The Springboks want a clean sweep but Australia, Argentina and New Zealand may have more modest November targets
Four southern hemisphere giants are preparing for combat over the horizon. With 90% of all men’s World Cups, and having contributed more than 62% of the tournament’s semi-finalists since 1995, they arrive with reputations to uphold. Are they the forces they once were, or are they there for the taking?
Continue reading...Bradley’s pick was a panicked one after failing to entice Woods and the early noise around 2025 event resembles chaotic circus
A potential scenario, one which may be necessary to preserve some of the lofty status already bestowed on the 2025 Ryder Cup. Early noises around the event are so chaotic that Coco the Clown feels like an appropriate mascot for Bethpage as the US host Europe.
Via this theoretic plan, Keegan Bradley continues his ascent back towards the summit of professional golf. He qualifies for the team of which he is, for the time being, the captain. Because it is supposedly impossible to combine playing for a modern-day Ryder Cup team with captaining one, Bradley has to pass on his duties.
Continue reading...Mario Balotelli has signed for Genoa as a free agent, the Serie A club said on Monday, marking a return to the Italian top-tier for the striker after more than four years.
Genoa, third from bottom in the standings, have scored just seven goals in nine league games. The club’s manager, Alberto Gilardino, will hope that the 34-year-old can add to the 52 goals he has netted in 141 Serie A games.
Continue reading...An all-time classic clash between Inter and Juventus was rounded off by the Turkish teenager’s two-goal cameo
It had been a bonkers, record-setting, night – one of the highest-scoring matches ever in a rivalry that goes back 115 years – but not all the protagonists were enjoying themselves. “Thanks for the show!” said Zvonimir Boban in the Sky Sport studio to Simone Inzaghi at full-time. The Inter manager winced and forced a laugh. “The neutrals like you enjoyed yourselves. Me, a little bit less.”
Inzaghi had seen his team fritter away a two-goal lead in the final 20 minutes against Juventus, letting 4-2 become 4-4. To write it that way does a disservice to Kenan Yildiz, the teenager who came off the bench to score twice and turn the game on its head – writing his name into Derby d’Italia lore. Yet to tell it any other way would ignore the truth that Inter could have been out of sight before he did.
Continue reading...Australia, the reigning world champions, are set to tour England in 2025 – the first time in more than 20 years – after late talks were held about switching the location of the next Ashes series.
There has not been a traditional three‑match series since 2003, when Great Britain lost 3-0 at home despite leading with less than five minutes remaining in all the games. That wait looked to have ended after confirmation last year England would tour Australia. But the series now appears to be taking place in England.
Continue reading...Top marks for Noman Ali and Sajid Khan who surprisingly impressed but a series to forget for Ben Stokes
By Gary Naylor for the 99.94 Cricket Blog
Ben Stokes (53 runs at 13.3; no wicket for 33 runs; three catches)
Continue reading...Australia have opted to leave out all of their first-choice Test XI for the upcoming Twenty20 series against Pakistan so they can prepare for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
After facing Pakistan in three ODIs, starting on 4 November, Australia will then take on the same opposition in the shortest format of international cricket.
Continue reading...Piotr Zielinski converted two penalties for Inter as they played out a thrilling 4-4 draw with Juventus, for whom Kenan Yildiz scored a late brace, in Serie A on Sunday.
The five-goal opening half began with Marcus Thuram earning a penalty, which Zielinski converted to give Inter the lead after 15 minutes. Juve equalised five minutes later through Dusan Vlahovic and then took the lead with a strike from Timothy Weah, all within a six-minute span. After Henrikh Mkhitaryan equalised for Inter in the 35th minute, Zielinski scored his second from the penalty spot two minutes later, handing Inter a 3-2 lead going into the break.
Continue reading...Norwich launched a storming comeback to secure a 3-3 draw with Middlesbrough in a thrilling Championship clash at Carrow Road.
The Canaries looked down and out when the visitors took a two-goal lead into the interval after going behind early on. But after seeing Tommy Conway being denied what would have been a hat-trick from the penalty spot midway through the second period, the hosts found another lease of life, with Borja Sainz scoring his second to pull one back almost immediately.
Continue reading...Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia put in a sure-footed display at a rain-drenched Buriram International Circuit as he romped to victory in the Thailand Grand Prix on Sunday and slashed his gap to Jorge Martín, the championship leader, down to 17 points.
Bagnaia, the defending MotoGP champion, took advantage of errors by Pramac Racing’s Martín and Marc Márquez of Gresini Racing to take the chequered flag and clinch his ninth win of the season. Martín finished second while the GasGas Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta was third.
Continue reading...International stage gears up to keep sport financially afloat but future plans will come at the cost of players and fans
Fans of English rugby – the real ones who follow the Premiership – could be forgiven for outrage at the suspension of the domestic game for the next few weeks. Such have been the remarkable matches coming at us from all angles in the first six rounds of the season, any resentment at November’s narrowing of focus on Twickenham, where tickets tend to be reserved for certain types, would be only natural.
As exhilarating as it may be, domestic rugby pretty much everywhere, but certainly in England, does not wash its face financially. So, over to the international game to try to keep everything afloat.
Continue reading...NRL and England forward on World Cup heartache, the challenge of Samoa and loving life in South Yorkshire
There are not many who would be willing to swap Bondi beach for the outskirts of Barnsley in mid-October but for Victor Radley, his annual month-long excursion to England is not so much a chore but rather than the highlight of his year.
The 26-year-old NRL regular raised eyebrows two years ago when he decided to represent his Sheffield-born father and pledge his allegiance to England instead of push for an Australia call-up. Some wondered if it would be a mere one-off, with the chance to play in a World Cup too good to refuse. But for the third straight year, Radley is back in England colours.
Continue reading...Australia have exacted revenge on New Zealand for last year’s heartbreaking Pacific Cup final with a 22-10 win that propels the Kangaroos into the decider of this year’s tournament. Nearly a year after the Kiwis handed Australia their biggest loss, a try-scoring double to Zac Lomax saw off the chance of another defeat before a hostile Christchurch crowd on Sunday.
The Kangaroos still appeared below their best, with Angus Crichton notably bombing an early try and new halfback Mitch Moses spraying a kick and then putting a line dropout out on the full. Regardless, the win over an admittedly understrength New Zealand helps vindicate a raft of changes made to the Australian team following last year’s 30-0 debacle in Hamilton.
Continue reading...Australia have booked their spot in the Pacific Cup final after fullback Tamika Upton starred in a 14-0 defeat of titleholders New Zealand in Christchurch.
Already under pressure from their loss to the Kiwi Ferns in last year’s Pacific Cup final and a handful of controversial selection choices since then, the Jillaroos were made to overcome second-half injuries to Kezie Apps and Olivia Higgins on Sunday. But Upton’s attacking brilliance proved the difference between the sides, despite New Zealand being the better starters and holding firm on their goal line for long stretches.
Continue reading...Bayer Leverkusen’s sloppy performance in their 2-2 draw at Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga on Saturday that included conceding a 90th-minute equaliser was down to the German champions’ weak defending, Xabi Alonso said.
Werder twice came from a goal down to snatch a point and leave Leverkusen with a third draw in their last four league games. “The fact that Werder could come back was down to both sides,” Alonso, who led his team to an unbeaten domestic league and cup double last season, said. “We were too soft in defending and they used their chances.
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