The US professional competition staged its final in San Diego on Saturday and will be in Los Angeles and New York next yearAs Major League Rugby commissioner Dean Howes put it, the trophy the Seattle Seawolves lifted on Saturday night “looks and feels like rugby”. Related: Gary Gold's blazing Eagles beat Scotland – US rugby has momentum Related: 'It's in my blood': how rugby managed to unite America's elite Related: HR McMaster on rugby: 'The warrior ethos is what a good team has' Continue reading...
This week’s roundup also includes classic Tour de France clips, a Joe Cole wonder-strike and a crying Son Heung-min1) Australia and the Philippines traded haymakers and flying kicks in a Fiba World Cup qualifier in Bulocan. Maybe it’s something about the claustrophobic nature of the court but basketball has had its fair share of blockbuster brawls down the years. The nadir was 2004’s Malice at the Palace as a fight between Detroit’s Ben Wallace and Ron Artest – later to be known as Metta World Peace – spilled into the stands. Celtics favourite Kevin McHale executed this clothesline on LA Lakers’ Kurt Rambis while Larry Bird’s legendary lip led to Julius Erving delivering this flurry of jabs firmly on his...
The NBA’s best player could be on his way out of Cleveland (again) after declining his player option on Friday, but there’s something hollow about his thankless pursuit of Michael Jordan’s six titlesLeBron James, who declined his player option with the Cleveland Cavaliers and became a free agent on Friday, is a superstar in a predicament of his own making. He essentially created the culture of NBA stars teaming up to win championships, one that allowed Kevin Durant to make the Golden State Warriors a dynasty at his own expense. The unfortunate thing for James is he gets no credit. While Durant is hailed as a selfless hero who stifled his ego to win two titles with the Warriors, LeBron...
The former Everton and Manchester United striker is joining DC United with Everton’s blessing and encouragementWayne Rooney, without the fanfare that greeted his arrival as the most gifted English player in a generation or the acrimony of his first Everton exit, has brought his 16-year Premier League career to a close. Even so, and even with all eyes on Gareth Southgate’s new breed in Russia, it is a career that does not slip away unheralded.Rooney, with Everton’s blessing and encouragement, flew on Thursday to Washington to finalise a three-and-a-half-year contract with DC United. The deal will be formally completed when the MLS transfer window opens on 10 July – Everton will not receive a fee – and the 32-year-old is...
A team-by-team analysis suggests some clubs will improve overnight while others won’t see returns for a few years (if ever)NBA draft 2018 – as it happenedThere may be no bigger gamble than the NBA draft: a four-hour procession of tall, young men with impossibly long arms, long on potential and short on certainty. No one with any credibility can say with assuredness that any team “won” or “lost” Thursday’s draft at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Most of the top players picked have five months of college careers and a handful of empty-gym workouts to show the teams who selected them. This draft might well have the next Kobe Bryant or Stephen Curry, but it probably doesn’t. It will likely be remembered...