMT A new U.S. rugby union sevens league will launch next October, which organisers said on Wednesday would pit 12 top international teams against four new U.S. franchises, with sides playing to win their share of $1 million prize money. A newly-formed U.S. company, The Rugby Football League, said the U.S. Rugby Sevens

11:45 AM GMT Munster have nine new COVID-19 cases in their camp in South Africa, the Irish rugby team said on Tuesday, taking the total count to 10. Both staff and players have tested positive and will quarantine in a hotel in Cape Town, joining the first player who returned a positive test on Sunday.

2:24 PM GMT Welsh side Cardiff remain unable to leave South Africa as planned on Sunday after they returned positive COVID-19 cases, although the majority of Irish side Munster squad have been cleared to return to home, it has been announced. Cardiff said they have two positive cases, one suspected to be the new Omicron

3:31 PM GMT The men’s Barbarians match against Samoa at Twickenham on Saturday was cancelled 90 minutes before kickoff after four players and two members of the staff in the Barbarians camp tested positive for COVID-19, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) said. The Samoan players came out onto the pitch and sang their national anthem

6:50 AM GMT South African sport faced a shutdown on Friday due to the detection of a new coronavirus variant, with British rugby teams scrambling to leave before travel restrictions are imposed, and the first event of golf’s new-look DP World Tour under threat. Four rugby teams were due to play South African opposition in

9:48 PM GMT South Africa’s director of rugby Rassie Erasmus has withdrawn his appeal against a two-month ban and apologised to referee Nic Berry for his 62-minute video critique of the match official after the first Test against the British & Irish Lions in July. Erasmus was found guilty of misconduct by an independent committee

3:47 PM GMT Eddie Jones does not view lock Maro Itoje as a future England captain, despite sending him to acting classes in an attempt to improve his leadership skills. Itoje, who won his 50th cap for England earlier this month, sucessfully captained England Under-20s to World Cup victory in 2014, but Jones believes he

4:08 AM GMT Rugby Australia [RA] boss Andy Marinos has pledged to not repeat the mistakes of the past, with the governing body already planning an endowment fund to manage the financial windfall that will be generated by hosting the 2027 Rugby World Cup. RA learned early on Thursday morning [AEDT] that World Rugby had

9:35 PM GMT ESPN staff Australia has been announced as the “preferred candidate” for the 2027 Rugby World Cup, virtually guaranteeing the tournament will return Down Under for the first time in 24 years. The World Rugby Council made the announcement on Wednesday night as part of an approved revision process that the governing body

5:20 PM GMT International rugby players will be allowed to switch national teams from next year subject to certain criteria, the World Rugby Council announced on Wednesday. The revised regulation will apply from Jan. 1, and a player must either be born in the country to which they wish to transfer or have a parent

10:14 PM GMT Liam Napier As summer descends on Aotearoa New Zealand, dark clouds greet the All Blacks’ arrival home. While they complete one-week hotel isolation the team would be best advised to switch off the wireless, unplug the Wi-Fi and close the curtains to block out the circulating storm. Three defeats are hardly cause

10:52 AM GMT Kevin Sinfield, the former captain of Super League side Leeds Rhinos, returned to the Headingley ground on Tuesday to reach the finish line of a gruelling 101-mile run, within 24 hours, from Leicester to raise money for the motor neurone disease charity, MND Association. Sinfield has completed a number of remarkable challenges