Jarrod Evans’ last-gasp penalty rescues Wales from loss to Japan
A Wales crowd came away with the pride of a win at home for the first time in more than two years as the hosts beat Japan, but the overriding feeling was of relief.The Wales performance was miles off of what is expected.Sloppy attack, squandered opportunities and a 20-minute red card for Josh Adams almost gifted the win but that will not be remembered in years to come, what will be is Jarrod Evans.It was his last-play-of-the-game penalty that won the game and the roar that followed has to be up there with one of the loudest this stadium has heard.It was the replacement’s first kick of the game and he had nerves of steel to seal the victory.
It was not just the losing record in Cardiff that caused heightened scrutiny, if Wales had lost the visitors would leapfrog them in the world rankings.That would have put Wales on the more difficult side of the Rugby World Cup draw, on 3 December, as they would have dropped to 13th.So this game was a must-win but they had to do it with their captain, Jac Morgan, who was ruled out with a dislocated shoulder.Wales were bolstered by Louis Rees-Zammit, who made his first start and scored his first international try since returning to rugby.As the teams were read out his name got the loudest cheers and to no surprise after his appearance off the bench against Argentina adding a ferocious spark to the attack.
The hope of Wales finally winning at home was palpable before kick off.The lights went down, but a red undertone remained with a pyrotechnics show making the Principality feel like a cauldron.Last weekend the feeling had not been this palpable.A cacophony of noise flooded the stadium as Dan Edwards darted over, but thanks to the skill of Japan’s Faulua Makisi it was the visitors next putting pressure on.The No 8 was instrumental in two dangerous attacks that led to a try by Kippei Ishida.
The visitors were the better side in the first half, but things took a turn as they were shown two cards,South Africa shrugged off a red card for the second successive match to power to a 32-14 win over an Italy side that threw away a golden opportunity to earn a rare win over the Springboks in Turin on Saturday,Franco Mostert was shown a red card after 11 minutes but Italy failed to make their extra man count, with Paolo Garbisi guilty of missing kickable penalties,Tries from Marco van Staden, Morné van den Berg, Grant Williams andEthan Hooker earned South Africa a comfortable win after they withstood enormous early pressure from Italy, who scored one second-half try through Ange Capuozzo,Guardian sportEpineri Uluiviti was sent to the sin-bin for an off-the-ball tackle on Alex Mann and a bunker-reviewed yellow was shown to Makisi for a dangerous tackle on Edwards.
Despite being depleted, Japan did not concede and then Wales had their own card to deal with as Josh Adams’s illegal clear-out was upgraded to a red card after a bunker review.Sign up to The BreakdownThe latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewedafter newsletter promotionThe back and forth nature of the encounter was nail-biting with the lead switching every few minutes.But it was Evans’ penalty that sealed the result.Wales hold on to 12th in the world and will look to start a winning home run.But with two huge challenges coming against New Zealand and South Africa, the wait for another victory may be a long one.
