Rugby players are starting to glance enviously at the other football’s English Premier League, which is heading for its first £1 billion transfer season with prices for top players rising towards £100m…
Over the last year, around 200 per 100,000 Australian children suffered a blow to the head or face.
Tom Childers
Concussions are mild traumatic brain injuries which cause the connections between brain cells to stretch or break. This can result in problems with attention, memory, balance, sleep, decision speed and…
The key, as so often in sport, is timing.
Joe Castro/AAP Image
Why is AFL the main sport in Victoria and the other southern States while New South Wales and Queensland follow rugby? That’s long been a vexed question, but we may now be closer to an answer. In Melbourne…
It’s easy to make the game safer without significantly altering the collision aspect that makes rugby so attractive.
AAP Image/David Crosling
The legendary American Football coach Vince Lombardi once said “Football is not a contact sport, it’s a collision sport – dancing is a contact sport”. This is equally applicable to the various codes of…
Sky Sports presenter Charlie Webster has said she revealed details about sexual abuse by her coach when she was young in order to “break the taboo about abuse as a whole.” There are certainly issues within…
English and French clubs are sprinting away from the rest.
Joe Giddens/PA
The Heineken Cup, European rugby union’s premier competition, faces an uncertain future. English clubs continue to woo teams from France and Wales into a rival competition, with promises of increased revenue…
Sometimes sport really does make a difference in society. At least Nelson Mandela thought so. Though the movie Invictus plays with and stretches the reality of what happened in South Africa during the…
The All Blacks’ haka is culturally important for everyone in New Zealand.
AAP/AFP pool/Phil Water
RUGBY WORLD CUP – When New Zealand’s All Blacks take on France in the final tonight, they will be proud to perform a haka. They’ve taken some criticism for it in the past, but, as André Brett of the University…
Bryce Lawrence is one of the Rugby World Cup referees who has won few friends in the tournament.
AFP/Marty Melville
RUGBY WORLD CUP – The Wallabies may have the consolation of winning third place in tournament, but their progress has been far from controversial. The Rugby World Cup has been plagued by accusations of…
Wallabies player Drew Mitchell is taken from the field after an injury during Rugby World Cup match between Australia and Russia.
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
RUGBY WORLD CUP – The Cup has already taken its toll on many players – finalists New Zealand have lost star player, Dan Carter and Australia goes into its battle for third place against Wales four men…
Former rugby league player and convicted match-fixer, Ryan Tandy will likely not play the game again, but who’s really to blame?
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
I’m a relatively well-disciplined guy. In my brief time in this world, I’ve managed to complete a degree, quit smoking, and exercise thirty-odd kilos of self-indulgence away. But if there’s a TV on in…
AFL and NRL clubs say they face financial losses if punters like this are forced into a pre-commitment scheme.
AAP
The Federal Government’s plan to introduce pre-commitment systems on pokie machines in order to reduce problem gambling has become a major political headache. A campaign by Clubs Australia targeting Labor…
All Black Richie McCaw has been accused of routinely cheating in his approach to the game.
AAP
RUGBY WORLD CUP – The athleticism of the players has impressed in this tournament, but is there a whiff of unsportsmanlike behaviour in the air? Brian Stoddart of La Trobe University investigates. A few…
New Zealand defeated Tonga in the opening game of the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
AFP Photo/Franck Fife
RUGBY WORLD CUP – In the latest of The Conversation’s series on the Rugby World Cup, former Wallabies player, James Holbeck and Professor of Sport Science at Victoria University, Damian Farrow, discuss…
New Zealand’s 28th Maori Battalion performing a Haka in Egypt in 1941.
AAP Image/Alexander Turnbull Library
RUGBY WORLD CUP – In the first of The Conversation’s series on the Rugby World Cup, Massey University’s Malcolm Mulholland argues for the continuation of a Maori only rugby team. Around half of the All…
Rugby union’s potential demise has been greatly exaggerated.
Rumours of the demise of rugby union are a bit like those of Mark Twain’s “first” death - greatly exaggerated. The recent and sudden appearance of a hybrid rugby code ⎯ supported by Mark Ella and played…
Despite the success of the State of Origin, rugby league still lags behind the AFL in terms of popularity.
AAP
The move to establish an independent commission to run rugby league is a long overdue acknowledgement that strong corporate governance is essential in the small but intensely competitive Australian market…