I had right to stay with England, says Stade Francais's James Haskell

James Haskell has insisted that his contract with Stade Francais allowed him to remain with England, despite claims to the contrary by the French club.
Haskell, who is expected to retain his place in England's side to face Scotland, has found himself at the centre of an escalating row between club and country over his services.

Attempting to defuse the row, Haskell said in a statement: "There has been so much erroneous comment regarding my contract with Stade Français that I feel I need to address the issue.

"The contract contains confidentiality clauses which I am bound to observe but I can say that the matter of my release for international duty and training is specifically provided for and I regret that there has been a misunderstanding with the club regarding this.

"I would like to make it clear that Stade Français have been very good to me and I am very happy in Paris. I am looking forward to playing for Stade Français again at the conclusion of the Six Nations."

Haskell's French-based England team-mate, Riki Flutey, will have no such concerns next season as the centre is set to return to Wasps after just one year at Brive.

The RFU will not be assisting the move financially, although England manager Martin Johnson will no doubt welcome Flutey's return to the elite player squad in World Cup year.

Johnson looks ready to make a number of changes for Saturday's game at Murrayfield. Leicester lock Louis Deacon will replace Simon Shaw, who has been ruled out by a shoulder injury. Tom Palmer has been called into the squad as cover.

Gloucester's Mike Tindall, one of five reinforcements called into the squad, could make a surprise return to the match-day 22. Tindall, who missed the autumn campaign with a hamstring injury, made only his second Premiership start since October for Gloucester against Wasps on Sunday.

Tindall has replaced Leicester centre Dan Hipkiss, who has an ankle problem, while Shane Geraghty has returned to the senior fold as precautionary cover for Toby Flood, who suffered a head injury on Saturday.

The full-back position was also the subject of debate, with Ben Foden a possible replacement for Delon Armitage, who is struggling with a rib injury. Flanker Joe Worsley, scrum-half Paul Hodgson and Chris Ashton, the Northampton wing, were also under consideration.

Gloucester full-back Olly Morgan has come in as cover for Armitage, while Leeds flanker Hendre Fourie has received his first senior call-up after Wasps' Dan Ward-Smith suffered knee ligament damage at the weekend.

Meanwhile fFormer England flanker Michael Lipman has demanded a meeting with the Australian Rugby Union after his proposed move to the Melbourne Rebels was blocked. The former Bath captain's ban for failing to take a drugs test expired on Feb 28, but the ARU have refused to sanction his move.

Scotland V England Hospitality

Six Nations Hospitality

Defeat and James Haskell row leave bitter taste for Stade Francais

The Guinness Premiership and the Magners League pause for breath as the Six Nations resumes this weekend. Not so the Top 14, where round 22 of the club championship overlaps stage four of France's grand slam, against Italy.

Stade Français are by now accustomed to doing without their internationals, or at least James Haskell, but the 29-0 defeat by Toulouse at the Stade de France will have left a bitter taste in their mouth. Presumably that was all part of the plan when Martin Johnson, the manager of England, refused to allow the back-row forward to return to Paris at the weekend.

It wouldn't be the first time rugby folk from other countries have run into the brick wall of England's mightiest:

Stade are struggling in seventh place in the Top 14, with places in the play-offs for the top six. An away game next in Brive is not exactly designed to calm the nerves, although Brive will be without a qualified Englishman of their own, Riki Flutey. It's all part of the congestion of fixtures and sub-plots at this stage of the club season.

Even Toulouse had to pay a price in their emphatic away victory in Paris, Frédéric Michalak's season coming to an abrupt halt with a knee injury. Clermont, too, suffered as they beat Perpignan, with arguably the best all-round team in Europe losing Martín Scelzo, one of their ferocious Argentinian front-row forwards, with a broken hand. The Leinster scrummagers, due to face Clermont in the Heineken Cup quarter-final in April, will not be distressed.

Were it not for the international incident, there would nevertheless be a certain serenity to the French league, if only because their relegation battle lacks the rabidity of the dogfight in England. Albi are doomed and Montauban have dropped into the second slot for the chop, thanks to their defeat at Bourgoin and fellow strugglers Bayonne beating Albi.

