Rugby great Rory Underwood has been named in the Leicester Tigers Walk of Legends.

Former Tigers and England star Underwood is reunited with former team-mate Dusty Hare as the first two names in the club’s Walk of Legends after winning the supporters’ vote.

Underwood scored 134 tries for Tigers between 1983 and 1993, and is England’s leading try-scorer with 49 in 85 internationals.

Now a Leicester Tigers director, he said: “I am very honoured and very proud that the Tigers fans have inducted me into the Walk of Legends team.

“Looking at the work on the stadium, I am really excited about the new Caterpillar Stand and to have your name out on the front is going to be fantastic.”

Underwood and Hare will be added to the Tigers Walk of Legends on the approach to the new Caterpillar Stand, which opens next season and will take capacity in the stadium up to 24,500.

The Walk of Legends is being filled week by week with voting available through the Leicester Mercury newspaper and website. This week supporters will find Tigers’ legendary outside centre from a shortlist of Ralph Buckingham, Brian Hall, Leon Lloyd and Clive Woodward.

Supporters can secure their place in the history and future of Leicester Tigers by buying a brick in the Walk of Legends, complete with a personalised message, and see it laid alongside the club’s heroes.

Add a name, celebrate a birthday or buy a place in the Walk of Legends for a friend or relative as a perfect Christmas gift for a Tigers supporter. You can also buy a replica to keep at home. For more details see the club website at www.leicestertigers.com

Tags: Leicester Tigers, Rory Underwood

Guinness Premiership Rugby returns to ITV4 on Sunday evening with hour long highlights of all the weekend’s games from Round six of the competition.

Presented by Craig Doyle, this week’s show comes from the Recreation Ground where current leaders Bath Rugby take on second placed Leicester Tigers.

Craig will be speaking to the players and fans about their views on the new season and look at how the clubs are coping without their international players. Co-host Martin Bayfield also has an exclusive interview with Mike Tindall as he swaps rugby balls for darts and competes in ITV4’s Pro-Celebrity Darts.

Guinness Premiership Rugby is on ITV4 at 6.30pm on Sunday, repeated on Tuesday night on ITV1. ITV.com also has video highlights every Monday morning.

Tags: guinness premiership

First Division Rugby (FDR) and Premier Rugby (PRL), the organisations representing the interests of the clubs at the top of the English game, have both voiced their opposition to the proposals for new competitions unilaterally publicised today by the Rugby Football Union (RFU).

RFU proposals to introduce a new competition for National Division One clubs have already been rejected by FDR clubs by a majority of 12 to 4 and are also opposed by the PRL clubs. Under the recently concluded Heads of Agreement between the RFU and PRL, it is in fact for FDR to make proposals which should then to be considered by the RFU.

Regrettably, the RFU has also refused to discuss these proposals with the Professional Game Board (PGB), set up under the new 8 Year Agreement to address exactly these issues. This is despite the fact that the PGB’s 2008/9 objectives, agreed by all parties, include the future of FDR competition.

Similarly, any new Anglo Welsh Cup competitions have so far only been the subject of preliminary discussions. The PGB is due to consider the next set of draft proposals at its meeting on 27th November and only if these are agreed, do they then need to be referred to the respective PRL, FDR and RFU Boards and to the Welsh Regions.

FDR Chairman Geoff Irvine said “We’ve laid out to the RFU Council our objections to these proposals and why we believe it would be asking our clubs to commit financial suicide. We don’t understand why the RFU is in such a mad rush to try to force through a restructuring, particularly in such challenging economic times. Instead, Council should ask for common sense to prevail, for proper and measured consultation to take place between the RFU, FDR and PRL and for the Professional Game Board to then be allowed to do its job and make a recommendation”.

PRL Chief Executive Mark McCafferty said “When we agreed the new deal with the RFU, the Professional Game Board was set up with representation from the Union, PRL, the FDR clubs and the Players to look at exactly this type of issue; the right mix of competition for England and its top tier clubs.

