Wallabies can take heart from Lions series for litmus Tests against South Africa | Angus Fontaine

If Australian rugby is to take a key learning from the British & Irish Lions tour and adopt a credo for the upcoming Rugby Championship and the road to the 2027 World Cup, Will Skelton nailed it at half-time on Saturday: “We don’t take no itshay.”The 203cm, 145kg colossus’s performance was as big as he was in the Wallabies’ stirring victory in Sydney. But Skelton’s fighting words to his team - “Keep fighting. Keep fighting for each other. Keep fighting for the jersey” - and the pig Latin catchcry that followed was a crudity that offered perfect clarity to Joe Schmidt’s team

Research finds 89% of female rugby players experience pain wearing boots

Wearing boots designed for men causes discomfort for a majority of female rugby players, according to new research which finds as many as 89% of athletes experience pain from wearing shoes not built for women’s feet.With the Women’s Rugby World Cup coming to England in just over two weeks’ time IDA Sports, a footwear brand designed for female athletes, called out what it describes as the “iniquity” of boot design that leaves women not only lacking comfort when playing but exposed to a heightened risk of injury.After scanning nearly 1,000 feet, of amateurs and players from across Premiership Women’s Rugby, and surveying a further 330, IDA Sports found that comfort was the driving factor behind a player’s boot choice, but one that was rarely met. While 78% said comfort was a top priority, nearly nine in 10 spoke of discomfort.“The findings of our many years of research and development … illustrate the inequities that women athletes face when it comes to footwear,” said Laura Youngson, co-founder and chief executive of IDA Sports

The Breakdown | The Lions will endure … but who can we expect in the squad for 2029?

The average worker bee, in the busiest months of the year, generally lives for up to seven weeks. Talk about a short and sweet existence. It is not dissimilar with British & Irish Lions tours. One moment players are winning a major series, the next their team abruptly ceases to exist. That’s all, folks, unless you can make the next trip in four years

NFL preseason storylines: Cowboys chaos, the Browns‘ QB circus and Aaron Rodgers’ last dance

With the start of the regular season almost in sight, we take a tour of the league’s most compelling plotsLeave it to Jerry Jones to stink up the most optimistic time of year. The Cowboys owner has once again fumbled a contract negotiation with one of his stars. Despite fellow 2021 draftees Penei Sewell, Patrick Surtain II and Ja’Marr Chase signing long-term extensions, the Cowboys have allowed talks with Parsons to drag on.Last week, Parsons accused Jones of trying to circumvent his agent in negotiations and formally requested a trade.It’s fun to imagine Parsons on the trade block

TNT Sports secures live rights to England’s Ashes series in Australia

England’s attempt to regain the Ashes this winter will be broadcast live in the UK by TNT Sports. After ­agreeing a one-year deal with Cricket Australia over the weekend TNT now has the rights for all of England’s winter tours, as the broadcaster had deals in place to cover both white-ball series in New Zealand and Sri Lanka either side of the Ashes.TNT’s predecessor, BT Sport, bought the rights for the past two Ashes tours so the new deal may be inauspicious for Ben Stokes’s side as their viewers have not seen England win a single game. England have lost 13 of the past 15 Tests they have played in Australia, which shows the size of the task for the touring side this winter.TNT has increasingly become the home of England’s winter cricket deals in recent years and has long-term rights in place with New ­Zealand, West Indies and Pakistan, as well as securing a late deal to cover England’s five-Test series in India last winter

The sacking of Simon Goodwin was ruthless but the right call for the Demons | Martin Pegan

Simon Goodwin will forever remain in Melbourne folklore as the coach that broke the curse – the coach that finally followed in the footsteps of club great Norm Smith when he helped end almost six decades of misery with a fairytale premiership. For now, Goodwin is one of only four coaches to lead the Demons to a VFL/AFL flag. But the one-time powerhouse club is right to look forward rather than backward, in the hope of finding the next coach to take it to the promised land.Melbourne’s decision to sack a premiership-winner is among the most ruthless the AFL has seen in recent years. It has become all too common for head coaches to be given extra time, whether to build a team from the ground up or to turn around an unexpected decline