Bayonne's cause is helped by a healthy tally of 11 bonus points, compared with Montauban's five, and the measly two for the two teams above them, Bourgoin and Montpellier.

France V Italy Hospitality

Six Nations Hospitality

Rugby-Injured Wales captain Jones to miss Ireland match

LONDON, March 13, Wales captain Ryan Jones will miss Saturday's Six Nations match against Ireland after failing to shake off a calf injury, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) said on Tuesday.

Martyn Williams will captain the side for the game at Croke Park, while Gloucester's Gareth Delve will come in for Jones at number eight in one of three changes to the side that lost 26-20 to France on Feb. 26.

Ryan has been managing his calf but it has hampered his involvement in training and he needs to get it right for his own sake as well as for his region ... and for the sake of the national cause as we count down to the (2011) World Cup," Wales coach Warren Gatland said in a WRU statement.
Lock Luke Charteris replaces Deiniol Jones and hooker Matthew Rees is preferred to Huw Bennett in the other changes.

This Ireland side will be meticulous in its planning and for this game in particular we need to get our preparation exactly right and once we had reached that conclusion a couple of selection decisions were really made for us," said Gatland, who named an unchanged backline for the third successive game.

On the bench, scrumhalf Dwayne Peel replaces the injured Mike Phillips and lock Ian Gough fills the space left by Charteris.

Williams, who will captain his country for the seventh time, will win his 95th cap making him Wales' most capped forward surpassing flanker Colin Charvis.


15-Lee Byrne, 14-Leigh Halfpenny, 13-James Hook, 12-Jamie Roberts, 11-Shane Williams, 10-Stephen Jones, 9-Richard Rees, 8-Gareth Delve, 7-Martyn Williams (captain), 6-Jonathan Thomas, 5-Luke Charteris, 4-Bradley Davies, 3-Adam Jones, 2-Matthew Rees, 1-Paul James.

Replacements: 16-Huw Bennett, 17-Rhys Gill, 18-Ian Gough, 19-Sam Warburton, 20-Dwayne Peel, 21-Andrew Bishop, 22-Tom Shanklin.

Ireland V Wales Hospitality


Six Nations Hospitality

Six Nations 2010: Grand Slam epic of 1990 still haunts England and Scotland

In an ideal world sport and politics, like oil and water, would never mix, but in truth they are often clanked together like magnets. Linked by passion, pride, ego, nationalism and self-esteem – sometimes you just cannot keep them apart.
There were other sub-plots. Scotland's brilliant madcap flanker John Jeffrey – JJ – insists to this day that the catalyst to the ill feeling off the pitch can be traced back to the streets of Glasgow seven months earlier when England and Scotland football supporters clashed horribly outside Hampden Park in scenes of violence that caused that oldest of all annual football fixtures to be cancelled, a situation that pertains.

Jeffrey argues that the tabloid press, deprived indefinitely of a football clash to hype up, turned their attention to the rugby. It is certainly another ingredient that needs to be added into the mix, but successful tabloid papers reflect existing emotions and mood.

A new mood of Scottish nationalism – although not necessarily independence – was afoot and Scotland's rugby folk were far from immune.

At the end of the 1989 season even the ultra-conservative Scottish Rugby Union, with the Princess Royal as their popular patron, decided that God Save the Queen was no longer a suitable anthem for their team and supporters.

For the 1990 Six Nations they switched Roy Williamson's folk ballad Flower of Scotland, which is dedicated to Scotland's victory at Bannockburn – Jeffrey had been humming it himself during the line-ups for years.

On the other hand, many cock-a-hoop England supporters, who had been starved of success and a team worth shouting for since 1980, arrived in Edinburgh on the Saturday morning wearing "England Grand Slam champions 1990" T-shirts.

Amid the politics and hype, however, lay a monumental rugby occasion. There was the famous long, slow, walk out by the Scotland team. It was the suggestion of captain David Sole, but it was by no means a new ploy.

