Johnson's England are set to come under the microscope in the coming weeks © Getty Images

Lacklustre England must banish their long years of misery or call time on their team manager, argues Stephen Jones in the Sunday Times.

"Show us something, lads. Anything. These past six years should have been a joy. Instead, to watch England has felt like a prison sentence, without remission. There are many reasons to be terrified that the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand is only 19 months away. One of them is that England enter the 2010 RBS Six Nations as the lowly fourth favourites of a rather unexceptional six, so in world terms are hardly on the register.

"Martin Johnson and his management team have five games in the next seven weeks. Unless England improve greatly, they have five games left in all as England’s hierarchy. Taking this a stage further, in my view they have five games before England are forced to look outside their borders for a new head man. None of the hierarchy can survive a poor tournament.

"Yet again, England rugby followers have been asked to tolerate the intolerable. Every time there is a regime change with the national team, the supporters are told to be patient, it doesn’t happen overnight (in Martin Johnson’s case, it doesn’t happen in 15 months and 15 games), the team are developing, we’re showing signs, ignore the media rotters. Blah, blah blah."

Former South Africa captain Francois Pienaar, in London for the British premiere of Invictus, tells the Daily Telegraph's Brendan Gallagher about the day when the Rainbow Nation became one.

"Pienaar is slowly getting used to the novelty of being the subject of a Hollywood film though anybody who witnessed the events of 1995 knew it would happen eventually. The world’s media arrived to report on a rugby tournament and we ended up as willing crowd extras secretly praying that none of the main players fluffed their lines.

“Francois, fantastic support from 63,000 South Africans here today?” TV anchorman David van der Sandt said straight after the Boks had beaten the mighty All Blacks in the final. Without missing a beat, Pienaar replied: “David, we didn’t have the support of 63,000 South Africans today, we had the support of 42 million South Africans.”

"Cut. That was a wrap, the 'Hollywood’ ending the 'story’ demanded. No scriptwriter could top it. The Springboks, playing in their first World Cup, had overcome a bad draw, injuries, sending offs, a biblical flood in Durban and then tamed Jonah Lomu and the All Blacks.

"Nobody knows what magic Mandela was working back then but Pienaar has always summed it up by quoting a short passage from French poet Guillaume Apollinaire – “ 'Come to the edge,’ he said. 'We are afraid,’ they replied. 'Come to the edge,’ he said. 'They came, he pushed them, and they flew.’ ”

France may be more pragmatic than the 2008 side but won't abandon their va va voom, their coach Marc Lievremont tells The Scotsman's Ian Borthwick.

"The main problem for Lievremont, however, is that so much depends on the opening match of the Championship. To play to their potential, to be able to express themselves with the fluidity and free-spirit they showed in Edinburgh two years ago, the French need above all to feel confident in what they are doing. It is perhaps too easy to categorise the French as "confidence players". But confidence and consistency are the two factors in the Six Nations that determine whether France can once again be the dominant force in European rugby, or whether they will continue to suffer the kind of ignominious defeat they witnessed at Twickenham last year, when they collapsed to a 34-10 loss, after trailing 29-0 at half-time.

"For us, the opening game is the key," he insists. "We French need to get a good win under our belt." Insisting that it is perhaps not just a French speciality, he points to the last two Six Nations championships, where both Wales and Ireland built their success on the first day of the competition. "Two years ago, Wales started by pulling off a win at Twickenham, then going on to greater success. And last year, it was the same for Ireland. They only just beat us in the opening game in Dublin, but they scored three tries that day, and that set them up for the rest of the championship."

England legend Jeremy Guscott claims England's rank and file have to deflect flak from Johnson – and has backed Riki Flutey as key to a successful Six Nations. He talks to Hugh Godwin in the Independent on Sunday.

"Martin Johnson's politics are unknown but he shares with David Cameron a penchant for dark suits and shirts without a tie. While Cameron has a few months to sort out his bid for No 10, the Six Nations Championship is less than a week away, and one former team-mate of Johnson's believes the England manager's division of labour is not working. "There's no player there yet who's brave enough and big enough to tell the coaches to eff off," said Jerry Guscott. "I just think there's a lot of confusion within the England squad and the management, unless there's something going on none of us know about and all of a sudden it'll click and explode."

Brian O'Driscoll's men are good for a repeat, if not undefeated, but France, England, Wales and Scotland are on their tail according to Eddie Butler in The Observer.

Brian O'Driscoll seems hungrier than ever, thoroughly recovered from his career's lumpy, podgy spell, that lasted from the shoulder injury in 2005 on the Lions tour to some point last year when he part-exchanged his handsome white charger for a Chieftain tank. For Leinster, Ireland and the Lions, O'Driscoll has just been a phenomenon. He has been talking about not playing forever, but the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand is far enough away for him to be able to avoid any suggestion of a swansong campaign now.

"Ireland won the grand slam without revealing anything ­glitzier than a grim intent last season, but they have a team that could blossom now that the monkey of 1948 has been removed. There's a choice to be made by their coach, Declan Kidney, over who will start at 10, Ronan O'Gara or Jonathan Sexton, but he might say it's perhaps more important who finishes there. Or he might say that it's good to have such a choice to make."

Can England attack coach Brian Smith get his side firing for the Six Nations? © Getty Images

England attack coach Brian Smith has denied rumours of compromise and insists he is not being reined in. He talks to Rob Kitson in The Guardian.

"Brian Smith likes to be ahead of the game. He is already sitting in the first-floor bar of the new South Stand hotel at ­Twickenham, tapping away at his laptop, well before the appointed hour. Clever, meticulous and media-savvy, he looks every inch the professional strategist completing the final draft of an intricate masterplan. If Six Nations titles were determined by slick, expensively resourced preparation alone, England would be champions every year.

"Instead it is almost seven years since Clive Woodward's all-conquering side last confirmed England as Europe's top dogs with a runaway win over Ireland in Dublin. While their stadium has subsequently become the ultimate commercial shrine, the national team's stock has taken a ­hammering. Smith, as attack coach, is central to their potential rejuvenation. The key word, as ever, is "potential". With the 2011 World Cup looming, England swiftly need some momentum if Martin Johnson's regime is to be remembered with affection."

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Dylan Clever outlines the reasons why Richie McCaw should be a clear winner for New Zealand's sportsperson of the decade.

"He has twice this decade been officially recognised as the best rugby player in the world, and even that seems stingy on reflection.

"For most of the past decade he has been recognised as the undisputed best openside flanker in the game. So effective is he that breakdown laws have been changed to reduce his influence. He is not just consistent, he is consistently brilliant.

"He is the captain of New Zealand's most successful sports team and the only iconic sports "brand" this country possesses, and the difficulties of 2009 seemed to bring out a hitherto unseen Whineray-like streak. He is, in short, a national treasure. He's a hero to untold thousands of kids and, as facile as the term might be, not a bad role model either."

Ulster and Ireland winger Andrew Trimble talks to the Irish Times' Johnny Watterson about a year in the rugby wilderness and rediscovering a renewed focus and appetite for the game.

"After a year in the wilderness, Trimble has had time to watch. In his own mind it has been too much time, enough at least to put him on the outside looking in. He watched Ulster slip and slide throughout last season and, most hurtful of all, watched the Ireland team that he had once been part of charge to a Grand Slam without him.

"Declan Kidney had little choice but to leave him out of contention and Trimble didn’t quibble. After a series of injuries, he had lost the power in his legs. His starting place with the province was in doubt.

"The confidence evaporated and his game spiralled downwards. He ended up watching Ireland’s final championship match against Wales at home with his brother-in-law. By then the lack of confidence was hurtling towards full-blown doubt."

ARU chief John O'Neill is stressing entertainment. Chris Hickey insists it's winning. But what is the key to luring back rugby fans after a period of defensive mindsets and negative tactics? Rupert Guinness reports in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"O'Neill was forthright in his view on where rugby was placed in the hearts and minds of the public. Outlining a meeting called between the ARU and Australia's four Super franchises, he said: ''We've all sat around the table and looked at the reality of where crowd figures have gone and where the game in general is at. I think we've hit the bottom and everyone of the four teams is determined to deliver winning and entertaining rugby.''

"Hickey may say he will place greater emphasis on winning than entertaining when the Waratahs commence their 2010 campaign against the Reds in Brisbane on February 13, followed by fixtures against the Stormers in Cape Town and the Bulls in Pretoria. But even if NSW return unbeaten, without fresh spark in their play, he can't bank on a big crowd at the SFS for their first home game against the Sharks in round four."

England flanker Lewis Moody discusses his rising stock in an interview with Owen Slot in The Times.

"The stereotyping of Lewis Moody has been long and fun. So much fun that he still happily joins in. In the course of a 40-minute interview with The Times, he offers four self-deprecating references to his lack of intelligence, all of them light-hearted and entirely unprovoked.

"He could not, for instance, fathom the maths of what had been required for survival in Leicester’s Heineken Cup game with the Ospreys last week, although he does now understand that survival was not achieved. And not included in the count of four is his chuckle, again self-deprecating, at the idea that he has a decent grasp of French. This is not insignificant because, after a decade and a half of loyalty to Leicester, he is considering pursuing his fortune in a different language.

"We discuss his nickname “Mad Dog”, which is another case of embedded perceptions. The nickname was invented by the media, picked up by the crowd and only then found its way on to the team bus. Given that Moody is so young at heart, it should have been Mad Puppy."

Writing in The Independent, former England coach Brian Ashton believes Ireland's O'Driscoll will be the man to watch in thisyear's Six Nations.

"Am I alone in craving a little liberation for the midfield community? I want to see them bringing the full range of skills to the party, to savour a little elusive running and distributive subtlety – a passing game that creates space through weight, pace and timing. How often do we see a pair of centres working the angles together in broken play after four or five phases? It is hardly commonplace.

"But if anyone tries to tell me this is a thing of the past, that the modern game is not the place for it, I'll tell them to watch Brian O'Driscoll play alongside Gordon D'Arcy for Leinster, or find themselves a tape of O'Driscoll and Jamie Roberts cutting up the South Africans on last summer's Lions tour.

"O'Driscoll is the perfect example of a centre whose rugby decisions are made in direct response to the things happening around him. He was always a dynamic, highly skilled, courageous player, but over the last 18 months he seems to have added all manner of sophisticated touches to his game. I have no evidence for this, but I suspect the Ireland coach, Declan Kidney, has had a positive influence here. I came to know Declan quite well during my time working with Ireland in the mid-1990s and he is the kind of coach who encourages players to take responsibility, to "give the game" to them."

Ospreys prop Adam Jones is set to anchor the Wales pack in this year's Six Nations © Getty Images

Larger-than-life Wales prop Adam Jones explains to The Independent's Brian Viner why he's not too big to cry, why he bears no grudge against Bakkies Botha for ending his Lions tour, and why Wales will be just fine in the Six Nations without Gavin Henson.

"The bloody big lump is sitting opposite me in the bar of the Vale of Glamorgan Hotel, where the Wales training camp is based. In truth, he used to be a much bigger lump, weighing in at 23 stone when he was still in his teens. At 28 he's now a sylph-like 19 stone, but that doesn't make him easier to shift. Under the gimlet eye of a former front-row forward in Warren Gatland, he has shed weight and gained fitness. Where once he struggled to last more than an hour, now he can truck around all day.

"Moreover, the received wisdom in rugby union these days is that a really good tight-head prop, as the anchor of the scrum, is more covetable even than a top fly-half, not least because he belongs to a much rarer species. Jones, I venture, could probably name his price if a swanky French club came calling? He snorts. "I haven't had an offer. One day maybe."

Munster prop Marcus Horan talks to the Irish Independent's David Kelly as he plots a return to the Ireland team - starting with Ireland A'c clash with the England Saxons.

"It says much about the often ambiguous relationship Irish rugby supporters have with their heroes that Marcus Horan's welcome return to the provincial fray last weekend was at once greeted with affectionate acclaim and chilly condescension.

"There were those -- a tumultuous majority, it has to be said -- for whom Horan's comeback from a minor heart procedure undertaken before Christmas was a boon for a flagging front-row, and a harbinger of good fortune as the serious rugby business of the spring kicks into full gear.

"And yet there were others, unafraid to vocalise their thoughts in the game's aftermath, who witnessed Horan crumpling beneath the Northampton scrum and questioned whether the loose-head's return actually made things any better."

The proposal to have two Italian teams, comprised of home-based players, competing in an expanded, 12-team Magners League looks set to be formally shot down today, according to Gerry Thornley in the Irish Times.

"The Celtic League board had asked for a €3 million warranty from the FIR (Italian Rugby federation) to offset the costs of having two Italian franchises in the league for a four-year trial and set a deadline of this morning. However, the FIR president Giancarlo Dondi – the driving force behind the proposal – has said he will reject this demand.

"Dondi and the FIR had offered to refund the Irish, Welsh and Scottish teams for expenses incurred in travelling to matches in Italy, no profit-sharing for the Italian franchises and a projected Italian television deal of €300,000 to €400,000, but is believed to be furious at the demand for a €3 million warranty."

Dan Retief recalls a memorable encounter with the late Springboks forward Ruben Kruger. Read his thoughts on Super Sport.

"He was shy and didn’t really enjoy being in front of the camera but the day provided an apt insight to who he was. In a cupboard he showed me a collection of all the Springbok jerseys he had ever worn; the shorts, the socks, even the training jerseys and shorts because, as he explained, they were too precious to give away!

During an immense 1995 he was awarded a try by referee Derek Bevan in the “monsoon” semifinal against France in Durban which he admitted might just as easily have been denied (“Sometimes they give them, sometimes they don’t”) but he was adamant that he was robbed of a certain try by Ed Morrison in the Final at Ellis Park.

“There’s just no way it wasn’t a try,” he said. “I had the ball tucked into my chest, Os (du Randt) was shoving me from the right and the other forwards were on my left. When I went over the line I fell on the ball and no-one else got near it,” he explained without a tinge of bitterness.

Sadly after that pinnacle Kruger’s career would be dogged by injury and misfortune."

Writing for Super Sport, Brendan nel pays tribute to former Springboks forward Ruben Kruger who lost his battle with cancer this week.

"I remember first seeing him as a glimmer on a television screen years ago when he led his Grey College side out for a schools match. For the life of me, I can’t recall the opposition or much about the game, but I do recall that Kruger, all of 18 years old, looked like a grizzled veteran on the rugby field, a man far beyond his youthful looks and one who made an indelible impression on me to keep an eye on.

"As the years went on, and on my move to Pretoria I slowly got to know Ruben, or “Ben” as he was more affectionately known, and formed an exceptional working relationship and friendship with the man. On the field, as a captain, when he spoke, he commanded respect, led from the front and was a giant of the game in more ways than one."

Writing in The Guardian, Wales assistant coach Shaun Edwards believes the pressure is on the Six Nations coaches to use the time they have with their players well.

"This is the week that cost millions. It's also the week when coaches really earn their money. Fail and you get found out. As the clock counts down to the Six Nations, this is when we should reap the benefits of deals such as the ones done between the Rugby Football Union and the English clubs and Wales and its regions that guarantee managers and coaches like Martin Johnson and Warren Gatland time – something like two weeks – to work with their players before internationals.

"Once – and not so long ago that there aren't plenty of former players who can remember the days and recount them in great detail – Test teams used to get together in the middle of the week of an international, have a couple of practice sessions which weren't much more than kickabouts, dish out the match‑day kit and then play on the Saturday. Gradually that got extended to a week, before in some countries that week became a fortnight.

"Now, thanks to the agreement in England, and that five-year deal done between the Welsh Rugby Union and the regions last September, we are all, more or less, on a level footing and have a decent amount of time to manage, micro-manage if you like, the players in the run-up to the Six Nations."

Justin Harrison is back in action with the Brumbies © Getty Images

Rupert Guinness talks to Brumbies lock Justin Harrison on his return to rugby following an eight-month drugs ban in The Sydney Morning Herald.

