Dunlop and McGee clinch wins at Cookstown 100
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Rory McIlroy reveals real reason behind dramatic haircut in interview with Amanda Balionis
Rory McIlroy 's new trim may have not resulted in the look the golfer wanted, but the change seems to have sparked a positive swing in momentum at the time he needs it the most. The Irishman has seemed sluggish after his win at The Masters back in April, with poor results at the PGA Championship and the US Open. But with a short swing in Europe, McIlroy decided to shake things up with a fresh haircut he debuted at the Scottish Open. McIlroy chatted with CBS reporter Amanda Balionis after his third-round 66 on Saturday and chatted about his new hairdo. I'm getting a little gray, as everyone probably knows, and I stupidly thought that by going shorter, it would take the grays out,' McIlroy admitted. 'And if anything, I think it makes me look more gray. But it'll grow back. That's the good thing. It'll be perfect length for the Ryder Cup in September. Rory McIlroy shares the story behind his new haircut with @Amanda_Balionis 😂 — Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) July 12, 2025 Rory McIlroy's new haircut may have been the change he needed - even if it didn't have the affect that he may have hoped when he went with a shorter style than he had weeks ago Balionis then quipped, 'It could be the good luck haircut, depending on what happens here tomorrow. Who knows?' There's something to that. Excluding match play, McIlroy has only carded five rounds of 66 or better since The Masters. Two of those were at the Travelers Championship and two of those have been in Scotland. While McIlroy finished T-6 in Connecticut, he's atop the leaderboard with American Chris Gotterup at 11-under going into Sunday's Final Round. If he manages to pull off the win, it'll be the first time McIlroy has won three tournaments in a single PGA Tour season since 2021-22 - when he won The CJ Cup, the RBC Canadian Open, and the Tour Championship. McIlroy has won three PGA Tour events in three other seasons - including the 2012 season when he won a career-best four tournaments.
Scotsman
13 hours ago
- Scotsman
Hearts report and player ratings v Dunfermline: How new signings fared in the Premier Sports Cup
The Derek McInnes era at Hearts began with a 4-1 victory against Dunfermline at a sun-kissed Tynecastle Park. This Premier Sports Cup opening match was McInnes' first in charge and Neil Lennon's Championship side hung on at 1-1 for a long period before Lawrence Shankland scored two late penalty kicks. James Wilson put the Premiership club ahead in the opening minutes but Josh Cooper capitalised on a loose ball to level the scoreline as half-time approached. Shankland, who agreed a new three-year Hearts contract in Spain at the start of the month, used his experience and composure to score twice from the spot to decide the final outcome. Substitute Stephen Kingsley added a fourth with a quite exquisite finish from a corner in stoppage-time. Hearts have not won the Scottish League Cup - currently sponsored by Premier Sports - since 1962 and are determined to end that long wait for the trophy. Whilst this wasn't a vintage display with variou issues still to be ironed out under the new management team, they stayed calm at 1-1 and earned reward by continuing to press forward in search of goals. Shankland took the plaudits and new signings were involved on a day when victory was the most important aspect. Temperatures began to fall slightly by the 5.15pm kick-off time for this fixture but inside Tynecastle remained like a furnace for anyone not shaded. Two of Hearts' six summer signings started the game, Irish midfielder Oisin McEntee deployed at right-back and forward Claudio Braga wide on the left of a four-man midfield. Defender Adam Forrester, midfielder Sander Kartum and forward Musa Drammeh watched from the stand unstripped. Dunfermline set up in a 5-3-2 formation intended to contain their hosts but found themselves 1-0 down inside three minutes. Shankland drifted inside from the left to dispatch a shot which bounced off the far post of Dunfermline goalkeeper Deniz Mehmet. The rebound fell kindly for the alert Wilson, who converted it first-time. Hearts' pressing and hustling in the opposition half ensured they remained on the front foot as the game evolved, the visitors getting little room to breathe. Mehmet palmed a Harry Milne cross away on 26 minutes and McEntee's rebound attempt was blocked as Hearts pressed for a second goal. Then came Alan Forrest's 20-yard drive from Braga's lay-off which the keeper held. Milne's attacking runs were a feature of their play down the left side as James Penrice's replacement staked his claim to be the permanent left-back. When Dunfermline did break into the hosts' territory, forwards Chris Kane and Josh Cooper were being quickly suffocated by the Hearts centre-backs Frankie Kent and Craig Halkett. In the opposite half, Hearts needed to be more creative. Shankland was a central figure in their attacks and harassed Kyle Benedictus out of possession on 36 minutes to tee up Forrest. The winger collected the ball on the run but shot wide from a tight angle. Just when they looked likely to increase their advantage, Hearts surrendered a cheap equaliser seven minutes before the interval. Beni Baningime's touch backwards was tame and Cooper seized the ball, took a touch and shot low into the net to the right of the diving Zander Clark. Lennon enjoyed celebrating in the technical area having taken some verbals from the locals. The 1,500-strong away support responded and found their voice, too. The complexion of the game had changed somewhat. Although those in maroon got forward down the flanks, quality crosses were infrequent. Forrest didn't lack energy but Braga drifted inside to a more natural central area hoping for joy. He tended to stay wider, perhaps on instruction, after the interval. Kane tried an overhead kick on 58 minutes as Dunfermline signalled another note of their threat. The atmosphere inside Tynecastle was quite subdued, with most in the 12,940 crowd frustrated by how the evening was unfolding. Hearts midfielder Blair Spittal and another new recruit, right-back Christian Borchgrevink, entered the fray as McInnes looked for fresh impetus. Dunfermline knew they had the hosts unsettled and continued working for a result which was very much against the pre-match odds. Yet they shot themselves in the foot 15 minutes from time. Defender Jeremiah Chilokoa-Mullen's backpass to Mehmet was intercepted by Forrest, who tried to sprint past the emerging goalkeeper and