New competitions cannot be forced through unilaterally against the wishes of their proposed participants. It’s a nonsense if the PGB and its expertise is being bypassed and it would be in serious conflict with the new Agreement”.

Tags: guinness premiership

Please find below a briefing note about the proposed introduction of the Championship directly below the Guinness Premiership

THE Rugby Football Union believes that a professional league below the Guinness Premiership is the right way forward for English rugby.

A 12-team Championship, currently National Division One, will develop English players, coaches and referees in a competitive, professional and financially secure environment.

Funded by the RFU, Premier Rugby Ltd, the new five-year agreement with Sky Sports and sponsorship, Championship clubs will be financially better off in a structure that directly underpins the Guinness Premiership.

Negotiations with First Division Rugby, the umbrella organisation for National Division One clubs, have been ongoing for 12 months and, subject to approval by the RFU Council, the Championship will be established for the 2009-10 season.

RFU Management Board Chairman Martyn Thomas said: “The Championship will be a vital part of the structure of English rugby.

“For too long First Division Rugby has hovered between the community game and the Premiership, uncertain of both its standing in the structure and its future. Now is the time to establish its rightful place.

“The RFU is fully committed to funding and supporting a professional and robust league with minimum entry criteria and a salary cap that will support the Guinness Premiership.

“We will be increasing our funding to the new Championship from £1.65m a year to £2.3m and, under the new eight-year agreement, PRL have committed to a £1m per annum funding.

“That significant investment, coupled with more matches and television coverage under the Sky Sports contract, will give the clubs more financial security than ever before and create a vibrant and viable structure to take the game forward.”

Proposed Championship structure

⿢ Reduction from 16 to 12 clubs

⿢ 22 regular season matches

⿢ Promotion play-offs for the top eight (each club to play minimum of six matches)
- two pools of four, playing home and away
- top two from each pool to play in Championship semi-finals
- winning semi-finalists to play in Championship final
- final could be played on a home and away basis or at Twickenham
- winner of Championship final promoted to Guinness Premiership subject to meeting Minimum Standards Criteria

⿢ Relegation play-offs for the bottom four (each club to play minimum of six matches)
- home and away fixtures
- bottom club in play-off pool relegated to newly-named National Division One (level three)

Anglo-Welsh Cup (each club/region to play minimum of four matches)

- 12 Guinness Premiership clubs, four Welsh regions, four Championship clubs (one relegated from GP, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers in previous season’s Championship, or National Division One for season 08-09)
- four pools of five (three GP, one Welsh Region, one Championship club)
- played on a home or away basis
- pool winners qualify for the semi-finals
- winning semi-finalists play in Cup final

Anglo-Welsh Trophy (each club to play minimum of six matches)

- eight Championship clubs, eight Welsh Principality Premiership clubs
- four regional pools of four to provide local derbies
- played on a home and away basis
- pool winners qualify for the semi-finals
- winning semi-finalists play in Trophy final

Championship clubs will be guaranteed a minimum of 32 or 34 matches, (depending on which Anglo-Welsh tournament they play in) including 16 home games. Teams reaching the finals of both the Championship play-offs and an Anglo-Welsh tournament will play an additional four/five matches.

Entry and eligibility

- clubs finishing 2nd to 11th in National Division One at end of season 2008-9 invited to join the Championship for 2009-10 along with relegated club from Guinness Premiership and promoted club from National Division Two
- minimum entry criteria based on simplified version of Premiership criteria
- salary cap based on simplified version of Premiership criteria
- if any clubs do not wish to join the Championship, invitations will be extended to the other four National Division One clubs and then top two from National Division Two based on league positions

Funding

- Rights fee share from Sky Sports for a new five-year agreement commencing in 2010-11
- PRL funding of £1m per annum to Championship over eight years
- RFU funding of £2.3m per annum comprising core funding in first two years to be then replaced by revenue for clubs fielding English Qualified Players and who invest in their facilities

National League competitions

The new National Division One will become a 16-team league comprising five clubs not included in the Championship, nine clubs from National Division Two, one promoted from National Division Three South, one promoted from National Division Three North.