"Justin Harrison was one of the most imposing and hard-edged second-rowers in world rugby. But after the veteran of 34 Tests for Australia last year admitted to using cocaine, and retired humiliated and remorseful, simply ''getting through the day'' became the biggest challenge of his life.

''I became very insular and my horizons became very narrow,'' Harrison told the Herald of the weeks following his departure from English club Bath after his confession of drug use. ''I wasn't looking at anything other than getting through the day and managing the people closest to me, to reconcile that I had let [down] so many who had helped me … to try and placate them [and make them believe] I was the same person they had faith in when they started supporting me.

''There were many times of sadness, but overriding it was that I was enormously proud of my career to date - and still am - and wanted to maintain an association with rugby. So it became a matter of trying to find how I could continue that association and reduce the reticence of people around me.''

Robert Kitson hopes for an eventful Six Nations after a dour opening salvo at the official launch, in The Guardian.

"A tight defence is an essential tool of modern Test rugby and the give-em-nowt attitude is proving contagious. If this year's Six Nations is anything like as flat and predictable as the management-speak which suffocated the launch at London's Hurlingham Club, it could be a grey old championship, lacking not only Bill McLaren's presence but the pilot light of sporting romance on which the event traditionally relies.

"There were notable exceptions – Italy's Nick Mallett can hold forth entertainingly on most subjects in almost as many languages – but the days of rash predictions and ambitious statements of intent are gone. Even Wales's Warren Gatland stuck to his recent pledge to say nothingremotely provocative, blaming the assembled media for prompting this grim state of affairs. When it started raining at the precise moment the national captains were led outside for their photocall, it simply mirrored the lack of sparkling insight indoors.

"Such is life, sadly, in a results-driven business of deflationary margins. England, for example, lost to Ireland and Wales by a combined total of nine points last season and, as Martin Johnson observed, "anyone who predicts who will win the title is a brave guy". Such people as Johnson, Declan Kidney and Andy Robinson did not get where they are today by confidently anticipating grand slam glory before a single ball has been kicked."

Stephen Jones has no time for the protestations of Leicester following their Heineken Cup defeat to the Ospreys in The Times.

"Let us get one thing straight: in playing terms, Leicester Tigers do not deserve to be anywhere near the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup this season. Not only were they thrashed by a vastly superior Clermont team not so long ago, but they were decisively beaten by the Ospreys in Swansea last Saturday, and it was a defeat which could easily have become embarrassing if only the Ospreys had not become so anxious as the win beckoned.

"Now we have the situation where Leicester are effectively trying to get back into the competition in the courts. Lee Byrne's arrival for a grand total of around 55 seconds as the 16th man in the Ospreys ranks towards the end of the game means that Leicester are now urgently trying to have the match replayed.

"It is worth remembering the sequence of events, not so much of the Byrne return, which had a piffling impact on the action, but on Leicester's reaction to it. The first Tiger to go on the record regarding the incident was Richard Cockerill, the head coach. Soon after the game, Cockerill was honest enough to say that the better side had won and words to the effect that he would be unhappy if Leicester's progress in the competition was down to an honest mistake made by the Ospreys on the touchline."

Peter Bills, writing in The Irish Independent, meets Kiwi Tim Manawatu, now playing in Italy for L'Aquila, the club devastated by an earthquake in 2009.

"His name won't strike a ready chord with you, but then, that won't surprise him. Tim Manawatu knows he doesn't exactly have a name as familiar as Dan Carter or Richie McCaw.

"No matter, this young man's life has been transformed since he got to Italy on his rugby odyssey; there really is no other way to describe it. Like all young New Zealand kids, he yearned to pull on the black jersey, to call himself an All Black. But that is a reward afforded to just the privileged few.

"However for Manawatu, there has come the stunning realisation that you don't have to play at the level of the All Blacks to earn an extremely pleasant living out of professional rugby in Italy, the rugby nation which plays Ireland in the Six Nations opener at Croke Park on Saturday week.

"Originally from Kaikoura, part of the Canterbury region on the south island, Manawatu took a leap into the unknown several years ago and has counted his blessings every day since."

Brian O'Driscoll leads the way at the Six Nations launch in London © Getty Images

David Hands comments on the various states of boredom and indifference induced by the Six Nations launch in The Times.

"These are the occasions the captains and coaches abhor - the endless round of media outlets, TV, radio, written, photographic - the same unanswerable or self-evident questions, the sanitised replies. Ten days away from the start of the 2010 RBS Six Nations Championship, there are far more important elements of preparation demanding their time but their presence at the Hurlingham Club in London is mandatory.

"Poor Marc Lievremont did not even have the support of his players. France's coach came without his captain, Thierry Dusautoir, because the leading French clubs have a round of the Top 14 to play tonight and his replacement, Dimitri Szarzewski, the Stade Francais hooker, found his flight delayed. Not that this stopped Lievremont expressing the hope that this could be France's year, given that they have four representatives in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals.

"On the other hand, this was a first for Andy Robinson. The former England coach has done this before, of course, but not as coach to Scotland and he was on his best behaviour. What would it be like, Andy, when your team lines up to play England for the Calcutta Cup match? Robinson tells his interlocuter that he has always found the atmosphere at Murrayfield inspiring, that the hairs on the back of his neck still lift when the anthems are sung and is congratulated for the expert evasion of the question."

Paul Rees, writing in The Guardian, believes that the laws preventing teams from fielding 16 men are inadequate in the wake of the Ospreys' indiscretion against Leicester.

"If Lee Byrne's unsanctioned reappearance for the Ospreys in the final quarter of the Heineken Cup match against Leicester after he had been off the field having a cut toe treated did not amount to Bloodgate revisited in terms of intent to cheat, it raised anomalies in the administration of the tournament and the rules of the game.

"Leicester have cried foul and called for the match, which they lost 17-12, to be replayed on the grounds that Byrne had prevented Ben Youngs from continuing with a potentially try-scoring break just after coming on as the 16th man. They also claimed that the reason they were not awarded a penalty that the rules said should have been theirs — after the referee, Alan Lewis, had been made aware of Byrne's trespass — was that an Ospreys player had told him that the Tigers also had an extra man on the field. Ospreys and Byrne have today been charged with misconduct and must attend a hearing on Friday.

"Law 3.2 of the International Rugby Board's rules of the game states that before or during a match a team may make an objection to the referee about the number of players in their opponents' team; as soon as a referee knows that a team has too many players, the referee must order the captain of that team to reduce the number of players accordingly. The score at the time of the objection remains unaltered. Sanction: a penalty at the place where the game would restart."

Chris Rattue evaluates the rumours of Kiwi league star Manu Vatuvei joining the Melbourne Rebels in The New Zealand Herald.

"The new rugby and league seasons have yet to see a ball kicked in genuine anger, although temperatures will already be rising Penrose way. The Warriors' league wing Manu Vatuvei - a runaway truck in the straight forward gears and still learner driver in reverse - is said to be a target of the new Melbourne rugby franchise.

"With the faithful wondering about the state of this country's NRL outfit, what with the strange demotion of Steve Price from the captaincy, the rumour around the sometimes fabulous wing strikes another jarring note.

"The Vatuvei headline has already been written, the potential distraction in a new season - after a horrid 2009 for the Warriors - already in place. Such stories are convenient when talking up the price of your man, although Vatuvei still has two more years on his Warriors' contract so these are early days for haggling."

Mourners gathered in Hawick to pay their respects to Bill McLaren © PA

David Ferguson pays one last tribute to the late commentator Bill McLaren following his funeral in The Scotsman.

“The "lamppost of the lineout" Doddie Weir sat still, but towering over his friend and team-mate Gary Armstrong, the one that used to "burrow like a mole". Roy Laidlaw, the scrum-half McLaren likened to a "baggy up a Border burn", in testament to his slippery style, was sat near other favourites, Gavin Hastings and John Jeffrey, while the Gregor from the line "Townsend jouks into the clear" sat with Scotland coach Andy Robinson, Chris Paterson and Mike Blair and more current players and SRU officials. Gregor Lawson, the eldest of Bill's five grandchildren, brought the funeral service to silence and then ignited uproarious laughter in a fine tribute that intermingled memories of the man we all knew with his own private recollections.

“The word-play which he perfected as a commentator was not confined to the broadcast air we discovered. The voice of one of the grandchildren's girlfriends Bill likened to an air raid siren, "and that was early in the relationship too," Lawson added. They were rolling in the aisles in Hawick with that one I can tell you.

“Daughter Linda's soup was "like molten lava", grandchildren Alex, James, Rory, Gregor, and even Lindsay, were viewed by McLaren at tea-time as "a plague of locusts" or even a "tourist attraction", and at other times "the Hitler youth".”

Tony Ward reviews Ireland's Heineken Cup campaign and touches on the continuing problems faced by Italian sides in The Irish Independent.

"It's the equivalent in Olympic currency of three golds and a silver for our provinces in Europe.

"Munster, Leinster topped their pools and ensured home quarter-finals in the Heineken Cup, and Connacht did the same in the Amlin Challenge Cup. Ulster finished a close second in their Heineken Cup group and were desperately unlucky to miss out on the consolation of a place in the last eight of Europe's shadow competition.

"It is said you reap what you sow but, in Ulster's case, I'm not so sure as, yet again, the pools with an Italian presence - Treviso and Viadana - provided the two best runners-up, in Northampton and the Ospreys. That is the one real weakness in the system. Draw an Italian team in the pool and straightaway you're in with a double-route chance of qualification for the knock-outs.

"It re-emphasises the need to get the Italians' act together, to get the professional game there up to speed with the rest. We all want the Italian game to succeed but right now it is a huge albatross around the neck of the ERC."

Peter Bills slams those who believe rugby begins and ends in England following the final round of Heineken Cup action in The Independent.

"For the uninformed, those who deal in fantasy as opposed to reality, where now your iron-clad convictions as to the wondrous attractions of English rugby's Guinness Premiership?

"Where now all those glib responses to those who had the courage and temerity to warn "The King has no clothes"? Where now your blinkered, foolish belief, doubtless fuelled by the propaganda issued from on high at Twickenham, that England's rugby and the English League was the best in the business?

"Bunkum, complete bunkum, the lot of it, as a saga of defeats for English clubs in Europe this past weekend in Heineken Cup action, proves. Oh, if only you had opened your eyes to the real, devalued product before you, not despised and rubbished those who actually look beyond the confines of Kingsholm, The Stoop, Welford Road and the Recreation Ground to assess the game."

Mick Cleary wades into the debate surrounding the Ospreys' 16th man in The Daily Telegraph

"Yes, there was a huge difference in degree in what Quins tried to pull off last season and what Ospreys did on Saturday at the Liberty Stadium. One was wilful and duplicitous: the other was rash, impetuous and damned careless.

"Mind you, that is to give Ospreys the benefit of doubt. We can only assume they made an accidental hash of getting Byrne back on the pitch after being treated for several minutes for a blood injury to his foot.

"When England transgressed in similar fashion in the 2003 Rugby World Cup, it was clear that they were so intent on never allowing themselves to get in the situation whereby they might be reduced to 14 men, no matter how briefly, that they over-stepped the mark, shoving wing Dan Luger on to the field against Samoa."

Chris Paterson was again the hero for Edinburgh © PA

David Ferguson hails a victory for Edinburgh that means more than you might think in The Scotsman.

"There was much of a meaningful nature to take from what was, in Heineken Cup terms, another wonderful but ultimately meaningless finale to the pool ties for Edinburgh on Saturday.

“Soaked to the skin by another battering from the heavens – Edinburgh have experienced the excesses of snow, wind and rain in their last three European fixtures – a squad of visibly tired players trooped from the Murrayfield turf heads bowed but much brighter in heart than thepink-shirted Parisian foe they had put to the sword with more greater dominance than the scoreboard suggested.

“Edinburgh showed they had learned from their hammering in Paris at the onset of the 2009-10 Heineken Cup and were improved at the breakdown, Ross Rennie fashioning turnovers superbly until he was replaced after 33 minutes with an injured knee – the other one to that which has kept him out for much of the past two years, it was stated afterwards – while the forward pack dominated the set-piece for long spells and had the Stade forwards back-peddling furiously in driving mauls that moved 20 or 30 metres.”

Chris Rattue isn't convinced by the latest SANZAR edict on the tackle area in The New Zealand Herald.

"A new season, a new rule and, believe it or not, some hope. There may be new life in dear old rugby yet ...

"First, the bad news. Rugby rules are made to be broken. A game that was, mythically speaking, invented by breaking the most important rule of another sport has never broken the habit of a lifetime. Cheating and rugby go hand in hand, like Colin Meads and a bloody heavy fencepost.

"The 2010 rugby season, which kicked off at the weekend with Super 14 trial matches, has unveiled yet another vital rule change, this one involving the tackle area. As it turns out, what we will get is a new interpretation of the old rule, the old interpretation having been - according to a leading referee - incorrect anyway."

Hugh Godwin talks to Lewis Moody about the thorny subject of the England captaincy in The Independent.

"With a large portrait of the Prince Regent adorning the wall above him, Lewis Moody is speaking on the subject of leading England. A legendarily madcap character somewhat taken aback to find himself vested with the hopes of a nation, yet determined to show he is up to the job – and dear old Georgie boy had a notably colourful life, too.

"Mad Dog" Moody will turn 32 this summer, and far from losing his bite he was widely credited last autumn with stand-out performances in an otherwise stop-start series for England. It's the bark which has altered. More recently Moody was mentioned in dispatches by the team manager, Martin Johnson; bracketed with Jonny Wilkinson as providing valuable "leadership" in support of the captain, Steve Borthwick.

"It prompted or emboldened some to say the blond flanker – and not the pathologically undemonstrative Borthwick – should be England's skipper. Here in this London pub, and eyeing a pint of stout which in the distant past of his first tour with the national side in 1998 he would surely have downed in one, Moody rejected the idea."

Brian Moore believes that little has been learned by the England management after a disappointing Heineken Cup campaign for the clubs, in The Daily Telegraph.

"The percentage has remained fairly static since the advent of professionalism and to choose this moment to visit the ills of the current English game on this statistic lacks logic. There may be a case regarding the longer-term development of English rugby but that has to take into account all the previous results, including the winning of a World Cup and reaching another final.

"The fact is that the form shown by both the teams and players in the Guinness Premiership has, at times, not even reached the standard of the Magners League. The inability of either to sustain a coherent pattern of play and produce a consistent run of victories indicates that it is not just in the Heineken Cup that the deficit in performance has been apparent.

"The one bright note for England was the indication given by Northampton’s contingent of prospective young England players that they can make the step from club to international rugby, but their narrow loss to Munster also highlighted that in some crucial respects they are not yet the equal of their Celtic counterparts and that only experience will bridge the gap."

Will Courtney Lawes start England's Six Nations opener with Wales? © Getty Images

Former England lock Paul Ackford believes Martin Johnson should keep the powder dry on Courtney Lawes for the time being, in The Sunday Independent.

"England play Wales in a fortnight and the clamour is growing to start Northampton forward Courtney Lawes in that match. It's more than a media campaign. England manager Martin Johnson and his senior coaches are keen to play him too. Lawes is a fantastic athlete: hard, aggressive, quick, predatory, with all the instincts of a Test stalwart. He is precisely what England require to bring some devil to their sluggish forward effort. But Lawes is 20. His only sniff of Test rugby so far has been a 12-minute appearance off the bench against Australia in the autumn. Is he good to go now?

"I don't think so. Not yet anyway. If Lawes were being introduced as a new member of an impressive, stable England front five, then there would be no problem. It wouldn't matter who England were up against because there is no doubt that Lawes, provided he stays healthy, has a fabulous future ahead of him."

Eddie Butler believes rugby's law makers must be careful as they consider harsher punishments for eye gouging, in The Observer.

"As a punishment for feeling his way a bit too close for comfort around the eyes of Leo Cullen, (Alan) Quinlan missed the Lions tour to South Africa, which was probably as bad as any sanction could be. The flanker had been selected to niggle the South Africans to distraction, a wonderful bonus in the twilight of his career. And suddenly it was gone.

