Rugby’s leading nations have united to announce a blanket ban on playing international matches for recruits to the proposed breakaway R360 league. England, New Zealand, Ireland and France are among those who currently either favour or exclusively pick players from their domestic competitions. That meant signing up to the globe-trotting R360 itinerary was always set to put their players’ Test careers on hold.
Read more
Lando Norris mastered treacherous, changing conditions in a dramatic, incident-packed race to beat Max Verstappen and win the Australian Grand Prix. Norris and his McLaren team made the right calls in a race punctuated by crashes, three safety cars and an aborted start. Norris was forced to fend off a late threat from Verstappen while Mercedes’ George Russell finished third ahead of his rookie teammate Kimi Antonelli.
Read more
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri made it a McLaren one-two in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, while Lewis Hamilton took eighth on his Ferrari debut. Norris and Piastri made life difficult for themselves with mistakes on their first laps in the final part of qualifying, but both produced strong laps on their final runs. Briton Norris beat Australian Piastri by 0.084 seconds as both knocked early pace-setter Max Verstappen’s Red Bull down to third in Melbourne.
Read more
Ireland spoiled Joe Schmidt’s return to Dublin to end their Autumn Nations Series campaign on a high as Andy Farrell signed off for his British & Irish Lions sabbatical by scoring a psychological blow against Australia ahead of next summer’s three-Test series Down Under. It was an uplifting end to this four-game set at Aviva Stadium that had begun with a below-par defeat to New Zealand and gradually improved through victories over Argentina and Fiji.
Read more
Carlos Sainz led Charles Leclerc to a Ferrari one-two in the Australian Grand Prix as Max Verstappen’s domination of Formula 1 stalled. The Red Bull driver was forced out of the race with a brake issue while McLaren’s Lando rounded out the podium ahead of his teammate and home favourite Oscar Piastri. Sergio Perez finished fifth while Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was demoted from sixth to eight for a late incident.
Read more