Head coach Tomkins extends Catalans deal until 2027
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Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
England women's head coach John Mitchell vows his team will learn lessons of 2015 after taking Ben Youngs tips ahead of home World Cup
England women's head coach John Mitchell said a discussion with men's record caps holder Ben Youngs will help his team avoid the mistakes of the country's horror 2015 campaign. A decade ago, England's men's team – which included Youngs – bombed out of their home World Cup under the guidance of Stuart Lancaster, failing to qualify from their pool. This summer, Mitchell's Red Roses will play on English soil as firm favourites to win the women's competition having won 55 of their last 56 matches. The last time England women lost a match was their heartbreaking defeat by New Zealand in the World Cup final of 2022. 'I spoke to Ben and he was very insightful,' said Mitchell, who worked with Youngs while an assistant coach with England's men's side. 'He said that over his four World Cups, he enjoyed the ones where it didn't feel like a high performance jail. I think that little nugget was key.' In 2015, the pressure on England's men's side to become world champions on English soil was immense. Ultimately, the expectation proved too much, with discussion over the best position in which to play rugby league convert Sam Burgess dominating. Players involved in that campaign have spoken in the years since about how with such a desire to win, there was no enjoyment about the build-up. That tension resulted in poor on-field performances, England's men's side losing to Wales and Australia. Mitchell is determined there won't be a repeat this summer. 'It's exciting. You hear this word pressure all the time but it's just a word. If you frame it negatively it becomes about the risk of failure,' he said. 'I see it as an opportunity to be successful. That's where my head is at.' On Thursday, Mitchell confirmed his 32-player squad for the tournament – one made up of 18 forwards and 14 backs. There were no real surprises. ENGLAND WORLD CUP SQUAD Forwards (18): Zoe Aldcroft (capt), Lark Atkin-Davies, Sarah Bern, Hannah Botterman Abi Burton, May Campbell, Mackenzie Carson, Kelsey Clifford, Amy Cokayne. Maddie Feaunati, Rosie Galligan, Lilli Ives Campion, Sadia Kabeya, Alex Matthews, Maud Muir Marlie Packer, Morwenna Talling , Abbie Ward Backs (14): Holly Aitchison, Jess Breach, Abby Dow, Zoe Harrison,Tatyana Heard, Natasha Hunt, Megan Jones, Ellie Kildunne, Claudia Moloney-MacDonald, Lucy Packer, Helena Rowland, Emily Scarratt, Jade Shekells, Emma Sing Experienced centre Emily Scarratt has been selected for her fifth global showpiece – a record for an England player, either man or woman. Natasha Hunt and Lucy Packer are the only two out-and-out scrum-halves. Claudia Moloney-MacDonald, normally a wing, will be the other No 9 cover. Hunt was a shock omission for the 2022 tournament, which was delayed a year by the Covid-19 pandemic, but is now first-choice in her position. England will be captained by forward Zoe Aldcroft. 'It's been a two-and-a-half year process on selection,' said Mitchell. Thursday's squad announcement at Allianz Stadium saw more than 100 members of the media attend – a record for an England rugby press conference. It was a reflection of the incredible growth the female game has enjoyed in the last three years. England's women are taking inspiration from the Lionesses who will play Spain in the final of EURO 2025 on Sunday. A huge summer of women's sport in England awaits.
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
O'Connor takes Tour stage as Vingegaard's plans to unseat Pogacar fizzle out
COURCHEVEL, France, July 24 (Reuters) - Ben O'Connor stormed to a sensational victory in Stage 18 of the Tour de France on Thursday, as Jonas Vingegaard's attempt to dethrone Tadej Pogacar imploded in spectacular fashion on the race's most brutal Alpine battleground. The Australian rider, eyes blazing with determination, launched a ferocious solo attack on the fearsome Col de la Loze and never looked back, thundering towards his second career Tour stage win, following his triumph in Tignes in 2021. "I felt much better today just from the start. I was pretty active, and I think probably the point where you realise you could have a shot was the top of the (Col de la) Madeleine when Jonas and Pogi came across, and we're still with them over the top of the summit," said O'Connor. Pogacar defended his crown with ice-cold precision, gaining 11 more seconds on Vingegaard and stretching his overall advantage to a commanding 4 minutes 26 seconds after taking second place. "Today was brutal. Maybe the hardest stage I've ever done in the Tour," admitted a drained Vingegaard after the finish. "We had a big plan, you saw it, but I couldn't take a second on Tadej. The Tour isn't over, still." Visma-Lease a Bike had come to the Alps with an all-in strategy for a stage lined with three monstrous climbs. But what could have been a bold masterstroke unravelled spectacularly. On the slopes of the 19.2 km Col de la Madeleine, Sepp Kuss's searing acceleration left the top contenders chasing shadows. With Matteo Jorgenson already up the road in a breakaway, Vingegaard launched his move 5 km from the summit, but Pogacar followed him with ease. Then came the puzzling twist. After a blistering descent, Vingegaard, who had said he was ready to risk his second place to try to win the Tour, suddenly eased up on the valley floor, inviting rivals to regroup and stripping his team's earlier aggression of any sting. Jorgenson, once the sacrificial pawn, dropped from the break and rejoined the group, only to be spat out again almost instantly. Up ahead, O'Connor sensed blood and struck with ruthless precision, leaving Einer Rubio gasping for air and balance with a savage attack 16 km from the line on the lung-busting 26.4-km Col de la Loze, soaring to 2,304 metres above sea level. Rubio cracked in his wake, and the general classification favourites' hesitation sealed the Australian's day of glory. Behind him, Visma-Lease a Bike flogged the pace but barely clawed back a second. Then, inside the final 2 km, Vingegaard made one last desperate thrust. Pogacar, seated and serene, absorbed it before unleashing a devastating counterpunch in the last 500 metres. In a blur of power, the Slovenian dropped Vingegaard, streaked past Rubio, and snatched a six-second bonus as he continued his march towards a fourth Tour title. German Florian Lipowitz kept his third place despite finishing behind Oscar Onley after his attempt to go solo in the final climb backfired. He still leads the British rider by 22 seconds going into the last mountain stage between Albertville and La Plagne.