"On the other hand, 12 weeks were deemed to be paltry for the crime that was already leaping up the charts of nefarious popularity. Before the summer was out there would be even more lenient sentences – eight weeks – slapped on Schalk Burger, for gouging Luke Fitzgerald in the second Lions Test in Pretoria, and Sergio Parisse for gouging Isaac Ross in the New Zealand-Italy Test.

"Now, it seems, enough is enough. No more holidays. Rugby is getting tough on gouging, with Julien Dupuy sentenced to 24 weeks for what he did to Stephen Ferris in the third round of the Heineken Cup between Ulster and Stade Français, reduced on appeal to 23; David Attoub – wait for it – to 70 weeks, for assaulting the same player. Ferris must have wondered what he'd done to deserve this double-socketry."

The IRFU should see the merit in rekindling the fire with their lost love, London Irish, writes Peter O'Reilly in The Sunday Times.

"'At our Christmas party, the office staff arranged a Blind Date-style spoof to make fun of the squad. The guy who was supposed to be me kept saying ‘to be sure’.” Bob Casey’s revelation in a recent newspaper column revealed how things have changed at London Irish. The club has been a proud patch of green in South West London for more than 100 years but these days the captain is the only member of the professional side with an Irish accent.

"Certain things haven’t changed. The majority of the home supporters in Twickenham last night were either first or second generation Irish. The club’s board of directors, whose number now includes Keith Wood, are mostly Irish. So too are many of the parents of the hundreds of mini-rugby players who’ll be swarming around Sunbury this morning.

"Yet London Irish’s pro team is Irish in name only. Northampton Saints have four times as many Irishmen on their books. Check the academy section on the club website and you’ll find it’s called the London Irish (England) Rugby Academy. A club with 97 Irish internationals on its roll of honour is now paid by the RFU to produce England internationals."

Declan Kidney will soon pass judgement on his Ireland squad © Getty Images

In his column in the Irish Independent, former Ireland fly-half Tony Ward runs the rule over Declan Kidney's squad for this year's Six Nations.

“There was a time when, as those of us of a certain age recall only too well, the dreaded Final Trial represented the be-all and end-all to our international aspirations. I think I speak for most who went through that awful late December/early January Probables v Possibles ordeal when I say it was the match from hell. The one to be missed was, unfortunately, the one that couldn't be avoided. From a personal perspective, I hated it.

"Now, of course, it is a different deal entirely. Declan Kidney is blessed with final trials on a weekly basis from September through to May. The official Final Trial, per se, is now a relic of times past and Amen to that. For this professional generation, every week is a final trial of sorts.

"For Kidney it means being armed with the most reliable and up-to-date information regarding players' form ahead of selection.”

In an interview with The Independent Leicester Tigers forward Jordan Crane gets a few things off his chest ahead of Saturday's pivotal Heineken Cup showdown with the Ospreys.

“The last acts performed by the England No 8 Jordan Crane on Heineken Cup business in Wales were an educated swing of the right boot worthy of Diego Maradona himself, followed by the biggest theatrical yawn since The Phantom of the Opera.

"Whatever happens in Swansea this afternoon, there can be no repeat of last season's bewildering events in Cardiff: no extra time, no confusion over the rules of engagement, no penalty shoot-out. There will be drama, though. A contest between Leicester and Ospreys, the great no-love-lost rivals of European rugby, pretty much guarantees it.

"After the two sides met at the Liberty Stadium at the same stage of last season's tournament, the Ospreys coaching team openly accused Julian White, the Leicester prop, of gouging. As it turned out, the wrong man had been fingered, so to speak. "I thought it was pretty cheap of them, if I'm honest," says Crane a year on. "How can you just sit there and come out with things about someone with no evidence to back up your allegations?”

Gerry Thornley of the Irish Times talks to London Irish lock Nick Kennedy ahead of Saturday's crunch Heineken Cup clash with Leinster at Twickenham.

“Delving into Nick Kennedy’s past provides a gateway to the present. To untangle the man behind the rugby player it’s instructive to examine his genealogy both in the context of ancestry, but perhaps on a more engaging level, the events that shaped his sporting career.

“Kennedy could have played for Ireland; indeed he was invited to do so. His grandmother on his father’s side hailed from Co Limerick and prior to winning a first England A cap he received a phone call from the then Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan asking if he would consider declaring for Ireland.

“Born in Southampton, educated at Claire’s Court School in Maidenhead, the British School in Brussels – he would spend three years in Belgium and three in America before returning to Brussels for a year – and then on to Portsmouth University, he didn’t have to agonise for too long. The fact that his father, Shaun, is an ardent England rugby supporter facilitated his decision, certainly in terms of family harmony.”

Irishman Ronan O'Gara reflects on the Lions defeat to South Africa in Pretoria © Getty Images

Ireland legend Ronan O'Gara will begin to repair his damaged reputation, forged on last summer's Lions tour, in the Heineken Cup with Munster. Mark Souster writes in The Times.

"O’Gara is rueful and can even afford to laugh at himself. “It was not the impact I was expecting to make when I came on,” O’Gara said yesterday. He does not seek to make excuses or avoid responsibility for his actions. “But when I got on I was dumped by Spies and for a minute or two I didn’t know where I was.”

"What was going through his mind? “People said I should have kicked it out and settled for the draw, but I was trying to win the Test, get position, maybe a penalty or a dropped goal,” he said. “At that level the margins are so small and no one was more disappointed than I was. I thought it was a harsh penalty. But you live or die by your actions. I have thought about it a lot, but I would not change anything.”

"Brave words, but knowing O’Gara well, it is not an attempt at justification. It is sincere."

Australia is upping the ante as the biggest threat to New Zealand's rising rugby talent, according to Dylan Cleaver in the New Zealand Herald.

"A summer raid on two of North Harbour's most promising players, Michael Harris and James Parsons, by the Queensland Reds and Western Force respectively, suggests the Australian franchises are looking east to bolster their thin resources.

Harris, a goalkicking five-eighths, turned down the chance to join the Reds when they would not agree to release him back to North Harbour for the Air New Zealand Cup. Instead he will take his place in the Blues' wider training squad.

However Parsons, a 23-year-old hooker, is understood to be close to signing a three-year deal with the Western Force.It has led Harbour coach Craig Dowd to call for Sanzar to look at a uniform contracting model where players could represent franchises across the three countries and still be eligible to play for their country of origin."

Ospreys scrum-half Mike Phillips has opened new contract talks with the Ospreys after becoming the most wanted man in world rugby. Andy Howell writes in the Western Mail.

"We can reveal today that Leicester Tigers, Saracens, Toulouse, Stade Francais, Racing-Metro 92 and Toulon are among the big-money clubs ready to lure the Wales and Lions sensation away from the Liberty Stadium. The 27-year-old scrum-half’s current deal with Wales’ flagship outfit does not run out until the end of next season, but powerbrokers at the Ospreys are ready to flash the cash to ensure he remains.

Phillips’ sensational performances for the Lions in South Africa last summer have ensured he rivals his Ospreys team-mate James Hook as one of rugby’s hottest properties, with clubs in England and France queuing up for his signature. It is a testament to the status of the ambitious region in world rugby circles and the quality of their playing assets that some of Europe’s biggest clubs circle in anticipation when their big names are approaching the end of their contracts."

Friday night's clash between Munster and Northampton at Thomond Park is a perfect example of why the Heineken Cup reaches parts other competitions cannot. Gerry Thornley writes in the Irish Times.

"If it's the penultimate Saturday in January it must mean Anglo-Irish summit meeting at a throbbing Thomond Park with a whiff of cordite in the air.

"...This game would have been made for the absent duo of Denis Leamy and Jerry Flannery, and then there’s the appointment of Romain Poite, whose only previous Munster game was his controversial handling of the All Blacks win here last season, when utterly oblivious to the home crowd. He is nothing if not the boss.

"Northampton also remain the only side Munster have never beaten in the Heineken Cup, although this will merely serve as additional motivation for Munster. One imagines they’ll have stored away the memories of Northampton’s celebrations from their win at Franklin’s Gardens in October and noted the highly confident noises emanating from the Saints camp in the lead-up to this game."

Interest in suspended former Bath prop Matt Stevens is heating up despite the fact he still has to serve a year of his ban for cocaine use. Chris Hewett writes in The Independent.

"Matt Stevens, the lost cornerstone of the England pack, has not yet reached the mid-point of his two-year ban for cocaine abuse, but the competition for his services from next February is gathering intensity by the day. Bath want the naturalised South African to return to the Recreation Ground the moment his suspension is over while Wasps have openly declared an interest in luring him to London, but both could be blind-sided by Saracens, now seen by some of Stevens's closest colleagues as the player's most likely destination."

The former England rugby star talks to the Guardian about being terrified of birds, drinking for two days after winning the World Cup and being bullied by Austin Healey.

"So, you couldn't tell us how many cans you drank after winning the World Cup? That's a very good question. Some people are useful at drinking just because of their sheer size, but I've never been that great. Again, it goes back to my Stick Man legs, I've nowhere to put it. However, when you win a World Cup it's fascinating, because when you go out and you think: 'Well, I'll have to go to bed about 2am or 3am at this rate,' and literally two days later you're still going. And, you know what, I didn't even feel like I had been drinking. It was just such a euphoric high with your great mates, having achieved something you'd always wanted to do. If you were to put in a room what was drunk, no one would believe you. I suppose it's like that adrenaline rush of strength that you get, that ability to go out and have a good time and not even notice the hours drifting past.

"The Cargo Bar in Darling Harbour is just one of those special places that I'll probably never go back to again, but if I walked past it as a 75 year-old I would be able to close my eyes and see Lawrence Dallaglio on the DJ deck, Tindall on the dance floor. You know, guys tucked away sharing a quiet pint, lads who like a dance floor, lads who didn't like a dance floor. It's one of those 'go-to' moments in your head."

Carlos Spencer helped the Blues to the top of Super Rugby © Getty Images

Carlos Spencer is set to return to Super 14 action, but don't expect a grudge match when the Lions take on the Blues. He talks to Dylan Cleaver in The New Zealand Herald.

"Circle May 8 in your diary and set the alarm for 5am - that's when the team that offered Carlos Spencer a Super 14 lifeline meets the team that denied him.

"It is almost too unreal to comprehend. The 34-year-old Spencer, the spark that ignited three Super rugby titles, playing for the competition's biggest underachiever against Stephen Brett, the man the Blues chose to bank on ahead of Spencer.

It could be a beautiful reunion but what it won't be, according to Spencer, is a grudge match. Although he would have liked to come back and finish his Super rugby career with the only franchise he had played for, he does not spend his spare time sticking pins into voodoo dolls in the likeness of the Blues and New Zealand Rugby Union officials who rebuffed his advances."

Jean de Villiers is beginning to get into the swing of things with Munster, according to David Kelly in The Irish Independent.

"When he had first pitched up at the province last September, De Villiers was expecting to feature from the bench against the Dragons, but illness to Keith Earls saw him unexpectedly introduced to the fray from the start.

"At one stage, Ronan O'Gara discreetly passed on a certain call to him. De Villiers shook his head incomprehensibly. O'Gara relayed the instructions again. And again. "Sorry," said De Villiers to the out-half. "Can you speak a little slower? I can't understand a word you're saying."

"Much more was lost in translation as De Villiers struggled to integrate into the new society, supporters' frustrations exacerbated at Munster's poor form and the centre's seemingly effortless sashay into the South African squad for the November international defeat to Ireland, where his display superseded any in a club jersey to that point. Imperceptibly though, he has turned the corner, from his debut try against Treviso in November, through to the more settled midfield partnership with Earls which has blossomed along with Munster's blistering recent form."

Brian Moore joins the tributes to the late Bill McLaren in The Daily Telegraph.

"The first time I worked with him I was even more nervous than usual. He was, after all, the stuff of legend. But it was more than that, I didn't want to let him down. Bill didn't give much in the way of advice but he would guide you through by the way he brought in natural pauses where you could contribute.

"And – very important when there is a match commentator and co-commentator – he never strayed from his job of description and trespassed on your area of explanation or comment. He was kind enough to say that he thought my first attempt had been "handsome", leaving the memorable parting shot that "you didn't repeat anything I said and nor what the viewers could see for themselves".

"Among the many comments following Bill's passing have been recommendations that would-be commentators should study tapes of his performances, the idea being that they could learn all they needed to know by doing just that. I disagree. Aspiring broadcasters should only do this if they keep a few important points firmly in mind."

Stephen Jones predicts doom and gloom for English clubs in Europe this weekend in The Times.

"Approaching the final week of a superb group phase of the Heineken Cup, the omens for England are grim. At present, it is impossible to predict an English victory in the final in Paris at the end of May, as the most competitive and compelling league in any code of rugby in any country has struggled this season to produce an outstanding club contender.

"Leicester, Northampton and London Irish have the best chances, but consider how frail their hopes really are. Leicester have to beat the Ospreys on Saturday by scoring four tries for the bonus point.

"Let's be honest, Leicester have many mighty qualities but they are categorically not an attacking machine and against an Ospreys team that have their own pretensions, it is difficult to see the Tigers scoring a feast of tries."

Brian O'Driscoll revealed all about 'Gidley' following his side's victory over Brive © Getty Images

Brian O'Driscoll talks to David Kelly and reveals the inspiration behind Shane Horgan's amazing flip pass against Brive in The Irish Independent.

"They call it the 'Gidley'. Not quite a secret weapon but all the same a ploy requiring audacious skill and dead-eyed cohesion. Shane Horgan's sumptuous flicked pass to Brian O'Driscoll in the dying moments of Saturday's breathless finish against Brive became the latest adornment to a back-line's box of tricks which seems almost everlasting.

"A tribute to Aussie rugby league star Matt Gidley - a former team-mate of Ireland's World Cup flop Brian Carney - Leinster's erstwhile backs coach David Knox introduced the trick into the squad's training drills and the star-studded back-line haven't stopped delivering since. "We have a little competition to see who can get the most in a season," revealed the Ireland captain yesterday.

"Perhaps feeling the need to avoid publicising the private competitive edges which have driven his squad to the summit of the European game, O'Driscoll didn't volunteer the possessor of the 'maillot jaune' in terms of doing the 'Gidley'."

Peter Bills believes that Steve Borthwick's place as England skipper is under severe threat in The Independent.

"If England really are about to start picking their 15 best players and then selecting their captain, then Steve Borthwick could be in severe trouble. There never has been, nor ever will be, anything wrong with 'Borthers' heart. The man has one big enough for a whole pack of forwards.

"At Bath and now Saracens, he was a player who was as honest as the day is long. Trouble is, Martin Johnson made the crass mistake of confusing honest toil with international class. 'Borthers' has bucket loads of the first commodity, much much less of the latter.

"It has been a mystery to me for years why England sports teams have insisted on selecting a captain first. The end product was that so many teams took the sporting field, whether it be for rugby, cricket or whatever other sport, with an inferior leader."

Can Carlos Spencer still cut it at the top? Marc Hinton takes a look at the former All Black playmaker for Rugby Heaven.

"The big question is, does he still have the physical tools to make those innate skills of his a factor for his latest team, Johannesburg's Lions, as he completes a much-anticipated return to Super rugby?

"That will be one of the major talking points of the start of the new Super 14 season as Spencer attempts to lead the Lions to a brave new world, somewhere away from their perennial status of competition also-rans.

"The signing of Spencer came as a shock to many as the Lions launched their new era under highly-rated coach Dick Muir. They've also picked up Springbok flanker Wikus van Heerden and there's an air of optimism around Jo'burg that the gloomy days as competition doormats could be behind them."

