The Lineout

We are not quite sure the fact that South Africa haven't beaten the Wallabies in Australia since 2013 is enough to make them the underdogs for this weekend's Round 3 action, especially as they are keen to make amends for their Round 2 wobble against the All Blacks. Australia meanwhile will take confidence from their stocks being strengthened as some key players return from injury, but for both sid...

We look at Argentina's spectacular dismantling of the Wallabies in Round 2 of the Rugby Championship and which sees them top the standings for the first time since joining the competition in 2012.

We unpack the All Blacks dramatic turnaround against the Springboks last weekend at Ellis Park and what we've learnt from it going forward.

Argentina were exciting but sloppy and poorly disciplined last weekend in their loss to the Wallabies. The skills and talent is there for the Pumas who played a solid first half which saw them enter the sheds at half time with a convincing lead. Australia meanwhile regrouped in the second half, and put in one of the best performances we've seen from them under Dave Rennie's tenure to clinch the wi...

It's crunch time for New Zealand as they seek to avoid their fourth consecutive loss against a locked and loaded Springbok side full of confidence at Ellis Park after their demolition of the All Blacks last weekend in Nelspruit.

Australia take a deep breath as their Captain Michael Hooper withdraws from the Rugby Championship at the 11th hour to take some much needed time out to take care of his own mental health, but the Wallabies play for their influential leader and make him proud. Meanwhile Argentina have some work to do after a spirited but occasionally flawed performance in Mendoza last Saturday.

New Zealand will spend a week of soul searching in South Africa after perhaps one of their most inept performances in recent memory against a ruthlessly efficient Springbok side in Nelspruit last Saturday. South Africa got their Rugby Championship off to the best of all possible starts against their greatest rivals to the delight of their fans. South African rugby is in rude health while the All B...

While much of the rugby world's attention will be focused on events in Nelspruit, South Africa tomorrow morning, the clash between the Pumas and Wallabies in Mendoza holds plenty of interest in it's own right. Two evenly matched sides who will most likely be meeting each other in the knockout stages of next year's World Cup go head to head, with improvements aplenty needed from two teams definitel...

New Zealand suffering from one of their worst dips in form in recent memory travel to South Africa for a two Test series that could well see another massive shakeup in All Black management. South Africa await them with a sense of eager anticipation and are keen to exploit the New Zealanders' clearly documented weaknesses as well as build on a their at times shaky recent success against Wales by ta...

With the absence of action on the pitch, this week we continue our debate over the All Blacks Coaching job, the red card ruling system for the Rugby Championship, the World Cup draw and the Springbok squad to face New Zealand on Saturday.

With no actual rugby on the pitch, we look at the squad announcements for the Rugby Championship, some officiating decisions for the tournament and All Blacks Coach Ian Foster's ongoing struggles.

We conclude our series looking at the final weekend of summer tour blockbuster action with Argentina and Scotland and Chile's historic road to the World Cup

Continuing our series of looking at the Summer Tours we unpack the South Africa/Wales Series and Final Test

We continue our look at the Summer tours by reviewing the series decider last weekend between Australia and England.

In this first of three episodes we look at Ireland's historic series win in New Zealand

We wrap up last weekend's historic summer tour action by looking at Argentina vs Scotland and a brief mention of Canada vs Spain and Chile vs the USA, with the Americans and Chileans battling it out for the second Americas berth in the World Cup next year in France.

In the second of this week's wrap ups we look at last weekend's action between Australia and England and Wales and South Africa and a look ahead to the series deciders between the four countries this weekend.

In the first of three episodes this week, we look at France's series win in Japan and the epic first ever win by Ireland on New Zealand against the All Blacks setting up an epic series decider this weekend.

We finish our wrap up of the week with a look at the First Tests between South Africa and Wales and Argentina and Scotland.

We look at the first two big Tests this weekend between Ireland and New Zealand and Australia and England, as well as Canada's outing with Belgium and France's initial visit to Japan.

We wrap up the week past looking at the Japan/Uruguay second Test, and the first between the New Zealand Maori All Blacks and Ireland. We also look forward to this weekend's bumper crop of internationals as the first round of the summer tours gets underway.

We take a whip round the globe to sum up the rugby action featuring the URC and Super Rugby Pacific finals, the Canadian womens' final superb effort against Australia in the Pacific Four and Japan's clash with Uruguay and England's rather disappointing performance against a truly exuberant Barbarians side with plenty of French flair.

We take a look at some epic semi final action in Super Rugby Pacific and the URC, and a shout out to the Canadian Women who put up a very brave fight against one of the best teams in the World, New Zealand's Black Ferns.

We take a whip round last weekend's URC and Super Rugby Pacific Quarter Finals, the last regular season round of the MLR and the opening weekend of the Pacific Four Series featuring Canada's women.

We take a look at rugby action around the globe last weekend in the MLR, Super Rugby Pacifica and the Heineken Cup Final.