Times
4 hours ago
- Times
Jac Morgan on Lions bench proves form does at least count for something
Thank the Lord for Jac Morgan's selection. Or thank Lord Farrell, at least. Morgan's selection can give you faith. Legions of British & Irish Lions fans will be relieved and delighted that Morgan has been promoted to the bench for the second Test against Australia in Melbourne on Saturday. And, yes, a majority of them may be Welsh, but what is crucial here is to remember the position held by Andy Farrell, the head coach: that he won't allow his selection process to be swayed by national interests or any desire to keep all four nations represented. Rightly so, of course. Yet Morgan's selection for the second Test is important for reasons far more weighty than any kind of PR. It is only a bench spot, but it is representative of far more. It proves that it has still been possible to play your way into the team. This is essential to how the Lions operate. Indeed, if they do not operate this way, then the Lions do not work — and that was, worryingly, how the class of 2025 had been looking. Every Lions coach will set out on tour with a likely or possible Test team in his head. Farrell did that and there were surely lots of Irishmen in there. But that's OK if the other players in the squad can change his thinking by the quality of their performances. In the Lions' rich history, there are long chapters on this very subject. Tom Smith and Paul Wallace, the two first-choice props in 1997: they are a chapter in themselves because they were no one's idea of a pair of Test props when the squad left for South Africa, but because of the way they played in the matches in the weeks before the Tests, their quality won them their starting spots. Here in Australia, though, one has wondered: does form still count? Is it actually possible to do a Smith, a Wallace? That was why the selections of Tom Curry and Tadhg Beirne a week ago were deemed controversial — because they hadn't notably excelled in the pre-Test games and Morgan had. Of all the back-row forwards in the squad, in those pre-Test games, Morgan was arguably the best of the lot. And yet he didn't even make the bench. It thus became clear how much Farrell had always wanted to start Curry. After Morgan's omission, the appropriate questions then were: what more could he have done? And: is there actually a way in? You do not have to extrapolate much further to then be asking: what was the point of Morgan coming? Not just Morgan, but all those others who boarded the plane more than a month ago and were not in the forefront of Farrell's selection plans. Why were they here if they didn't actually have a chance of breaking in? And once you get to that, you are questioning the very fabric of the touring Lions. But Morgan is in now. He has replaced Ben Earl on the bench. His form demanded it and the demands have been met. There is a spectrum here between being a very flexible selector and one whose opinion is hard to shift. Call it the selector's flexibility scale. For this Lions tour, Farrell's position on the flexibility scale is close to one end, the hard-to-shift end, though Morgan's selection at least shows that it is not at the complete extreme. There are circumstances that come in to play here. The opposition in the pre-Test matches has been subpar. This has lowered the value of a good performance; it has meant you could have a blinder and still not really turn Farrell's head. Morgan was man of the match against the Queensland Reds and that didn't seem to do him much good in the selection conversation for the first Test. You could say that Farrell's position on the selector's flexibility scale was then vindicated because he wasn't swayed by Morgan's form and instead picked Curry on account of the vast body of work in his international career to date and his record for showing up strong for big games — and Curry repaid his faith. Curry was magnificent. For the second Test, what is particularly fascinating about Farrell's team selection is his midfield. Due to injury, he has ended up with Bundee Aki and Huw Jones but he had wanted to go with his Irish duo of Aki and Garry Ringrose. He said that Sione Tuipulotu was suffering from a tight hamstring. Nevertheless, it would appear that, had everyone been fit, he would have gone with the Irish pair, despite the quality of the Scots in the first Test. Yes, even though Jones and Tuipulotu had proved their worth, Farrell would not have been persuaded by their form. That makes his position on the flexibility scale even more extreme. You may wonder, then, what it would take to unseat James Lowe from his Test position on the left wing. Lowe has very much not been in form here in Australia and it would appear he has been fortunate that the rivals to his position in the Test team have been unfit. But what of Blair Kinghorn, returning from injury in the game against a First Nations & Pasifika XV on Tuesday night? What if he'd had a good game? (he didn't). Would his form have forced his way in? That we will probably never know. All we can be sure of is that if you do happen to play outstandingly well over a period of time, then, as Morgan has proved, it is actually possible to change Farrell's mind after all. Second Test, MelbourneSaturday, 11amTV Sky Sports
