Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour and Blair Kinghorn have been ruled out of Scotland's final Six Nations match against England.

 

Hogg has been missing since going off against Ireland in the second round of matches while Seymour and Kinghorn were injured on Saturday against Wales.

 

Ruaridh Jackson and uncapped Kyle Steyn have been called into Gregor Townsend's squad as cover.

England scrum-half Dan Robson will miss Saturday's Six Nations finale against Scotland because of illness.

 

Robson won his second cap and scored a try in Saturday's 57-14 win over Italy.

 

Saracens' Ben Spencer, who made his England debut on last summer's tour of South Africa, replaces him in the squad and gets the nod because of injuries to Danny Care and Richard Wigglesworth.

 

Italy v France - warm up to a great day in rugby.

Wales v Ireland - come on Ireland, should be a great game.

England vs Scotland - could be for second or it could be for the championship. Weird feeling that our hopes rely on Ireland. Can't wait for this.

 

Come on England.

The Principality Stadium roof will be open on Saturday at Ireland's request as Wales bid for the Six Nations Grand Slam against them in Cardiff.

 

The decision was confirmed on the eve of the game and came after Ireland coach Joe Schmidt suggested Wales broke protocol in asking tournament bosses to close the roof for the potential tournament decider.

 

is Shaun Edwards going to Wigan or not?

 

Sounds like a bit of a PR mess.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47604947

Newcastle lock Calum Green could get a ban of at least 12 weeks after he was cited for allegedly biting Sale's Rob Webber in Saturday's Premiership match.

Should they stop having Sunday matches in the Six Nations now we have BBC + ITV broadcasting?

 

Scotland's most-capped player Ross Ford is among seven players who will leave Edinburgh at the end of the season.

 

Hooker Ford, 34, who played 110 times for Scotland, leaves after 11 years and 197 appearances for the Pro14 club.

 

"Fordy is, and will go down in history as, one of the great Edinburgh and Scotland players. He's a credit to the game," coach Richard Cockerill said.

 

Two more Scotland caps - full-back Tom Brown and back row Luke Hamilton - will leave, as will scrum-half Sean Kennedy.

Sale Sharks prop Jake Pope has been banned for six months after testing positive for cocaine for a second time.

 

Pope is the first player to be found guilty of twice breaching the Rugby Football Union's illicit drugs policy.

 

He is banned from 4 December 2018, the date of his provisional suspension, until 4 June 2019.

 

The 21-year-old admitted a first offence after a test in September 2017 found "cocaine or its metabolites", for which he was fined £1,000.

Leicester look set for a double blow ahead of their relegation run-in, with Tom Youngs facing a six-week ban and brother Ben out for three months after shoulder surgery.

 

Captain Tom Youngs, 32, will plead guilty to a shoulder charge at an RFU hearing on Wednesday. Ben Youngs, 29, had surgery last week, and will be out until late June.

Disgusting comments from Israel Folau here

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47880064

Israel Folau is to be sacked by Rugby Australia after refusing to respond to attempts to contact him following his homophobic and hateful social media outburst, ruling him out of this year’s Rugby World Cup.

 

Good riddance.

 

 

Shame Billy Vunipola holds these archaic views

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47909515

Challenge Cup sixth-round draw

 

Salford Red Devils v Hull Kingston Rovers

Dewsbury Rams v Halifax

Warrington Wolves v Wigan Warriors

Bradford Bulls v Leeds Rhinos

Hull FC v Castleford Tigers

Catalans Dragons v Doncaster

Huddersfield Giants v St Helens

Wakefield Trinity v Widnes Vikings

Saracens and England winger David Strettle will retire from professional rugby at the end of the season.

 

The 35-year-old played 14 Tests for England between 2007 and 2013, scoring two international tries.

Darren Cave will captain Ulster in Saturday's Pro14 derby against Leinster to mark his retirement from the game.

 

Cave, 32, is retiring at the end of the season after 13 years at the club and will lead the team out at Kingspan Stadium for the last Conference B game.

Newly-promoted London Irish have signed Australia Test prop Sekope Kepu for next season's Premiership campaign.

Israel Folau has been found guilty of a "high level breach" of Rugby Australia's player code of conduct after he said "hell awaits" gay people in a social media post.

A list of all the referees. assistant referees and TMO officials that will be the Rugby World Cup:

 

 

 

Referees (12): Wayne Barnes (England), Luke Pearce (England), Jérôme Garcès (France), Romain Poite (France), Pascal Gaüzère (France), Mathieu Raynal (France), Nigel Owens (Wales), Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand), Paul Williams (New Zealand), Nic Berry (Australia) and Angus Gardner (Australia) – 457 tests as referees

 

Assistant referees (seven): Matthew Carley (England, reserve referee), Karl Dickson (England), Andrew Brace (Ireland), Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand), Federico Anselmi (Argentina), Shuhei Kubo (Japan) and Alex Ruiz (France) – 130 tests as assistant referees

 

TMOs (four): Graham Hughes (England), Rowan Kitt (England), Ben Skeen (New Zealand) and Marius Jonker (South Africa) – 217 tests as TMOs

Leeds Rhinos have sacked head coach David Furner, who had been in charge for only 14 Super League games.

 

Leeds are third-from-bottom of the Super League after just four league wins this season.