The new National Division Two will become two leagues of 16 clubs divided into North and South divisions comprising clubs from the existing National Division Three North and South.

The new National Division Three will be based divisionally on four leagues (South West, London, North and Midlands) comprising clubs from the current existing National Division Three and below.

Tags: England Rugby

The 12 Premiership Clubs including Leeds Carnegie will be running Try Rugby, a new initiative to introduce young children in the area to rugby. We are doing this with our partners Wooden Spoon and Sport England through the National Sports Foundation.

One of the things we are hoping to do, as well as getting more young people to play the game, is help tackle the growing issue of childhood obesity. Today nearly a third (31.1 per cent) of 11-year-olds* are now overweight or obese and the statistic is rising. Exercise is a great way of dealing with this and rugby is the perfect sport to do it - all shapes and sizes have their place in rugby - just look at the different shapes and sizes needed to play front row, back row or scrum half.

23,000 children throughout England will benefit from the initiative.

England World Cup winner, Lawrence Dallaglio, Honorary President for Spoon is putting his weight behind the campaign and said “In any rugby team you will see a vast difference in the heights, weights and overall sizes of players. Just look at England’s World Cup winning squad; Matt Dawson and Jonny Wilkinson are both about 5ft 10″ and 13 stone, Steve Thompson is 6ft and was 18 stone and Martin Johnson is 6ft 7″ and weighs 18 stone. They are all fit and very health conscious but there is nearly a foot difference in their heights and 5 stone difference in their weights!

“Consequently rugby is the ideal vehicle to engage and motivate youngsters - they don’t need to feel self-conscious about their size as rugby needs every shape and size in a team. What’s more, playing rugby can engender a great many positive values such as respect, team work and having fun while exercising.”

Wooden Spoon along with Sport England through the National Sports Foundation have each contributed £130,000 to Try Rugby; the scheme offers 23,000 pupils aged 8-10 across England the chance to try out rugby, many of whom will be trying it for the first time.

Wayne Morris, Head of Community for Premier Rugby said, “Try Rugby gives local schools a course in tag rugby that will benefit children and teachers and will enable rugby to still be played long after we have completed the coaching series. Tag rugby is a pretty straightforward sport and it is lots of fun. Recent research has shown that rugby players are seen as very positive role models which we hope will also inspire the participating children.”

Try Rugby kicked off in September 2008 all thanks to Sport England, Premier Rugby and Spoon.

Tags: guinness premiership

GLOUCESTER Rugby are delighted to announce that Martin St Quinton has become a major new partner in the Guinness Premiership club.

The telecommunications entrepreneur (50) will also sit on the board of Directors alongside managing director Ken Nottage and other board directors after purchasing a 25% shareholding in the club.

The Walkinshaw family will remain as principle owners with Tom as Chairman - a position he has held for more than a decade at the Kingsholm club.

“Any major off-field development such as this is extremely important for any club and I would like to take this opportunity of welcoming Martin on board on behalf of everyone at Gloucester Rugby,” Walkinshaw said.

“Martin’s involvement comes at a vital time for the club when we are growing and developing faster than at any time in our history.

“He has tremendous business acumen and will add value as a stakeholder - I am delighted to be able to bring him onboard at the club.”

St Quinton has had a distinguished business career. In 1980 he started The Saint Group, a private office equipment company, which he sold to Danka PLC in 1993. From then until 1999 he was CEO of Danka’s International Operations. During this six-year period he acquired over 50 companies in 30 different countries.

In 2000, he founded another company Azzurri Communications which has grown to 700 staff and a £150million turnover in eight years. In 2003, St Quinton was named Ernst & Young Technology Entrepreneur of the Year.

His interest in rugby started at Pocklington School in Yorkshire where he was 1st XV captain, he went on to play for Durham University.

St Quinton said: “I am extremely excited about the opportunity to join this club with such history, tradition and passion. To be involved with such a major institution like Gloucester is not only humbling but a tremendous challenge.

“Tom Walkinshaw has done a huge amount for the club over the last decade and I want to support him to take the club to the next level - a level where we can challenge the best in Europe over the long-term.