Simon Barnes pays tribute to the late, great Bill McLaren in The Times

"Bill McLaren, one of the last of sport’s great tribe of apostles, died yesterday. McLaren was the voice of rugby, just as Dan Maskell was the voice of tennis, Peter O’Sullevan of racing, John Arlott of cricket, Murray Walker of motor racing, Harry Carpenter of boxing, David Coleman of athletics. Most have left us, some have just retired.

"They won’t be dancing in the streets of his native Hawick at the news that McLaren has died at 86 (he was inclined to prophesy an outbreak of nocturnal dancing after most of the victories he covered for the BBC), but his was a life that demands some kind of celebration.

"He was first a rugby commentator; by his last match in 2002, all but 50 years later, he was a living national treasure, OBE, CBE and MBE to boot."

Could Lewis Moody be the next England captain? © Getty Images

Donald McRae meets Leicester and England flanker Lewis Moody in familiar surroundings as he prepares for vital games in the colours of the Tigers and his country in The Guardian.

"Lewis Moody rubs his cut and bruised face defiantly on another freezing afternoon in Leicester. The brown scab on his right cheek is matched by the yellowing bruise under his left eye and the marks on his forehead, but Moody looks cheerfully concentrated. Even speculative suggestions that his exuberant form in the autumn internationals could result in his appointment as England captain for next month's Six Nations can be safely ignored. He is currently England's best player, by a distance, but Moody's mind is locked on his starkly familiar surroundings.

"This weekend his beloved Leicester Tigers travel to Ospreys as leaders of the toughest group in the Heineken Cup – knowing that one more grinding victory in their final qualifying match will guarantee a quarter-final place in Europe's supreme club competition. Leicester also head the Premiership, after their rise to the top of the table was confirmed by a recent resounding win over their perennial rivals, Wasps, in a match which resulted in Moody's latest battle wounds.

"It's not pretty or glamorous," he says intently, talking less about his battered face than the training ground at Oadby as his gaze sweeps across the muddied field and back to the brick laundry room where we've been huddling against the cold. "I've spent the last 14 years here and I still absolutely love it. It's given me some incredible memories."

Irish rugby is in great shape but missing one vital ingredient according to Hugh Farrelly in The Irish Independent.

Since Paul Wallace's retirement in the early part of the last decade, there has been no outstanding candidate for his berth in the team, a situation which still prevails, and in such a vital position, this is far from ideal.

"Court, Mike Ross and Tony Buckley are the leading alternatives, but there are caveats associated with each - not least the issue of their lack of regular game time.

"Former Ireland captain Terry Kingston played with some quality Irish tight-heads during his international career, props of the calibre of Des Fitzgerald, Jim McCoy, Gary Halpin and Peter Clohessy."

David Hands dissects Wales coach Warren Gatland's Six Nations selection in The Times.

"England may be the largest blip on Warren Gatland's radar but the Wales coach has not been afraid to look well beyond that. His squad for the RBS Six Nations Championship offers a development role as well as players expected to propel Wales to a third successive win over England at Twickenham on February 6.

"Gatland acknowledges concerns at scrum half and wing, where the twinkle-toed Shane Williams grows no younger. Hence the arrival of two teenagers, Kristian Phillips and Tom Prydie, in the squad though in the latter's case it is hardly a like-for-like replacement. Where Williams is a mere 5ft 7in, the 17-year-old Prydie stands 6ft 4in and must still be growing.

"The chances of either youngster (Phillips is 19) playing in the Six Nations is slim but when Wales visit the southern hemisphere in the summer, they will be without another wing, Leigh Halfpenny, who will need clearance work done on a shoulder. So there are opportunities arising over the next few months, the results of which can be digested well before the 2011 World Cup."

Will Scotland boss Andy Robinson be smiling following this year's Six Nations? © Getty Images

Depending on who you speak to, Andy Robinson is a deeply complex character or a straightforward 'rugby nut', writes David Ferguson in The Scotsman.

"Intriguing, exhilarating and crushing at times, Robinson's career has been unique. The past decade alone has witnessed a journey more fascinating than any enjoyed by his predecessors.

"The Noughties began with Robinson stepping from Bath to coach in the England camp, moved on with Lions duties in 2001 and 2005, either side of England's first World Cup triumph in Australia in 2003, fell flat with resignation from the England post in 2006, lifted again with an appointment as Edinburgh coach in 2007 and ended with him back in the Test arena, but this time waving Saltires and developing a quiet, tight-lipped appreciation of O Flower of Scotland."

Springbok prop forward Tendai Mtawarira is at the centre of a war of words between the SA Rugby Union and the Sports Ministry over his eligibility to represent the country, but the Beast has given his heart and soul to his adopted country, writes Mike Greenaway in the Sunday Independent.

"I am a South African at heart," he says. "I love this country. It has become my home. It is everything to me."

Mtawarira, 25, has been living in Durban for six years since accepting a bursary from the Sharks Academy. He was spotted when his Zimbabwean school, Peterhouse, toured KZN. "Wearing the green and gold of the Springboks is a huge honour for me," he says."

Writing in the Irish Independent, David Kelly reports on Leinster's latest win in their defence of the Heineken Cup crown.

"There was a rather comical image captured by the cameras in the RDS on Saturday night which typified an altogether surreal evening's entertainment. As Shane Horgan prepared to score what seemed an inevitable first-half try, a cloth-capped gentleman rose to his feet in raucous acclamation.

"Unfortunately, Horgan was superbly manhandled by an Anglo-French reception and driven back from the try line, a point seemingly lost to everyone except the befuddled spectator, who continued his warm acclamation until the slow, dawning realisation that things weren't quite what they seemed.

"It was that kind of night and many more were left scratching their heads in bemusement. To top it all off, Horgan, a microcosm of a team who fluttered with apparent ease between the proverbially sublime and ridiculous, would complete the 80 minutes of predominant torpor by creating arguably Leinster's try of the season thus far."

It ain't over till the fat lady sings. The Irish Times' Gerry Thornley reflects on the latest Heineken Cup action.

"After another Irish four-timer, an Irish presence is also guaranteed in the Heineken Cup knock-out stages, with Munster or Leinster assured of at least being one of the two runners-up. Indeed, if Munster beat Northampton at Thomond Park, Leinster would also be through as in that scenario 20 points would assure them of one of the two best runners-up places.

"More pertinently though, as the current top two ranked sides, the Irish heavyweights will be looking to ensure home quarter-finals, which they can achieve next weekend with victories in their Anglo-Irish pool finales.

"For their part, Ulster need a bonus-point win away to Bath next Saturday and hope Stade Français pick up nothing from their trip to Edinburgh to qualify as pool winners. They could go through as one of the best runners-up, but that looks unlikely, though a win over Edinburgh would give them a very good chance of a place in the Challenge Cup, and were it to come with a bonus point it would guarantee that much."

Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas has revealed he is looking forward to finding love now his sexuality is in the open. The South Wales Echo reports.

"Alfie said he had been overjoyed by the positive reaction to his decision to come out of the closet last month. He said: “It’s like waking up on Christmas Day, walking down the stairs and seeing Father Christmas and seeing he actually does exist.”

"Among the messages of support came one from Welsh Rugby Union chief Roger Lewis, who sent him a text that read, “the world is yours now, you are really brave” on the day that he came out. Even his parents, Yvonne and Barry, had “such a sense of relief”, the player said."

He's seen as the next big thing in Red Rose rugby but first the 6ft 7in second-rower must convince Johnson to use the long arm of the Lawes. The Independent on Sunday's Hugh Godwin speaks to Courtney Lawes.

"Hands thrust into his tracksuit-top pockets to defy the chill, beanie hat on his head, Courtney Lawes ambles into the venerable Members' Bar at Franklin's Gardens and crosses the room, ducking to avoid the ceiling girders like an upside down 110-metre hurdler.

"A man of his height gets used to these obstacles and as he sways at the hips to dodge the television with the health-and-safety red-and-white tape wrapped round it he could – with the warm-weather tights lagging his legs – be an extraordinarily outsized dance student. In fact, or at least in prospect, he is the embodiment of England's brighter rugby future. Nice to meet you, Courtney. Pull up a banquette."

A regulator-enforced price cut will bring good cheer for armchair sports viewers according to Richard wray in The Guardian, but it will create tension between Rupert Murdoch and the Tories.

"Armchair sports fans will soon have something to cheer, with the cost of watching live football, cricket and rugby on ­television set to plunge as rivals attempt to end the dominance of Rupert Murdoch's ­satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

"BT and Virgin expect to capitalise on plans by the media watchdog, Ofcom, that will force Sky to drop the price it charges rival broadcasters for its Sky Sports channels in the biggest shake-up of sports TV for almost two decades. Prices should drop in time for the 2010/2011 Premier League football season.

"But while viewers are likely to benefit from a price war that would challenge the hold Sky has had since it bought its first football rights in 1992, Ofcom's move could present David Cameron with a major headache."

Can Northampton keep their Heineken Cup dreams alive? © Getty Images

Eddie Butler previews Northampton's bumper two weeks as they prepare to take on Perpignan and Munster in The Guardian.

"This is an economy preview, with two for the price of one. It's just that Northampton find themselves squeezed without much consideration into the Heineken Cup schedule. This afternoon they face Perpignan, the reigning Top 14 champions of France, at Franklin's Gardens, and on Friday play the reigning Magners League champions, Munster, at Thomond Park in Limerick.

"The snow that spared the Saints a trip to Bath eight days ago couldn't have fallen at a kinder time, but it's still an alarming prospect to face so many champions so few days apart. On the other hand, there is always the consolation of knowing that Perpignan will not be at their most rabid, having lost away to Treviso in round one, and twice to Munster in rounds three and four, and having declared their interest in this year's Heineken Cup "over".

"They arrive without their front-row of internationals: Perry Freshwater of England, Marius Tincu of Romania and Nicolas Mas of France. There's no Nicolas Durand at scrum-half and no pairing of David Marty and Maxime Mermoz in the centre. Jim Mallinder, coach of Northampton, can resist complacency by saying that Perpignan will be dangerous whoever is selected, but this could have been a whole lot more arduous."

Iain Morrison assesses Scotland boss Andy Robinson's selection problems ahead of the Six Nations in The Scotsman.

"If timing is everything in comedy it's also proving pretty important in the field of sporting endeavour and Richie Vernon has yet to master it. The Glasgow player exploded on to the international scene during the autumn Tests with some superb displays off the bench, but the big breakaway looks set to miss the Six Nations, or at least the start of it, after blood tests last Wednesday proved he had contracted glandular fever.

"This can sideline a player for anything from three weeks to a year and obviously Vernon is hoping that his dose is at the bottom end of that scale. As a one-time medical student, the Glasgow man knows that glandular fever causes the spleen to expand and, if he returns to action too early, there is a danger it will burst.

"It's a huge loss for Scotland and a blow to coach Andy Robinson, although at least he has less of a selection headache when it comes to picking his No.8, which may be a blessing of sorts. Brian Moore once claimed that Robinson was a poor selector and Jake White has stated that 85 per cent of his job with the Boks was picking the right team. You have to hope one of them is wrong."

David Flatman, writing in The Independent on Sunday, struggles to come to terms with the continued absence of Gavin Henson from the game.

"Lots of famous athletes claim as often as we will listen that they hate the limelight, but I rarely believe them. The medium that delivers this information undermines the message. In order to give an answer one has to have been asked a question and in order to be asked a question one must, unless phone-tapping and high-level subterfuge has infiltrated rugby, be in an interview.

"If I didn't want to do interviews, I wouldn't. How often do you read candid, personal interviews with 69-times capped, World Cup-winning, double British and Irish Lion Danny Grewcock OBE? It happens, but probably only once every few years, when he can fob off our press officer no more. This is the behaviour of a man who actually doesn't like the attention. Justin Harrison, the former Australia and Bath lock, loved an interview. He was intelligent, hugely articulate and always had something to say. But best of all, he never denied enjoying his time with the media.

"Sometimes, of course, there are those who do not want to be the focus of everyone's attention but, for some reason, seem irresistible to the men with the pens. Gavin Henson might fall into this category. His almost unnatural levels of ability coupled with his over-manicured, somewhat out-of-context appearance made him a sporting enigma overnight. Not many players deliver match-winning performances on the international stage yet find their girlfriend or hair or tan becoming the headline."

Paul Ackford ponders the fate of England's young players as the Six Nations approaches in The Sunday Telegraph.

“What makes me think we can win this Six Nations?” Johnson pondered. “We’ve probably assembled the best squad we’ve had since I’ve been involved. It’s going to be exciting getting those guys together. They can move it on pretty quickly from where we were in the autumn. There are things we need to chae, things we need to improve, but there is no reason why we can’t win any particular game we play.”

“Apart from serious reservations over a lack of clout at loosehead, concerns over the balance in the second row and worries over whether the absence of a kicking inside-centre will make England easier to read, Johnson’s picks were well received. Some of the dead wood — Ben Kay, Mike Tindall, George Chuter — had been lopped off, and there is a growing sense that, if he chooses, Johnson’s England could boast youth, pace and sheer vibrancy.

“If he chooses... because Johnson’s been here before with Danny Cipriani, Mathew Tait, Courtney Lawes, Ben Foden and Shane Geraghty, players who were available in the autumn, and earlier, under Johnson’s stewardship, but who were either not used (Foden), hardly used (Lawes and Tait) or jettisoned, having been marked down as useless (Geraghty and Cipriani). Nineteen months and 14 games into the job, how will Johnson decide if and when his young guns are ready?”

Stephen Jones takes a look at England's latest forward hope, Northampton powerhouse Courtney Lawes, in The Sunday Times.

"Earlier this season, Northampton beat Munster in a volcanic Heineken Cup match at Franklin’s Gardens. Courtney Lawes, the giant 20-year-old Northampton forward, played a staggering game. Some time after the final whistle, one of the Northampton backroom staff tapped me on the shoulder.

“Don’t build Courtney up too much,” he asked. “We’re trying to keep him under wraps a bit.” I pointed out that the giant Lawes, 6ft 8in and 17.5st, had just won the man of the match award in front of a live television audience, making his usual power bursts and hits and elastic lineout takes. And since he had left the field to an uproarious standing ovation from a packed stadium, and that during the post-match interviews, none other than Munster’s Paul O’Connell, the Lions captain, had delivered a glowing tribute to the athletic excellence and competitive fire of the tyro, the news was already out.

"Last week, Lawes was named in the England squad for the 2010 Six Nations. He has one cap, as a replacement against Argentina. Today, he plays on the blindside flank — the other key string to his bow — for Northampton against Perpignan, a vital Heineken Cup pool game. He will not be representing the exotic contingent in the club's squad, but rather, the local Northampton Old Scouts club and this most fervent of rugby towns itself. He is a local hero."

Who will lift the Heineken Cup silverware this season? © Getty Images

Make no bones about it, this weekend and next could be horrific for English clubs, according to Will Greenwood in the Daily Telegraph.

"We are not just talking about earning tough away trips in Heineken Cup quarter-finals. If things go badly, there may not be an English team in the knockout stages.

I doubt there will be a lot of other nations shedding tears over this, but it could raise some interesting issues because there is only one English team in with a real chance of winning their group, and that is London Irish. The others are hanging on by a thread.

Northampton need Munster to have a shocker against an Italian side. Leicester need the Ospreys to down Clermont Auvergne, something they have briefly threatened to do, but never really looked like pulling off. Bath and Sale need two traditional French powerhouses, Stade Français and Toulouse, to implode. Gloucester gave up the ghost when they were humbled in Glasgow.

Argue all you like about the maths, English teams are staring down a barrel. You show me a way anyone but London Irish will win a group and I will show a way they won't."

The form of Glasgow's Dan Parks is hard to ignore but the Scotland No.10 slot looks set for Edinburgh's Phil Godman according to Allan Massie in The Scotsman.

