Brian Moore has a message of warning for the IRB following the tragic assisted suicide of rugby player Daniel James. Read his words of warning in The Daily Telegraph.

"Though it falls into cliché, rugby union is genuinely the most interactive of team sports. It has a unique ability to provide a meaningful role for people of all physiques and strengths. It loses this at its peril. For this reason, among others, that I continue to deride the International Rugby Board and their elite referees for failing to implement Law 20, which mandates that the ball is put in straight at the scrum.

"The put-in issue has gone beyond a mere risible aside and is now straying into the area of personal safety. As it is now impossible to win a strike against the head due to the ridiculously squint feeds allowed by elite referees, power scrummaging is what is left.

"This means young players now simply hit as hard as they can in the scrum and continue driving until it is finished. As such, the attrition on their spines is heightened; leading to an increase in early retirements and indisputably an increase in the pressure in scrums."

Brendan Gallagher has fond memories of one of rugby's "cathedrals" in Llanelli. Read his farewell message to Stradey Park in The Daily Telegraph.

"A massive housing estate is planned there now but the human drama therein will never match that we witnessed and experienced at Parc Y Stradey over the last 129 years. Victory, defeat, hope, despair, honest graft, committee room rows, romance, life and even death. Almost a year to this day we gathered to commemorate Ray Gravell whose public funeral at the ground proved such an unexpectedly uplifting occasion. The capacity to surprise and inspire has always been a Stradey trait.

"In the land of chapel, Stradey has been an open air cathedral, somewhere for believers to congregate and air their faith. Those who believe in Welsh language and culture, running rugby and the urgent need for wine and song whenever emotions, happy or sad, need to be voiced.

"Those who believe in miracles - and have occasionally witnessed them on the pitch - but also practical sons of the Carmarthenshire soil, dockers and steel workers who have known bloody hard times and appreciate that fighting the good fight is what sees you through life when the odds are stacked against you. Stradey was their Saturday afternoon playground, where they went to be diverted - delivered even - from their everyday grind. Which is possibly why Llanelli have always been under huge pressure to perform and entertain as well as win."

Brian Moore was impressed by both Munster and Leinster in the latest Heineken Cup clashes. Read his latest offering for the Daily Telegraph.

"A dominant performance by Leinster swept Wasps aside as comprehensively as you are likely to see a Wasps side beaten. In the pre-match build-up, the commentators billed it as the clash of two world rugby stars - Brian O'Driscoll and Danny Cipriani; hardly apposite. It says much that Cipriani's celebrity has affected even experienced rugby observers. It was a convenient opening hook, but can anyone seriously make a case for the bracketing of the two?

"As it was, Cipriani had to deal with ball on the back foot, whilst O'Driscoll turned in a performance of the kind which was all too absent last year; one which made you sit up and applaud irrespective of allegiance.

"Whatever O'Driscoll's status with regards to captaincy, Ireland need him to be fit and on form; against Wasps he looked the former, but not the latter; failing to emerge for the second half with a knee injury."

Sale Sharks and England star Mathew Tait falls under the spell of club mate Sebastien Chabal in his latest blog offering for the Guardian.

"There are so many players here of international calibre. For a back to play outside guys like Luke McAlister, Dwayne Peel and Charlie Hodgson is a dream. It makes me feel excited. And then a quick look across at the forwards makes me feel safe. Andrew Sheridan, Jason White and company are one thing, but then Sébastien Chabal walks in and you know you're in the right changing room.

"It has quickly become obvious since I arrived here that Seabass is a club legend. The fans just love him. Even my mum's got a crush on him. Must be something to do with the beard, because my dad has one as well. I dare say I'm a disappointment to her, because it would take me about three years to grow anything like that. And having experimented with the shaggy hair look myself, I've decided to cut my losses. I've had a short back and sides since coming to Sale."

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Paul Ackford previews the return of the Pacific Islanders to UK shores, and reveals that there will be plenty of colour behind the scenes.

"In two weeks Sitiveni Rabuka, the former Prime Minister of Fiji, will check in to a Heathrow hotel as manager of the 28-man Pacific Islands' squad who will play Tests against England, France and Italy. The choice of Heathrow is deliberate.

"We didn't want our boys getting dazzled by the bright lights of London," said a spokesman for the party comprising the best players from Tonga, Samoa and Fiji.

"Not that the manager should have too much trouble maintaining focus. Major-General Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka, OBE, MSD, Order of St John - as he was once known - is best remembered as the instigator of two military coups that shook Fiji in 1987. Two years ago he was found not guilty, on a casting vote, of inciting a mutiny in 2000. Colourful bloke, Rabuka."

Writing in the Independent, Hannah Wright surveys opinion on the latest addition to the Stade Francais Paris wardrobe.

"The shirt, with fetching denim-look sides and sleeves, made its debut this month against Montauban. Although the club's other shirts are decorated with flowers, and all have pink on them, the new version has created a verbal ruck in French rugby chat-rooms.

"One fan said: "If it wasn't so expensive I'd buy loads just to throw away. It makes me feel nauseous." Another said: "Who's smoking what at Stade Francais? And where can I get some?"A contributor on the British site, rugbyforum.com said: "Are they purposely trying to make every kit gayer as each season passes by?" Another asked: "Are they designed to hypnotise the opposition when they go to tackle them or something?"

