Latest news with #TestSeries
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Australia WIN first Test in Barbados following heroics from paceman Josh Hazlewood - and finishing day three under lights in chaotic scenes
Australia has won the first Test against the West Indies lead thanks to a masterclass from paceman Josh Hazlewood. The hosts were set 301 to win, but were never in the hunt at Kensington Oval in Barbados, rolled for 141. Hazlewood snared 4-4 in a three-over blitz to assume control, with Australia eventually winning by 159 runs. After Travis Head and Beau Webster's 102-run fifth-wicket stand eased the nerves of cricket fans watching back home, it was then the turn of pace trio Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins to showcase their skills. They didn't disappoint, with Hazlewood finishing with figures of 5/43 as Andrew McDonald's men took a 1-0 lead in the series. 'It's like a broken record these days watching the Australian bowling attack,' former Australian cricketer Greg Blewett said in commentary. 'They are just so experienced and so clinical. 'They also share it (wickets) around really well. 'This time it was Josh Hazlewood. Good figures.' Blewett wasn't wrong - it was the 13th time in Hazlewood's Test career he has finished with a five-wicket haul. 'I didn't think it was going to happen that fast,' Hazlewood said post match in relation to the frantic ending under lights. Heading into stumps, West Indies all-rounder Justin Greaves (38*) and impressive quick Shamar Joseph (44 from 22 balls) threatened to push the contest into a fourth day, but veteran spinner Nathan Lyon had other ideas. 'Garry' struck twice in the final over to seal the result, with the second Test starting on July 3 at St George's in Grenada. The result also extends Australia's unbeaten run in the Caribbean to nine matches dating back to 2003. Meanwhile, Steve Smith will return to the XI after missing the match in Barbados due to injury - and pressure is mounting on young gun Sam Konstas after he failed in both innings. Cameron Green also needs to be far more commanding batting in his new No. 3 role. Since coming back into the team he has been underwhelming at the crease, with scores of 4, 0, (South Africa, World Test Championship) followed by 3 and 15 (first Test).
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Your Guardian sport weekend: Club World Cup last 16, F1 Austrian GP and more
The Lions are eager to kickstart their tour after falling 28-24 to Argentina in Dublin as they build towards the Test series against the Wallabies, which begins in Brisbane on 19 July. Captain Maro Itoje has been stood down for the opening fixture on Australian soil, so the Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan takes charge of Andy Farrell's tourists at Perth's Optus Stadium. Henry Pollock makes his first Lions start after being picked at No 8, while Finn Russell, the early favourite to take the playmaking duties against the Wallabies, is given his maiden outing of the tour at fly-half. There are two survivors from the side beaten by the Pumas in Sione Tuipulotu and Tadhg Beirne, although they have been switched to inside centre and blindside flanker, respectively. Lee Calvert is your liveblog host, while Robert Kitson reports from WA. Daniel Gallan helms our over-by-over coverage as Sophie Ecclestone returns to England duty after a near-five-month absence. A knee injury meant the spinner missed the recent clean sweep of West Indies under England's new leadership team of head coach Charlotte Edwards and captain Nat Sciver-Brunt. Ecclestone then took a break from playing for Lancashire to manage a sore quad and 'prioritise her wellbeing' but she is in contention for England's opening T20 against India . It would be her first international appearance since the Women's Ashes debacle in early February, with England whitewashed 16-0 in the multi-format series. Raf Nicholson reports from Trent Bridge. Lando Norris's confidence will have been dented by his crash with Oscar Piastri. The British driver collided with his McLaren teammate as they fought for fourth place in the closing laps of last Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix. Norris accepted full responsibility for a coming together he said made him look foolish and leaves him 22 points behind Piastri in pursuit of the drivers' title. Norris retired from the race while Piastri went on to take the chequered flag. The Briton was already on the back foot after two mistakes in qualifying which left him seventh on the grid. He drove well to bring himself back into contention only to misjudge the move on Piastri which again raises questions over his credentials as a championship contender. Yara El-Shaboury has live updates from qualifying at 3pm while Giles Richards is trackside at Spielberg. Two years on from winning the competition for the first