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Sititi and Roigard seal New Zealand’s Chicago revenge win over Ireland

  • Ireland 13-26 New Zealand

  • All Blacks trail despite early 20-minute red card for Beirne

Tadhg Beirne was shown a contentious early red card as Ireland’s quest to create more special memories in Chicago ended in an emphatic 26-13 loss against New Zealand. Almost nine years to the day since Ireland’s milestone first victory in the fixture, the All Blacks gained revenge at Soldier Field thanks to tries from Ardie Savea, Tamaiti Williams, Wallace Sititi and Cam Roigard.

Ireland initially overcame the controversial third-minute dismissal of Beirne for a high tackle on Beauden Barrett, who landed three conversions, to lead through a Tadhg Furlong score and eight points from Jack Crowley. But the All Blacks underlined their class in the second half to cruise to victory deservedly.

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Liverpool 2-0 Aston Villa: Premier League – as it happened

Mo Salah’s 250th goal for Liverpool calmed the nerves at Anfield and set up a deserved victory in an excellent game

“I’m on the train with a bunch of Pompey lads who wont get home ‘til about midnight after a 4-0 shellacking at St Andrew’s,” writes Gary Naylor. “That they’re in good spirits and planning another away day to Hull, speaks to the irrational nature of the football fan, the game a largely safe space for an otherwise dangerous indulgence.

“That irrationality wants Liverpool to be in crisis, loves the prospect of the inquests in the morning, the phone-ins that will demand his Slot’s head on a stick and Salah and Van Dijk to be sold in January. It’s childish and all but indefensible - but millions of us feel like this!”

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Grizzlies suspend Ja Morant for one game after his postgame comments challenging coaches

Ja Morant was frustrated after a rough shooting night (3-of-14) and scoring just eight points in a loss to the Lakers on Halloween. After the game, he threw the coaches under the bus.

The next afternoon, the Grizzlies suspended Morant one game for "conduct detrimental to the team."

Morant will miss Sunday night's game at Toronto.

After Friday night's loss to the Lakers, Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo reportedly challenged Morant's leadership and effort in front of the team, reports Shams Charania of ESPN. Following that, Morant appeared to blame the coaches when speaking to reporters. Check out this exchange (via Lopo on X).

Reporter: "What went wrong for you today?"

"Go ask the coaching staff," Morant responded.

Reporter: "From the outside... it didn't feel like you had your usual energy tonight."

"Go ask the coaching staff why," Morant replied.

Reporter: "What could have been done differently, other than asking the coaching staff?"

"According to them, probably don't play me, honestly," Morant said. "That's basically what the message was. It's cool."

Iisalo had a point. Morant has to shoulder at least some of the blame, he had a low-effort game, which Blake Griffin called Morant out on during the NBA on Prime broadcast. What separates the game's great leaders — from the veterans like LeBron James and Stephen Curry to the rising stars like Anthony Edwards — is that they bring it every night. Morant did not do that on Friday.

Morant is averaging 20.8 points per game this season(his lowest number since 2021) and is playing 28.5 minutes a game (the fewest of his career). However, the offense is running through him, he is averaging 75.8 touches a game, up sharply from the 67.7 a game he got last season (and very close to the 77.8 and 77 a game he got his All-Star seasons).

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Premier League has turned a tactical corner but set-play trend will surely fade | Jonathan Wilson

More than 40 goals in the Premier League have come from corners already this season – is this the new orthodoxy?

A ball played in behind Conor Bradley for Kevin Schade to chase. Giorgi Mamardashvili leaves his goal and sidefoots into touch. The sense of expectation is palpable. Michael Kayode trots over from right-back to the opposite flank to take the throw-in. He dries the ball, measures his run, steps back and then in one languid fluid movement hurls the ball in to the near post. Liverpool clear. Two minutes later, it happens again. This time, Mamardashvili tries to play the ball to Bradley, who miscontrols to concede the throw-in. And this time, Kayode’s throw is flicked on by Kristoffer Ajer and volleyed home by Dango Ouattara. There are still only five minutes of Brentford’s game against Liverpool played. Welcome to the modern Premier League.

Only nine of the 241 goals scored in the Premier League going into this weekend have come from throw-ins, but it feels like far more. Forty-five have come from corners – 18.7%. Were that proportion to be maintained over the season it would present a remarkable leap on the high of 14.2% from 2010-11. The reality is there’s likely to be a regression to the mean: if a glance at the proportion of goals scored from corners shows anything, it’s that there really isn’t much of a pattern at all. The proportion hovered at 11 or 12% most years to 2009, since when it has been at 13-14% – a trend which, if anything, goes against the assumption that everybody stopped taking corners seriously in the peak years of guardiolismo only to rediscover their love of a booming inswinger last season (when, in fact, the proportion of goals from corners fell to its lowest level since 2013-14).

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