
Rugby: From Super reject to tour de force
Touring Australia with the Lions, a tilt at the Commonwealth Games next season, a World Cup in 2015 and a repeat Lions trip to New Zealand in four years time.
Touring Australia with the Lions, a tilt at the Commonwealth Games next season, a World Cup in 2015 and a repeat Lions trip to New Zealand in four years time.
The detail is still be worked out but hopes are already high that the British and Irish Lions will generate in excess of $25 million in profit for New Zealand rugby when they tour in 2017.
Some of the thousands of British and Irish Lions fans descending on Sydney this weekend for the third and final, decisive rugby test against the Wallabies could find themselves spending the night in "sobering-up centres".
Robbie Deans carries the impassive stare of a man who would do well in the Las Vegas casinos.
Subplots regularly threaten to overpower the main act in Australian rugby.
The Lions have got more than a test series to win on Saturday night, writes Chris Rattue. They need to discover a spirit for the game and restore some excitement and honour.
The remarkable George Smith will start his 111th and final test for the Wallabies in Saturday's series-deciding test against the Lions.
The lingering whiff of the 38-21 loss to England last December still festers among the All Blacks.
Three weeks ago a disconsolate Tommy Bowe texted his touring relatives to say they would not see him play again for the Lions.
Many Australians trace the nation's obsessive interest in sport to the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 when the arrival of broadcast television coincided with the festival.
These likely lads are no strangers to controversy and, at the very least, should be cashing in some of their chips.
A handful of rugby players are born into Lionhood and the very best of them, the creme de la creme, grow to their fullest size in the red jersey. Brian O'Driscoll is among that number.
Asked on the Lions trip to South Africa four years ago what touring qualities galvanised such a group and spurred team unity, Brian O'Driscoll offered a simple explanation.
Within seconds of Lions manager Andy Irvine finishing his first test team announcement, journalists' fingers were hitting laptop keys to file that news.
A series win against the Lions will be a massive fillip for Robbie Deans' coaching longevity with the Wallabies.
Lions back-rower Jamie Heaslip is tipping NSW coach Michael Cheika will have the Waratahs pumped up for tonight's showdown with the unbeaten tourists.
Former Crusaders winger Sean Maitland, another New Zealand export, wants to achieve two things on the Lions tour of Australia - make the test team and play against his cousin, the controversial Quade Cooper.
The Lions are ready for widespread rugby battles across Australia and have pledged to continue those tussles with reasoned arguments during their off-field skirmishes too.
The Lions are a wonderful rugby anachronism and the last link to the heady days when sides made decent rugby tours instead of drive-by test visits.
Mako Vunipola stems from Tonga, was born in New Zealand, educated in England and is likely to become a test player for the red rose.
Unbeaten in 13 tests in 2012 and having produced outstanding rugby at times, the All Blacks under coach Steve Hansen are doing plenty right.