8/9 Rugby

Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes to feed a hungry crowd at a major stadium? Managing Director of Twickenham Experience, Nils Braude, let Brett McKay & Harry Jones behind the curtain in this week’s episode of The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. Covering everything from your typical stadium fare to partnering with street food vendors, right up to Michelin star hospitality catering in Twickenham...

Lighter, whiter shades of playing kit reigned supreme in Week 3 of the Six Nations, and it’s another weekend of high scores in Super Rugby Pacific, as Brett McKay & Harry Jones launch into another Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. Did Ireland take Wales easy in Cardiff? Were Wales actually very, very good under new coach Matt Sherratt? Has Fabien Galthié made life very difficult...

Sandwich tales, a great Australia start to Super Rugby Pacific, and the return of the Six Nations has Stan Sport commentator Sean Maloney excited, joining Brett McKay & Harry Jones in this week’s milestone episode of The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. In the 8-9 Combo’s 50th guest episode and 100th overall, the guys compare Harry’s sandwich in a pub in Limerick with Seanny’s extraordinary SuperBowl smok...

Last minute wins and a Grand Final get-square headlined the first weekend of Super Rugby Pacific, while successive Zebre upsets is the talk of the URC, as Brett McKay & Harry Jones launch into another Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. The ACT Brumbies took a team laden with debutants to Fiji and did what no Australian team had done before, Munster was most comfortable at home fo...

Curious selections for the opening weekend of Super Rugby Pacific, the French Six Nations fallout, and it’s a second attempt at life post-Warren Gatland in Wales, as Geoff Parkes joined Brett McKay & Harry Jones in this week’s episode of The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. An already accomplished rugby columnist, Geoff Parkes provides some wonderful perceptions into Super Rugby for 2025, as well as delvi...

Undefeated and ominous-looking Ireland now lead the Six Nations Championship after two rounds in 2025, but England’s late win over France will remain a talking about for a while yet, as Brett McKay & Harry Jones launch into another Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. Scotland showed some but not enough grit before going down to Ireland at Murrayfield, England’s 80th minute winner...

Last week was all about the Seven Deadly Sins within the Six Nations, and for the bumper second round of matches it’s Crime & Punishment. Brett McKay & Harry Jones take a look at three individually intriguing games for the latest episode of The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. It is, of course, a round with three really interesting matchups, and three games that could go either way. But punishment looms i...

The Six Nations Championship has begun for 2025, with France and Ireland laying down statement wins in Round 1, providing Brett McKay & Harry Jones with the perfect platform to kick off the new Weekend Post-Mortem for The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. France were completely dominant in their 43-0 win over hapless Wales in Paris on Friday night, with Scotland’s 31-19 win over Italy in Edinburgh, and Ire...

There are many deadly sins on the rugby field, but just which of the Seven Deadly Sins broadly apply to the Six Nations teams was pondered by The Telegraph’s Charlie Morgan, who joined Brett McKay & Harry Jones for the latest episode of second season of The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. Harry, of course, has committed most of those deadly sins on the rugby field, but he was intrigued with the idea of a...

Growing the game globally while at the same time making it sustainable are the big challenges for the new Chair of World Rugby, Brett Robinson, who joined Brett McKay & Harry Jones for the first weekly episode of second season of The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast. Following on from his predecessor, Sir Bill Beaumont – who was the first guest at the very start of the 8-9 Combo, back one year ago – Brett...

The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast is back for a massive year of rugby in 2025, and Brett McKay & Harry Jones are here with all the details of what to expect this year. The short summary: more Great Rugby Chats every week! They’ll cover it all: the Six Nations, a revamped Super Rugby Pacific, the United Rugby Championship, the Premiership in England, the Top 14 in France, the European Champions Cup, Japa...

Brett McKay and Harry Jones delved into The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast archives one last time for the summer, to pull together some of the best bits from some of their favourite guests from more than forty weekly guest episodes in 2024. Guest highlights include Matt To’omua, Riaan Louw, Sean Maloney, Tony Johnson, Kevin Foote, Andrew Kellaway, Gareth Whittaker, Brett Cronan, Jamie Wall, James Slipper...

Brett McKay and Harry Jones delve into The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast archives to share and celebrate their favourite Cheers & Jeers from the start of more than forty weekly guest episodes in 2024. Featuring non-speaking guest appearances by Charlie Morgan, Sam Larner, Riaan Louw, Laurie Fisher, Cam Sheppard, Harry Wilson, Sean Maloney, Jamie Wall, rugby mascots, and all our wonderful guests in 2024....