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Paul Lewis chats to Martin Snedden, CEO of Rugby New Zealand 2011.

"Snedden is fond of the Beijing Olympics comparison. Multi-billion dollar facilities, impeccable organisation and coordination, a showcase of talent and effort - but no atmosphere; no connection with visitors; and therefore no real sense of involvement; all preventing it from being labelled one of the great Olympics. Part of the plan to provide the festival and the stadium of four million is to have different regions host different teams. To do even that, however, takes gargantuan coordination. It's too big for one centralised body to pull off.

"So Snedden and his team are devolving responsibility to 20 RWC regions, involving local councils, venues, tourism operators - anyone who needs to be involved in a region's efforts to host teams and the visitors who come to watch them and experience this country. Snedden does this job largely by talking. And talking. And talking."

Former England international and now respected journalist Paul Ackford delivers some home truths for Danny Cipriani in a piece for the Sunday Telegraph.

"This week the frenzy that accompanied Cipriani was ludicrous. The fact that his Land Rover was clamped even made it into one tabloid newspaper. And that followed the revelation that his girlfriend, actress-cum-model Kelly Brook, had bought a new king-size mattress.

"At least Johnson and Wilkinson did something to justify a fraction of their media profile. Cipriani has done nothing. He hasn't played in a World Cup; he hasn't toured with England; he hasn't faced Australia, New Zealand or South Africa; he hasn't turned out for the Lions. He hasn't achieved any of the targets which are necessary to earn lasting respect as an athlete."

Writing for Rugby Heaven, Greg Growden pays tribute to one of the stars of the Australian wheelchair rugby stars who claimed silver at the Beijing Paralympics.

"Ryley Batt is nowhere near as well known as Lote Tuqiri or Stirling Mortlock, but at another level of the rugby code he is the ultimate world beater.

"For anyone who watched the ABC's excellent television coverage of the Paralympic Games in Beijing, Batt was the Australian standout. It took only a few minutes of watching any Australian wheelchair rugby match to realise that the youngster in green and gold was something extraordinary.

"Batt was the antagonist. The enforcer. The master of fearlessly smashing into opponents. The speedster. The try sneak. The man with guile. The one player each opponent wanted to nullify, but each time failed. And he came so close to winning Australia a gold medal, succumbing only in the final seconds of the final to the US."

Writing in the Sunday Times, David Walsh reflects on the injury-ravaged career of England and Newcastle star Jonny Wilkinson.

"It is hard to imagine anyone who has been more admired in the game, but not at all difficult to understand the reasons for the admiration. For here he is, sitting in a hotel room on Thursday afternoon, not long after hearing that he will be out of the game for at least five months, and he is being asked how he feels about a situation that has seen him limp out of the squad and allow Cipriani to stride back in.

"He laughs, self-deprecatingly, as if he only now realises he could have timed this better. But when you suggest the loss of another opportunity must hurt because he's human, he gets serious. "Incredibly human," he says, "but at the same time, things can be hugely frustrating and quite problematic if it's all about you. "

Brian Moore lays it on the line for Premiership big-hitters London Wasps in an analysis piece for the Daily Telegraph.

"Like everyone else, I thought the difficulties suffered by Wasps at the start of this season were merely a repetition of their usual torpor at this stage. But after seeing them struggle and lose against Gloucester on Saturday, I'm not so sure. Wasps' game at Kingsholm bore no resemblance to the juggernaut that has, for several seasons, swept all before it.

"I did not recognise the defensive patterns or the limitation of their attack which, while attritional as ever, was restricted to narrow channels close to the breakdowns. To add to the woe, their line-out, never a strong suit, is not functioning and they are vulnerable in the scrum to packs that know their stuff."

Former England international Paul Ackford offers an insight into the machinations of the England management team in a piece for the Daily Telegraph.

"Each Wednesday of the season so far, Johnson, Rob Andrew, the RFU's director of elite rugby, and an assortment of medical and fitness advisers have participated in a conference call to monitor England's ill and injured. And in each week of the season to date Cipriani could have been moved up because one or more of Johnson's elite squad was on the treatment table. The only way Johnson cannot switch players between squads is if all his senior men report fit in the immediate build-up to England's first international against the Pacific Islands. Given that, on average, a fifth of the national squad are crocked at any one time, that is not going to happen.

"The implications of this are wide-ranging. It means that in-form players like Bath's Nick Abendanon and Harlequins' David Strettle, both in the Saxons squad, could come under consideration for positions for which their senior colleagues have yet to stake a claim. It also means that, were Iain Balshaw to continue scoring a hat-trick of tries in the remaining fixtures leading into the autumn series, he, too, could play a part, even though he features in neither of England's two squads at present."

Stephen Jones laments the lack of spice in modern Anglo-Welsh clashes in his "Rolling Maul" blog for The Times.

"Whole generations of rugby followers were brought up on Anglo-Welsh clashes in club rugby. The first week of Bristol's season used to bring games against Cardiff and Swansea and Newport, all inside eight days, every year. At the end of the week, for those inclined, there was a decent Christian burial.

"All that was before leagues, of course, but I recall as a schoolboy taking in those gladiatorial games and never feeling in the slightest cheated because they were, essentially, friendlies. I come to think of it, leagues took so long to come in because there was already so much bite in the games without league status at stake."