Tom Willis makes mockery of England omission as Saracens bludgeon Bulls December 8, 2024 Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall urged England to take note after No8 Tom Willis burnished his growing reputation with a man-of-the-match display in Saturday’s 27-5 Investec Champions Cup win over the Bulls. Willis was surprisingly omitted from Steve Borthwick’s 36-man England squad for last month’s Autumn Nations Series but made a mockery of that [...]
‘One or two errors’: Ratcliffe comments shed light on Ashworth departure December 8, 2024 Manchester United are searching for a new sporting director after splitting from Dan Ashworth, the man who was supposed to be a key architect of the team’s revival. United waited for almost half a year to prise Ashworth from his contract at Newcastle United but have dispensed with him midway through his first full season. [...]
Why doesn’t Saudi Arabia sponsor rugby when it invests everywhere else? December 7, 2024 If you were going to have a gander through the list of sports sponsorship deals related – directly or indirectly – to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, you’d be scrolling for a good while. Because research by Play the Game reports that there’s a total of 910 deals between Saudi Arabia or Saudi companies/individuals and [...]
Top footballers spend 87 per cent of time working, study finds December 6, 2024 Fresh concerns have been raised about player burnout ahead of next year’s Club World Cup after a new study found that top professional footballers typically spend 80 per cent of their time working. Drawing on data that it compiled for global players’ union Fifpro, independent consultancy Football Benchmark says that, for some individuals, the number [...]
Show football’s 3pm blackout the red card and women’s game will benefit December 6, 2024 While men’s football works out whether to scrap the 3pm blackout, women’s matches offer a perfect test case, argues Anna Reynolds. Imagine being barred from watching your favourite TV programme at a certain time of the day. That’s the current situation in football, where games scheduled for Saturday at 3pm are restricted from being broadcast [...]
Can English clubs mount an Investec Champions Cup charge? December 6, 2024 If you were to list the last five English appearances in an Investec Champions Cup final you’d find Exeter there once and Saracens the other four times. Before that it was Northampton Saints in 2011 and before that London Wasps and Leicester Tigers in 2007. But if you were to ask me to predict which [...]
‘I’m not going to apologise’: Emotional Hamilton braces for Mercedes farewell December 5, 2024 Lewis Hamilton admits he has struggled to control his emotions this season as he prepares to bring the curtain down on a glittering 12-year stay at Mercedes. The 39-year-old, who signed a deal to join Ferrari from 2025 ahead of the season, has won six of his seven world championships with the Silver Arrows but [...]
Russell: Bully Verstappen wanted to put me on my f****** head in the wall December 5, 2024 Formula 1 driver George Russell has unleashed a brutal attack on world champion Max Verstappen after the Dutchman moaned about the Brit. Verstappen said he lost all respect for George Russell after an incident in Qatar but the Mercedes driver hit back, saying the Dutchman had “bullied” people for years and promised to purposely crash [...]
Charlotte Dujardin banned for year over horse whipping controversy December 5, 2024 Former Olympic champion Charlotte Dujardin has been suspended from all equestrian competition for a year after being involved in a horse whipping controversy. The Brit was was provisionally suspended by equestrian’s governing body, the International Federation for Equestrian Sports earlier this year, before the Paris 2024 Olympics after footage emerged of her appearing to whip [...]
Ed Warner: It’s sports awards season, so here’s my team of the year December 5, 2024 ParalympicsGB are my team of the year – they succeeded where others failed and all without the fanfare they deserved, says Ed Warner. Sports award season is upon us. This of the Year and That of the Year, on red carpets and across multiple platforms with misty eyes and banging showreels. Not a vintage year [...]