World Cup winner Abby Dow quits rugby in shock move to focus on career

The Rugby World Cup winner Abby Dow has announced her shock retirement from professional rugby, with the Red Roses head coach, John Mitchell, bemoaning the fact that England have lost “the best right winger in world rugby at the peak of her powers”.Dow has made the surprise move to focus on her engineering career. The England player’s last game came in the World Cup final in September when the Red Roses defeated Canada 33-13 in front of a world‑record crowd of 81,885 at Twickenham. Alongside the World Cup in her 59‑cap international career, the 28-year-old Dow won seven Six Nations titles and two WXV 1 trophies.The announcement is not a complete surprise as the wing left her club, Trailfinders, in June and had not signed for another side before the Premiership Women’s Rugby season, which began on 24 October

The Spin | First-over destroyer Mitchell Starc deserves place among Australia’s greats

When I close my eyes at night, Mitchell Starc is at the top of his run. It might be punishment for forgetting to vote for him in the Guardian’s all-time Ashes players list.His 6ft 6in frame elongates and stretches until he’s uncomfortably filling my mind’s eye and then the legs start, a nightmare-beautiful rhythmic run. The arms piston, the eyes steady, the head as still as a marble mantelpiece. He’s a cheetah in giant white wristbands, a moon-marauding wolf, a river of melted chocolate, that expensive, unpalatable, 95% stuff

Roman amphitheatre older than Colosseum gets accessible facelift for Winter Paralympics

A 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatre is to be made fully accessible to people with disabilities before the Winter Paralympic Games in Milano‑Cortina, as organisers prioritise legacy with 100 days to go.The conversion of the Arena di Verona, which will host the Paralympics opening ceremony, includes the addition of a lift and toilets to a structure older than the Colosseum. Described by the Milano-Cortina 2026 chief executive, Andrea Varnier, as “the symbol of our Paralympic Games”, he admits the conversion has also been considered as an act of “blasphemy” by some traditionalists.“The decision to stage the opening ceremony in the Arena di Verona is not just an aesthetic one although, of course, we like to showcase such a beauty,” Varnier said. “But it was also an idea, to make the arena accessible and not only the arena itself but the entire route from the railway station to the venue

Short first Ashes Test results in record donation of surplus food across Western Australia

The shortened Ashes Test in Perth might have left administrators scrambling to recover a multimillion-dollar shortfall, broadcasters scrambling to fill three days of airtime and fans wondering what to do with newfound time on their hands, but for others, England’s early capitulation in the series opener was a blessing.A huge surplus of food, which was intended for another bumper crowd with a third day of cricket anticipated but never used as the game wrapped up inside two days, has been donated to charitable causes across Western Australia.Optus Stadium, known as Perth Stadium for the duration of the first Test, directed all surplus food to OZHarvest, Australia’s leading food rescue service, which in turn partnered with SecondBite and Foodbank WA to distribute the food to those in need across the state.The organisation said it was the biggest single donation it had ever received in Western Australia.WA’s deputy premier, Rita Saffioti, lauded the move, saying it demonstrated “community spirit at its best”

England can’t change now: Bazball approach must be seen through to its conclusion | Taha Hashim

Travis Head’s latest masterpiece is three days old, the postmortems are complete and England supporters have done their pained vox pops in Australia. And somehow we’re still more than a week out from the second Ashes Test. It’s a hefty gap bound to be filled by rage, moving from the defeat in Perth to the preparation for a pink‑ball affair in Brisbane.England’s first-stringers could pass the time with a day‑night knockabout against a prime minister’s XI in Canberra. Instead, as planned, it will be a Lions side that plays this weekend, joined by Josh Tongue, Matt Potts and Jacob Bethell, unused squad members in Perth

England have no plans to reward Borthwick with new deal despite winning run

The Rugby Football Union has no plans to begin talks with Steve ­Borthwick over extending his ­contract beyond 2027 “for the ­foreseeable future” despite England’s 11-match winning streak and autumn clean sweep.Borthwick’s contract runs until the end of 2027 but with England halfway through the current World Cup cycle and currently third in the world ­rankings, the RFU chief ­executive, Bill Sweeney, has no immediate intention of discussing an extension in a sea change from the union’s ­previous approach.During his tenure, Sweeney has made it a priority to improve England’s succession planning, appointing Nigel Redman as team performance director, but the chief executive has raised the prospect of Borthwick heading into the 2027 World Cup unclear if he will continue beyond the competition.Indeed, with a little more than 18 months and only 17 matches before England begin World Cup preparations, Sweeney is in no rush to tie Borthwick down.Borthwick’s predecessor, Eddie Jones, was appointed in late 2015 through to the 2019 World Cup but in January 2018 his contract was extended through to 2021 by the then chief executive, Steve Brown