Four straight losses just a month out from the Rugby World Cup are not ideal but some of the coach’s selections are coming up rosesSix years ago they had the All Blacks 17-0 down before being overrun and beaten 35-29. Last year in Melbourne they needed only to kick on time before a bizarre refereeing call and a New Zealand try on the siren denied them. On Saturday a fresh tale of misery: wasting a 14-0 lead inside eight minutes and 17-3 at half-time, to choke on bitter Bledisloe defeat again.The Wallabies truly are the heartbreak kids of Australian sport. Continue reading...
For all the talk in recent weeks of the Matildas missing Sam Kerr, another of the world’s best attackers has been playing all alongIt was a perfect case study in the brilliance of Caitlin Foord. When the Matildas forward gained possession midway through the first half against Denmark night, she was deep in her own team’s half. This would have come as no surprise to her colleagues, who regularly hail Foord’s defensive work ethic.The forward quickly dispatched a crisp pass to Mary Fowler. And then she took off. Foord has variety in her attacking arsenal. She can outwit defenders as she runs at them with the ball; she can pass her way through most midfields. But Foord is at her...
By using an injury timeout to regroup, the Matildas show their increasing maturity and composure in win against Denmark Golden boot tracker Your bumper guide to all 736 players Four years ago, it was the nightmare in Nice. This time it was the celebration in Sydney. Where lapses of mental fortitude against Norway at the 2019 World Cup led to the Matildas exiting the tournament in the last 16, maturity and toughness saw them through against Denmark on Monday.Without one, the Matildas may not have managed the other. This was a journey that began in the bowels of the Stade de Nice on a French summer’s night with the captain, Sam Kerr, in tears having missed their opening penalty of...
As good as England had been at this World Cup they did not stand a chance against Australia who rediscovered their winning cultureFor four long years the Australian Diamonds have been haunted by an absence. After securing the Netball World Cup trophy consecutively in 2007, 2011 and 2015, a one-goal loss to the old enemy New Zealand at the 2019 World Cup was painful. That it happened just one year after a devastatingly similar one-goal loss to England at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, and swept their trophy cabinet bare, made it all the worse.A four-goal win over Jamaica in the gold medal match at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games last year appeared to steady the ship and put the team...
By trusting tagger Finn Maginness, Hawks coach Sam Mitchell gifted every AFL team a blueprint on how to do itThere’s a chapter in Tony Wilson’s book about the 1989 Grand Final that focuses on Scott Maginness, Hawthorn’s young chiropractic student slated to play on Geelong’s Gary Ablett. The Cats star was in murderous touch, fresh from a preposterous eight-goal performance in the Preliminary Final. “You’re wanting to not make a fool of yourself,” Maginness tells Wilson. “You want all those things you’ve always dreamed about, but know at any point it could all go horribly pear shaped.”He arrives home and tells his two brothers who he’s playing on. “Oh shit,” they say in unison. Continue reading...