The Scrum Down with Alex Corbisiero

As this season of the Scrum Down comes to the close, we are sadly marking it with the historic event of London Irish entering administration. In a season which has seen a fantastic Rugby product on the field and lots of success across different formats of the game, it has been blighted by the situations of Wasps, Worcester Warriors and sadly now, London Irish. Alex Corbisiero is joined by BBC Rugby Correspondent Chris Jones, to chat through news of the administration, what can be done to protect other clubs in the league and how the league can be restructured and what may be next for London Irish

The Gallagher Premiership season may be over, but there is still a lot of confusion and questions over the future of London Irish. Corbs is joined by the BBC’s Chris Jones, to discuss the latest stories, following on from a conditional extension from the RFU possibly being broken, and how that may affect the fate of the club in the near future.

This week on the Scrum Down we continue to cover the developing ownership situation at London Irish, with only a matter of days remaining before the RFU's deadline for Irish to play in the league next year hits. To cover this, Alex Lowe joins again, fresh from a trip to Dublin where he watched the Champions Cup, and then we focus on Twickenham and the forthcoming Premiership Final between Saracens and Sale, and to preview the match we'll be joined by Performance Analyst Ross Hamilton.

Ross Hamilton is back on the Scrum Down to review the semi-final games in the Premiership over the weekend with Saracens and Northampton Saints facing off as well as Sale Sharks and Leicester Tigers. And Alex Lowe is back as we keep on the pulse of the London Irish story, with more clarity on the ownership situation as well as the league preparing contingencies and setting deadliness for the situation to be resolved.

On this weeks Scrum Down we look at both the exciting and worrying sides of the Premiership, with Alex Lowe joining to talk about the concerns that are still causing problems at London Irish as well as the latest developments with Worcester Warriors and Wasps. And then Ross Hamilton joins to go through the Premiership semi-finals by the numbers as we anticipating an exciting set of matches with Saracens taking on Northampton and Sale Sharks facing off against Leicester Tigers.

Alex Lowe joins Corbs to discuss what’s happening at London Irish where the players have not been paid their wages for April. As we’ve had in previous episodes of the Scrum Down, Alex Lowe is the man in the know in the UK to bring us the inside info at the troubled clubs - as he has done with Worcester Warriors and Wasps so far this season. They discuss the status of the takeover deal, the best and worst case scenarios for the club and players, whether the match will go ahead against Exeter this weekend and also the current situation at another troubled club - Worcester Warriors.

Corbs is joined by Scrum Down veterans Alex Lowe and Chris Jones giving insight on the conflicts within the RFU and the latest on tackle laws as well as previewing the Premiership Semi-Finals.

This week's Scrum Down sees the return of Alex Lowe to the podcast, to discuss the state of Premiership Rugby in the UK. From the playoff race to sending-offs and possible bans for Twitter comments, to the future of the league itself with a possible drop to 10 teams including an update on Worcester and Wasps as well as future collaboration with the RFU to strengthen the state of the game in England.

On this weeks Scrum Down, Corbs runs through the past weeks action in the Heineken Champions Cup, discussing travel issues and wage disparities in the teams before touching on his thoughts on what English rugby needs to change and integrate between league and national team to benefit the sport. And then we are joined by USA 7s Eagle Kristi Kirshe to react to USA securing Olympic qualification, their growth as team this year on and off the field and her own journey into Rugby, having not picked up a Rugby ball until just 5 years ago.

London Irish’ Chunya Munga joins Corbs on The Scrum Down fresh off his 50th appearance for the club, the two react to Irish’s big win over Northampton, back to back Premiership Cup Final defeats, the success of the London Irish Academy, the run in to the playoffs ahead for London Irish with two big games remaining and much much more.

For the final time in 2023, The Scrum Down focusses on the Six Nations which has been won by Ireland, who also won a Grand Slam. Corbs is joined again by Ross Hamilton to break down the numbers from the final round, evaluate the teams and see their progress throughout the tournament as well as look at some of the key stats that have determined the outcome of the competition.

We continue our series of ‘Six Nations by The Numbers’ joined by analyst Ross Hamilton to look at a huge 4th round of the Competition where England got a huge wake-up call, Wales finally found winning form and Ireland continued on their way towards a grand slam. Ross and Corbs disect the weekends matches before looking ahead to the next round of the competition.

Round 4 of the Six Nations take place this coming weekend - so continue our run of ‘six nations by the numbers’ podcasts, analyst Ross Hamilton is back with Corbs to look ahead to the key statistics that could make the difference between the teams in the tournament this weekend.

Ross Hamilton is back on the pod to go breakdown the key numbers and stats from each game from the 3rd round of the Six Nations with Alex reacting and adding his insight. And then to talk Six Nations news story’s Alex is joined by the returning Chris Jones of the BBC, they discuss the Welsh player strike drama from last week, the state of the Welsh Team and rugby in Wales, Marcus Smith being dropped and assess Borthwick’s rebuild of the England Team.

This weeks Scrum Down looks ahead to the third round of the Six Nations with analyst Ross Hamilton. We study the Six Nations match ups by the numbers to see where teams are performing best, how they’re styles match up and what will be the key statistics that could decide the games. And then Joe Schroeder from the Men's USA Sevens joins for a look ahead to the LA Sevens at the weekend as well as talking about the release of ‘The Pioneers part 3’ documentary from HSBC which will be released on the NBC Sports YouTube page on Friday

Following the 2nd round of matches at the Six Nations over the weekend, former Ireland international Luke Fitzgerald joins us on the Scrum Down to discuss Ireland - the standout team of the competition so far. After that, Rugby statistician and performance analyst Ross Hamilton is on the show to break down all of the key numbers across the weekend and to analyze the performance of each team in the six nations from a data point of view.

The Six Nations began in dramatic fashion with Scotland keeping hold of the Calcutta cup following victory over England. To react to this and gloat, Corbs is joined again by former Scotland International, Blair Cowan - who earns the podcasts bragging rights after a correct prediction last episode. And then Chris Jones of the BBC joins to summarize the rest of the opening weekend, talk England coach changes and selection for Italy, as well as looking ahead to this weekends matches and the road ahead for the winners and losers in round 1.

This weeks pod features 3 guests as Alex Lowe joins us to revisit the ongoing saga regarding tackle height and the RFU in the UK, before we transition into the 6 nations. Alex talks about the current situation with England’s team and their chances heading into the tournament, and we also get a Scottish and Irish perspective with Blair Cowan and Luke Fitzgerald joining to talk about their teams.

2:00 Alex Lowe 2:47 - Tackle Height changes and Upraor 6:33 - why is the RFU doing this now? 10:31 - Double Tackle Laws 13:00 - Will the rules reduce concussion? 14:22 - When will this filter into the professional game? 18:08 - Law Changes overshadowing the Six Nations 24:00 - Sam Sullivan & Cheta Emba 24:20 - Looking ahead to Sydney 25:13 - Looking back at Hamilton Silver 27:31 - Changes from last season 31:11 - Perfect time for possible Olympic Qualification  35:28 - Aaron Cummings & David Still 25:47 - Planning for tournament in Sydney 36:30 - The intensity of the 7s schedule 37:14 - Hamilton Tournament Review 39;41 - year on year differences in performance 47:00 - 7s or 15s?

Corbs and Chris Jones discuss the sacking of Dave Rennie as well as the hiring and ramifications of Eddie Jones as Australia's Head Coach. Later on thoughts Steve Borthwick's first squad as Head Coach of England is assesed.