The birth of the Premiership in the summer of 1997 divided the RFU. Many within it felt a professional league in England could never last and it would be doomed to a spectacular public failure.

When Saracens meet Bath this weekend though, it will mark the 2000th game in the Premiership era and the doubters will have been well and truly proved wrong.

The leagues structure has developed and strengthened, the crowds have swollen and the TV interest has increased drastically, ueliing a growth in Rugby Union betting.

South Africa has been making quite a few changes to the under 20 squad of the rugby team. These changes have been made in lieu to ensure that they have a strong hold in the rugby championship to be held sometime later this year.

Moreover, with a large number of players getting injured for minor or major reasons, one needs to ensure that each of these are substituted and taken care of without having to worry too much in the future.

English Rugby could be set for a major upheaval in the light of the disastrous World Cup campaign. The RFU are expected to announce this week what action they will be taking based on recommendations by several reviews of the tournament from England’s perspective.

A rugby player is being investigated by the police over allegations that he had assaulted another person. The alleged incident took place in the hours after the touring South African team beat the Highlanders 26-22 in their Super Rugby match at Carisbrook on Saturday night.

Police are not talking about the allegation, apart from issuing a brief statement late this morning saying that there had been an "incident" early Sunday morning involving an 18-year-old female.

Richie McCaw is close to returning to the New Zealand rugby team after being missed by his teammates a lot, accoring to the Free Rugby Bet website. McCaw has been running on his foot for the last two weeks but Monday was the first time that he ran with the rest of the team.

Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder will not rush McCaw back into rugby and has said that his captain would not face the Bulls this weekend but he could feature in the ninth round match against the Chiefs.

Mitchell bagged a hat-trick as Australia humiliated France. The tourists ran riot in the second half, scoring six tries in 31 minutes to embarrass the reigning Six Nations champions in front of their own fans.

Les Bleus had led 16-13 at the start of the second period, courtesy of Morgan Parra's third penalty.

But the hosts had no answer to the Wallabies' devastating second-half surge, scoring seven tries in total.

After Adam Ashley-Cooper's early score, the visitors' problems at the scrum were exposed when France were awarded a penalty try and duly moved into a 16-13 lead.

All Black sensation Sonny Bill Williams reckons he's still "a work in progress" despite his starring role in a 49-3 rout of Scotland at Murrayfield.

New Zealand scored seven tries, several created by rugby league convert Williams's brilliant skill in slipping the ball out of the back of his hand.

France coach Marc Lievremont on Sunday reacted to the disappointing 34-12 victory over Fiji by making eight changes to his squad ahead of the one-off test against Argentina in Montpellier next weekend.

Lievremont, whose side at least ended a run of two defeats in beating the Fijians on Saturday in Nantes, admitted to being frustrated by the performance and that there were certain players he would liked to have retained but had dropped in any case for a match against a side that last time they met in June walloped them 41-13.

GAVIN HENSON last night insisted the relaunch of his career with Saracens can propel him into Warren Gatland’s Wales squad for the Six Nations.

The Lions centre made his confident claim as he opened up for the first time about leaving the Ospreys to start his rugby career afresh in the English Premiership.

Henson spoke of getting back up to speed quickly, saying he may only need three or four weeks of training to be ready to play again.

After Australia’s stunning win against New Zealand in Hong Kong on Saturday, how worried should Wales be about facing the Wallabies this Saturday? Wales Rugby Hospitality tickets have sold out in anticipation of a great game.

LEAF through some sections of the self-congratulatory Australian press yesterday and you’d be forgiven for concluding Wales may as well not bother turning up at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.