At the LV= Cup Launch at Sandy Park on Tuesday, I took the opportunity to catch up with former England captain and LV= Cup ambassador Lewis Moody. The last time I interviewed Lewis was at last year's final for the LV= Young Reporter competition so it was great to catch up with him and hear his thoughts on this season's competition as well as his verdict on England's win over Australia...

LV= Cup Final 2012/13

Anglo-Welsh rugby returns this weekend and the LV= Cup Media Launch on Tuesday at Sandy Park in Exeter set the scene very nicely for the competition we can expect in the coming months.

360 view of Sandy Park

Normally players are used for the official photoshoot but to emphasise the new idea of the ‘Rugby Family’, one fan from each club was selected to appear in their team’s shirt for the photos. The fans were of all ages and I took the opportunity to have a chat with Pete, a London Irish fan who runs his club’s #rugbyunited fan page @RugbyLI.

By South Stand Choir

This summer Newcastle Falcons became the seventh (eighth if we include Rotherham’s aborted attempt in 2002) team to bounce straight back into the Premiership since it was founded in 1997 following relegation.

The question now on every Geordie rugby fan’s lips is whether the Falcons can avoid going straight back down again. History is on their side – London Welsh were the first side since Leeds in 2008 to survive just one season back in the big time.

By Tim Cronin

We might be nearly three years out from the next Rugby World Cup, but the IRB’s announcement of the first three teams in each of the four pools has given us an early insight as to how the tournament might pan out.

To be honest, most of the groups appear relatively clear-cut. In Pool B South Africa are joined by Samoa and Scotland, and it’s hard to imagine anything less than a first place finish from the Springboks. Scotland have 1000 days to ponder an all-or-nothing game against Samoa for the other play-off berth, and much will hinge on their ability to play with accuracy and defend stoutly against the flair of the Pacific Islanders.

By David Boyle

David Boyle in training

David Boyle is a level 3 Master Coach and board member with the Australian Strength & Conditioning Association. David has also worked with the Wallabies (national Rugby Union team) and Kangaroos (national Rugby League side), and is one of the best Rugby Union trainers in the world.

In Rugby Union training, resistance training is often synonymous with strength training and, indeed, we do lift weights to get stronger. However, we also lift weights to become powerful. Do you know the difference? What do you imagine of when you think of a strong person, and what do you imagine when you think of a powerful person? If it's the same for both then you may want to read further to learn the difference between strength and power and how to achieve both.

By Andrew Reynolds

So the playoff group stages in the Championship have drawn to a close and ironically the top four of the regular season will play each other in the Semi –finals, Bristol v Cornish Pirates and Bedford v London Welsh.

At the bottom we say farewell, for a season at least, to Esher, with London Scottish managing to survive. Esher can perhaps look at the effect the World Cup had on them with a very poor start to the season, their recent results suggest they are somewhat unlucky.

By Graeme McNicol

Sorry for the delay with this latest blog… to say I’ve been busy is an understatement. So what have Lanark Rugby been up to?

Well we’ve taken a couple of steps closer to our chance of back-to-back titles, we beat Bishopton Rugby 69 – 12 on our home turf on the 17th March and then on the 31st March we beat Strathclyde Police 36 – 12 away from home.

Also well done to Bishopton’s Andy Jackson for getting the RBS Club Volunteer of the Month for March.

By Andrew Reynolds

As sportsmen all you want is to win and if you win the league, then get promoted. Well, if you’re a player in the Championship, you can put your body on the line as much as you like but it’s out of your hands.

The RFU has a list as long as 3 arms of certain criteria that have to be met to gain promotion into the top flight, oh and it all has to be in place in the depths of winter before you win the play off finals in mid-May. What is going on?

By James Pritchard

James in action for Canada

Two games into the playoffs and its 2 wins from 2. As captain I don’t think I could of asked for a better start to our playoff campaign, although we did make very hard work of our win against the Pirates on Friday night.

A first half that was blighted with too many unforced errors and some soft and non-exsistent tackling had us behind 6 – 26. All credit to the Pirates they came to play on Friday and took every opportunity that we gave them and punished us accordingly. At the halftime break we knew what we had to do, it was simple, keep the ball and cut down on the silly offloads and go through the phases and the points will come.

By James Pritchard

Well I don’t think I could have asked for a better start to out playoff campaign than the 5 points we walked away with away at Rotherham on Saturday. Rotherham has never been a happy hunting ground for Bedford and things didn’t look good for 75 minutes as they hounded our try line and kept putting us under all sorts of pressure.

But credit to the boys, we held out their attacks and showed some of our class in the dying minutes as we took our opportunities and converted them to secure ourselves a great start and a 5 point win. And the news got better as we learned that the Pirates and Leeds drew there game and had to be happy with 2 points each.

By Graeme McNicol

Apologies are due... it’s been a couple of weeks since my last blog as I’ve been rather busy at work and at Lanark RFC.

