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Five years on: rugby’s brain damaged players wait and wait for the help they need

In 2020 Steve Thompson revealed he could not remember winning the Rugby World Cup and since then his case and others have been caught up in a warren of legal argument

The Royal Courts of Justice are a warren. They were built piecemeal over 125 years of intermittent construction, wings were added, blocks were expanded and then joined by a web of twisting staircases and long corridors. You navigate your way to whichever corner of it you have business in by checking the tiny print on the long daily case lists that are posted in the lobby early each morning, when the building always seems to be full of people hurrying in the other direction. For the last three years, three separate sets of legal action about brain damage in sport have been slowly making their way through here, lost in the hallways.

One is in football, one is in rugby union, one is in rugby league. The same small firm, Rylands Garth, is behind all three. Sometimes these hearings take place in the modern rooms of the east block, where the carpet is peeling and the roofs are gap-toothed with missing panels, and sometimes they take place in the cold old stone rooms off the great hall, which are wood-cladded, and contain rows and rows of heavy leather-bound books. Progress is slow. Events often go unreported.

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BBC showing tennis’s new Battle of the Sexes will just offer up opportunity to belittle women’s sport | Barney Ronay

The match between Aryna Sabalenka and Nick Kyrgios opens up a direct channel between the BBC of old and a world of toxic internet hatred

It’s always best to take a sceptical view of the constant flow of BBC-bashing newspaper stories, which are often simply bogus outrage expressed for commercial gain. Even the war-on-woke, cod-ideological stuff – Clive Myrie INSISTS hamsters can breastfeed human robots – the bits that make you want to smear your face with greengage jam and weep for England, our England, with its meadows, its shadows, its curates made entirely from beef. Even these come from a hard, transactional place.

Basically, it’s the licence fee. The BBC is free at the point of delivery, but paid for by a national levy. The BBC is also a direct commercial competitor to every other form of legacy media, all of which are trying to find ways to survive and recoup revenue.

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Stars Pull Away Late, Defeat Sharks 4-1

It appears the San Jose Sharks were “starstruck.” 

The Dallas Stars (18-5-5) came alive in the third period, scoring three goals to pull away for a 4-1 win over the Sharks (13-12-3) on Friday night at American Airlines Center. Goals from Jason Robertson, Sam Steel, Mikko Rantanen, and Miro Heiskanen propelled Dallas, while Jake Oettinger stopped 16 shots to secure the victory. 

Collin Graf scored the lone goal for the Sharks. Yaroslav Askarov made 20 saves on the night. 

What Happened 

The Stars struck first at 14:20 of the opening period as Jason Robertson netted his 18th goal of the season. Wyatt Johnston unleashed a blistering one-timer from the left circle, and the rebound found Robertson at the edge of the crease, where he finished with precision. 

San Jose responded in the second period, with Graf tying the game at 8:23 off a Nick Leddy rebound, keeping the Sharks in contention. 

But the final 20 minutes belonged to Dallas. Sam Steel was a constant presence around the net, creating multiple scoring chances, including two while killing penalties. His relentless effort finally paid off at 10:56 when he notched his fourth goal of the season to put Dallas ahead 2-1. Steel initially fired a backhand at goaltender Askarov, corralled his own rebound, and shoveled it through the five-hole to secure the lead. 

Rantanen extended the Stars’ lead at 16:39, registering his 13th goal of the season. Coming out from behind the net, Rantanen unleashed a precise wrist shot from the bottom of the left circle, earning his third point of the night. 

Miro Heiskanen capped the scoring with an empty-net goal at 17:41, sealing Dallas’ 4-1 triumph. 

The Stars outshot San Jose 24-17, and went 1 for 2 on the power play. The Sharks, meanwhile, failed to convert all four of their opportunities on the man advantage. 

What’s Next 

The Sharks are back in action Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes (16-8-2) at Lenovo Center. Puck drop takes place at 2 p.m. PT.  

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Durant hits 31,000-point mark as Rockets beat Suns

Kevin Durant in action for the Houston Rockets against the Phoenix Suns
Kevin Durant made his NBA debut in 2007 [Getty Images]

Kevin Durant became just the eighth player in NBA history to reach 31,000 career points during the Houston Rockets' 117-98 win against the Phoenix Suns.

The 37-year-old started the game needing just four points to hit the milestone and took his tally to 31,000 points with a 10-foot jump shot midway through the first quarter.

Durant, who finished the night with 28 points to move to 31,024 overall, sits behind Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki and LeBron James on the all-time list.

"As you're coming up into the league, you look at these guys as heroes and you put them on pedestals, and you look at their accomplishments as sometimes unreachable," Durant said.

"But then you get on that road trying to do your thing. That's what I've done since 2008.

"I've been focused on trying to be the best player I can be, and they set a standard for each player when they left the league.

