Bundee Aki start in doubt for Ireland’s Six Nations opener against France over ‘disrespect’

Ireland will kick off the Six Nations next week without two of their most influential and experienced ­backline players. Bundee Aki and Hugo Keenan, key members of the British & Irish Lions tour to Australia last year, should have been involved against France next Thursday, but they are facing spells on the sidelines for contrasting reasons.Aki has not travelled to Ireland’s training camp in Portugal after a “misconduct complaint” relating to an alleged post-match incident with match officials after Connacht’s URC game against Leinster on Saturday.The veteran centre will now face an independent hearing on Wednesday with the Irish Rugby Football Union confirming he is staying at home for disciplinary reasons. “The IRFU does not tolerate any form of disrespect shown towards match officials and does not condone actions that fall below the standards expected of players representing Irish rugby,” read a statement

Talent, tech and grit: how Team GB’s Big Tricks and Adrenaline dept got its mojo back | Sean Ingle

Just days before the Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, the young Team GB members who think nothing of flying 30ft in the air while spinning like gyroscopes have once again proved they have the X Factor. Last Friday, Mia Brookes, 19, soared to X Games gold in the snowboard slopestyle in Aspen. Zoe Atkin, 23, followed suit in the freeski superpipe and before the weekend was through Kirsty Muir, 21, added a third gold in the freeski slopestyle, along with a big air silver.All told it was a hugely successful time for GB Snowsport, with Charlotte Bankes winning her first World Cup snowboard cross event since breaking her collarbone in April in China the previous week. Little wonder, then, that Atkin is bullish about the British skiers’ and snowboarders’ chances in Italy

Australian Open 2026: Ben Shelton v Jannik Sinner – as it happened

Aha, here’s our report of Sinner v Shelton……which means we’re finished here. Thanks for your company, and do join me again tomorrow at 8am GMT for the women’s semi-finals. Peace out.Watching an interview with Pegula, who is still improving at 31, she says she handles power well – she’s beaten Keys and Anisimova in the last two rounds – and hits a heavier ball than people expect. Rybakina, though, is serving superbly, her cheery thumping from the back very hard to handle, and if she plays well, she’ll win; Pegula needs to produce her best tennis against an opponent a little off hers

‘Fascism is here now’: the US athletes pushing back on Trump’s America

World Series winner Sean Doolittle, Super Bowl champion Doug Baldwin and college star McKenzie Forbes have strong opinions on a troubled eraAt 6.38pm CST on Saturday January 24, Indiana Pacer star Tyrese Haliburton posted on X: “Alex Pretti was murdered.”The NBA star was one of the first athletes to respond to what can only be described as the public execution by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Pretti’s death was the culmination of a weeks-long campaign of terror conducted against residents of the city, including Renee Good, who was herself killed by DHS forces just two weeks earlier. Indeed, “Operation Metro Surge” in Minneapolis has accounted for two-thirds of homicides in the city in 2026

The Spin | How Sandhill Ashes cricket match helped to rebuild a community ravaged by bushfire

It’s bushfire season once again in Australia. A record-breaking heatwave, plus intense winds, have resulted in a tinder-box landscape and hard-to-control blazes in large areas of the south east.“To be frank,” said Jason Heffernan, chief officer of Victoria’s Country Fire Authority on Tuesday, “the state is very, very dry. Any fire that takes hold will be a challenge for the community.”The fires are the worst since 2019-20, that black summer of ash horizons and filthy air, when 19 million hectares of land were burned, 33 people died and 3 billion animals were impacted

Zuffa Boxing says it will save the sport – but the fine print shows that fighters may pay the price

Dana White has promised boxers a new deal. But the deal he’s offering looks worse than the old one. Will Congress give Zuffa the power to dominate boxing?Even Turki al-Sheikh’s most severe critics acknowledge that, under his guidance, the Saudi interests that have dominated professional boxing in recent years have paid generous purses to fighters. Now the Saudis have turned to TKO Group Holdings and Dana White to oversee Zuffa Boxing – a newly created vehicle designed to expand the footprint of its equity partners in the United States.Zuffa Boxing is taking a far less generous approach toward fighters than Sheikh did