World champions South Africa scored five tries to one as they crushed Australia 33-7 in the opening match of the Rugby Championship in Brisbane on Saturday.
Marika Koroibete missing as Wallabies team to face South Africa revealed
Marika Koroibete is a surprise absentee from the Wallabies team for Saturday’s Rugby Championship Test against South Africa at Suncorp Stadium.
Martín’s late mistake hands MotoGP British Grand Prix victory to Bastianini
- Ducati rider wins ahead of Martín and teammate Bagnaia
- Prima Pramac’s Martín takes championship lead
Enea Bastianini of Ducati won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday to complete a weekend double, taking the chequered flag ahead of new world championship leader Jorge Martín and two-time MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia.
Having qualified second on the grid, Bagnaia had taken the lead over pole-sitter Aleix Espargaró on the opening lap but found himself in the battle for third in the second part of the race after Prima Pramac’s Martín overtook him with eight laps to go.
Continue reading...Racing’s new leaders will need to attack poisonous gaming betting
The British Horseracing Authority is currently trying to find both a new chair and new chief executive
The low-key but potentially significant squabble between Flutter Entertainment – the parent company of gambling brands including Paddy Power, Sky Bet and Betfair – and Arena Racing Company (Arc), which operates 16 British tracks, flared up again last week, when Sky Bet and Paddy Power took “a commercial decision” not to offer its customers early prices for the meeting at Lingfield on Wednesday afternoon.
The two firms’ decision to effectively boycott the card until a few minutes before the off-time of each racing was something of a delayed-drop payoff to a guest column by Ian Brown, Flutter’s CEO UK and Ireland, in the previous day’s Racing Post.
Continue reading...Wallabies claim impressive win over Georgia despite red card, length-of-field stunner
A new-look Wallabies side continued their rejuvenation under coach Joe Schmidt Saturday to overcome Georgia 40-29 in an entertaining one-off Test in Sydney.
England dominate France to claim fourth World Rugby under-20 title
- England 21-13 France
- Set-piece superiority guides team to victory
England claimed a first under-20 world title since 2016 with a victory over France founded on their ruthlessly dominant scrum and a power-packed performance that will have Steve Borthwick licking his lips. Tries from the forwards Joe Bailey and Arthur Green sealed victory in Cape Town with England’s muscle up front proving too much for the defending champions.
England were unstoppable at scrum time, winning penalties at will less than a week after Borthwick had bemoaned the senior side’s set-piece problems. The props Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Afolabi Fasogbon may soon find themselves fast-tracked, such was their superiority in a pack that was missing its first-choice tighthead in Billy Sela. Others to burnish their reputations were the second-row Junior Kpoku and the flanker Henry Pollock in a performance that bodes well as Borthwick plots a course towards the 2027 World Cup.
Continue reading...Former All Black named for Wallabies, 21yo rookie beast to debut amid 17 changes
The Wallabies will have a third captain in three games under new coach Joe Schmidt with Liam Wright failing to recover in time for Saturday’s clash with Georgia.
The Breakdown | Power rankings: Ireland top after epic win over world champions
New Zealand sit third after Scott Robertson’s strong start and England have work to do after a 2-0 defeat
Ciarán Frawley’s last-gasp drop goal sealed a stunning win in Durban, ensuring South Africa had failed to win a series against Ireland for the first time. It was the latest thrilling instalment of the global game’s leading rivalry at present and Ireland have now won two of their last three against the Springboks. Add in the 2022 series win in New Zealand and Ireland’s ability to pick up away victories in the southern hemisphere sets them apart from their European rivals. That they went to South Africa and drew the series without Jamison Gibson-Park speaks volumes about the depth Farrell has unearthed, with full-back Jamie Osborne the latest to flourish. Farrell does not pick his British and Irish Lions squad for around 10 months but at this rate it will be dominated by his Irish charges.
Continue reading...Wallabies star caps off remarkable coast-to-coast move, gifted try by rival as Aussies sweep Wales
Progress can be hard to measure when you are coming from such a long way back but a second-up Wallabies win in the Joe Schmidt era is better than the alternative.
Frawley’s last-gasp drop goal seals stunning win for Ireland in South Africa
- South Africa 24-25 Ireland
- Jack Crowley scores 14 points in thrilling Durban victory
Ciarán Frawley coolly landed a last-gasp drop goal as Ireland weathered a second-half storm to pull off a stunning 25-24 victory in Durban and secure a 1-1 series draw against South Africa. Frawley stepped off the bench to split the posts in dramatic fashion with the final action of a thrilling encounter at Kings Park Stadium after a similar effort 10 minutes earlier.
Andy Farrell’s side had looked set to slip to an agonising defeat to the back-to-back world champions after Conor Murray’s try helped reward a ferocious first-half display with a 16-6 lead. The flawless fly-half Handré Pollard slotted eight penalties to turn the contest in the Springboks’ favour on the back of their 27-20 triumph last weekend in Pretoria.
Continue reading...Australia 36-28 Wales: rugby union international – as it happened
The Wallabies remain unbeaten in 2024 after victory over Wales in Melbourne gave coach Joe Schmidt a second win
“Replicate some of the things we did well and hopefully solve some of the things we didn’t do so well.”
How’s that for some cutting edge rugby insight from Joe Schmidt?
Continue reading...Newly minted Wallabies captain Liam Wright to miss Wales clash, James Slipper to captain
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt says his new-look team learned “a bit about ourselves” in last week’s win over Wales as he named a largely unchanged line-up, albeit with a new captain, for Saturday’s second clash in Melbourne.
France’s Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jégou arrested on sexual assault charges
- Players currently on Les Bleus’ South America tour
- FFR president says an investigation is under way
Two France international rugby players have been arrested after an allegation of sexual assault was made against them during Les Bleus’ South America tour. The president of the the French rugby federation’ (FFR), Florian Grill, told reporters in Buenos Aires that if the facts are proven they are “incredibly serious”.
The two players – the 20-year-old Pau lock Hugo Auradou and the La Rochelle flanker Oscar Jégou, 21 – are set to be taken from the Argentinian capital to Mendoza, where the alleged incident happened. Mendoza staged the first Test between Argentina and France on Saturday, when Auradou and Jégou both started.
Continue reading...Bagnaia tops MotoGP standings after Martín crashes out in Germany
- Martín slid off track with two laps to go
- Brothers Marc and Álex Márquez finish second and third
Ducati’s reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia went top of the MotoGP championship after winning the German Grand Prix on Sunday ahead of Marc Márquez after title rival Jorge Martín crashed while he was leading the race with two laps to go.
Márquez’s brother Álex finished third to make it two brothers on a MotoGP podium for the first time since Japan’s Nobuatsu and Takuma Aoki finished second and third in Imola 27 years ago.
Continue reading...South Africa 27-20 Ireland: first rugby union Test – as it happened
The Springboks’ bench won a penalty try at the death to settle a thrilling contest between two true heavyweights
The players are making their way out to the field.
They pass under a sign that reads, “Altitude. 1 350m. It matters”.
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