"I have never been the greatest admirer of Dan Parks, but he is undoubtedly playing very well this season – playing indeed probably the best rugby of his career. His weaknesses and limitations are well known; he tends to lie deep, rarely attacking the gain line, and he is a feeble and sometimes seemingly reluctant tackler, so much so that in defence now Glasgow's coach often has him switch position with the more robust full-back Bernard Stortoni. As against that Parks is a very fine kicker from hand, has an astute tactical brain with the ability, which Godman lacks, to control a game and enable his team to play much of it in the opposition half. Moreover he kicks every bit as well in attack as defence.

"Given Scotland's inability in the autumn to find a way through well-organised defences – only two tries scored in 240 minutes of rugby – picking someone who can put the ball accurately behind defences makes a lot of sense. The two tries he created in the second inter-city match were copybook examples of the value of accurate and, in the case of the second one, imaginative attacking kicks. On balance I would prefer to see Parks recalled for the French game, but I suspect Andy Robinson will remain loyal to Godman."

The fans' favourite at Cardiff Blues, Xavier Rush blames rugby's ills on officials. He tells The Independent's James Corrigan why they threaten to ruin his Heineken Cup hopes, and why he's tempted by a move to Japan.

"There is much to discuss with Xavier Rush, what with the do-or-die mission facing Cardiff Blues against Sale this afternoon and all the talk of the Welsh capital's favourite No 8 moving to Japan. But one subject seems to resonate with the former All Black more than any other. It is the current debate over refereeing. Officials of a sensitive disposition should perhaps look away now.

"Referees are a lot more pedantic than they used to be," says Rush. "And what gets me is that they all seem to come from the same mould these days. Back in the day, you would know what sort of game you'd be in for – there'd be one ref who'd like it to flow, another who'd be tighter. Now they're all like clones."

Fullback Ben Foden has vowed to live or die by his running rugby for Northampton and England. he talks to Rob Kitson in The Guardian.

"The way Ben Foden sees it, rugby is a simple game. "As soon as I catch a ball the first thing that comes into my head is that I want to run," announces the D'Artagnan of the English game, eyes sparkling at the mere prospect. "People come to rugby because they want to see fancy tries and the ball run in from 60 metres out, players who take on opponents and create something. I'm glad I have that ability. It sets me apart and makes me stand out from the crowd."

"Hmm. Foden can sidestep most things and modest self-effacement appears to be among them. But what the heck. In a sport dangerously full of roundheads it is wonderfully refreshing to meet a young man determined to live or die by his cavalier instincts. The bleak Northamptonshire tundra may still be cold and snowy but the cheerful 24-year-old full-back, complete with his shimmering talent and pop star girlfriend, stands out like a mobile disco in the Arctic Circle. Whatever he does against Perpignan in Sunday's pivotal Heineken Cup fixture at Franklin's ­Gardens, it will not be dull."

Leinster resume their season and their defence of the Heineken Cup after an unscheduled festive hiatus with what is the proverbial banana skin, according to Gerry Thornley in the Irish Times.

"They’ve everything to lose against a team with nothing to lose, and they’ve slipped up in games like this before. With the benefit of his crystal ball though, Michael Cheika helpfully played the vast majority of this line-up in their last outing, against Ulster on St Stephen’s Day.

"...Perhaps the more pertinent comparison is with Brive’s last outing, away to Leinster’s pool rivals London Irish at the Madejski Stadium in what was also effectively a dead rubber for the French side. With nine of the team which is lining up tomorrow they conceded a try inside 10 minutes, and another well before half-time, yet made London Irish sweat for their bonus point until Delon Armitage’s 80th-minute try. That sounds the warning bells more than anything, and one can also recall Castres visiting the RDS last year when, despite having lost their opening two games, they denied Leinster a bonus point before beating them a week later."

Aaron Mauger looks set to follow the path of Luke McAlister and Chris Jack back to New Zealand rugby in time for the World Cup next year. The centre talks to Peter Bills for the Weekend Herald.

"Slowly, yet surely Graham Henry's potential World Cup squad is gathering both momentum and quality.

"Mauger made little attempt to hide the way he is leaning. The positive nature of his remarks about what he calls "new challenges" back home, both for himself and his family, reveal his thinking. "I would be excited about the possibility of returning home," he admitted.

"I haven't signed anything yet, back home or here. But going home is definitely an option."

"If that sounds ambiguous, New Zealand rugby fans need not be too worried. It's just that Mauger is fully aware of the considerable efforts Leicester have made over the last 30 months to help him settle and enjoy his stay.He wants to be fair to them, too."

Twickenham Stadium is 100 years old today - here's to many happy returns © Getty Images

Rugby's most iconic stadium has reached a landmark as 100 years ago today it staged its first international match. David Hands celebrates this fact in The Times.

"Not everyone knew the way to the ground bought by the RFU two years earlier for £5,572 12s 6d and known thereafter as Billy Williams’s cabbage patch after the committee man who recommended the site.

"Not everyone approved of it, either. There were many complaints about Twickenham: that it lay too close to water meadows, that it was too far from the centre of London and too far from the nearest railway station. Yet the French came to refer to it as the cathedral of rugby, its iconic status is recognised worldwide and it is now a multimillion-pound business, incorporating an hotel and a health centre."

Ulster's Stephen Ferris, fresh from confirming his allegiance to the underperforming province until the end of his current deal in 2011, has hinted that he may stay on even longer in his desire to recapture the side's glory days in Europe. He talks to the Irish Independent.

"Ulster were the first Irish winners of the Heineken Cup in 1999, but they have failed to reach the knock-out stages since, and few would bet against the current crop beating the odds this time around as they require bonus-point wins from both tonight's tussle and next week's trip to the Rec against Bath -- not to mention favourable results elsewhere.

"However, such is Ferris' loyalty to the province, who aided his transformation from a life of toil as a manual labourer into one of Europe's biggest stars, he is determined to remain as long as it takes to resuscitate Ulster's reputation as a serious rugby force. "The Heineken Cup to me is something I really want to win in my career," said Ferris. "Hopefully, I'll be here for another few years, because I really want to win a Heineken Cup with Ulster."

On a more serious note, former England hooker Brian Moore speaks candidly about how he still suffers self-esteem problems after being sexually abused as a child, and about the reactions prompted by his startling biography in an interview with Brian Viner in The Independent.

Moore did not disclose his abuser's name in the book, but the Daily Mail has since discovered the man's identity. Coincidentally it was yet another Brian, Brian Wright, a bachelor friend of his parents, who died aged 83 two years ago. He has not yet spoken to others abused by Wright at Whitehill Junior School. "But I've got messages to call a couple of people from my schooldays, which won't be easy. I've also had 20 letters from people who suffered in the same way, including two fairly well-known players I played against. Like me, they all kept it to themselves, in one case for 57 years."

"In plenty if not all of these cases, and certainly in Moore's, the abuse, and the determination to keep it a secret, led to enduringly low self-esteem. He actually has a name, an identity, for this low self-esteem: he calls it Gollum, after the hobbit with the split-personality in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Not even his unequivocal success in the sporting arena – a World Cup final, three Grand Slams and 64 caps – suppressed this demon. Moreover, he reasons that the fierce competitiveness that served him so well on the rugby field has blighted him in other areas. There is a very perceptive sentence in his book – "the refusal to relent is rewarded in sport and sometimes in business, but it is destructive in relationships" – and he has two divorces [his current wife, Belinda, is the third Mrs Moore] to prove it."

Former England hooker Brian Moore talks abusing referees, why Labour don't deserve to win the general election and running a Blade Runner marathon with Paris Hilton in The Guardian's latest edition of Small Talk.

"You sometimes clash with Small Talk's (very distant) colleague Eddie Butler in the commentary box. Ever tempted to slap his face with your glove and get duelling? Ha! No, I get on very well with Eddie and only disagree with him when he's wrong … [skips a comic beat] which is all the time.

"Does your scrappiness come from your time as a lawyer? Undoubtedly. But I always like to see both sides of the story. I'm taking a referees course so when I criticise them I can back up what I'm saying."

Is Steve Borthwick the man to lead Martin Johnson's England into the 2010 Six Nations? © Getty Images

Martin Johnson cast the first grains of doubt over Steve Borthwick's leadership by declining the opportunity to confirm him as England's captain when naming his Six Nations squad, according to Mick Cleary in the Daily Telegraph.

"The England manager wants players competing for every place in the Six Nations squad to face Wales at Twickenham on Feb 6, hence the gauntlet thrown down to Borthwick.

"Although there is every chance that the maligned Saracens lock will lead England down the tunnel in the landmark centenary fixture at Twickenham, the possibility of a change of leader at some point has been put into the mix.

"We'll name our captain as we get closer to the tournament," said Johnson, who has chosen Borthwick in all 14 Tests for which he has been in charge."

England reach to the converted in hope that Hape can buck unwanted trend of league failures, read David Hands' thoughts in The Times.

"Maybe this will be third time lucky for England. Twice before they have selected New Zealand-born former rugby league players and it has not worked out well; now they have given Shontayne Hape the chance to buck the trend, but first the Bath centre must force his way past another New Zealander, Riki Flutey.

"Birthplace was clearly not one of Martin Johnson’s concerns when the England team manager finalised his elite squad for the next six months. He already had Dylan Hartley and Flutey, both born in New Zealand, and now Hape joins them, clutching the British citizenship papers that he completed last month and hoping to fare better than Henry Paul and Lesley Vainikolo, who made their names in league but could not or were not given the chance to transfer their skills to union."

England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson insists the novelty of his high-profile move to French club Toulon has worn off, although his desire to succeed and improve grows ever greater. Read his latest column for The Times.

"For me, a huge part of my game now is focusing on getting right the balance between functioning as an individual on the pitch and as a cog within the grander game plan. The liberating side of the game is when you can play more as an individual, but, especially being a fly half, there are extra responsibilities associated with directing the team.

As the No 10, you are like the quarterback, the director, making decisions for the team. But then again, there is also the need to play what is in front of you and to take opportunities that present themselves, even when they are not in the game plan; you have a responsibility to play things off the cuff. If you let the game plan overcrowd your mind too much, it will impair your judgment and you might miss an opportunity in front of you. When you are switching from one to the other, it is very hard to get it exactly right."

Glasgow fly-half Ruaridh Jackson returns from injury tomorrow night brimming with excitement at the hours of extra tuition and "homework" he has received from Scotland's leading stand-offs. David Ferguson writes in The Scotsman.

"The 21-year-old was something of a revelation this time last year when, after starring on his debut against Bath in the Heineken Cup, he was called into Frank Hadden's final Six Nations squad. He was behind Dan Parks and Phil Godman in the pecking order, but it provided invaluable experience which he put to good use in the Scotland 'A' triumph in the IRB Nations Cup in June.

"However, his 2009-10 season started with a bang – coming off the bench against Munster in the opening game and dislocating a shoulder in the act of scoring a try. He played at full-back for the last 20 minutes of Glasgow's defeat away to Edinburgh a fortnight ago, but tomorrow night's clash with the Dragons will be his first start since he faced Connacht last May due to a shoulder injury. He revealed yesterday that he had spent much of the four months in rehab since learning from a trio of masters in teammate Dan Parks, Duncan Hodge, now the Scotland kicking coach, and the Scotland backs coach, Gregor Townsend."

England new boys Shontayne Hape and Chris Ashton are pure rugby league products but have skills to thrive in union according to Dave Hadfield in The Independent.

"There is no great surprise over Hape being picked. His ability to slip a late pass to his winger, as he did so effectively for Vainikolo at Bradford, might be rare in league, but it appears to be virtually unknown in union – which is why they tried to make a centre out of Andy Farrell, after he had finished his league career hobbling through games at prop.

"Ashton is a different case. A raw novice when he switched codes two seasons ago, he grew impatient for bigger paydays than a club like Wigan, hidebound by salary cap restrictions, could or would provide. He is not the tip of a threatening iceberg of defections, more a case of a player, like his Northampton team-mate, Stephen Myler, who is actually better suited to union than league."

Chris Ashton has been called up by England © Getty Images

Eddie Butler finds little hint of a revolution in Martin Johnson's latest England squad in The Guardian.

"What did you expect? Revolution? You only had to see the names of the props – Julian White, Andrew Sheridan, Tim Payne and David Wilson – to know that the big fingers of Martin Johnson had taken the burning fuse and snuffed out the fire. Dan Cole and Matt Mullan will have to go down the road of Saxon convention before being thrust into the full England team.

"Or at least they'll have to wait until the end of the month when, among others, Sheridan will have his injury reassessed. So, while the young Cole has to wait, the prop he inconvenienced at Welford Road at the weekend, Tim Payne of Wasps, retains his place in the elite squad. It all depends on how you interpret current form, I suppose.

"At scrum-half Harry Ellis survives an inconvenience of his own – of hardly having played this season – to see off the challenge for the moment of Ben Youngs, who, along with Cole, has done so much to make Leicester the force of the hour. Current form can take many shapes, like good posture, in Ellis's case, on the physio's bench."

David Kelly catches up with a fit-again Jonathan Sexton ahead of their Heineken Cup meeting with Brive in The Irish Independent.

"Jonathan Sexton has achieved so much in one year, yet he's still a guy in an immense hurry. A Heineken Cup and an Ireland debut have failed to sate someone who this time last year thought his Leinster days were behind him.

"History will record that injury opened the door to what would become an annus mirabilis. And yet just as he reached the pinnacle of his career to date, in the penultimate play of the titanic win against world champions South Africa, he too succumbed to fateful injury.

"Amid the fervour of that exultant Croke Park day, Sexton barely contemplated the thought that his hand may be broken. It was, and he has not played in the six weeks since. Understandably, impatience has tugged at his sleeve, Leinster's recent inactivity fuelling his frustration as much as the cautious counsel of the medics."

Will Greenwood believes Glasgow and Edinburgh must start picking up points on their travels if they are to progress in the Heineken Cup, in The Scotsman.

"I have watched both teams a lot in the last few seasons and, knowing quite a few of the players, have been delighted to see their improvement and their ability to claim some of the top scalps with some excellent rugby. Glasgow proved winning away is eminently possible when they downed Toulouse in fantastic style last season, but by then their campaign to reach the quarter-finals was all over.

"I was at Kingsholm for Glasgow's last Heineken Cup game, with Gloucester, and have a bit of insight into Sean Lineen's men from my friends Thom and Max Evans. Now, there are no excuses for the fact that they did not win that game. None.

"They were in control and going well in the first-half. Glasgow killed Gloucester at the breakdown, Kelly Brown was brilliant on the deck and playing the ref, Gloucester lost four lineouts, the Shed was absolutely silent and Dan Parks built things well. But in the second half they started to lose the contact battle a bit, Gloucester's kicking game improved and Glasgow began to chase things, and that's the difference between a good side in Europe and an average one."

Will England manager Martin Johnson spring any surprises this week? © Getty Images

Stability, continuity and loyalty will no doubt have have counted for a lot when Martin Johnson put together his Six Nations squad - but should the England boss be more radical? Mick Cleary writes in the Daily Telegraph.

"There is a sense that England have to be less inhibited, less intent on survival or damage limitation. The autumn series was a chastening experience for coaches and players: minimal return, miserable mood. There was a feeling in the autumn that England were playing without true conviction, that they didn't wholly trust themselves. If nothing else this Six Nations, they have to play without fear.

"In part, this approach can be reflected in personnel. Yet there will not be many radical departures from the script when the squads are unveiled (a 32-man Saxons squad will also be named), with the likely promotion of Chris Ashton, Northampton's high-scoring wing, the stand-out change. Saracens flanker Andy Saull is also in the mix."

Given the ramifications in terms of lost revenue and lack of match practice ahead of Heineken Cup resumption, the need for some form of underground protection should be of paramount importance to Ireland's provinces. Tony Ward writes in the Irish Independent.

"I have not the faintest idea what it would cost to install under-soil heating, whether at Ravenhill, the RDS, Thomond Park, or the Sportsground, but whatever the investment it would be money well spent.