fell. Referee Lloyd Wilson pointed instantly to the penalty spot despite the visitors' protests, and Shankland stepped up to calmly roll the ball into the bottom corner. The Scotland internationalist found himself in the same position just moments later when Hearts were awarded a second penalty. Substitue Elton Kabangu was tripped by Benedictus in the penalty box and Shankland stepped up. He picked the same side which resulted in the same outcome. At 3-1, the result was now secure and it was time for the home fans to bait Lennon again. He took it in good faith. Substitute Kingsley scored the finest goal of the night in stoppage-time, rising to meet Milne's corner at the back post with a beautifully-cushioned finish high into the net. Below are the Hearts player ratings from Tynecastle: 1 . GK: Zander Clark 6/10 Will be disappointed not to have stopped Dunfermline's equaliser. | SNS Group Photo Sales 2 . RB: Oisin McEntee 6/10 Lined up at right-back rather this in his favoured midfield role. Didn't look out of place, although not troubled too much defensively. Definitely looks more accomplished and useful in central midfield based on friendly outings. | SNS Group Photo Sales 3 . RCB: Frankie Kent 7/10 Strong and aggressive against Dunfermline's strikers. Won his challenges and read the play well. | SNS Group Photo Sales 4 . LCB: Craig Halkett 7/10 Got a bloodied face in the first half. Handled Chris Kane with ease. | SNS Group Photo Sales
Telegraph
14 hours ago
- Telegraph
Australian teams have not provided one decent opposition for the Lions
The received wisdom was that this would be the truest gauge yet of the British and Irish Lions' Test readiness, a timely collision with a collection of such grizzled internationals that Marika Koroibete and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto brought 89 Wallabies caps between them. And yet so hastily assembled was this AUNZ side, thrown together with only a week's training, that they appeared – on the strength of two early tries where the tourists could almost saunter around the fringes to score – to have neglected even basic defensive drills. All of which begs the awkward question of whether Andy Farrell's players have, after three weeks of criss-crossing the Australian continent from Perth to Brisbane, Sydney to Adelaide, seriously been tested at all. On the surface, a 48-0 victory brooks no argument. It is the first time the Lions have restricted any opponents to nil since Warren Gatland's team ran up 64 unanswered points against a New South Wales-Queensland country collective 12 years ago. But it also marks the last in a sequence of five Australian warm-up games conspicuously devoid of jeopardy. Traditionally, these itinerant preambles tend to throw up at least one upset: take the Brumbies' 14-12 triumph in 2013, or victories for the Blues and the Highlanders in New Zealand in 2017, or even the 17-13 win for South Africa A in a deserted Cape Town Stadium four years ago. On this occasion, though, the dress rehearsals have felt anything but precarious. The most persuasive explanation, of course, lies in the structural defects of Australian rugby. When the Lions embarked on their most recent tours of New Zealand and South Africa, they were facing the reigning world champions. Australia, by contrast, have slumped from third in the world 12 years ago to eighth today, with their last World Cup campaign running aground in a 40-6 trouncing by a Wales team who would lose 18 of their next 19 Tests. Ireland, England and Scotland – who, if we suppose that Jac Morgan falls just short of being selected as the Test openside, will comprise the entire starting XV in Brisbane next Saturday – are ranked third, fifth and seventh. The Lions' dominance so far is merely a reflection of a wider imbalance of power. Still, you wonder if there is a certain kidology at work, too. A simmering subplot has been the reluctance of Joe Schmidt, the head coach of Australia, to release too many Wallabies players back to their clubs, preferring instead to wrap his frontline choices in cotton wool. As such, the Waratahs had to make do without the game-changing athleticism of Joseph Sua'ali'i, while the Brumbies were deprived of the fast-twitch footwork of Len Ikitau. Despite Lions chief executive Ben Calveley demanding the strongest possible opposition at every stage, Schmidt has held firm, arguing that a mass release of his most valuable stars would be 'counter-productive'. That is his prerogative, but the upshot is that the Lions are heading into the Test series without the fullest examination of their credentials. You wonder, given the latest hiding meted out to the AUNZ scratch team, if the old Lions touring model has had its day. Back in 1971, when the legendary series in New Zealand lasted more than three months, the slow burn through the provinces made sense, with teams such as Waikato and Wellington harbouring the cream of the country's talent. It would be difficult, 54 years on, to make a similar claim about some of the sides bulldozed in Australia. Several have been strategically weakened, while the AUNZ XV were ultimately nothing more than an Antipodean Barbarians, with their peculiar retro kit as ropey as their discipline. Surely, there has to be a better way. If the teams served up as hors d'oeuvres are not at full strength, why can the Lions not deviate instead to the Pacific islands for the tune-ups? By any standard, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa would offer a more culturally enriching experience and a more useful measure of their Test mettle than a pop-up team created purely to flesh out the tour programme. So lucrative has the Lions formula become that there is little appetite for tinkering with the traditional rotation through the southern hemisphere. But there are the odd rumblings of revolution. Mike Phillips, a two-tour Lion, has called passionately for a future tour of France to be considered. 'Imagine the hype, packed stadiums, financial boost, and global buzz,' he wrote last week. 'A rugby powerhouse versus the iconic Lions – huge for the sport, fans and growth.' It is a reminder of how even the most sacred rituals do not remain relevant forever. While the Lions are a magnificent curiosity, they also need to adapt to thrive, and where better to start with some more imaginative scheduling? Farrell has every reason to be content with his side's 100 per cent record on Australian soil having lost their opening game against Argentina in Dublin. The questionable pedigree of the opposition, however, creates a risk that they are entering their three defining games not so much battle-hardened as undercooked.
