Listen RUW: Top 10 Lions Test tries...
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
5 minutes ago
- The Independent
New Racing Bulls F1 team boss ‘shocked' after ‘amazing' promotion
Alan Permane admitted he was 'shocked' after being announced as Racing Bulls' new team principal following Christian Horner 's exit at Red Bull. The domino effect of Horner being relieved of his duties saw Laurent Mekies – formerly RB team principal – promoted to Red Bull F1 CEO. Permane, who was previously racing director at RB, is now the team boss. The 58-year-old was previously with Alpine, in all its previous guises including championship-winning seasons with Benetton and Renault, for 34 years before being let go in July 2023. The engineer joined Racing Bulls at the start of last season. 'It's amazing that they feel I'm capable and have the potential to lead this team. 'I deeply thank the Red Bull Austria senior management, Oliver Mintzlaff and Helmut Marko, and of course Laurent for recommending me, pushing me forward, his belief in me as well. It's been a great week.' Racing Bulls are currently seventh in the constructors' championship and have two young talents in Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar in the cockpit. Yuki Tsunoda was previously with the team for four years before being promoted in March to replace Lawson, dropped by Red Bull after just two races. 'It's a great team and I know that the senior Red Bull guys are extremely happy with the way the team is being run,' Permane added. 'They're very happy with our competitiveness. 'The target is to be top of the midfield, and we are certainly in a battle for that and we'll continue that fight throughout this year.' The next race of the 2025 season is the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend (25-27 July).
The Independent
5 minutes ago
- The Independent
Steve Tandy backed to get Wales competing with top nations again
Steve Tandy has been championed to restore Welsh pride on the international stage after signing a three-year deal as Wales head coach. Tandy has left his role as Scotland defence coach – a position he has held since 2019 – to fill a vacancy created by Warren Gatland's departure in February. Cardiff coach Matt Sherratt has been in interim charge since and oversaw the end of Wales' 18-game losing streak – a record for a Tier One nation – in Japan earlier this month with a second Test victory over the Brave Blossoms. But Wales have turned to 45-year-old Tandy, who previously coached at Ospreys and Australian Super Rugby side Waratahs, to arrest a slide that has seen them finish bottom of the last two Six Nations Championships and plummet down the world rankings to 12th. 'Steve is an outstanding coach,' said Welsh Rugby Union director of rugby Dave Reddin, who revealed the interview process had initially mapped out around 130 coaches worldwide before being filtered down. 'I think his coaching journey shows someone that has been unafraid to really push himself into some uncomfortable experiences and really challenge the way that he was operating as a coach and develop as a result. 'As a proud Welshman it's the job he's wanted to move for. I know he'll be very missed by Scotland, he was a valued member of staff there and I'm delighted we've managed to secure his services. 'Are Wales going to be consistently ranked as the number one team in the world for the next 10 years? No, I don't think so. 'But can we be a real, genuine, top five nation who are constantly competing for Six Nations titles, who are capable of mixing it with the best in the world? 100 per cent. 'Otherwise, I wouldn't be here. I don't think anybody gets inspired by a team that says, 'well, we're going to rock up and do our best'. 'Especially a passionate rugby nation like Wales, I think we've got to be more ambitious than that.' Tandy, from Tonmawr between Neath and Port Talbot, becomes the first Welsh head coach of the men's national team since Gareth Jenkins nearly two decades ago. New Zealanders Gatland and Wayne Pivac have held the reins on a permanent basis since 2007 – and Reddin believes Tandy's background is a 'bonus'. He said: 'It will make a difference in how he's perceived – positive and negative. I'm conscious as a proud Welshman he's going to feel the responsibility of that. 'That wasn't part of the decision making process. It's a bonus that he's Welsh and I hope everyone will be kind to him because of that. 'On the surface it's great to have someone who has a natural affinity with their country. Ultimately that only goes so far, as it's about performances and the philosophy matching the expectations of the national public and what they want to see from their rugby team. 'They are the things that matter most and the Welsh side of things come after that. 'But if you looked at something that was ideal, to find the best coach and that they are Welsh, that's a perfect answer.' Tandy begins his tenure on September 1 and is set to lead Wales into the 2027 World Cup in Australia. Reddin said Tandy's backroom team would be finalised over the coming weeks and has not ruled retaining some current staff members.
