Rugby

7:37 PM BST England won a record-extending 16th women’s Six Nations title, with a game to spare, after they took an unassailable lead in the standings when France failed to beat Scotland on Sunday. France needed to win their final two games to be in with a shout of winning their first title since 2018

3:42 AM BST All Blacks number eight Ardie Savea and prop Nepo Laulala are on paternity leave and will miss the Rugby Championship opener against Australia next weekend, coach Ian Foster said on Sunday. Both players were absent when the New Zealand squad boarded their flight across the Tasman Sea on Sunday, but Joe Moody

10:38 PM BST France geared up for the Six Nations Super Saturday in style as Antoine Dupont scored a couple of tries in a 38-21 home victory over Wales in a friendly international on Saturday. Les Bleus recovered from a wobbly start to put on an inspired performance at the Stade de France with Cyril

8:27 PM BST As Joe Simmonds chipped the ball through the swaying posts to seal Exeter Chiefs’ remarkable domestic double, it was just about the only part of the season that went to script. Exeter Chiefs have been the best team in the land since we began this campaign 372 days ago, and their Heineken

8:07 PM BST Exeter Chiefs completed a momentous double when they beat Wasps 19-13 in a rain-lashed, arm-wrestle of a Premiership final in a near-empty Twickenham on Saturday, a week after winning the European Champions Cup. In appalling conditions of relentless rain and swirling wind, where the only noise in the 82,000-capacity ground came from

12:56 PM BST Saturday’s Super Rugby Unlocked fixture between the Lions and Cheetahs at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, South Africa, has been called off. The cancellation happened after two players from the Lions squad tested positive for COVID-19. “The decision was taken as part of prescribed precautions advised by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases

10:04 PM BST Scotland’s Fraser Brown scored two tries in a 48-7 win over Georgia as he captained the side for the first time, while Finn Russell made an impressive return to the team in Friday’s test at Murrayfield. Darcy Graham (2), Hamish Watson, Stuart McInally, debutant Duhan van der Merwe and Blair Kinghorn added

2:38 PM BST England’s match against the Barbarians on Sunday has been called off after the Barbarians were forced to remove 12 players from their squad on Thursday for breaching their coronavirus code of conduct. England were set to face the invitational side as a warm up to their Six Nations finale against Italy on

7:45 PM BST Wasps head coach Lee Blackett said 11 of his players are unavailable for Saturday’s English Premiership final against Exeter Chiefs because of COVID-19 concerns. The players who are missing out on Wasps’ return to the Twickenham showpiece for the first time in three years have either tested positive for the coronavirus or

5:40 PM BST England’s Six Nations warm-up match against the Barbarians on Sunday is in doubt after a number of the invitational side’s players breached COVID-19 protocols, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) announced on Thursday. Eddie Jones’ England team were due to face the Barbarians at Twickenham prior to their final Six Nations game against

1:27 PM BST Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones will equal the world record for most test caps when he leads the side against France in Paris on Saturday. The lock will play his 148th test, which includes nine for the British and Irish Lions, to move level with retired former New Zealand captain Richie McCaw.

8:00 PM BST Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan accepts RA must do more to unearth the next Indigenous Wallaby to follow in the famous footsteps of the Ella brothers and others like Kurtley Beale and Andrew Walker. RA on Wednesday unveiled the 2020 First Nations jersey to be worn against New Zealand and Argentina in

11:34 AM BST The British and Irish Lions announced on Wednesday they will host Japan in Edinburgh next June ahead of their tour of South Africa. The Lions, who traditionally tour Australia, New Zealand or South Africa every four years, will be playing Japan for the first time, with the match to be held at

9:53 AM BST Wasps have been given the green light to play in Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership final against Exeter Chiefs after the latest batch of COVID-19 results came back all negative. Wasps returned seven positive COVID-19 tests last week, and a further four on Monday, placing their participation in the Premiership final in doubt. They

6:23 PM BST New Zealand, England and Canada have been confirmed as the top three seeds for the women’s 2021 Rugby World Cup after the game’s governing body opted to use rankings from the start of the year with southern hemisphere teams unable to play due to COVID-19 curbs. The draw for the tournament will

3:21 AM BST The first two Tests of the Bledisloe Cup are behind us, with New Zealand holding a 1-0 advantage following Sunday’s comprehensive 27-7 victory at Eden Park in Auckland. That result came seven days after the series opener had finished in a dramatic 16-all draw in Wellington, where the two teams engaged in

2:48 PM BST Wasps’ participation in the Gallagher Premiership final is in doubt after the club returned four more positive COVID-19 tests on Monday, bringing a total of 11 positive tests for the club within a week. Wasps are not training as a group ahead of Saturday’s final, after seven positive tests were returned last

7:11 AM BST All Blacks coach Ian Foster will need to wait until later in the week before he is fully aware of who will be on the plane to Sydney on Sunday for the Rugby Championship with a number of injuries to assess. Prop Joe Moody, midfield back Peter Umaga-Jensen and lock Sam Whitelock