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English club rugby is being undermined by a “dysfunctional” fixture schedule that is making it harder to compete with other top European sides, according to Northampton’s director of rugby, Phil Dowson. Saints are the only English team still involved in the Champions Cup this season but Dowson believes Premiership teams are being handicapped by their … Read more
Jimmy White kept alive his hopes of qualifying for the World Snooker Championship for the first time since 2006 with a nail-biting, final-frame win over Ukrainian Anton Kazakov. The veteran six-time runner-up, who turns 63 next month, was 7-3 down just after the resumption of the evening session but reeled off six frames in a … Read more
They’ve been charging towards the wicket ever since overarm bowling was standardised in 1864. Well, not exactly charging. They amble. They shuffle. They waddle. They gather at the crease and unfurl dibbly-dobblers. The peaches they send down are not quite ripe. The jaffas they deliver are gluten free. These are the unblessed athletes, bereft of … Read more
Fourteen months ago, Maxi Oyedele was experiencing the lowest moment of a burgeoning career, being substituted after coming off the bench for a team destined for relegation from League Two. Now he is preparing for a European quarter-final with Legia Warsaw against one of the biggest clubs on the continent. Forest Green feels a world … Read more
The Premier League will be guaranteed at least five teams in the 2025-26 Champions League after Arsenal’s stunning 3-0 win over Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday. The English top flight needed one win from its clubs in any of the three European competitions to secure one of … Read more
“Ipswich. Leicester and Southampton have a combined total of 47 points. Are they on course to be the worst bottom three in Premier League history?” asks Will Hollis. In a 24-season period from 1999 to 2003, there were no cases of all three promoted clubs being relegated from the Premier League. Now it is probably … Read more
Sometimes you have to hold up your hands and recognise that your defeat was more down to the skills of your opponent than your own failings. Take Aston Villa’s loss to Juventus in the quarter-finals of the European Cup in 1983. Thousands of fans left Villa Park after the first leg knowing their team’s grip … Read more
Sport supplements promise to build muscle, energise workouts and even unlock human potential but their risk has been revealed by researchers who have found more than one in three contains substances prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, many of which are not listed among ingredients. A Sport Integrity Australia-commissioned survey carried out by Human and … Read more
Australia’s sprinting revival has gone up a gear at this year’s national athletics championships in Perth after another record more than half a century old was broken. West Australian teenager Leah O’Brien won the under-18s girls 100m on Tuesday in a time of 11.14s, eclipsing Raelene Boyle’s record in the junior age bracket that was … Read more
Rugby Australia has signed a five-year extension to its broadcast rights agreement with Nine Entertainment in a deal worth up to $240m. It runs from 2026-2030 and includes performance incentives linked to Wallabies wins, Nine-owned newspapers reported. “[It] represents a significant uplift on Rugby Australia’s current broadcast agreement and follows a successful organisational reset in … Read more