"Guys like Wilt, Michael, Kobe - I'm missing so many guys - they just set a standard that I try to reach every day."

Antetokounmpo out for up to a month

The Milwaukee Bucks expect to be without star player Giannis Antetokounmpo for the next month as he recovers from a calf strain.

The Greek power forward limped out of Wednesday's game against the Detroit Pistons after falling to the ground during a defensive play.

Initial scans indicated the 31-year-old could miss between two to four weeks.

But the Bucks say they will give Antetokounmpo added time to recover given the nature of the injury.

"I feel like we should learn that with calves - make sure they're healthy," Bucks coach Don Rivers said.

"So that may take longer than we want. That even may make Giannis frustrated over it, but we've just got to try to get that right."

Elsewhere, James and Luka Doncic were absent as the Los Angeles Lakers lost 126-105 to the Boston Celtics.

James, 40, continues to be troubled by a sciatica problem in his left foot, which saw him miss the first 14 games of the season.

Doncic, who missed the match for personal reasons, could return for the three-game trip against the Philadelphia 76ers this weekend.

NBA results in full

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Rory McIlroy’s Australian Open hopes slip on discarded banana skin

  • World No 2 hits double bogey after playing under peel

  • McIlroy five-under after third round at Royal Melbourne

The luck of the Irish has deserted golfing superstar Rory McIlroy, with Royal Melbourne tossing up a banana peel in the latest obstacle to his second Australian Open title.

The world No 2 was hoping to maintain the momentum of three birdies late in his second round when he arrived on course for an early tee time on Saturday, seven shots off the pace.

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OG Anunoby 'felt good' in return from injury to help Knicks dominate Jazz

The Knicks' starting lineup is finally at full strength.

OG Anunoby returned to the floor on Friday against the Jazz, his first game since injuring his hamstring on Nov. 14. The forward missed nine games just when he was putting up some of the best numbers of his career. 

But Anunoby picked up where he left off, scoring 11 points and assisting one in 23 minutes on Friday night. As with any game Anunoby plays, his impact goes far beyond the stat sheet. The first defensive possession for the Knicks, Anunoby forced a bad pass from Jazz forward Svi Mykhailiuk, one of many stops by the Knicks as they got off to a 23-0 start, the best in NBA history since play-by-play has been recorded (1997-98), en route to a 146-112 rout. 

"I didn't really notice it. We were just playing. Someone told us later," Anunoby said. "I didn't even notice they didn't score; we were just getting stops and going. So felt pretty good just playing the way we try to play all the time."

That good feeling extended to Anunoby's health. He said he felt good after the game and that he missed playing with his teammates and playing for the fans. But he did not have a good time being unable to play. In those few weeks of missing action, Anunoby described his time recovering as "not fun" but still tried to help his teammates however he could. 

"Just try to help in any way possible," Anunoby said. "Be supportive, talk to my teammates, tell them what I'm seeing, and still help."

Part of that support is watching film and pointing out little things his teammates are not doing or what teams are doing to the Knicks and trying to get them to incorporate it.

Anunoby's 23 minutes was good, but head coach Mike Brown was hoping to extend his forward even longer, but the score dictated he empty his bench. Brown did allow Anunoby to play with the reserves as the rest sat on the bench, watching for most of the fourth quarter. 

"It was tough because you always wonder... you get a big lead, you don’t want anybody to get hurt. But we needed to get OG some game minutes to work on his conditioning," Brown explained. "He looked good for the time he was out there. I would have loved to get him 25-26 minutes, but 22-23 worked good enough, especially with the way we had the lead tonight."

Anunoby says he'll need just a couple of game to feel like he's in game shape, and he'll definitely need his conditioning when the Knicks welcome a physical Magic team to the Garden on Sunday. 

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Knicks revert to 2024 starting lineup in OG Anunoby's return, throttle Jazz 146-112

The Knicks welcomed back OG Anunoby on Friday night after the wing missed three weeks with a hamstring injury, but the situation that he found himself returning to was not the one that he'd left. In his stead, Josh Hart had re-entered the starting lineup and recaptured his old magic while the Knicks had won six of their last eight games. When it was announced that Anunoby would be returning, there were plenty of questions surrounding who would start and how seamlessly the pieces would all fit together.

For one night, the answer was a resounding "Just right," as the Knicks were challenged in a 146-112 win over the Utah Jazz at Madison Square Garden.

Before Anunoby's injury, the 28-year-old wing was thriving in new head coach Mike Brown's system. Anunoby was averaging 15.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.9 steals per game while shooting 47.6% from the field and 39.2% from beyond the arc. He was playing elite defense on the wing and, through 12 games, seemed on track to be selected to his first career All-Star game.

But not all of his teammates were enjoying as much success.