time since 1984, the Young Lions are preparing for another final having narrowly avoided a shock group stage exit. Slovenia's defeat of the Czech Republic meant England edged through as Group B runners-up despite losing 2-1 to a much-changed Germany, who they will face again in Saturday's Bratislava showpiece. Lee Carsley's side have kicked on since then, with a 3-1 quarter-final win against favourites Spain followed by a 2-1 semi-final triumph against the Netherlands in midweek. England played with a swagger against the Dutch, much like they did in Georgia two years ago, as Carsley seeks to follow Dave Sexton in masterminding a second Under-21 Euros triumph. Emillia Hawkins has minute-by-minute coverage and Ed Aarons is our match reporter. With fellow forward Nicolas Jackson still suspended, Liam Delap has a chance to cement his place in Enzo Maresca's side. The 22-year-old striker scored a first goal since his £30m move from Ipswich as Chelsea beat Espérance 3-0 in Philadelphia to reach the last 16. It was the striker's second start in succession, having made his debut as a substitute in their opening Group D game against LAFC. The result meant the Blues finished second in Group D behind Flamengo. They face a Benfica side who beat one of the tournament favourites in Bayern Munich to top Group C. Scott Murray helms our minute-by-minute coverage while Jacob Steinberg reports from Charlotte. Earlier Rob Smyth covers the action as Palmeiras meet Botafogo in the 5pm game. Yorkshire take on Essex at Clifton Park, from where Tanya Aldred will be casting around all the grounds as the County Championship resumes. Nottinghamshire remain top of Division One but their lead is now just two points after the draw with Yorkshire. The pacesetters travel to Taunton to face Somerset, who coasted to a forgettable draw against Warwickshire at Edgbaston in midweek. Surrey, targeting a fourth successive title, wrapped up a dominant nine-wicket win over Worcestershire on Tuesday and host Durham at the Oval. In Division Two, the leaders Leicestershire are unbeaten but Glamorgan denied them a sixth win in eight games last time out. Middlesex offer their next challenge at the County Ground. Last time out at the Canadian Grand Prix, George Russell won from pole position to claim his first triumph of the year and just the fourth of his career. The British driver has been one of the grid's standout performers this season, and his win in Montreal takes him to 62 points behind the championship leader Piastri. The Mercedes driver is 40 points behind Norris while Max Verstappen is 43 points off the championship pace. Niall McVeigh picks up the baton for our live coverage of the race, with Giles Richards reporting from venue. Before England head to Euro 2025 with the same goal as three years ago when they conquered Europe, they have one final warmup match for Sarina Wiegman to assess her new-look Lionesses in the buildup to their opener against France. With four of her 2022 mainstays now retired, many of Wiegman's 13 returnees – such as Alessia Russo and Hannah Hampton – have stepped up, and seven major tournament newcomers will be looking to make their mark. Aggie Beever-Jones has enjoyed a breakout season, last month completing a hat-trick on her Wembley debut for England, while the 19-year-old Michelle Agyemang scored 41 seconds into her maiden senior international appearance in April. Jamaica's captain will be familiar to WSL observers, Khadija Shaw, sharing the golden boot this year alongside England's Russo with 12 goals. Helming our live coverage is Rob Smyth from 3.30pm, with Suzanne Wrack our correspondent at Leicester's King Power Stadium. One of the picks of the last 16 pitches Inter Miami's Lionel Messi against his former side, PSG. Messi's new club beat Porto in the group stage but a late collapse against Palmeiras meant they finished second and now face Luis Enrique's European champions. They may be expected to subdue their MLS opponents, but Botafogo beat them in the group stage to prove they are not invulnerable. Dominic Booth will be at the helm of our MBM blog, while Sid Lowe reports on the game.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
'I would love to win a Test series'
As he prepares to start at fly-half against the Western Force, Finn Russell has told us how it is a career ambition of his to win a Test series with the Lions. The Scottish star is on his third Lions tour, but bar an excellent cameo in the decider against the Springboks four years ago, has yet to nail down a Test place. This feels like his time, especially after a trophy-laden season with Bath. "I've never won a series yet and and I would love to win a series," Russell told BBC Sport. "It's everyone's dream to be a Test Lion, but there is a lot of work to go on before then. "It's about firing at the right time, which is the Test matches at the end. "But we will be pushing every game, and as much as it's the Tests that counts, it's the games building up that we have to push to get it right."For Russell, this starts in Perth on Saturday. A good performance from the Scot could go a long way to ensuring he is lining up against the Wallabies in three weeks' time.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Test run-in starts as Lions kickstart journey on Fury Road against Western Force
