England’s chances of retaining the Twenty20 World Cup have been hit for six with the news Ben Stokes has opted out of selection for this year’s tournament. The mercurial Stokes will miss June’s World Cup in the US and the West Indies to focus on regaining his fitness ahead of the northern summer’s Test schedule. […]
‘Curse the money all you want’ but RA must work out what it wants from Super Rugby – otherwise the game is doomed
No teams in the top five sports leagues of the world are folding or being saved by national unions. Curse the money all you want. But running deficits because wealthy owners want to have a club to front their marketing needs of their portfolio after a fox hunt on a Saturday morning is not a […]
‘I’m in the s–t’: How Schmidt landed All Blacks icon at Wallabies – and why ’80 per cent of coaching is selection’
After assisting the All Blacks for 218 Tests, Mike Cron admits it will be “awkward” coaching against his home country but says a desire to help Joe Schmidt saw him jump on board his compatriot’s Wallabies mission. The veteran coach, who is known affectionately as the “scrum doctor”, was announced on Tuesday as Schmidt’s scrum […]
Hypocritical response? Chelsea coach Emma Hayes cites male aggression, then shirt-fronts Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall
The coach of the Chelsea women’s team Emma Hayes has had a tough time of things this season. With her time at the club coming to an end in a few short months, star striker Sam Kerr out for an extended period of time and her Blues now three points adrift of Manchester City in […]
‘Will that change in the NRL? It probably will’: Why Reece Walsh is the canary in the coal mine for concussion
There are few topics that present more of an existential threat to what modern sport looks like than concussion. To use one metaphor, it is the genie that is out of the bottle. Once we know what we know, we can’t unknow it, and all the practices of the past, whether allowing knocked-out footy players […]