“The club owns its own ground at Kingsholm and the priority will be to enlarge the stadium to a 20,000 capacity, thereby providing the financial backbone to enable to the club to consistently win trophies.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am thrilled at the prospect of getting involved.”

Tags: gloucester rugby, guinness premiership

Brent Russell has signed for French side Clermont Auvergne and the South African international full back is set to join up with his new team mates in the next few days.

The 28-year-old signed for Saracens last season but a broken collar bone within days of his arrival in August 2007 restricted his first team appearances. He has not featured in the first team this season after a shoulder injury in pre-season ruled him out of the first few weeks of the new campaign.

But the now fit-again Russell would have found his first team opportunities limited following the development of the likes of England U20 international Noah Cato and recent performances of Chris Wyles added to the other back three options within the Saracens squad.

As a result, Saracens and Russell have agreed that a move would be in the best interests of both parties.

“Brent is at the stage of his career where he needs to be playing regular first team rugby and we are unable to offer that at this time,” explained Saracens Director of Rugby Eddie Jones. “We have strength in depth across the back three and in the last two weeks we have seen the exciting steps forward that Noah Cato has taken, while Chris Wyles continues to impress following his arrival on secondment from USA Rugby.

“Also, with players like Kameli Ratuvou, Richard Haughton, Francisco Leonelli, Rodd Penney, Edd Thrower and Dan Scarbrough within the squad, we have a number of options.

“With that in mind, when this opportunity arose for Brent to move to one of the leading clubs in France, we felt it would be wrong to stand in his way. He’s very popular with players and supporters alike and we all wish him the best for the future.”

Speaking about the move, Russell explained: “The offer from Clermont came out of left field and was totally unexpected. I had high expectations for my season here at Saracens - especially after some good pre-season training - and I was looking forward to playing some great rugby when I damaged ligaments in my right shoulder. Apart from the series of injuries, I have been very settled and happy here at Saracens and have made some very good mates who I will really miss.

“However, the life of a professional sportsman is all about taking one’s opportunities and the offer from Clermont is a good one. I am really looking forward to getting involved in the French style of play and feel that playing in France will suit my game. I am looking forward to the challenge.

Tags: Brent Russell, Saracens

Newcastle and England fly half Jonny Wilkinson today underwent a scan on his left knee, following the injury which forced him from the field in the 25th minute of Tuesday’s Guinness Premiership match at Gloucester.

The scan confirmed a dislocation of the knee, and Wilkinson will now receive further specialist advice and treatment.

Falcons director of rugby, Steve Bates, said: “It is obviously disappointing for Jonny to receive an injury just when he was back playing fantastic rugby, but he has enormous strength of character and I am sure he will come back stronger despite this blow.”

Tags: Jonny Wilkinson, Newcastle falcons

Tuesday 30th September

Gloucester Rugby v Newcastle Falcons (Kingsholm, 7.45pm)

Wednesday 1st October

London Wasps v Bath Rugby (Adams Park, 7.30pm)
Bristol Rugby v Saracens (Memorial Stadium, 7.45pm)
Leicester Tigers v Northampton Saints (Welford Road, 7.45pm)
London Irish v Sale Sharks (Madejski Stadium, 7.45pm)

Thursday 2nd October

Worcester Warriors v Harlequins (Sixways, 8pm) Live on
Highlights show on 6.30pm Sunday evenings.

ROUND 5 PREVIEWS

Gloucester Rugby v Newcastle Falcons

The last team other than Leicester to beat Gloucester Rugby at Kingsholm in the Guinness Premiership was London Wasps on 6 May 2006. Gloucester have played six previous Premiership games on a Tuesday evening and lost them all!

Newcastle Falcons have won their last two home matches but on the road it is an entirely different story, with just one away victory in the Guinness Premiership since November 2006: 22-19 at Saracens on 30 December 2007.

Gloucester have lost just one of their last nine Premiership encounters with the Falcons: 12-19 at Kingston Park on 13 April 2007. Newcastle have won at Kingsholm only once: 29-27 in the Premiership on 11 April 1998.

