Touchline looks at the campaigns, while welcoming former England captain Sue Day’s appointment as RFU Chief Financial Officer and Wayne Barnes’ record-breaking number of Premiership games as match official.

There’s New Year’s Honours, Warrior Camps and more artificial grass pitches, as well as a call for entries for the Mitsubishi Motors Volunteer of the Year Awards.

Happy 2018 from Touchline!.

England defending Six Nations
On 4 February England’s men kick off the defence of their Six Nations campaign with Italy the opponents on the opening weekend and both the Red Roses and U20s are also looking to retain their titles.

Day named CFO
Sue Day a Partner at KPMG and a qualified Chartered Accountant was capped for England 59 times, won three Grand Slams in the Women’s Six Nations and captained the England Women’s Sevens team, now she becomes RFU Chief Financial Officer & Board member.

Barnes breaks referees record
When Wayne Barnes stepped out into the middle for Worcester against London Irish, he overtook Chris White as the man who has taken charge of the most Premiership games ever. The 38 year old passed White’s record to reach 191 matches refereed in the English top flight.