The Lions of 1989 had tried it as a psychological tool against Australia, but it was clearly best utilised by the home team, whipping the home crowd into a frenzy by first delaying and then prolonging their entrance.

There were Scotland heroes aplenty that day but none bigger than the coach Jim Telfer, the man at the heart of two of Scotland's three Grand Slams, not to mention the Lions triumph in South Africa in 1997, when he again worked so well with Sir Ian McGeechan.

Telfer, a lump of granite from the Borders, 'beasted' his pack during arduous scrummaging and rucking sessions throughout the 1990 season, not least in the driving rain on the Wednesday before the England game.

His lasting memory of March 17, 1990 – his 50th birthday incidentally – is confined to a rugby moment in the first half when Finlay Calder blasted his way into the England defence and the entire Scotland pack pounced to produce perfect ruck ball.

"England were driven back and the crowd went wilder than I had ever heard them before. And I felt a shiver. Twenty years later I can close my eyes and still see it. The piece of perfection you dream about."

Everybody concerned has their own views of 1990 and you will probably read them all again this coming week, although possibly not from Calder. The Scotland flanker politely declined to contribute to a recent book surrounding the events of the game – feeling that Scotland need to be looking forward and not harking back to past battles won or lost.

Scotland V England Hospitality

Six Nations Hospitality

Ireland loss hurt but we're still chasing Six Nations title

Nick Easter admits England deserved to lose to Ireland, but has vowed to bounce back at Murrayfield next week.
We may have edged it in terms of possession but the Grand Slam holders scored three tries, we scored one. Fair enough.

In some ways, it felt harder having victory whisked away once we were in a winning position than if we’d been completely outclassed. Ireland know how to win, they took their chances and maybe that extra experience made all the difference.

There’s been plenty said about learning from mistakes and taking positives, but the only thing we can do now is raise ourselves and have a real go at Scotland and France in the remaining two games.

The Grand Slam has gone but there’s still a chance the RBS Six Nations title can be won. Losing Simon ‘Ol Man River’ Shaw so early against Ireland was a big blow of course, but Leicester’s Louis Deacon had a good game as his replacement lock.

You’ll always suffer when you lose someone with the experience and nous of Shawsie in big games, but that’s rugby, the next bloke comes on and you get on with it.

I personally would have loved to have gone straight back into action again as I’m desperate to work off the frustration of losing to Ireland, but common sense prevails. I guess you do need another window in the intense Six Nations programme.

Most players carry knocks and niggles through the season – you just get used to that – but the increase in the number of domestic games means many modern pros have little time to recover.

Saying that, England’s players will be heading out for a summer tour to Australia this summer and I doubt you’ll see too many wanting to opt out for a rest.

Personally I like touring – trying to win away from home is more satisfying – but with the World Cup just over a year away and no planned summer trip in 2011, a lot of guys will be keen to stay in the frame. The management will take a large squad and no doubt want to blood a few eager young guns, keeping everyone on their mettle.

Ireland V Wales Hospitality

Six Nations Hospitality

Six Nations 2010: France's Mathieu Bastareaud goes up against Brian O'Driscoll

At Murrayfield he confronted his demons and scored two tries, and now in Paris Mathieu Bastareaud will face the world's best centre – Brian O'Driscoll.
It will be a pivotal clash in probably the key game of the 2010 Six Nations. Bastareaud is beginning to make the headlines for the right reasons again, for which he and France are grateful.

O'Driscoll has reigned supreme for a decade since then, but you fancy Bastareaud is a worthy opponent and an individual capable of being the benchmark midfield player in the Six Nations well into this next decade. A changing of the guard possibly? O'Driscoll will resist, like all great players do, but the result should be a fascinating cameo within the bigger contest under the floodlights at Saint- Denis.

"He is only 21 but he is already a very complete player," said his co-centre, Yannick Jauzion, still no mean operator himself. "People see a young man of massive strength but they do not always understand his speed and the way he links with people. He has made a big impact already and it is still so early in his career."

