‘They call me Grandpa Joe’: coach Schmidt in a hurry as clock ticks down on Wallabies reign

Joe Schmidt was in Melbourne’s west coaching Footscray RFC’s under-18s on Monday night, then conducting a 20-minute Q&A that ran to two hours. The next day he called together the Wallabies leaders and challenged them to set the standards at their Super Rugby clubs. By Wednesday he was deep in meetings with Queensland Reds boss Les Kiss, the coach who will take over the national side in July.Schmidt is just off another call with Kiss when he arrives to speak with Guardian Australia, biceps bulging after a workout and eyes gleaming ahead of another day spent dragging the Wallabies back to respectability and priming them for the 2027 World Cup on home soil.This relentless work ethic runs contrary to the title his grandchildren have given him

NYU’s historic 91-game unbeaten streak snapped by Scranton in Final Four

New York University’s historic 91-game winning streak is over after a 60-52 loss to Scranton in the Final Four of the Division III NCAA Tournament on Thursday night, ending one of the longest unbeaten runs in college basketball history.The Violets (29-1) had the second-longest winning streak in NCAA history, trailing only UConn’s 111-game run between 2014 and 2017, and were seeking a third consecutive national championship. Instead, Scranton (32-0) advanced to the title game, holding off a late NYU rally.NYU’s last defeat had come on 11 March 2023, when they were beaten by Transylvania in the Elite Eight. In the three years since, the Violets had not lost, building a dominant program under head coach Meg Barber

‘It’s not about punishing’: Five key issues for English rugby to resolve after the Six Nations

Steve Borthwick will be reprieved by the RFU’s review but there are other factors at play from the makeup of his backroom team to the conveyor belt of talentThe Rugby Football Union’s review into England’s least successful championship for 50 years is already up and running with an alacrity that would impress Louis Bielle-Biarrey. And one detail seems clear: barring something spectacular, Steve Borthwick will still be coaching the team this summer. As one well-placed insider put it: “This review is about supporting Steve to make improvements. If change is needed, change is needed but it’s not about punishing him. He’s absolutely going to be in post this summer, there’s no question about that

Meg Jones to captain England at Women’s Six Nations with Zoe Stratford pregnant

Meg Jones has been chosen to lead England’s world champions in 2026 after the regular Red Roses captain, Zoe Stratford, announced her pregnancy on Wednesday.Jones, who was vice-captain when England beat Canada to lift the World Cup last September, will take over from Stratford for the upcoming Women’s Six Nations. England kick off their campaign against Ireland on 11 April at Twickenham when a tournament-record crowd of more than 60,000 will be in the stands.The 29-year-old centre said: “Firstly, I’m really excited for Zoe and wish her and Strats [Luke, Zoe’s husband] every happiness on their news. It’s a huge honour to have been named captain of the Red Roses

For Mexico and Canada, injuries are striking just as World Cup hosting duty looms

When Marcel Ruiz slumped into the grass of San Diego FC’s Snapdragon stadium late in the first half of Toluca’s Concacaf Champions Cup game last Wednesday, he seemed to already know. He covered his mouth with his left hand and clutched his right knee – first the back of it, then the front – with his other hand. He turned his head every which way, perhaps hoping that he might scan something or someone who would tell him that this was not in fact happening. That his World Cup on home soil was not already over three months before it was to even start. That Mexico’s injury crisis had not just deepened further

No Limit: can rap mogul Master P really become an elite basketball coach?

The 55-year-old has is an assistant coach at the University of New Orleans. Now he believes he can take the step up to the top of his sportYou are Arizona State athletics director Graham Rossini, more of a forward-thinking sports executive than a classic campus administrator. The Sun Devils basketball team have just staggered through another middling season, missing the NCAA tournament for a third straight year. You’ve just fired coach Bobby Hurley, but the vacancy isn’t what anyone in the sport would call coveted – not compared to a blue-blood program like Duke or Kentucky, or even the cross-state rival Arizona Wildcats men’s basketball, standard-bearer of the old Pac-10.You could hire another hardwood hero like Hurley, a Duke Blue Devils men’s basketball supervillain whose winning pedigree as a player surfaced only in flashes over 11 uneven years on the sideline