When Saturday Comes

21. Letters, WSC 258: (Readers' letters); ... I assume that the BBC’s football producers got the idea for touchline summarisers at Euro 2008 from their Six Nations rugby union broadcasts, where cauliflower-eared men shout about “big hits” and “tough ...; Created on 21 August 2008
22. Letters, WSC 257: (Readers' letters); ... key objective of selling the debentures for £10,000 a time. The FA should take a leaf out of the Rugby Football Union’s book and distribute tickets via the club network, reducing the likelihood of tickets ...; Created on 21 July 2008
23. Showroom dummies: (Business & finance); ... for a month, that is the modern age festival that captivates the nation.” Instead, in England, there is an empty space in the diary. In the future there is a danger that sports such as rugby union, golf, ...; Created on 20 February 2008
24. Football’s Twelve Apostles: (General); ... inter-club games of a type that would persist in rugby union for another century. Though the ordinary matches were not “friendlies” as such, a suspicion grew amongst fans and punters that teams were trying ...; Created on 17 January 2008
25. Constant Paine: (Players); ... subject for the author to tackle, but Bull wastes no time in pointing out that, in such times, football was viewed there predominantly as a black person’s sport, in contrast to rugby union and cricket. ...; Created on 17 January 2008
26. Code of conduct: (Newswatch); Why rugby is reckoned to be better than football “I am probably attracted to rugby because it is a man’s game.” So the Sun reported “the shock conversion” this month of Jimmy Greaves from football to ...; Created on 10 December 2007
27. Official line: (Referees); ... go further. At an FA roadshow at The Hawthorns in October, Barwick outlined the scheme and cited the example of rugby union, where referees in televised matches are equipped with microphones, as a “marker” ...; Created on 10 December 2007
28. A sport for all?: (Women's football); ... Even rugby union’s ponderous and cantankerous Guinness Premiership has made significant progress over the last ten. As a spectator sport, women’s football is still banging the drum.X Some sports are great ...; Created on 14 November 2007
29. Mansfield, Palace, Chester, Notts County: (Sharp end); ... the best of intentions when the ground opened in 1992, is too restrictive, but the fact that Vaughan also owns nearby Widnes rugby league club hasn’t escaped notice. Brighter news at Notts County, where ...; Created on 14 May 2007
30. Fitting memorial: (Clubs); ... Memorial Ground that the club shares with Bristol rugby union club and building a new 18,500-seat stadium. Rovers can afford this by building student accommodation in the four corners of the new ground. ...; Created on 14 April 2007
31. Border crossing: (Politics); Ireland’s foreign minister has broached a tricky subject: if one team can represent the island in rugby, why not in football? Paul Doyle reports on the backlash, or lack of one, from some quarters The ...; Created on 14 March 2007
32. Letters, WSC 235: (Readers' letters); ... that England should practise penalty kicks based on Johnny Wilkinson’s “mastering of the technique” in rugby union (Letters, WSC 233) does not stand up. Penalty kicks in rugby come at all distances and ...; Created on 14 September 2006
33. Exit clause: (Editorials); ... and any other pressures out of the equation. Clive Woodward in rugby union is a prime example of such a coach – look at the metronomic kicking of Jonny Wilkinson – yet the message still gets lost. When ...; Created on 14 August 2006
34. Cap that fits: (Governing bodies); ... would surely only ever happen if Roman Abramovich quit west London, but could a salary cap reduce the champions to also-rans? Wigan, for example, were rugby league’s dominant club until a few years ago ...; Created on 14 July 2006
35. Admission of guilt: (Business & finance); ... but not Portsmouth on the last day. Tottenham’s visit on a Saturday in November was considered worthy of the knock-down price. Wigan are clearly taking into account the local economy. Rugby league, which ...; Created on 14 March 2006
36. September 2005: (Diary); ... The prince, who was recently in New Zealand helping out on the triumphal British Lions rugby tour, is believed to support Aston Villa or Arsenal. Saturday 17 Chelsea are six points clear after a 2‑0 win ...; Created on 14 November 2005
37. Australia – Is Australian football worth the hype?: (Letter from...); ... in Australia, though not usually the round-ball version. So it took a certain amount of chutzpah for the promoters of the new A-League to launch it just as the climax of the Australian rules and rugby ...; Created on 14 November 2005
38. Stockport County, Rushden, Brentford: (Sharp end); ... point, though, is that former chairman Brendan Elwood, from whom Cheshire Sports bought County in 2003, still retains an interest in Edgeley Park and has not yet agreed to sell. Rugby union club Sale Sharks, ...; Created on 14 October 2005
39. Structural faults: (Governing bodies); ... rugby union in England? Or how comfortable should football be about its growing quasi-religious role (stadium marriages, two-minute silences, work in the community) in society? It is a bit of a pointy-headed ...; Created on 14 October 2005
40. Arrested development: (Grounds); ... has been a great source of cash for the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), which also did well out of the construction of the £121m stadium. The scheme ran into difficulties from the start, however, with the project ...; Created on 14 September 2005

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