Brett McKay and Harry Jones come together on The 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast for one last time, to wrap up the 2024 rugby year in one big go – by asking simply, ‘How do we sum up 2024 for…?’ each of the top eight international teams: South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand, France, Argentina, Scotland, England, Australia. But to do that, somehow, the summary is set in the Wild West! Find out who the outlie...

Brett McKay and Harry Jones jump into the final Test Match post-mortem of the year with no more thought than usual, with this week's fulltime focus on Ireland’s patience and Australia’s frustrations in the 22-19 result at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, to wrap up the Northern Spring Autumn Series Tours for 2024. A wonderful, gripping contest came from some seriously scrappy rugby – and curious offic...

Brett McKay and Harry Jones lay out the final Games of the Week for 2024, incorporating the final match of the Northern Spring Autumn Series Tours between Ireland and Australian in Dublin, and which will put Joe Schmidt and his gameplan up against his former assistant Andy Farrell and the same gameplan in what will be a fascinating contest. The United Rugby Championship and the English Premiership...

Brett McKay and Harry Jones are joined on The 8-9 Combo by Irish sportswriter and playwright Patrick McCarry to look back over the final full weekend of the Northern Spring Autumn Series Tour, and then to cast an eye forward to the final international fixture for 2024 this weekend coming, when Ireland host Australia at the Aviva in Dublin this Saturday. The Irish haven’t had the smoothest of time...

Brett McKay and Harry Jones jump into another Test Match post-mortem without much thought at all, with this week's fulltime focus on Scotland’s gritty 27-13 win over Australia at a chilly Murrayfield in Edinburgh, the wrap up the final full weekend of Northern Spring Autumn Series Tours. In a game that would have been a statement win for either side, it was the Scots who maintained their shape, th...

Brett McKay and Harry Jones lay out the Games of the Week for the final full weekend of the Northern Spring Autumn Series Tours, the last chance for the Home Nations to save something from the November Tests, and for the southern hemisphere nations to reinforce their claims of global rugby domination. Can Argentina spring one last upset? Can Ireland make one last statement? How much patience is le...

Brett McKay and Harry Jones are joined on The 8-9 Combo by incoming New South Wales Waratahs coach Dan McKellar, who has put the disappointment of how his Leicester Tigers gig ended, the strong links to his native Queensland, and his storied history with the ACT Brumbies all behind him to get on with the job of restoring the Waratahs to the force Australian rugby needs them to be. Plus, Brett and...

Brett McKay and Harry Jones jump into another Test Match post-mortem without much thought at all, with this week's fulltime focus on France’s patient 30-29 win over New Zealand in Paris, and South Africa’s well-in-hand 29-20 win over England at Twickenham. Two enthralling contests with lead changes and plenty of drama, and from which there was plenty to talk about straight away – and will be more...

Brett McKay and Harry Jones lay out the Games of the Week for the second full weekend of the Northern Spring Autumn Series Tour, where the Home Nations in particular will be seeking responses after all suffering losses of varying degrees of hurt the previous round. Pressure is starting to mount in certain team environments, and another loss will only add to some already uncomfortable narratives. H...

Brett McKay and Harry Jones are joined on The 8-9 Combo by The Telegraph’s senior rugby writer Charlie Morgan to look back over the first full weekend of matches of the Northern Spring Autumn Series Tour, with New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Fiji and South Africa all recording wins in a sweep of southern hemisphere dominance. Of course, that means we probably should brace for some kind of react...

Brett McKay and Harry Jones rip into another Test Match post-mortem before giving it any thought at all, with this week's fulltime focus on the Wallabies absolutely stunning 42-37 comeback win over England at Twickenham, as well as looking back at New Zealand’s 23-13 win over Ireland in Dublin on Friday night An incredible win from Australia. Is it too big a stretch to call it the single greatest...

Brett McKay and Harry Jones push Games of the Week deep into the second week of the November Internationals, where they welcome Australian rugby writer for RugbyPass and The Roar, John Ferguson, along for a proper preview look at the biggest Test Matches of the weekend. This week’s Games of the Week: • Ireland v New Zealand in Dublin • England v Australia at Twickenham • Scotland v South Africa at...