8 h. ago Lions still on red alert despite gaping holes in Australia’s team

Andy Farrell may look at ease but he knows his team need to be in physical and mental control for the first TestSometimes the best place to gauge the mindset of a head coach before a big game is not the training pitch or the press conference room but the pub across the road. Which is where Andy Farrell and his wife Colleen were enjoying a relaxing post-team selection drink by an open window when a few of us happened to wander past en route back from dinner.There may be a huge contest looming but, the closer it draws, the more at ease Farrell is beginning to look. While the competitor in him loves the approaching whiff of cordite he is not a man who believes in sitting and fretting in his room before major contests. He likes to be out and about, getting a sense of the local mood and helping to fill the quiet before the storm. Continue reading...

Events

8 h. ago Lions still on red alert despite gaping holes in Australia’s team sheet | Robert Kitson

Andy Farrell may look at ease but he knows his team need to be in physical and mental control for the first TestSometimes the best place to gauge the mindset of a head coach before a big game is not the training pitch or the press conference room but the pub across the road. Which is where Andy Farrell and his wife, Colleen, were enjoying a relaxing post-team selection drink by an open window when a few of us happened to wander past en route back from dinner.There may be a huge contest looming but, the closer it draws, the more at ease Farrell is beginning to look. While the competitor in him loves the approaching whiff of cordite he is not a man who believes in sitting and fretting in his room before major contests. He likes to be out and about, getting a sense of the local mood and helping to fill the quiet before the storm. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago Australia’s Grace Kim wins playoff thriller to clinch first major title at Evian Championship

Kim hits eagle-birdie-eagle on 18th and two playoff holes to pip Thitikul24-year-old becomes fifth Australian woman to lift major golf trophyGrace Kim has produced one of the most astonishing golfing fightbacks in history to join Australia’s illustrious group of major champions.Kim recovered from four shots behind in a most dramatic final round to clinch victory over world No 2 Jeeno Thitikul on the second playoff hole at the Evian Championship in France. Continue reading...

Sport

1 week ago Scratchy Lions win has simplified the Test selection equation for Andy Farrell | Robert Kitson

Time has come for head coach to cease experimenting and get down to business as Lions need to go all out or go homeFor some reason Dame Edna Everage sprang to mind in the wake of the British & Irish Lions’ less-than-marvellous display against the NSW Waratahs on Saturday. As Edna once waspishly told a fellow grand dame: “I’m trying to find a word to describe your outfit affordable.” It was not dissimilar to the lacklustre Lions in Sydney: all dressed up and nowhere to hide.It has been an awkward few days all round, with increasing amounts of potential comedic ammunition available to Aussie hecklers. “Mr Farrell, welcome to our hotel, we’ve held the family suite for you.” “Mate, was the pitch really damp on Saturday or were you blokes just wallowing in your own mediocrity?” It is reaching the point where the Lions need to start delivering a few short sharp punchlines of their own. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Australian rugby’s incendiary attitude towards nationality needs extinguishing | Robert Kitson

Wallabies’ great pleasure in focusing on where a Lions player was born is an inflammatory device masked as banterSo there we were in the bowels of Optus Stadium in Perth on Saturday night. The post-game media mixed zone is not always the natural home of relaxed, honest repartee, but Sione Tuipulotu is a friendly guy and the British & Irish Lions had just won their opening tour game in Australia. It was a chance for a couple of ritual enquiries and a spot of gentle breeze-shooting.It was good to see Tuipulotu smiling aside from anything else. He’d missed the entire Six Nations through injury, initially putting his tour participation in doubt. It must have been a particularly tough period given he was Scotland’s captain back in the autumn and also grew up in Melbourne. To say he fancied going on this trip would be an understatement. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago ‘People told me it gave them a sense of hope’: Ismail Zaidy’s best phone picture

The Moroccan photographer intended this portrait of his sister, taken during the Covid pandemic, to bring optimism in uncertain timesIsmail Zaidy took this image, with the help of his siblings, in the gardens of the famous La Mamounia hotel in Marrakech. The Moroccan photographer received special authorisation to shoot there in 2021, when Covid restrictions were in place. He took his brother, Othmane, as shoot assistant and his sister, Fatimazahra, was the model in the image, wearing a vintage dress their mum had bought at a flea market. The small team fixed flowers to a plastic sheet and took a number of shots over a three-hour period; Othmane appeared in some, too.Zaidy recalls what a treat it felt to be outside. “Getting access to open spaces was limited, so being outdoors – even briefly – felt refreshing and special,” he says. “ It was a fairly chaotic period for all of us, but over time things calmed down and we found a rhythm. It actually gave us more time to cr...

Politics

3 w. ago Almost half of Brits wish there was more women's sport on TV, new research reveals

The Lionesses and Red Roses have joined forces with LG to call for increased live women's sport coverage

Politics

3 w. ago Australia’s Minjee Lee wins historic third major at Women’s PGA Championship

Lee finishes with 72-hole four-under 284 total in TexasShe becomes just third Australian to win three different majorsCementing her greatness, Australian golf superstar Minjee Lee claimed a historic third career major with a steely victory at the big-money Women’s PGA Championship in Texas.Lee had her four-shot overnight lead slashed in half early in the final round before hanging on, then surging gamely for a three-shot triumph in more extremely trying conditions at PGA Frisco’s windswept Fields Ranch East course. Continue reading...

Politics