The Guardian
6 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Soccer has changed, but the drama and dynamics of penalties remain
England's victory over Sweden at the women's Euros came after one of the worst penalty shootouts in history (or at least, worst in terms of how many penalties were missed; in terms of drama, it was arguably one of the greatest ever). Of the 14 penalties taken, only five were scored. That led, predictably, to the usual tedious criticism of the women's game and suggestions that the penalty spot should be moved closer to the goal. Which is, of course, nonsense. Four of the five penalties that were scored were excellent, hit firmly into the corners, and the other, the kick that turned out to be the winner, was smashed sensibly and without fuss, straight down the middle by Lucy Bronze as the goalkeeper Jennifer Falk dived out of the way. Two nights later, as Germany beat France in a shootout, 12 of the 14 penalties were scored. In the Women's Super League last season, 90.32% of penalties were converted. Nobody has used those examples to suggest moving the penalty spot further away to give goalkeepers more of a chance. Sign up to Soccer with Jonathan Wilson Jonathan Wilson brings expert analysis on the biggest stories from European soccer after newsletter promotion It is one of the great fascinations of soccer that, since penalties were introduced in 1891, the spot has remained 12 yards from goal as the size and shape of the penalty area has changed. It turns out that being one-and-a-half times further from the goal than the distance between the posts creates a scenario that feels fair and has a remarkable balance. That may in part be the result of familiarity, but at almost every level of the game in the 135 years since, roughly three-quarters of penalties have been scored. That is to say, the contest between striker and goalkeeper remained constant – a relative lack of power in the striker at junior level, for instance, matched by a lack of size in the goalkeeper. Before the Germany v France shootout on Saturday, only 12 of 29 penalties had been scored at the Euros – 41.38%. After the shootout, that percentage had risen to 57.14%. With small datasets there's always a danger of interpreting random variations as patterns, but it did seem that panic had set in. Even before the high tension of England against Sweden, Norway's former Ballon d'Or winner Ada Hegerberg had missed two penalties in the tournament, including, critically, in her country's quarter-final defeat to Italy. That, perhaps, was enough to plant a seed of doubt, which blossomed in England and Sweden's shootout, when both sides suffered a collective loss of nerve. Anxiety is contagious and far from unknown in penalty shootouts: it happened, for instance, to Barcelona as they missed four out of four in a shootout against Steaua Bucharest in the 1986 European Cup final, and to Manchester United as they missed four out of five against Sunderland in the 2014 League Cup semi-final. The England-Sweden contagion then seemed to escape the confines of its own shootout, as Spain missed two penalties in beating Switzerland on Friday and Germany missed a penalty against France in the 90 minutes. The shootout is perhaps the area of soccer in which psychology matters most. In the 2006 World Cup, Germany's goalkeeper Jens Lehmann made great play of consulting notes he had scribbled on hotel notepaper and hidden in his sock before each Argentina penalty in the quarter-final. It turned out that, of the seven players he had jotted down, only two actually took penalties, but the belief he had specific knowledge was enough to unnerve Argentina, who lost the shootout 4–2. Goalkeepers increasingly have data to help inform their decisions. Germany's keeper on Sunday, Ann-Katrin Berger, had notes taped to her water bottle. On TV, the names of only two French players were clearly visible: Amel Majri and Alice Sombath. In both cases, Berger was advised to dive left. She did and on each occasion saved the kick. Given Berger's notes were shown clearly several minutes before the end of normal time, could somebody have informed the French staff who could then have passed on the message for at least some of their takers to change plan? Or would asking a player to vary from their preferred method of conversion itself make them more likely to miss? That's part of the glorious game theory of penalties. At the moment, it feels like an arms race. VAR set goalkeepers back for a time, denying them the skip forward they habitually took as the penalty was taken. But goalkeepers have now worked out how to advance with one foot, the other remaining in contact with the goalline. As strikers have learned how to stagger their run to wait for the keeper to move first, so keepers have more data and can predict such subterfuge. In the Premier League last season, 83.13% of penalties were converted, which is on the high side historically, but actually a drop of just over 6% from the previous season. The season before that, only 74.75% were scored. In fact, what is striking when looking at penalty conversion rates over the past three decades is how little pattern there is – from a low of 65.75% in 2001–02 to the high of the season before last, and all points in between. Penalties are missed, penalties are scored, the taker's cause is developed, and then the keeper's, and sometimes panic sets in, yet somehow the proportion of penalties scored largely remains at 75-80%. Balance remains. This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@ and he'll answer the best in a future edition.