"Certainly, deprived of match practice, the Irish sides are at a disadvantage with knock-out qualification in Europe now entering the final straight. Michael Cheika's decision to run with a full-strength line-up against Ulster was timely in retrospect. Brian McLaughlin too made good use of the Northerners' clash with Munster in the New Year by giving his first-teamers game time, meaning the real victims of the weather are Tony McGahan and, to a lesser extent, Michael Bradley.

"McGahan, who went with a second-string selection at Ravenhill, now finds himself in the position of seeing more than half his side for Saturday's crucial game away to Treviso go into battle without a match since December 20 against Perpignan, while Bradley's Connacht welcome Montpellier in the Challenge Cup on Friday without playing since December 26."

Few weekends define the Irish season quite like the final two pool rounds in Europe come January, so writes Gerry Thornley in the Irish Times.

"Although the tensions between the Ireland and provincial managements over player release have intensified this season, it remains a mutually beneficial relationship in which the Ireland team feeds off the provinces and vice versa.

"Nothing ensures a positive frame of mind when the Ireland squad come together prior to the Six Nations more than the knowledge the provinces have a tangible interest in Europe the ensuing April. This constitutes the barometer for the first half of the season. It rewards the seven months or so of pre-season and 15 or so matches they’ll usually have played at that juncture and it gives real meaning to the rest of the season."

The Times' David Hands visits Leicester to talk to Ben Youngs and his brother Tom who are following in the footsteps of their international scrum-half father Nick.

"The Youngs brothers from Leicester, you might think, are open to suggestion. Tom, the older, is in the process of making that most rare of transitions, from centre threequarter to hooker; Ben, 32 months younger, was a teenage rebel against the thought of playing scrum half because he wanted more space to run the ball out wide, but now he rather likes it.

"So much so, in fact, that some critics make him a contender to be named in England’s elite squad tomorrow, while Richard Cockerill, the Leicester head coach and a former England hooker, believes that Tom, who will turn 23 this month, could play senior club rugby in his new position and has the attitude to go even higher. It is all enough to make a father’s head spin, particularly when that parent played for Leicester and England — at scrum half."

England manager Martin Johnson names his Six Nations squad tomorrow – and he's likely to stick with the usual suspects. The Independent's Chris Hewett has other ideas – from Cipriani to Leicester's Dan Cole.

"When an England manager and his coaching team find themselves in "put up or shut up" territory, as Martin Johnson and the red-rose back-roomers will when the Six Nations Championship begins to unfold next month, there is an overwhelming temptation to spurn the new in favour of the familiar – to dig in the heels and invest a career's worth of trust in those devils already known. It is not a sign of cowardice, exactly; more one of common or garden indecision in the face of escalating odds. Even the All Blacks fell victim to this syndrome ahead of the 1999 World Cup, and if it was good enough for them, it is plenty good enough for the people on the Twickenham payroll.

"Is Johnson's indecision final? Unless he makes a bold statement soon, it will start looking that way. Another World Cup, the 2011 version, is looming ever closer, and as things stand the manager has yet to embark on a serious piece of team-building geared towards that defining event. Since succeeding Brian Ashton in the sudden, and thus far unjustified, knife-in-the-back bloodletting 21 months ago, what precisely has he achieved? Where are the former captain's flashes of selectorial inspiration?"

England manager Martin Johnson's readiness to reintegrate England's most creative player will say a lot about his chances of success, according to Richard Williams in The Guardian.

"Tomorrow is the day Johnson announces his final squad for this year's Six Nations. Armitage, Flutey, Toby Flood and Nick Easter are among those returning, no doubt with places in the starting line-up pre-booked. And, as usual, campaigns are being mounted for various outsiders, among them the wing Chris Ashton and the full-back Ben Foden from Northampton, the Leicester prop Dan Cole and the Bath centre Shontayne Hape.

"Some appear worthier than others. Foden, we are told, is worth a place despite being suspect under the high ball – can you imagine Twickenham's reaction were he to play in the opening match against Wales and fumble two of the first three steeplers that came his way? But the one whose almost certain omission concerns me most is Danny Cipriani, who still seems not to have fully redeemed himself after a damaging altercation during a pre-tournament training camp in Portugal a year ago.

"Brian Ashton, Johnson's predecessor, had the right approach to Cipriani's immaturity: the imposition of a clear punishment for an unauthorised night-club excursion, followed by a fresh start. Johnson seems less inclined to put a pastoral arm around his shoulder."

Is it Ben Foden's time? © Getty Images

Paul Rees, writing in The Guardian, believes that Martin Johnson must allow his side to utilise their creativity in the upcoming Six Nations.

"To see or not to see, that is the question ahead of Wednesday's announcement of England's revised elite-player squad for the Six Nations championship. Martin Johnson and his selectors went for experience when the original 32 was announced last July, but the sterility of England's autumn international campaign, allowing for a plague of injuries, amounted to an indictment of short-termism.

"When Johnson took over as team manager in the summer of 2008 he invested in youth, only to think again after Australia, New Zealand and South Africa stormed Twickenham. The majority of the forwards named in last July's elite squad are in their 30s, some veterans of campaigns fought with Johnson the player. How many, though, will be fit for battle in next year's World Cup?

"Johnson started with the best of intentions but soon fell victim to the pressure that constricted his two immediate predecessors. Even though he was armed with a contract that ran until the end of the World Cup, he reacted after coming under fire in November 2008 by abandoning long-term planning and concentrating simply on the next match."

Michael Brown assesses the prospects of new Blues scrum-half Alby Mathewson ahead of the Super 14 in The New Zealand Herald.

"There's a little bit of Tim Shadbolt in Alby Mathewson. He does not have the crooked grin or wispish hair and is presumably a better dancer but he shares some of Shadbolt's philosophy.

"The Invercargill and former Waitemata mayor once said, "I don't care where, as long as I'm mayor." Mathewson needed a Super franchise where he was virtually guaranteed game time, no matter where it was. He saw plenty of action at the Hurricanes last season but Aaron Cruden's rise to prominence and Piri Weepu's expected move back to halfback from first five-eighths meant Mathewson faced life on the bench.

"The only realistic option was the Blues, given the other four franchises are serviced by All Black halfbacks, so Mathewson asked his agent to sound them out.Mathewson is a one-game All Black, having played against Munster on the 2008 Northern Hemisphere tour and he hopes his move to the Blues will help him get back in black."

Hugh Godwin talks to Ospreys and Wales fly-half Dan Biggar ahead of the latest round of Heineken Cup action and the Six Nations in The Independent.

"The telephone handset was returned to its cradle – the M4 was snowbound, you see, or the interview would have been in Swansea in person – and immediately there came the slapped-head moment. "Curses! Forgot to ask him about Gavin Henson." But the redial button went unpressed. Dan Biggar had said and given enough. In an imaginary edition of A Question of Sport, Henson would be the mystery personality or even occupy the archive round. Biggar belongs to the much more exciting category of "what happens next?".

"So here's a starter for the Ospreys No 10, the 20-year-old successor to Henson for his region and a potential match-winner for Wales. Where does Biggar see himself in Wales' fly-half pecking order? "I've succeeded with my plan to oust James [Hook] as fly-half for the Ospreys," he replied, "by quietly going about my business. As for Wales, there was no doubt Stephen Jones was the No 1 fly-half going into the autumn. I feel I'm doing as well as I can to push Steve for that role, and that was my aim at the start of the season. I would love to be included in the Six Nations squad."

"The squad is likely to be announced the week after next, in between rounds five and six of the Heineken Cup, in which Biggar and the Ospreys have make-or-break matches away to Clermont Auvergne and at home to Leicester. The sometimes frustrating but always headline-making region appear to have clicked under new coach Scott Johnson and with former All Black flanker Jerry Collins minding the youthful Biggar, with five wins on the hoof – or should that be talon? – Wales' perennially super-charged meeting with England, which is at Twickenham on the first Saturday in February, can wait just for now."

Brian Moore recalls the 1995 Rugby World Cup as the UK release of Invictus nears in The Daily Telegraph.

"Due to the relative stability of South Africa today, recollections often fail to record that at the time this success was far from certain. I toured South Africa in 1994 and played in the World Cup a year later and took the time to speak about the political situation with a variety of people of all races and political hues.

"The consensus was that they had reached the point where initial euphoria at rule by the black majority had been replaced with a realisation of how difficult would be the task of satisfying their expectations. The phrase ‘knife-edge’ was used more than once.

"As with most films based on actual events, this will manipulate a number of things to ensure what its makers consider a coherent narrative."

Forme England hooker Brian Moore gestures to the Cardiff Arms Park crowd during his side's Five Nations Championship victory over Wales © Getty Images

England’s finest hooker took years to tackle his toughest opponent - the one inside his head called Gollum, Paul Kimmage writes in the Sunday Times.

"If you’ve watched Brian Moore play rugby, or listened to his commentaries on TV or read his newspaper columns, it’s the passion and obduracy that marks. This was a sporting icon, the Pitbull of England’s scrum, and it paid to beware of the dog. This is a classic Yorkshireman, immortalised by Harry Enfield, who says what he likes and likes what he bloody well says. So it comes as something of a shock to find him so shaken and vulnerable.

"We meet on a Tuesday morning at his Wimbledon home. Three days have passed since the revelations that he was sexually abused as a boy made headlines and he hasn’t quite come to terms with it. His mind is racing and skipping on every thought; his arms itch with clumps of weeping psoriasis; his sinuses are clogged and there’s gravel in his throat. He sits at the kitchen table, aching for a Marlboro Light, sifting through the pieces of a large jigsaw puzzle. It seems a perfect metaphor for his life.

“Is that a passion?” I ask. “No, someone gave it to me and over the last few days I’ve just ... I don’t know. It’s been odd and quite difficult really. I’m still a bit numb about the whole thing. I knew the serialisation was going to be in the paper but when it was on the front page it made me feel sick actually. I thought, ‘Oh God! Have I done the right thing?’ I didn’t read any of it for a few hours and my wife said, ‘Look, it’s not as bad as you think it is’. And so I had to make myself do it and once I had done it, it was out of the way.”

The prospect of two brothers lining up on opposite sides in the Calcutta Cup has emerged as an intriguing possibility after the Scotland on Sunday's Iain Morrison learned that Newcastle Falcons fullback Alex Tait is considering throwing his hat into the ring with Scotland.

"According to sources at the Falcons, where Mathew started his career and where Alex still plays, the younger of the two eldest Tait brothers is contemplating testing family loyalties by opting for Scotland if, of course, he gains selection.

"Alex, who was born in County Durham, may choose to hedge his bets and see whether he is included in the England Saxons squad for the international against Ireland on 31 January before making a decision. England are not notably short of fullbacks, including brother Mathew who can do a very decent job as the last line of defence."

With England's opening Six Nations game against Wales only a month away, manager Martin Johnson must get it right this time, according to Paul Ackford in the Sunday Telegraph.

"There is hope. Riki Flutey and Delon Armitage, two of England's unqualified successes last season, are back in contention again. So is Nick Easter, by some distance the most rugby-intelligent forward available to Johnson. With the Six Nations opener against Wales a month away, and with Johnson due to announce his revised elite squad on Wednesday, might there be cause for some discreet celebrations in England's camp?

"If only that were the case. While there is no doubt that that trio will improve England's fortunes hugely, Johnson still has to find solutions to some of the issues that dogged that wretched autumn campaign.

"He has to set up a team to score tries, he has to conjure a front row from the wreckage of the national propping pool, he has to decide precisely what he wants from the team's principal playmaker at outside half, and he has to make a call over which of the young tyros available to him are worth an extended run in the side. Oh, and he also has to win, as a bare minimum, three of his next five games simply to justify his retention in the role."

David Flatman loves the rickety Rec but time has come to move on - read his thoughts on Bath's future stadium plan in the Independent on Sunday.

"There is great affection felt for The Rec both locally and, I believe, from the wider rugby community. Employee's bias aside, I can never remember having played anywhere so beautifully situated and to get to do so every other week is a genuine treat. Sure, it's a rickety old joint with uncomfortable seats and truly awful parking arrangements but it is also a proper old rugby ground. It might lack the seating capacity or baby-changing facilities of a Liberty Stadium, it might not be able to cope so well with a bit of rain or snow, but I know where I would rather run out.

"I practically have to sit on Danny Grewcock's lap to get changed for a match and the "team" bath is so small that Duncan Bell and I cannot both bathe at the same time (this is an easier cross to bear). Strangely though, I never hear anyone complaining. We are more likely to endure with a smile the limp, rarely warm showers, dump our kit bags in the car and wander into town for a drink. Not such a bad existence."

The roundheads held sway in the autumn but cavalier talents are back to form and fitness as the Six Nations approaches, according to Eddie Butler in The Observer.

"After a joyless autumn that was like some sort of puritanical test of the paying public's will power, Martin Johnson will announce on Wednesday the England elite squad for the next trial in the devil's playground, the Six Nations. It is hardly likely that the manager, more the Lord Protector now, will have discovered jollity since November, or that Twickenham, in a pang of guilt, will have reduced admission charges for February and March. But there is always the consolation of imagining that it is simply impossible ever again to have less value for money.

"Such were the injuries in the autumn that Johnson could have survived three hidings, but he emerged with his reputation damaged after a win over Argentina and defeats by Australia and New Zealand because of a lack of imagination in selection and strategy. England were hobbled by caution. One try, by Matt Banahan, and a string of penalties and drop goals by Jonny Wilkinson kept jeers closer to the crowd's lips than "Swing low ..."

Brendan Venter is right – cheats prosper because referees stopped all contact between boot and body, according to the Sunday Times' Stephen Jones.

"Can rugby afford not to bring back boots on bodies? The pain might be the only way to save the game.

"Some readers may be unable to believe that the ruck was once the most dynamic part of the game, the most urgent, the fount of all quick ball. Brendan Venter’s courageous outburst on the state of rugby and refereeing last weekend had several targets but at the heart of his argument was the death of the ruck and the rude health of static, crabbing, infringing play. And here is an incredible thing. At ruck-time after the tackle, players are supposed to get back to their feet immediately or else roll well away. So why, in the Saracens v Leicester game last Saturday and in every game you see nowadays, are there at least six beached whales lying around the contact area? Unpenalised.

"The classic ruck was a surge over the ball and over the prone players, leaving the ball lying there, begging to be used. But referees have been told to penalise unmercifully any rucker whose boots make contact with the prone players. If there are six prone players, there is nowhere safe for the ruckers to put their feet, so they have to stand lamely and emasculated, and find other illegal ways to win the ball. A further disaster has been the dispensation this season that allows the first defender at a ruck to keep his hands on the ball — creating an even bigger pile-up. As Venter says, the death of the ruck has seen the birth of blatant cheating."

Former top referee Ed Morrison is now the RFU's Elite Referees Manager © Getty Images

From the rules at the breakdown to the mysteries of the scrum – it's often hard to tell who's on which side of the law. With officials taking flak, The Independent's Chris Hewett grills the RFU's referees honcho, Ed Morrison.

"Given that these poor, put-upon souls need, as they have never needed before, a leader with an unusual range of qualities – part stoic, part diplomat, part man of the people, part video analyst of genius – it is probably as well that Ed Morrison is currently running the show as the governing body's elite referee manager. The Bristolian was for some years the world's finest official, hence his appointment to the 1995 World Cup final between South Africa and New Zealand in Johannesburg, an unprecedentedly pressurised occasion otherwise known as the "Mandela match". Now, he finds himself handling pressure of a different kind.

"If people are being told every day that they're doing something poorly, it's bound to sap morale," he says. "They operate in a very competitive, very difficult environment – particularly in England and France, where relegation from the top division exists and the top clubs have no guaranteed security. Under such circumstances, criticism is inevitable – absolutely inevitable – and we're not so naive to believe for one second that we won't get a kicking from time to time. When that happens, I question myself, as do we all. But mistakes are inevitable too. Our aim is to reduce those mistakes to a bare minimum. I think we're making progress and if there's one message I want to get out there, it's that I have great faith in our referees. We have a strong set of officials in this country and we're building an equally strong network of support."