London Wasps v Bath Rugby

London Wasps finally got their season rolling with a 28-19 victory at Welford Road on Friday evening. Wasps have lost their last two regular season games at Adams Park, the last time the Londoners lost three in a row at home in the Premiership was when they played at Loftus Road in 2001.

Bath Rugby have won three of their first four games in the Guinness Premiership including successive away victories at Bristol and London Irish. Bath have not won three in a row on the road in the competition since March 2004.

The two sides contested one of the Guinness Premiership semi-final matches last year with Wasps winning all three encounters between the two last season. Bath’s most recent win at Adams Park was 12-9 on 29 January 2005.

Bristol Rugby v Saracens

Bristol Rugby continue to struggle with a tenth straight Guinness Premiership loss at Newcastle last Friday night. Bristol won the last time they played on a Wednesday: 16-6 against Bath at Ashton Gate on 27 December 2006.

Saracens have won back to back matches against Newcastle and Northampton but both games were played at home. Saracens have not won on the road in 2008 since beating Harlequins 27-20 at the Stoop on 22 December 2007.

Bristol’s only win in their last five clashes with Saracens in all competitions was 18-3 in this equivalent fixture last season. Saracens last victory at Memorial Stadium was 23-11 on 16 October 2005.

Leicester Tigers v Northampton Saints

Leicester Tigers suffered a first defeat of the season at the hands of London Wasps on Friday evening. The only previous occasion that the Tigers have succumbed to back to back league defeats at Welford Road was in October 2003 when they lost to Sale and tonight’s opponents, Northampton.

Northampton Saints’ only two defeats this season have both come away from home at Newcastle and Saracens. The Saints’ last away win in the Guinness Premiership was 10-9 against Leicester at Welford Road on 24 February 2007.

Northampton have won their last two matches against Leicester in all competitions.

London Irish v Sale Sharks

London Irish gained the narrowest of victories at Harlequins on Saturday to give them their first win in the Guinness Premiership since the opening day of the season. The Exiles lost their only previous game at Madejski Stadium this campaign - 16-20 to Bath – but have not suffered back to back defeats at Reading in the Premiership since October 2006.

Table topping Sale Sharks last week became the first side to go through four successive entire Premiership games without conceding a try. The Sharks tryline has not been breached since Seilala Mapusua crossed for London Irish on 10 May – 321 playing minutes ago – Wasps have the only longer defensive tryless run with 390 minutes between 27 December 2000 and 17 March 2001.

London Irish have won their last three matches against Sale, whilst the Sharks have won on three of their last four visits to Madejski Stadium.

Worcester Warriors v Harlequins

Worcester Warriors have slipped to successive defeats in the Guinness Premiership. This is the Warriors first ever competitive match to be played on a Thursday.

Harlequins have also suffered back to back reversals to Gloucester and London Irish. Quins have gained at least one league point from each of their last sixteen Guinness Premiership matches since the 13-42 home defeat to Leicester on 7 January.

Worcester have not beaten Harlequins in the Premiership since a 15-9 victory at the Stoop on 19 February 2005, whilst Quins have won on their last two visits to Sixways.

Tags: preview

It may only be September, but Harlequins are delighted to announce that over 10,000 tickets have already been sold for the “Big Game” at Twickenham Stadium on December 27th against Leicester Tigers; even though the game is still three months away.

With over 70% of seats being priced at £10 or less, it is a wonderful chance for the whole family to experience a high quality sporting event at the home of English rugby. If you are looking for that early Christmas present for a friend or a day out for the whole family, go to www.ticketmaster.co.uk. Please be aware that the capacity on the day will be restricted to 50,000.

There will be any number of world class players on show. Danny Care and Harry Ellis will continue their battle for the England number nine shirt, Martin Corry and Nick Easter will use all their experience to lead their respective packs to victory and David Strettle will be determined to show Tom Varndell who reigns supreme on the wing.

Tags: guinness premiership, harlequins, Rugby