Worldwide Sports News
The Blues have broken a 21-year Super Rugby title drought, sweeping aside the Chiefs in a 41-10 drubbing at a sold-out Eden Park.
In the first ever final between the two New Zealand sides in their 28-year history, the Blues were dominant.
Continue reading...Veteran playmaker Kurtley Beale has earnt a shock recall for the Wallabies after he was one of 38 players named in Joe Schmidt’s first squad as Australian coach that includes 13 uncapped players.
Next month’s Test double-header on South African soil will write a new chapter in an increasingly rancorous struggle
No sooner had Ireland claimed a 13-8 win over South Africa in the Rugby World Cup last year – an epic tussle in a tournament littered with all-time encounters – a thumping rendition of the Cranberries’ Zombie rang out around Stade de France. The song’s connections with the Troubles, the IRA and Ireland’s struggle for peace was lost on most South African fans that sweaty Saturday night in Paris. Their primary reaction to Ireland’s adopted anthem was rage.
“What’s in your heeeeaad, in your heeeeeeeaaaaad!” It was hard for them not to feel this was meant as a jibe; that the Irish, who have never seen their players lift the sport’s most glittering trophy, who had never even seen them reach the semi-finals of a World Cup, were rubbing South African noses in their success. That their No 1-ranked team had wormed their way into the subconscious of every South African by relegating the Boks to a stepping stone on their march to glory. The face of Rassie Erasmus, South African rugby’s god-king, said it all. He was seething. What was a friendly rivalry had now become personal.
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Continue reading...Otago Highlanders outside back Connor Garden-Bachop died on Monday at the age of 25 following a medical event, New Zealand Rugby has said.
Garden-Bachop, who made his Highlanders debut in 2021, was on the team’s roster this season but parted ways with the Super Rugby Pacific club after their latest campaign finished in the quarter-finals.
Continue reading...New Zealand rugby player Connor Garden-Bachop has died aged 25.
Group A concludes with another nail-biter as Shaheen Shah Afridi helps Pakistan to a three-wicket win in Florida
How will the pitch behave after so much rain? We will find out shortly. Paul Stirling and Andy Balbirnie prepare to face Shaheen Shah Afridi.
Ireland belt out theirs, arms round each others shoulders. Pakistan’s military-style ditty is a palm on hearts affair. Babar, face plastered in suncream, looks pensive.
Continue reading...The co-hosts USA reached the second group stage and eliminated Pakistan on an historic if damp day in Florida
Meanwhile, in Group B…
The outfield is still very wet, so there will be another inspection at 11.30am local/4.30pm BST. If I had to bet the farm I’d say the match will be washed out because of further rain, but I’m thousands of miles away so I’m not sure what the point of this sentence is.
Continue reading...Gold Coast have pulled off a stunning signing coup with Wallabies five-eighth Carter Gordon to join the club in another huge blow to Australian rugby. The 23-year-old, who will join the Titans next year until the end of 2026, was a key member of the Wallabies World Cup squad in 2023 and played No 10 for the now defunct Melbourne Rebels.
Gordon will join fellow World Cup star Mark Nawaqanitawase in the NRL next year with Test winger signing with the Sydney Roosters from the NSW Waratahs. Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i is heading the other way, switching to rugby union from the Sydney Roosters next season.
Continue reading...The Wellington Hurricanes overcame a slow start to win their quarter-final 47-20 against the Melbourne Rebels, who farewelled the Super Rugby in fighting fashion.
Tears among the Rebels players have signalled the end for Melbourne, whose place in Super Rugby Pacific was brought to a close by a quarter-final loss to the Hurricanes. The Rebels were given almost no chance of upsetting the table-topping Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday, but held them to an eight-point margin at half-time on the back of some desperate defence.
That took its toll, with the home side piling on five second-half tries to post a 47-20 victory. Rebels winger Lachie Anderson scored a late double but the Hurricanes remained on track for the semi-finals.
Continue reading...Three men were convicted and fined $500 for ‘deliberately and intentionally’ performing the salute
Three Croatian men have been convicted and fined after separately making Nazi salutes during the 2022 Australia Cup soccer final.
Nikola Marko Gasparovic, 46, Dominik Sieben, 25, and Marijan Lisica, 45, performed the salute at Parramatta’s CommBank Stadium on October 1 2022, during the match between Sydney United 58 and Macarthur FC.
Continue reading...India won emphatically in New York after their quick bowlers bulldozed Ireland for 96 on a very lively pitch
1st over: Ireland 3-0 (Balbirnie 1, Stirling 2) Stirling walks down the track to time his first ball through the covers for … two. That would have been four on most grounds.
There’s a bit of swing for Arshdeep, who beats Stirling with a ball that keeps a bit low. Stirling’s second and third attempts to walk down the track are less successful; Arshdeep cramps him for room with one delivery and then zips a bouncer past his noggin. A really good start.
Continue reading...Francesco Bagnaia won the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday at the Mugello Circuit, while his Ducati teammate Enea Bastianini overtook Jorge Martín, who started on pole, on the final lap to take second place.
Pramac Racing’s Martín, the current championship leader, looked well set to challenge Bagnaia for top spot in the final stages of the race. Instead, the reigning champion pulled clear and Bastianini found the pace to overtake Martín at the final sector and grab second place to delight home fans.
Continue reading...England rugby star Jonny Hill has been accused of “putting a fan in a headlock and leaving him with a cut eye” after a semi-final defeat.
Rugby fans have been left shaking their heads in response to a medic’s classless act of unsportsmanship on the sideline of a game in Australia this week.