The Guardian

England’s identity under Steve Borthwick is not as clear as it should be this close to the tournament It was not so long ago that the Rugby Football Union would host an annual Christmas bash. Executives, head coaches, assistants, members of staff and an invitation to the press pack. Mince pies and mulled wine, even a touch of merriment if we were lucky. Eddie Jones would sometimes make an appeara…

The former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach took 12 years to build a city filled with stadiums, skyscrapers and bespoke homes. It is a marvel We may finally have cracked the case as to why the Pittsburgh Steelers stagnated so much over the final years of Mike Tomlin’s tenure as head coach: he was focused on virtual urban planning. I’m kidding, of course. It’s good when people in high-pressure jobs …

⚽ Champions League updates from the 8pm BST kick-off ⚽ Live scores | Ballon d’Or power rankings | Email Daniel We’re playing injury time in the two early games, in which it’s Austria Wien 1-0 inter and Køgø 5-1 Servette. Also going on: Continue reading...

Row sparked by head coach’s decision to leave the 41-year-old on the bench has left a great international career at risk of ending in acrimony The drama surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo and the national team has naturally become the biggest story here in Portugal. It led Wednesday evening’s news broadcasts and made the front page of virtually every major newspaper. For some, Ronaldo was right to wal…

LA and San Diego are among favoured host cities January 2028 tournament would include 19 teams The US is poised to host the first Women’s Club World Cup in January 2028, becoming the latest in a series of major Fifa tournaments staged in North America. Discussions to take the competition to the US are at an advanced stage, with Los Angeles and San Diego among the favoured host cities. It will fol…

All the latest news from the 7.45pm BST kick-offs Live scores | Nations League tables | Email Michael More pre-match reading : Craig Bellamy said he didn’t recognise his Wales side in their poor defeat to Denmark. Ståle Solbakken, Norway’s head coach for the past six years, said “everything’s fine” with Haaland, who has scored three goals in his past two matches, and played down the idea that the…

Golfer has spoken of gambling issues in past Six-time major winner has not played since March Phil Mickelson sought treatment earlier this year for “family trauma and addiction”, his representatives confirmed to multiple outlets on Wednesday. The 56-year-old golfer voluntarily entered a treatment facility and has since returned home. Mickelson’s representatives did not say when he sought treatmen…

The sports world has accomplished a rare feat: calling out industrial-scale cheating on both sides of the Atlantic Sign up for our free newsletter here The first stage of billionaire exposure to accountability is vociferous denial . The second is bafflement that such an earthly and proletarian problem should even be allowed to happen to you, titan of industry, pillar of society, master of man and…

It may not be the official best race in the world but winning at Longchamp still confers a status little else can match When France-Galop announced in June that geldings will be allowed to run in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe from 2027, there was an underlying sense that action was needed to maintain the race’s status as Europe’s showpiece event. The Arc was officially the World’s Best Horse Race…

Government said to be unhappy at lack of warning Burnham previously criticised league’s Everton sanction Andy Burnham’s intervention in the Manchester City debate has revived tensions between the Premier League and the prime minister. Government officials are understood to be unhappy they were not given notice that the independent commission’s damning judgment of £900m of financial manipulation a…

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! When Jorge Jesus replaced Roberto Martínez, the reverse-alchemist of golden generations, as head coach of the Portugal national team, it was thought his appointment could spell the end of Cristiano Ronaldo’s international career. Aged 41 and having selfishly kiboshed his nation’s otherwise excellent chances of winning several recent major tourna…

Charles played professional sport with cystic fibrosis Diagnosis ‘just at times quite cruel’ Former Wallaby Nathan Charles, who became the first cystic fibrosis sufferer in the world to play a contact sport professionally, has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). The 37-year-old, who played four Test matches for Australia, revealed he has been diagnosed with the same disease as retire…

Wakefield’s progress has brought romance to the Grand Final but Warrington ending their long title drought would be just as stirring It is a tale of two potential fairytale endings on Saturday evening with a unique twist. A startling statistic has spread across social media since last weekend’s Super League playoff semi-finals: of all the towns and cities across Europe with a population of more t…

London schoolgirl’s father taught her to play when she was five, and three years later she beat former British champion Over the weekend, 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan became the youngest person ever to hold the title of woman grandmaster at the Chess Olympiad in Uzbekistan while playing on a car booster seat so she could reach the board. By Tuesday morning she was back at school in north London…

Team principal under scrutiny after underperformance ‘Fred is the guy to take this team in the right direction’ Lewis Hamilton has backed his Ferrari team principal, Fred Vasseur, as the best person to lead the team, but believes the leadership structure above and around the Frenchman could be overhauled. Hamilton was speaking before this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, with the race be…