"Mathieu is a wiser man. He has apologised to everybody who needed apologising to many times over. He cannot apologise any more, the incident is over. He can only play good rugby and conduct himself in the appropriate fashion. His abilities have always been evident and now he is a hungry man with points to prove, which is always good in a player."

Going forward Bastareaud is undoubtedly a force of nature if used correctly, although his defence has rarely been fully tested, something Ireland and O'Driscoll will look to exploit on Saturday afternoon.

It is his temperament, however, that will come under the sternest examination, the ability to make the appropriate call at the right time. Something that eluded him off the field last summer.

µ Lièvremont has named an unchanged 23-man squad for Saturday's game with Ireland although wings Aurelien Rougerie and Benjamin Fall and prop Luc Ducalcon face fitness tests.

Though his side got off to a successful start at Murrayfield, beating Scotland 18-9, Lièvremont accused Welsh referee Nigel Owens of denying his side a bigger victory.

"I have to pay tribute to the courage of the Scots but the referee's leniency with them and his extreme severity with our team was one of the reasons why the score was not higher," Lièvremont said.

"I feel sad because it's a bit recurring. We can't forget that last year in Dublin, there were 13 penalties against us and two against Ireland," he said, referring to France's 30-21 defeat at Croke Park in a game also controlled by Owens.

"We are going to polish up our report to Paddy O'Brien. Refereeing is a factor of the game we can't control but we'll still try to solve the problem."

France V Italy Hospitality

Six Nations Hospitality

Six Nations 2010: Scotland coach Andy Robinson rings the changes for Cardiff

It is a little early in the RBS Six Nations championship for a last throw of the dice, but Scotland coach Andy Robinson certainly took some radical steps when he chose his team to take on Wales in the Millennium Stadium this weekend.

Robinson came to Scotland with a reputation as a great coach but a poor selector. If his players can put last weekend's 18-9 defeat by France behind them with an inspired performance in Cardiff then that simplistic caricature will have to be redrawn. If not, it will only be reinforced.

The selection of Euan Murray, the devoutly Christian tighthead prop who ruled himself out of last Sunday's match on religious grounds, was probably the only change that most followers of Scottish rugby would have foreseen.

As well as which, on Robinson's advice, Parks has lately been working on getting the players around him moving with ball in hand – a shift of emphasis that has been obvious in the victories that have taken Glasgow to the top of the Magners League.

"We have to balance up the way we play," Robinson explained. "We've got to be able to play with the ball in hand, but understand the territorial game and get the balance right within that. At the weekend we played far too much rugby in our own half but most importantly we turned ball over inside our own half and we can't afford to do that against quality opposition.

"We didn't build pressure on France when we did get into their territory. When we did kick well we let them out of their half too easily, through their driving play, the box-kicks and their scrum dominance. Whenever we had possession inside our own half we were fighting and scrapping to keep it."

As Parks is set to join Cardiff Blues at the end of this season, he might have highlighted this weekend as a good one for a house-hunting expedition, but he was never going to turn down Robinson's invitation.

He said: "I wouldn't say I was surprised, but I was obviously delighted to get the news this morning. I'm just happy and looking forward to the challenge on Saturday."

Toulon's Rory Lamont, who was ruled out of last week's selection by a niggling ankle injury, returns to the side on the left wing, taking the place of his brother Sean.

Sean, in turn, moves into the midfield, ousting Max Evans from the outside centre berth. Robinson explained that he wanted Sean's power as a line-breaker in a position where he might see more of the ball, although Sean's low opinion of his own distribution skills suggests that his wingers will be seeing much less of the thing.

Scotland's scrum creaked badly against France, and loosehead prop Alasdair Dickinson might consider himself lucky to keep his place as many of the side's problems seemed to have their origins on his side of the set-piece. Moray Low, in turn, might feel a little aggrieved to lose his place to Murray, although he took his leave of the side with some appreciative words from Robinson ringing in his ears.

Scotland V England Hospitality

Six Nations Hospitality