Zip wires, darts, wild swimming: why shopping centres are trying new ways to bring in customers
There was a time when the most active thing to do at a shopping centre was jostle to the front of the queue at Primark. These days, however, developers are bringing in sport and health-related activities from zip wires to cricket, football, rock climbing and even wild swimming to draw in consumers and use space no longer wanted by retailers.While the trend for competitive socialising, such as crazy golf, darts or bowling is well established and gyms are commonplace in shopping centres, landlords are getting more creative and adventurous in the type of activity they are offering as they battle lacklustre interest in physical shopping.The activities are varied: Toca Social hosts diners watching and playing football in three shopping malls. US group Five Iron, which blends hi-tech golf simulators and coaching with a bar, has signed up for the first of at least 10 UK sites, at Broadgate in central London
About 1m Ford diesel cars sold in UK with defective emissions controls, court told
About a million Ford diesel cars were sold in the UK with serious defects in components supposed to curb toxic exhaust emissions, the high court has been told.The highly polluting vehicles were produced and sold between 2016 and 2018 after Ford’s engineers became aware of the issues, and many were never formally recalled or fixed, lawyers said.The claims came in evidence submitted in the legal action on behalf of 1.6 million diesel vehicle owners against five car manufacturers, including Ford, for allegedly using “defeat devices” to cheat emissions tests for nitrogen oxides (NOx).Parts of the emissions control systems as calibrated by Ford were discovered to become less effective when “poisoned” by sulphur in fuel during driving, the court heard
AI firm claims it stopped Chinese state-sponsored cyber-attack campaign
A leading artificial intelligence company claims to have stopped a China-backed “cyber espionage” campaign that was able to infiltrate financial firms and government agencies with almost no human oversight.The US-based Anthropic said its coding tool, Claude Code, was “manipulated” by a Chinese state-sponsored group to attack 30 entities around the world in September, achieving a “handful of successful intrusions”.This was a “significant escalation” from previous AI-enabled attacks it monitored, it wrote in a blogpost on Thursday, because Claude acted largely independently: 80 to 90% of the operations involved in the attack were performed without a human in the loop.“The actor achieved what we believe is the first documented case of a cyber-attack largely executed without human intervention at scale,” it wrote.Anthropic did not clarify which financial institutions and government agencies had been targeted, or what exactly the hackers had achieved – although it did say they were able to access their targets’ internal data
People in the UK: have you received good or bad financial advice from an AI chatbot?
Tech companies are pumping billions into the growth of artificial intelligence, with OpenAI this month signing a $38bn (£29bn) cloud computing deal with Amazon as part of a $3tn datacentre spending spree.But as people increasingly use AI chatbots – such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, Meta AI and Perplexity – for advice and task completion, some observers have concerns about misinformation, hullicinations and irresponsible advice.A survey this year from KPMG and the University of Melbourne found that 80 percent of people in the UK believe AI regulation is required.We want to hear from people who have asked chatbots for financial advice. Have you asked AI tools for help with money, debt or personal finance? Were you recommended anything unexpected, or unsuitable? What was the financial result? Do you have concerns?You can tell us about askng AI tools for financial advice herePlease include as much detail as possible
Ireland v Australia: Autumn Nations Series rugby union – live
Officials for the matchReferee: Karl Dickson (RFU)Assistants: Pierre Brousset (FFR), Adam Leal (RFU)TMO: Ian Tempest (RFU)What’s the worst clothing decision you’ve made? You can let me know on the email and I promise I won’t judge. You may also wish to offer thoughts on the rugby, but I’ll leave it up to you.Ireland Mack Hansen; Tommy O’Brien, Robbie Henshaw, Stuart McCloskey, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park, Paddy McCarthy, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong, James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne, Ryan Baird, Caelan Doris, Jack Conan.Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Andrew Porter, Thomas Clarkson, Nick Timoney, Cian Prendergast, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley, Bundee Aki.Australia Max Jorgensen; Filipo Daugunu, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Len Ikitau, Harry Potter; James O’Connor, Jake Gordon; Angus Bell, Matt Faessler, Allan Alaalatoa; Jeremy Williams, Tom Hoope; Rob Valetini, Fraser McReight, Harry Wilson
New Zealand have lost the power to strike fear in opponents’ hearts | Michael Aylwin
Do we still care about grand slam tours? If so, the headlines might read that New Zealand’s first attempt at one in 15 years has fallen at the third attempt out of four. But as the All Blacks hung their heads at the end and the English went wild with celebration all around, it is reasonable to think the grand slam was the last thought on their minds.More pressing will be the 25 unanswered points they conceded in the middle of the match, which will echo to the 17 they conceded last Saturday at Murrayfield. On that occasion they summoned the composure to prevail. This time, they were up against a stroppy England team who are increasingly enjoying the directive to be in an opponent’s face from start to finish
MP Adnan Hussain quits Your Party over ‘persistent infighting’
Trump’s targeting of alleged drug vessels strains UK-US intelligence ties
Britons living abroad: tell us your views on UK politics today
Your Party receives ‘small portion’ of withheld supporters’ donations
Starmer stands by McSweeney and says he has been ‘assured no briefings against ministers done from No 10’ – as it happened
Starmer defies calls to sack chief of staff, claiming briefing didn’t come from No 10