The beginning of the year had not been kind to Josh Hart. When the season began, there were a few questions surrounding the man who seemingly never left the floor under the previous head coach, Tom Thibodeau. With a new sheriff in town, it was announced that Mitchell Robinson would enter the starting lineup, pushing Karl-Anthony Towns to the power forward role and moving Josh Hart to the bench. Then, in training camp, Hart aggravated a nerve injury in the ring finger of his shooting hand, which causes his finger to swell and go numb, obviously impacting his shooting and ball-handling. Hart decided to delay surgery until after the season, but the results were not good early in the year.

In the first 10 games of the season, Hart averaged 8.4 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 0.8 steals in 23.8 minutes per night. He was shooting 44.4% from the field (33.3% from deep) with a 51% effective field goal rate. On top of his offensive struggles, he was posting an uncharacteristically poor 116.1 defensive rating and a 10.1 Player Impact Estimate, which is kind of like basketball's version of WAR (Wins Above Replacement). He seemed frustrated by his performance and his role, and there was some worry that he might not fit into Mike Brown’s new system as well as he had under Thibodeau.

Still, the Knicks were 7-3 in those games. Mitchell Robinson was proving to be perhaps the best offensive rebounder in the league, and the new offensive system that stressed ball movement and a drive-and-kick philosophy had led to strong starts for Anunoby and Bridges. It seemed like this was the way things would continue, until Anunoby hurt his hamstring just five minutes into an NBA Cup game against the Miami Heat on November 14th.

That game proved to be a turning point for Hart. The 30-year-old was asked to play more minutes with Jalen Brunson already out with an ankle injury, and Anunoby leaving the game. But Hart responded, putting up a triple-double with 12 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists as the Knicks won 140-132.

Over his next nine games, including that NBA Cup performance, Hart averaged 15.7 points, 9.4 rebounds, 6.4 assists, and 1.8 steals in 34.3 minutes per game. He shot 55.3% from the field (45% from deep) with a 65% effective field goal rate. His defensive rating also improved to 113.7, and his Player Impact Estimate was up to 14.6.

His performance did not go unnoticed as head coach Mike Brown blamed himself for Hart’s poor start: “I’ll take the hit on that…The tough part was, even backing up further, [Hart] didn’t really play in the preseason; he didn’t even really practice in the preseason. So, for me, I was behind the eight ball and was really trying to figure out how to incorporate him with what we’re trying to do. It just took time, and he was extremely patient with the process…His sacrifice was unbelievable because when I took him out, he just sat. When I called his number, he went out and played. But more importantly, his belief in the process, even if he thought I was wrong, was awesome.”

That belief wasn't only rewarded with improved performance but with a return to the starting lineup. Hart started the last five games coming into Friday's contest, and Coach Brown credited his coaching staff with helping him adjust: “You know, I had reasons why I started the other way [with Hart coming off the bench],” explained Brown after Wednesday’s win against the Hornets. “But my staff, I think all of them, were like, ‘Hey, these are the reasons why it would be better.’ And the reality of it is, I just listened to my staff. I said, Okay, if I’m the only one thinking that other way may be better at that time, then maybe I’m wrong.”

Given all of that, when Anunoby was cleared to play tonight, Coach Brown made the decision to start Hart alongside him, pushing Robinson to the bench and using the starting lineup that the Knicks had used for most of the 2024-25 season. While some of that could have been impacted by the fact that Robinson himself doesn't seem to be 100% healthy, it was also a nod to how well Hart had been playing and how much he means to the team.

For one night, against a poor Jazz team, the new/old starting lineup worked. The Knicks led 23-0 to start the game and never looked back.

Neither Hart nor Anunoby was particularly impactful on the offensive end in that first quarter. Hart scored two points but grabbed three rebounds and dished out one assist, while Anunoby posted three points with no other stats. More importantly, the offense clearly flowed well, and both players were solid defensively. Anunoby would go on to finish with 11 points, one assist, and no rebounds in 23 rusty minutes. Still, he was back out on the court, and that's what mattered most.

"It felt good," Anunoby said after the game about being back on the court. "Missed playing with my teammates. Missed the fans. I missed it, it was really fun playing."

Hart finished with eight points, six rebounds, six assists, and a steal in 28 minutes. Most of the Knicks' starters sat for the fourth quarter, with not a single starter playing in the final eight minutes of the game.

At the end of the day, it was one game against one of the weaker teams in the NBA, but it seems that the Knicks are preparing for life with both Hart and Anunoby in the starting five yet again. As a whole, that lineup was the eighth most effective five-man lineup, based on net rating, of any lineup the Knicks used for at least 60 minutes last season. There were only 12 qualified lineups. That lineup also had the third-worst defensive rating.

Yet, coming into Friday's game, that same lineup had played 40 minutes together this season and had the fourth-highest net rating of the nine qualified Knicks lineups. It also had the fourth-best defensive rating.

Perhaps in a new system, this five-man lineup could have new life. It seems like we'll get a chance to find out.