The Jacksonville Jaguars aren’t a punchline any more – they’re a problem

Once loose, erratic and reliably unreliable, Jacksonville have hardened into something far more serious, with Trevor Lawrence’s control and confidence turning a hot streak into a genuine AFC threatSeven weeks ago, the Jaguars were still that team: loose, entertaining, unreliable. The kind that could light up a quarter and then spend the next three undoing it. Now, they’re a wagon.After beating the Broncos on Sunday, the Jaguars have ripped off six straight wins. They’ve won 11 regular-season games for the first time since 2007

Rugby brain injury case suffers blow after judge rejects court appeals

Two appeals launched by the legal firm representing former players in rugby league and rugby union have been denied in a significant blow to the ongoing legal action about brain damage caused by the sport. It means that after five years of legal arguments a large number of the claimants in both codes face the risk of having their cases struck out before they come to trial.The appeal judge, Lord Justice Dias, ruled that the judge presiding over the management of the case, Senior Master Jeremy Cook, had been right to find that the claimants’ firm, Rylands Garth, had failed to fulfil its obligations to disclose necessary medical material to the defendants, World Rugby, the Wales Rugby Union, and the Rugby Football Union in one case, and the Rugby Football League in the other.The issues are procedural, and the appeal ruling does not reflect the strength of the actual cases that will eventually proceed to trial, but the case in rugby league in particular has been hugely undermined by this judgment. Altogether 180 of the 321 claimants in rugby league now face having their claims struck off

‘It’s not up to me is it?’ McCullum wants to stay on despite England’s Ashes defeat

Brendon McCullum has stressed his desire to stay on as England head coach but acknowledged this is now a question for those higher up.Australia winning a much-anticipated Ashes series at the earliest opportunity has thrust McCullum’s role into the spotlight but with a multi-format contract that runs up to the end of the 50-over World Cup in late 2027, removing him would cost a seven-figure sum.Senior figures at the England and Wales Cricket Board are understood to be wary of making wholesale changes but with Australia now openly targeting a third home whitewash this century as the series moves to Melbourne and then Sydney, McCullum and the team director, Rob Key, are under pressure.Asked if he expected to be in the role come the English summer, McCullum replied: “I don’t know. It’s not really up to me, is it? I will just keep trying to do the job, try to learn the lessons that I haven’t quite got right here and make adjustments

Rob Cross opens up on struggles after second-round win against Ian White

Rob Cross doesn’t want to say what he saw at the children’s hospital in Cologne a couple of weeks ago. Some of the stories were “horrific”, he confides, but in any case they’re not his stories to tell. All he knows is that he went along with a few other players, after appearing in an exhibition the previous night, and it changed him.“You see what people are going through,” he says. “And it puts life in perspective for people whose lives are sort of OK

Rowing’s answer to snowcross, BMX and beach volleyball is coming to LA

At a point when most rowers are pounding away on rivers in the wind and rain through the dark winter months, a new breed are honing their skills in brighter climes surrounded by sun, sand and waves, all the while dreaming of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.Out of 17 sports that proposed an extra discipline to the International Olympic Committee, rowing came out on top with its beach sprints format added to the LA 2028 programme. While many may have noticed the addition of five new sports in baseball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash, a mini-revolution is happening on the water within a sport that will no longer have a lightweight category but will have five coastal rowing events in 2028.Coastal beach sprints shake up this most traditional and predictable of sports by taking the core elements of rowing – a need for extreme levels of fitness and psychological toughness – and adding new layers of jeopardy and a beach-party vibe. The discipline involves a head-to-head format and begins on land with athletes running down the beach and jumping into their boats at the water’s edge, then racing out around a buoy before hurtling back to dry land, leaping out of their boats and sprinting up the beach

Joshua and Paul provide pitiful spectacle and the worst is there’s more to come | Donald McRae

Jake Paul’s mouth opened wide, and his eyes became huge glazed saucers, as he sank to the canvas in shock and awe after a pulverising right hand from Anthony Joshua finally ended the circus in Miami late on Friday night. It looked as if Paul was trying to say “Wow!” as the severity of impact registered in his scrambled brain.Pinned in a corner of the ring midway through the sixth round, Paul could no longer run or cling to Joshua’s legs like a forlorn little boy as the gravity of boxing enveloped him. Instead, as he tried to absorb the punch that broke his jaw in two separate places, Paul was lost in his utterly stunned moment.So this is how it feels, and looks, to be hit hard by a real boxer, an Olympic gold medallist and former world heavyweight champion