Tony Brown

Some get to pen their own exits, be it Brian O’Driscoll to Derek Pender in our neck of the woods, or in Rugby World Cups most recently there was the A(...)

Schmidt Happens He shook up the world order. Altered the way Irish rugby is perceived from Samoa to Bloemfontein. He gifted the most important people(...)

Only a game, but what a game. Japan and Scotland served up the best of the 37 pool matches in the last of them. After Typhoon Hagibis, which wreaked s(...)

“For one week only, Japan is the enemy,” Rassie Erasmus tells the room while outside, the rain drums the footpaths and the leaves fall. The Springboks(...)

Japan are now a serious factor at their own 2019 World Cup. The conditions and the scheduling already in their favour, now, thanks to a brilliantly pl(...)

“Arigato gozaimasu.” Joe Schmidt speaks more Japanese than his opposite number Jamie Joseph. After Schmidt’s media masterclass in Yumeria almost spinn(...)

Rugby World Cup Pool A: Japan v Ireland Kick-off: 8.15am, Saturday (Irish time). Venue: Shizuoka Stadium. How to follow: The Irish Times liveblog wil(...)

The presumption, after Fiji failed to finish off Australia, was that there would be no alarms and no surprises at this World Cup. That was punctured (...)

Ryohei Yamanaka’s journey to his first World Cup at the age of 31 has been circuitous to say the least. Eight years ago he was a promising outhalf w(...)

Away from the madding crowds, the Irish squad have based themselves in a quaintly Japanese version of Carton House. Set in Fukuroi, 34km from Shizu(...)