And so begins a tour-shaping fortnight for the British & Irish Lions in Australia. Starting with the Western Force this weekend they will be playing five matches inside 15 days and covering 5,700km across five different states and territories. By the time they relocate from Adelaide back to Brisbane for the first Test they will have crisscrossed the outback more often than Mad Max in his heyday. There are so many variables involved that sticking to rigid plans will be nigh-on impossible. Leaving aside the opposition and the travel for a moment there are more than 90 people attached to this Lions expedition once you add in all the backroom staff, bottle washers and comms types. As plate-spinning exercises go it is a major logistical challenge. The trick, as ever, is to try to locate some order amid the road warrior chaos. On the field that means stress-testing certain combinations with one eye on the Test series kicking off on 19 July, particularly in areas where potential starters have seldom played together. There is no shortage of quasi-religious fervour attached to this tour but precious little time in which to turn water into wine. Which makes the Force game more significant than it might initially appear. In the wake of last week's defeat by Argentina, Andy Farrell will be looking for reassurance on a few fronts, both up front and behind the scrum. Squint into the Aussie sunshine long enough and it is possible to see this fixture influencing the Test destinies of several players, not least those without an Irish postcode. The whole raison d'etre of the Lions, it should be stressed, is the notion of familiar home union biases being set aside for the greater good. But if Farrell has a 50-50 selection call to make without much in the way of compelling fresh evidence the logical choice will be to stick with the green-shirted devil he knows. Particularly if this particular matchday squad containing 11 Irish internationals hits the Australian turf running. Swap in Blair Kinghorn, Jamison Gibson-Park, Maro Itoje and either Tom Curry or Jac Morgan and this might even be somewhere close to the best-balanced starting XV the Lions can field. So if they can click swiftly it will be an appreciable bonus for the management before the entire circus heads east to face the Reds in Brisbane next Wednesday, followed by the Waratahs in Sydney, the Brumbies in Canberra and an Australia and New Zealand invitational XV in Adelaide on 12 July. Looking down that fixture list those two midweek games against the Reds and the Brumbies, currently Australia's two best-performing Super Rugby sides, may just be the toughest. Neither Super Rugby franchise will be absolutely at full strength but, from a Lions perspective, it could help explain why the tour skipper Itoje does not feature this weekend. And maybe the traditional rhythms of a Lions tour are changing. What if it is Canberra, rather than Adelaide, where the Lions will quietly unleash their putative Test team – or at least the guts of it? Might it be the kiss of death for the midweek dirt-trackers, AKA the bin juice and the driftwood? Amid the blur that is modern tour scheduling, that concept may have to be mothballed until the game against the First Nations and Pasifika XV in Melbourne between the first and second Tests. Then again we have not yet factored in injuries, a fact of life when an itinerary becomes this congested. Farrell can only cross his fingers that, in this instance, Finn Russell will dovetail instantly with the fit-again Sione Tuipulotu and the Welsh scrum-half Tomos Williams. And that the Lions lineout, with hooker Dan Sheehan now installed as captain, has a better day. There is already a sense that if the consistently influential Tadhg Beirne has another good game there could well be a slot for him at blindside flanker in the Tests. Stirred into the mix are plenty of other fascinating questions. Can Henry Pollock make the most of the starting opportunity he has been handed? Ditto Scott Cummings and Joe McCarthy in the second row? And with two big left boots in the back three – both James Lowe and Elliot Daly can kick a long ball – might the Lions look to play a more territorial style of game on occasions? Even more instructive, perhaps, will be how well the Lions can refine their offloading game and accrue more reward for the promising attacking shape evident at times against the Pumas in Dublin. If things instantly click with