We’ve had another substantial away trip, this time to Cowal RFC, and again it involved a coach and a ferry trip, so there was lots of fun to be had that day. But before the fun we had a game of rugby to play.

Two long, hard and tiring trips back to back take their toll on our squad. As we’re not a professional squad and we do not pay our players, we depend on them wanting to be part of the team, we depend on them to give up their Saturdays to be part of the team, we depend on them to fundraise and seek sponsorship.

By James Pritchard

Hello once again and welcome back for another week of my inner thoughts on rugby in the Championship and with a Bedford side, that after a good 5 point win on the weekend against a determined Nottingham side, are gearing up for the playoffs. We’ve been given a week off this week from training to let the body’s heal after a gruelling campaign and to get us all ready for the next 4 weeks which are a step up in intensity from what we are used too.

And it doesn’t get any tougher for us than our first game away up in Rotherham. A side that has been a thorn in our sides for the last few seasons up there and I don’t see next weekend being any different. But this being our 3rd year in the playoffs, the boys know what to expect and we’ll be ready come kickoff. The other big game in our group is Pirates at home to Leeds. This will be an interesting game to watch as both teams are looking pretty sharp at the moment, but with home ground advantage, I think the Pirates may just scrape this one.

By Graeme McNicol

Well what a busy and exciting week I’ve had. It’s Tuesday afternoon, it’s 15.36hrs and I am still in agony (we’ll get to that story soon).

We’ve spent last week at Lanark Rugby, training hard for our top-of-the-table clash with Arran. Numbers at training were high as everyone wanted to be in with a chance of being named in the 22 man squad for the all important game on Saturday. Initially we thought we were in for some tough decision making on Friday night; who was in and who was out. However, a couple of late call-offs due to illness and a family emergency meant that we were struggling to fill all 22 jerseys!

By James Pritchard

Darren Fox scores for Bedford against Moseley

First of all I would like to say a big hello to all the Scrum Five readers out there and hope that you enjoy reading my weekly blog from now on in. In the coming weeks I will be sharing my views of the upcoming Championship Playoffs as well as the 6 Nations and Super Rugby season which is kicking off this weekend.

Firstly lets have a look at how things are going in the English Championship. With one game to play this weekend things are starting to get tasty with teams starting to time their run into the playoffs and gather momentum. With a good win away to Moseley on the weekend and a maximum of 5 points gained, my Bedford side has now moved on up to second in the table by points difference, but with the pirates beating favourites Bristol at the weekend that much sort after second spot will come down to who can bring home the goods this weekend.

By Graeme McNicol

Well another week and another call off! Playing rugby at our level can be frustrating; Friday night and I had a full squad of guys all itching to play a competitive game of rugby in the RBS West Division 4 League. However, I received a call at 7.30pm and the team we’re due to play, cry off!

So all this starting and stopping becomes rather frustrating! Somehow thanks to the hard work of our fixture secretary, we did manage to get a game against a local club’s 3rd team. This has allowed us to get some game time in before an all-important top of the table clash this weekend – Lanark v Arran.

By David van der Merwe - Super Rugby Writer

The Waratahs or 'Tahs as their supporters call them are one of Australia's more successful teams in Super Rugby. They have a rich history dating back to 1882 when they played their first game against Queensland. In 1927/28 they toured the United Kingdom, North America and France, winning 24 of their 31 games. They continued playing winning rugby during the 1930's culminating in beating the Springboks in 1937 at the SCG.

When the Super Rugby competition started back in 1996 many believed that the Waratahs would be one of the teams challenging for the title. However, they struggled in the first couple of years, finishing in the middle or bottom half of the log. It took them until 2002 to reach the finals and from there on in it has been a real roller-coaster ride for them going from the top of the log to the bottom at regular intervals.

By David van der Merwe - Super Rugby Writer

The Chiefs are one of the NZRU teams that competes annually in the Super Rugby competition. Although they have sported some All Black players they have never really lived up to expectations. It took them till 2004 to reach a semi-final and 2009 to reach a final. They lost both of these encounters. At most they are a middle of the log team that can show some brilliance at times but not nearly enough to compete on a consistent level with the big names.

They have finished consistently between 6th and 8th place on the log. The best they have done is losing in the 2009 Final to the Bulls by 61-17. This was a season where they were the team to beat. Given that there were one or two decisions that went against them in that game, but in the end they were outplayed. they seem to have what it takes, but never live up to their potential.

By Matt Price

Wales have won two games, and the word on every optimistic Welshman's lips is: Grandslam.

Two games in and Wales are looking good. A 23-21 win in Dublin and a 27-13 win against Scotland. Dublin, Aviva Stadium, a game soaked in controversy after Bradley Davies sent the Irish replacement second row Donnacha Ryan off his feet and onto his shoulders, which could have been his neck or head and could have been a more serious injury.

By David van der Merwe - Super Rugby Writer