Before Martin Johnson names his Six Nations squad on Wednesday, The Guardian's Rob Kitson picks five young men he might consider.

"Chris Ashton - One of England's more urgent Six Nations priorities is to boost their try count – in three autumn Tests they scored one. For that reason alone the 22-year-old Northampton wing has to be a genuine contender. He is the Premiership's leading try‑scorer this season with nine and has scored 67 in 62 games since moving to union from his native Wigan, for whom he scored 30 tries in 52 games. Jim Mallinder, Saints' director of rugby, reckons Ashton has developed substantially this season and rejects the notion that the ex-league winger's defence might be exposed at the highest level. "This year we're seeing him become a really good all‑round rugby union player. Physically he can handle himself and he's now got a good defensive understanding. His kicking game has also improved massively."

The Irish Times' Keith Duggan on how the bad weather has hit Connacht harder than most, and just as they had hit some decent form in this, their coach’s final season at the helm.

"The opening days of the year have highlighted anything in Irish sport, it is surely that life must be that bit more difficult for Connacht rugby club. Throughout the week, they trained as usual for their match against Newport-Gwent Dragons while the club stewards faced a race against the clock to thaw out the home field.

"The match was called off on Wednesday morning, leaving the team in a limbo period of three weeks leading into a defining night in their season when Montpellier visit the Sportsground next Friday. A victory against the French would secure top spot in their Amlin Cup group, a placing few would have predicted when the draw was made."

Over the next couple of weeks the extra helping of sherry-laced trifle and the brandy snaps will be instantly regretted as the Super 14 players drift back to their franchises for gruelling pre-season training. Dylan Clever writes in New Zealand Herald.

"With the possible exception of sanguine Chiefs' coach Ian Foster, none of the coaches would have been able to fully relax over the festive season either.

"Having slotted a few draft choices into their squads they now have to find a way of restoring pride in New Zealand franchises that was lost last season - all done against the Sanzar blueprint of "positive rugby" they have signed up to (if you are thinking of running a sweepstake as to how long it will take a couple of the South African sides to renege on that promise we would suggest round three would be prudent).

"Last season was not a great one for New Zealand teams, leaving five pertinent questions to be answered over the off-season."

Brian Smith has pledged that there will be significant improvements in England's attacking game this Six Nations even though he believes that producing a sharp-pronged style in the current game "is as tough a task as it has been". Mick Cleary writes in The Daily Telegraph.

"Smith, though, rejects the notion that the attacking game is at a standstill. Instead, he enters the New Year primed to take on the ogre of the age – the defensive player at the breakdown. With only one try scored in three Test matches in November, Smith admits that England's attack was sub-standard. "Where we happy with in the autumn?" asked Smith. "No. Do we have to do better? Yes. Do we have to do a lot better? Absolutely."

"The return from injury of a trio of front-line backs – Toby Flood, Riki Flutey and Delon Armitage – will add potency. But England need more than that. They appeared cramped and uncertain, lacking thrust and devil. Smith accepts some of those complaints, but adamantly dismisses the argument that England were paralysed by a fear of failure."

Northampton back Shane Geraghty intends to bounce back from a difficult autumn, when he was dropped after two outings for England. John Westerby writes in The Times.

"Like many an outing in the snow this week, Northampton’s attempt to hold a serious training session on AstroTurf soon degenerated into a snowball fight. Shane Geraghty grins from ear to ear as he recounts how the players rounded on Nick Johnston, the club’s head of conditioning, and sought retribution for all the physical punishment he has inflicted upon them in the name of fitness, a case of revenge served particularly cold. It is good to see Geraghty smiling again, an image in stark contrast to the disconsolate figure that he cut with England during the autumn.

"Given the chance to establish himself at inside centre, his creative spark fizzled out after insipid games against Australia and Argentina, his frustrated attempts at playmaking epitomising England’s tongue-tied efforts to express themselves. He was dropped for the final match, against New Zealand, the coaches preferring the more prosaic skills of Ayoola Erinle, and, although Geraghty came off the bench to some effect, he finished the autumn a fallen man."

If there is one Scottish player you might want in your corner when the chips are down, Tom Smith must come close to the top of the list, according to David Ferguson in The Scotsman.

"As a player the loosehead prop took up the challenge of scrummaging for the British and Irish Lions after only a few international matches with Scotland and duly went on to become one of Scotland's greatest-ever Lions with six consecutive Test starts. The first batch finished successfully, the second far from so. And so it was in his time with Glasgow Caledonians, Brive and Northampton, and, of course, Scotland: more ups and downs than a typical day's sledging.

"This week he had been trying to work his forward pack on a gym floor at Fettes College and, eventually, at Heart of Midlothian's indoor pitch at Riccarton. Such is life in the ridiculously barren sports facility landscape that is Scotland. Sessions have had to be cut to ensure the big 18 and 19-stone forwards in particular do not suffer injury, but Smith remains confident that the team are ready for one of the few sporting contests in the UK to beat the week's freeze."

Simon Shaw will be key © Getty Images

Stuart Barnes believes that defeat at Leicester could be a fatal blow to Wasps' Guinness Premiership hopes in The Times.

"Last week I didn’t know where to start – Saracens versus Leicester had an immense appeal, while second met third as London Irish travelled to the East Midlands and a fractious meeting with the decidedly feisty Northampton Saints. Further north, in terms of geography but as south as the table goes, Leeds laboured against eleventh placed Bath. It was a matter of take your pick - not this weekend.

"All roads lead to Leicester – they did even before a half of the six matches were postponed due to the weather – where Wasps search for an away win which would have been a bonus had they beaten Newcastle as expected last Sunday.

"As it was, their loss and Leicester’s valuable away win at Saracens leaves their bid for a top four spot looking as precarious as their scrum was against Carl Hayman and his North Eastern raiders. Wasps’ industrious and efficient beginning to the season (a rarity in even the great Wasps team of recent years) is beginning to unravel."

Dan Parks talks to The Scotsman's, after agreeing a deal with Glasgow's Magners League rivals Cardiff Blues.

"The 31-year-old yesterday spoke openly about his troubles in transferring his form with Glasgow on to the international stage and admitted his decision to sign a new deal last year was about ensuring his time in Scotland did not end in bitter disappointment.

"He faced the challenge of recovering from the shame of a drink-driving offence and being dropped from the international picture by the new head coach, Andy Robinson, and, no matter what some critics think of him, he has undoubtedly gone some way in recent months to restoring his reputation.

"Parks accepts his Scotland career may be over, but revealed he told Cardiff, whom he will join at the end of this season, he still wants to be available for international duty if Robinson were to bring him back into the fold.

"Scotland cannot afford to ignore a player of 47 caps experience, still only 31, who is winning Magners League matches, at least not while international rugby remains a results-based business."

Wasps coach Shaun Edwards hopes that the finer points of Brendan Venter's referee rant will not be lost amid the controversy in The Guardian.

"This is a tricky one. Brendan Venter is in the dock and while the charge sounds straightforward enough – conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game – the issues involved go far wider.

"For anyone not up to pace, this is the situation: last weekend Venter, the Saracens director of rugby, followed defeat by Leicester with a 40-minute explanation of why he thought English referees in general, and David Rose, the official at Vicarage Road on Saturday, in particular, had got it wrong. During that time, and in a BBC interview, he also appears to have wondered aloud about whether Mr Rose had been spoken to – "got at" – at half-time, something which Saracens deny and say they will fight.

"Venter also recounted private conversations he had had at other times with referees and/or their bosses at Twickenham.The charge laid down by the Rugby Football Union mentions only that the coach had "criticised or implied criticism by publicly questioning the integrity of the match referee", but I'd like to broaden the issue in an attempt to explain the current relationship between clubs and referees plus some other points Venter made that might otherwise get lost in legal arguments."

Hugh Farrelly, writing in The Irish Independent, insists that Rob Kearney's selection on the wing for Leinster is 'no biggie' as Ireland's Six Nations defence approaches

"Leinster coach Michael Cheika has been rightly credited with bringing through an array of Irish talent since he took the reins five seasons ago, names that will buttress Ireland's World Cup assault in New Zealand in 2011.

"However, his selection for this weekend's Magners League clash with pace-setters Glasgow - presuming it goes ahead - is not ideal from Ireland's Six Nations point of view. Rob Kearney made his Ireland debut against Argentina in 2007 with the No 11 jersey on his back and was not capped in his best position of full-back until his fifth international appearance against Wales in the 2008 Six Nations.

"He guested on the left wing four more times for his country, but, since Ireland suited up for their Grand Slam drive last year, Kearney has been the man at 15 in a year that included a stunning three-Test show for the Lions. Indeed, you would not find too many quibblers if he was selected at fullback on a World XV."

Should there be yet more law changes? © Getty Images

Eddie Butler is happy with rugby's 'smallish lot' as calls for expansion continue in the wake of Brendan Venter's latest attack on the laws in The Guardian.

"With the solemnity of a vicar who has just found out his daughter is a porn star, the Rugby Football Union have levelled charges against Brendan Venter. The coach of Saracens had said that David Rose's second-half refereeing performance in the game against Leicester did not have much in common with his first.

"These are not matters to take lightly, but Richard Cockerill, the coach of Leicester fresh back on matchday duty after serving a ban for roundly abusing a match official, mush have had a chuckle. And double-checked that he had kept his lips sealed on the day in question.

"Rugby union is a wonderfully complicated game, which answers the question posed by Robert Kitson about the future size of the sport. Can it ever challenge football? No, it's too difficult to work out what's going on.

"There's nothing wrong with that, but complexity shrinks its global appeal. And if, in the name of expansion and simplicity, you start tampering with the laws, then you'll create something that isn't rugby union."

The Six Nations is around the corner and all eyes are on Declan Kidney's Ireland according to Peter Bills in The Irish Independent.

"Perhaps it is the sense of optimism that arises naturally in rugby at this time of the year.

"The weather may be dire in the northern hemisphere but look what's just around the corner in a few weeks time -- the Six Nations. In the southern hemisphere, they're gearing up for the start of the Super 14 next month.

"Besides, eras of austerity have frequently heralded years of promise, of propitious times at hand. We should remain optimistic that rugby union, in the year 2010, will provide evidence to reassert such beliefs.

"For all the dire, dreary rugby which littered the game in 2009, we must remain hopeful that a new year may ignite fresh, bolder approaches by the world's coaches. For it is this small, exclusive and privileged group which holds in its hands, the key to the future game."

Stephen Jones praises the forthright words of Saracens boss Brendan Venter in The Times.

"Brendan Venter, the Saracens coach, had the air of a man on a mission as he took his seat in the media room at Vicarage Road last Saturday evening. His breathtaking 40-minute assault on the mess of the laws at the breakdown, the random interpretations, the frustrations, the lack of incentive for teams to attack - all of it was perfectly judged.

"Frankly, I cannot bring myself to condemn him because his verbals were not contained in some hoary procedure laid down by the Rugby Football Union. Why should such matters be contained behind closed doors when they affect so many tens of thousands of people who form the paying and watching public? Are we supposed to banish from the debate the 14,000 people who went to watch the Saracens-Leicester match and witnessed such sporting poverty?

"But as the debate rages on, let's just take aim at one of Venter's targets. Never mind about demanding that coaches shut up. What about demanding that referees shut up too? Venter savaged the fact that every player killing the play at the breakdown gets too many chances."

	Is Dan Parks the answer? © Getty Images

"The issue of who will wear the No10 jersey is the prime example, but it is far from the only great debate to have emerged from the winter of Edinburgh discontent and blossoming Glasgow confidence.

"Dan Parks has won the battle of the two stand-offs, but what Robinson, Gregor Townsend and Graham Steadman will be analysing in some detail now is just what he did in the two Magners League derbies against Edinburgh – effectively unofficial international 'trials' – and how much of it can translate into the bigger picture of the Six Nations, and the attacking style of game they believe holds the key to turning Scotland from simply a difficult team to beat to a threatening, try-scoring opponent.

"We knew before the 1872 Cup matches that Parks could kick better than any in Scotland and that, behind a pack securing good possession, can control the areas in which games are played, at pro level. International rugby has, in 47 Tests, proved less controllable for the Glasgow pivot.

"The discussion over who leads Scotland into battle against France at Murrayfield in just over three weeks' time, will focus as intently on what Phil Godman did and did not do at Firhill and Murrayfield, and how much better he might be with a more proficient pack."

Peter Bills believes Brendan Venter had an ulterior motive for his rant about official David Rose in The Independent

"Venter is under serious pressure in a big pressure job. But he is no fool, prone to emotional explosions. Rather, he is a cool, calculating figure who plans most things down to a tee. Thus, his outburst after Saracens' second successive defeat should be regarded in that light. To me, it didn't add up, other factors were involved.

"I believe Venter's criticisms were a smokescreen. Sure, referees can always be a source of frustration. But that is nothing new. They make some bizarre decisions but Venter has been in the game long enough to know that. Nor are English officials any worse or better than their counterparts in countries all around the world. Look at the paucity of top referees in Australia at the moment.

"Referees do their best, and very often they slip below the standards you would expect in a professional game. But what's new about that? It didn't need Venter's outburst to tell us that.
So I'm not convinced all this was any spur of the moment outburst from Venter. To me, he's too clever to fall into that sort of pit unknowingly. I suggest there was another reason for his rant."

Rugby must settle on a vision of its future or suffer the consequences, writes Robert Kitson in The Guardian.

"A burning question for a new decade: what sort of sport does rugby union want to become? Is it simply content to remain football's imperfect cousin? Or is there a genuine will, by the time 2020 ticks around, to shed the ugly duckling feathers which still cling so stubbornly to the professional ideal? Assuming people crave the latter option, several things are going to have to change.

"First and foremost, the global rugby family needs to set aside petty differences and take a broader perspective. In truth, the problem has never really been geographical. Rugby's tribe, for the most part, divides on sub-Darwinian lines: are you a forward or a back? One loves the biff, the other the open spaces. Both camps, however, share a relish for the camaraderie, the humour, the on-field edge and the mutual respect between opponents and, on a good day, officials. If any of those essential components disappear completely, the sport is on the road to nowhere in particular.

"Which is why the first few months of 2010 are so vital. What sort of rational professional sport can expect to attract a new raft of followers with the following smorgasbord of delights: vicious rows about incomprehensible law interpretations, pompous statements from the Rugby Football Union castigating coaches for stating the obvious, ongoing eye-gouging cases, endless dreary kicking, umpteen injury bulletins, sub-standard stadium facilities and serious financial problems in both hemispheres."

Was Brendan Venter right to speak out? Mick Cleary mulls over the question of the moment in The Daily Telegraph.

"Venter's scattergun outburst threatens to conceal an important truth and deflect attention from the most pressing issue facing the game: what to do about the breakdown. In fact, it is high time to redefine terms and to stop referring to the breakdown at all. The term does not exist in the laws of the game. Rather we should be talking about the ruck and the maul, and what happens, or should happen, there.

"Many have long advocated that boots on bodies should be allowed at the ruck. Brian Moore again argued the point in these pages on Monday. If there were more speed, potency and dynamism in that phase of the game, then the frustrations felt by so many directors of rugby would reduce.

"The game has become stodgy, fractured and mind-numbingly tedious. Caution stalks the pitch. Attack has become defunct as players and coaches have become paralysed by fear and uncertainty. Once a man is tackled, the next phase of play is no more predictable than a random spin of the roulette wheel. That was the nub of Venter's critique. These views need to be aired, and aired forcibly."

Hugh Farrelly has high hopes for Ireland in 2010 - starting with Connacht in the Heineken Cup and ending with those pesky All Blacks - in The Irish Independent.

"Last year's wish-list didn't work out too badly. That compilation centred around the abandonment of the most heinous of the ELV laws and once that wish was granted, everything else was a bonus.

"The game is still riddled with enough kick-backs to satisfy the most corrupt politician but is still far better than its horrendous ELV incarnation.