Russell wielding the baton and his disparate orchestra combining sweetly from the off no one will be happier than Farrell: 'If you look at it there are key positions that have not played together before so that makes it interesting for us to see how cohesive it can be as a whole.' Sign up to The Breakdown The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewed after newsletter promotion If collective harmony initially proves elusive, though, the Force may feel emboldened. While past history is not particularly encouraging – the Lions beat Western Australia 116-10 in 2001 and defeated the Force 69-17 in 2013 – this is a potentially more resilient home squad containing six current Wallaby squad members. According to the injured Kurtley Beale, the fast feet of winger Mac Grealy could also pose problems while the 6ft 7in Darcy Swain poses an obvious lineout threat. But prop Ollie Hoskins, most recently on the roster at Saracens, has had to be plucked out of retirement for this contest while the replacement hooker Nic Dolly, capped once by England in 2021, was released by Leicester last year after an injury-plagued couple of seasons. The slightly sandy base to the pitch may complicate scrummaging life for some but the Lions scrum coach, John Fogarty, is more concerned that visiting players collectively trust their instincts and do not get distracted by murmurs about the Force looking to knock a few lumps out of their visitors. 'Any time you get into a game of rugby you should be expecting to bash someone and get bashed,' responded Fogarty with a knowing smile. 'We're excited about showing the best of ourselves.' He could have added that the Lions have not come all the way to one of the most remote cities in the world to twiddle their thumbs idly. By the time they pack their bags and transfer to the opposite coast of this vast continent the hope will be that Farrell's red-shirted marauders have embarked with real intent down rugby's equivalent of Fury Road.
BBC News
4 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Thomas aims to learn from Wales prop legends
Prop Gareth Thomas says he is benefitting from working with front-row greats Adam Jones and Gethin Jenkins before Wales' upcoming Test series in flew to Japan on Wednesday as they aim to register their first victory since the 2023 World Cup and end a run of 17 successive Test boss Matt Sherratt has brought Jenkins on board as defence coach, with the 129-times capped loose-head recognised as one of Wales' greatest return means being reunited with his old Wales and British and Irish Lions sparring partner, as former tight-head prop Adam Jones is in charge of the scrum. "We had 'Bomb' [Jones] in the Six Nations and he's been class for us," said Thomas."He's awesome for the front rowers, he's bringing scrum time and is just a great bloke to have around as well."Gethin is one of the best loose-heads who's played for Wales, so it's great for the boys to work with him and use his mindset stuff."We're looking forward to getting some good defensive stuff going in Japan and the opportunity to try and turn the corner." 'Desperate to win' Wales meet Eddie Jones' Japan in a two-match series, with the first Test in Kitakyushu on 5 July and the second in Kobe on 12 is one of the most experienced players in the squad and sees similarities with the 2022 tour of South Africa as Wales bid to end their awful run of lost that series 2-1 against the world champions, but won the second Test – their first ever victory on South African soil – having been beaten narrowly by three points in the opening match."The last summer tour we had with this kind of block was South Africa, four or five weeks together before we went," said Thomas."We don't have that opportunity in the autumn and Six Nations to have this time together. So this time has been really good for us."Ospreys prop Thomas hopes Wales will gain their first international victory since October 2023."We're all desperate to get that win now and turn the corner," said Thomas."I think there is a talented group here and boys who have been in it for a while and on this losing streak, it does get to you. "We need it, we are desperate for it. "The work we've put in the last five weeks, there's a lot of effort gone into it, and hopefully it shows in Japan that we can turn the corner." Dealing with heat and humility Much has been made of the conditions awaiting Wales, with extreme heat and humidity expected for two mid-afternoon preparation has included gruelling heat chamber sessions at their training base in the Vale of Glamorgan."You go to the well, but I love it – the whole squad in there," said Thomas."The most I have lost is three kilos of fluid and we have to make sure we replace that, because otherwise we would be dehydrated and struggling."It's good to see how hard the boys are working because it's going to be tough out there."