"There has been a welcome return to basics and a re-emphasis on rugby's core values, notably up front, and to the Aussie-driven, TV revenue-hunting ELV conspirators the message could be (in Eamon Dunphy vernacular): "The maul is back baby, deal with it."

	Saracens boss Brendan Venter © Getty Images

"Brendan Venter's venting of his wrath on referees will no doubt earn the Saracens director of rugby a fine and a dressing down from Twickenham, but when someone is punished, or forced to apologise, for telling the truth, a sport puts itself on the sick list.

"In the wake of his side's defeat by Leicester Venter blamed refereeing, particularly at the breakdown, for the risk-free rugby that has become the Premiership's staple fare. "Everyone wants to know why the game is dying," he said. "I am not accusing referees of being dishonest but the confusion is almost total and it seems pointless to prepare teams," he added, claiming the problem was worse in England than elsewhere.

"He had clearly not watched the Magners League Welsh derby between Ospreys and Cardiff Blues the day before, a study in bewilderment, but more is the pity that he did not make his remarks after his side had won – the September meeting with Gloucester, for instance, after the Vicarage Road crowd had expressed its disgust at a glut of tedious kicking out of hand on a sunny afternoon."

Brian Moore again asks where rucking went - and why it hasn't returned - in The Daily Telegraph.

"First of all let us be exact about what I mean by rucking. Many people I spoke to remember the injuries JPR Williams and Phil de Glanville suffered during rucks, but their lacerations were not caused by rucking but by illegal stamping/raking above the neck. What I mean by rucking is the removal of prone players on the wrong side of the ball by the backward use of the foot; not stamping and not contact with the knee and ankle joints.

"The further I got into my quest and the more people I talked to the stranger the whole experience became. It seems that this subject has produced a bizarre amnesia in even the most informed observers. Nobody from the lowest casual watcher to the very highest qualified international player or coach was prepared to be absolute in their proffered answer as to the precise point at which rucking was outlawed.

"There must be a point at which the practice of removing illegally obstructive players with the foot was condemned, but I cannot find it and nobody has been able to help. I remember being at a meeting when the IRB referee manager, Paddy O'Brien, stated that handling the ball in a ruck was to be allowed "because it in fact legalised what was going on anyway" – ignoring the fact that it only happened because referees were failing to do their job."

Simon Barnes has lost patience with rugby, power-crazed referees and preventative refereeing in The Times.

"A new year, and soon enough rugby union will swing into prominence as the Six Nations Championship begins. Now place your hand on your heart and tell me: do you understand the laws of this bloody game? When the referee blows for an infringement, do you know what he is blowing for before you are told?

"This is not a question that divides serious rugby buffs from the rest. Nor is it a question that divides rugby professionals from the rest. It is not one that divides the players on the field from the rest, or even the player doing the infringing from the rest. It is a question that separates the referee from every other individual on the planet.

"What happens in rugby? A player takes the ball, moves forward a little and gets tackled. A whole load of players then roll about on the ground. Pheep! The referee gives a penalty. It is a judgment that appears to have very little relevance to what is happening. I used to think this was just me and my silly ignorance. But it’s not. It’s a fundamental problem with the game."

Eddie Butler is looking to England for answers in the seemingly endless debate on the state of the game in The Observer.

”At the start of the decade that has just ended, England were the worry. And so it is that rugby, as played in and by England, sets the agenda for the new age. Wales have had their two Grand Slams in the noughties and Ireland are the force of the moment, but where we go from here depends on England.

“Ten years ago, the question was posed - with barely disguised mockery - of Clive Woodward: 'Can you ever win the Grand Slam?' Wales, Scotland and Ireland, at various stages of the Six Nations around the turn of the millennium, were in the process of making the England coach's job an ordeal as much as a pleasure.

“His answer, delivered in 2003, was an emphatic 'yes', which was the source of the concern. England trounced Ireland in 2003 to take the Slam and then travelled to New Zealand andAustralia, in the summer before the World Cup, to deliver a style that left everyone scratching their heads. Now that England had finally mobilised their rugby forces, would anyone be able to live with them?”

	Waratahs skipper Phil Waugh © Getty Images

”The rougher it got the more I enjoyed it." That's typical Phil Waugh. And the attitude that should have Wallabies coach Robbie Deans questioning why he ever left the tough-as-nails breakaway out of last year's spring tour.

"Just days back from his maiden Sydney to Hobart voyage, in which he finished fourth aboard supermaxi Loyal, the Waratahs skipper said he's already counting down the days to the 2010 race. However, he only got an hour's sleep in three days, so that could just be the celebratory beers talking.

"I certainly enjoyed the yachting and the actual racing. I think it's the competitive spirit," said Waugh, who was joined on the 100-footer by ex-Wallaby Phil Kearns, world champion boxer Danny Green and Olympic swimming gold medallist Grant Hackett.”

Bath prop David Flatman recounts the ordeal of cooking Christmas dinner for, among others, a crutch-wielding Olly Barkley in The Independent.

”If this festive period taught me anything, it was that mothers deserve as much respect as it is possible to muster. It is not, as you might expect, due to the demands of satisfying and caring for a new baby, but for cooking Christmas dinner. I created the traditional feast this year and good Lord, it was an ordeal. I had, until this point, been under the impression that a first-class game of rugby was the ultimate combination of preparation, timing and concentration. It now slips into second place. OK, so there is the odd Dad that does the graft at Christmas time, but most of them only do it once. I sincerely hope to fall into that category.

“These days, you see, we rugby players do not get much time to sit back and enjoy what is supposed to be a relaxing, gluttonous and generally unconscious time of year. Thoughts of impending matches over the next day or two are difficult to banish from one's mind as the usual array of meats, sauces and goose fat potatoes are being offered round.

"Are you allowed Christmas pudding?" asked my wife. This is one of the only times when being a big lump by profession counts in one's favour. "You don't get a body like this skipping puddings. Whack it on there," came the reply. I worked on the basis of some old-school thinking: don't eat too much tomorrow and run a bit harder at training and all will be back to normal. We managed to beat Gloucester in the West Country derby so I guess it is difficult to contest my logic.”

Paul Ackford revisits the enigma of Danny Cipriani's England career and is full of praise for his natural gifts in Th Daily Telegraph.

”The tale is of Cipriani's full debut against Ireland in 2008, and it is relayed in some rugby circles almost with reverence.

“The match is about 30 minutes old, Ireland are leading and England have just pinched line-out ball against the throw from a position just inside their own half. Richard Wigglesworth gets the possession off the top and whisks an arrow-straight, flat pass into the waiting hands of the 20-year-old Cipriani. It is just about the best kind of ball you can get in modern rugby. Ireland are set up to attack, the opposing back lines are 20 metres apart, yet in a second Ireland will be scrambling to defend a play initiated by Cipriani who revels in precisely the type of situation.

“Except that Cipriani doesn't call a move, or jink, or feint, or do anything much. He simply stops, swivels and boots the ball miles down field, forcing a line-out within five metres of Ireland's goal line. In the Twickenham stands, those watching can't believe the evidence of their own eyes. England's best opportunity to run at Ireland, and Cipriani hoofs it. Ridiculous.”

Stephen Jones interviews Simon Shaw as the giant Wasps lock prepares to play his 196th game in The Sunday Times.

”The fascination was ghastly and yet compelling. After the monumental second Lions Test, they had dragged Simon Shaw into one of the television interview spaces in the bowels of the Loftus Versveld in Pretoria. As he stepped into the lights, the familiar giant figure looked stricken.

“It was massively emotional,” recalls a man not given to emotional pronouncements. Shaw had just given what I consider to be the greatest performance by a forward in any match, ever. Watch the video and tell me I am wrong. It was his third Lions tour. At last he had made the Test side and obliterated Bakkies Botha, his feared opposite number, and half the Bok pack besides. He was being interviewed because he was man of the match.

“But it was the bitterest, as well as the sweetest, moment. The Lions lost the series that day. Thousands will go to their graves unable to accept the ferocious ill-fortune of the match — the scandal that Schalk Burger was not dismissed for his brutal gouge, the chain of injury events, one of which saw both Lions props leave the field after the same movement, de-powering a scrum phase in which the Lions had been dominating.”

Richard Bath mulls over Andy Robinson's selection problem at fly-half in The Scotsman.

”At least we know what Andy Robinson got for Christmas – a helping of Hobson's Choice, a surprise sprinkling of Catch 22, with a nasty little No-Win Situation thrown in for good measure. Little wonder that the Scotland coach looked even more intense and beetle-browed than usual.

“The clash between Scotland's top two sides has given Robinson plenty of food for thought, but nowhere are the selectorial decisions he will be taking less enviable than at stand-off, where all of the cards in his hand were on display at Murrayfield. Unfortunately, the outcome was as plain for him to see as it was for the rest of the stadium.

“On the one hand there was the player who is out of favour with the Scotland management and seemingly on his way out of the country, bound for the bright lights of Cardiff Blues in the summer. Dan Parks was imperious in virtually everything he did, playing with a control, confidence and experience which his coach Sean Lineen later described as breathtaking.”

Tony Ward has hopes for the New Year, calling for some changes to the way the game is played in The Irish Independent.

"With the greatest year in our rugby history just ended, wouldn't it be lovely to assume everything in the rugby garden was rosy? However, just for a minute, let's leave aside the Grand Slam, Six Nations, Triple Crown, Heineken Cup and Magners League triumphs and take a look instead at the things that continue to irk. And, no, we won't even mention the crisis the club game is facing.

"As the game is fundamentally about primary possession, let us start with the set- piece.The line-out, to be fair, is in pretty good nick. Watch old footage on TG4's Rugbai Gold or ESPN Classic and, if nothing else, it brings home the awful mess the line-out once was. Now it is clear and well organised.

"Yes, I accept possession goes largely to the throwing side, but that is as it should be and, to the best of my playing knowledge and sadly fading memory, is generally how it always was. Why else had we hookers, second-rows and the odd back or front-row forward, whether off the top or on the peel, in secret conclave working that pre-match Da Vinci Code.

Will Greenwood hails Brian O'Driscoll's famous year and laments the loss of the British & Irish Lions in South Africa in The Daily Telegraph.

"Come the autumn, their self-belief enabled them to snatch a draw against Australia and then they delivered in another humdinger against South Africa. The next step is the hardest – Ireland now have to take down the big guns on their own turf. Until they do that, they will be merely a good team; now they have to push for greatness.

"Individually on the world stage there have been some massive performances, aside from O'Driscoll. Fourie du Preez won everything he could and has been South Africa's key man over the past three years. Matt Giteau is simply the most aesthetically pleasing rugby player around. Dan Carter's return from a snapped Achilles has been majestic. Rocky Elsom led Leinster home in the Heineken Cup.

"Simon Shaw was awesome in the second and third Lions Tests in South Africa, Jamie Roberts was remarkable in the first and three-quarters of the second. Jamie Heaslip was magnificent all year. And Richie McCaw brought a New Zealand side who were under pressure up north in the autumn and led from the front as they destroyed everyone."

David Hands reviews the first half of the Guinness Premiership season in The Times.

“It has been fashionable to bemoan the presence of Saracens at the top of the Guinness Premiership: they play limited rugby, the critics say; they have too many overseas players; they have not made Vicarage Road a magnet for the crowd. Poppycock. Saracens have achieved success while drawing together a disparate squad under new coaches with no tradition of achievement behind them.

“They have swung during the professional era one way, then the other, too consumed with big-name players and coaches. Now Brendan Venter, the director of rugby, has a hard-working squad playing a simple but effective game. The frills can be seen in the Amlin Challenge Cup, which Saracens appear to be using as a stage to expand their game, and as the grounds become harder in spring, the chances are their play will win new friends.

“Everything at Saracens is on the up,” Venter, 40 this week, said. “New training facilities, a new gym, everything is so positive it’s scary. And do you know what I’ve enjoyed most about this season? Watching the Storm [Saracens’ development team] bringing the same intensity to their game as I want from the seniors.” In case anyone has forgotten, the Storm are full of young, England-qualified players being coached by young, England-qualified individuals such as Alex Sanderson and Paul Gustard.”

	Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll hoists the Six Nations Championship trophy © Getty Images

"Entering 2009, Ireland had won just four of its 10 matches in 2008, all at home against the combined might of Italy, Scotland, Canada and the understrength Pumas. All told, in Ireland’s previous 18 matches, there had been 11 defeats, while the other three wins had been a fortunate victory over Italy at Ravenhill and those taut World Cup wins over Namibia and Georgia. Notions of winning a Grand Slam would have had you in a straitjacket.

"...It transpired that the “honesty sessions” just before Christmas in the Marriott Hotel in Enfield were the origins of the Grand Slam. There, famously, Rob Kearney had brought up an elephant in the room, namely about the Munster players’ passion for the red and green jerseys before the squad were gobsmacked, rapt and inspired for two hours by Pádraig Harrington.

Most pertinent of all was the revised game plan, fed to the players and devised by Kidney, Gert Smal, Les Kiss and Alan Gaffney. Where there had been some confusion the preceding November, thereafter there was clarity. They didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. The forwards were granted more licence to take on opposition packs."

Melbourne's new Super 15 rugby franchise is continuing as it began, with acrimony, confusion and threats to walk away according to Dan Silkstone in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Two backers of the consortium negotiating with the Australian Rugby Union to run the nation's first privately owned rugby club have baled out in recent days after the ARU refused to meet their financial demands.

"Minority stakeholder Ray Evans claimed yesterday that the ARU had taken over the task of setting up the new team, ending negotiations with the would-be owners and appointing an administrator who would choose a coach and begin recruiting players.

"But those claims were strongly denied by ARU deputy chief executive Matt Carroll last night. ''We are working through the things we need to and I remain very optimistic,'' Carroll said. ''The ARU has no desire to be running this club and I'm sure that is not going to happen.''

The success of the South of Scotland's first match back in 14 years as a district team of unpaid players against Northumberland has brought renewed calls for clubs to find a way of restoring the historic district championship. David Ferguson writes in The Scotsman.

"Nearly 2,000 supporters braved the icy chill at Netherdale on Wednesday night to witness the historic revival and the South run in five tries in a 37-3 win, after a minute's applause for South and Scotland scrum-half Duncan Paterson, who died last week.

"Among them were current Scotland coaches Gregor Townsend and Stevie Scott, former coach Jim Telfer and other ex-internationalists who wore the South colours, including Doddie Weir, Gary Armstrong and Cammie Murray.

"Armstrong, Scotland's last Five Nations Championship-winning captain, commented: "It was great to see the red-and-white hoops again and the standard of rugby was good with both teams really trying to play."

Danny Cipriani: outside-half or full-back? The debate over the celebrity playmaker's best position is likely to ramble on well into the new year, according to Chris Hewett in The Independent.

"Tony Hanks, who faces some awkward contractual negotiations with English rugby's version of Gavin Henson over the next month or so, says he likes the idea of playing both Cipriani and David Walder, a highly effective outside-half in his own right, in the same combination. "Moving Danny to full-back gives him an opportunity to show his versatility," the director of rugby remarked yesterday. Quite how badly Cipriani wants to be seen as versatile after almost two years of injury and career drift is open to question."

The law-makers can stand down, sensible coaching has addressed the aerial onslaught that was killing the game, according to Eddie Butler in The Guardian.

"Worcester-Northampton may not go down as one of the matches of the decade but perhaps, in its own way, it was quite a landmark game. For months, ever since the glow of the Lions tour chilled in the northern autumn, we had been moaning that something horrible was happening to the game. The contest on the ground, with a distinct bias in favour of the tackler, meant that the ball was going up into the heavens. The floor was the minefield that had to be overflown, and it was not pretty.

"Well, there is evidence to suggest that the problem is safely being addressed by the coaches, rather than being abandoned to the law-makers. The legislators of the International Rugby Board would no doubt think long and hard about the matter, and end up inserting a clause that would merely create a jam somewhere else. The last round of Experimental Law Variations was born of good intentions but simply proved that this is a complex sport of loopholes and knock-on effects."