South Africa’s Northern Bulls have romped to the outright lead of rugby’s Super 14 series after two rounds with a seven-try home rout of the Auckland Blues.
The 2007 champ blasted the three-time winners of the southern hemisphere provincial championship 59-26 for maximum points for the second week running and lead Australian contenders ACT Brumbies and NSW Waratahs by a point.
The Brumbies needed a fulltime conversion by Wallaby skipper Stirling Mortlock to clinch an 18-16 win over depleted defending champions Canterbury Crusaders in Canberra on Saturday.
Three-time runners-up Coastal Sharks won their South African derby 25-10 over the Golden Lions in Durban on Saturday to hold down fourth place on the standings.
The battered Blues are fifth, on six points, after coming away from their Pretoria flogging with a scoring bonus point.
Weekend winners Wellington Hurricanes, Western Force and Western Stormers joined the Crusaders and Lions in joint sixth place on five points.
The Highlanders, Chiefs, Cheetahs and Reds have yet to win a match this season.
Injury-weakened Auckland were in trouble right from the kick-off at Loftus Versfeld, conceding their first try within four minutes as the Bulls secured their four-try bonus point with a 32-14 halftime advantage.
The Pretoria Bulls did not let up in the second half, ensuring the points tally kept rising and the Blues never got closer than 19 points.
The Sharks, among the title favorites this season, ran in three tries to one to ease past the Lions for the Durban-based side’s second straight win.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
Taiwan suffered its first defeat of the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12, losing to defending champion Japan 3-1 at the Taipei Dome last night. Japan’s victory put Taiwan’s score at two wins and one loss in WBSC Premier12 championship Group B play. In the top of the first inning, a sacrifice fly from Japanese batter Shota Morishita allowed Masayuki Kuwahara to score a run on Taiwan’s starter Chen Po-ching (陳柏清). Taiwan’s attempt to catch up in the bottom of the first ended to no avail and an uneventful second inning saw the score
A debate over the soul of soccer is raging in FIFA World Cup holders Argentina, pitting defenders of the social role of the beautiful game against the government of libertarian Argentine President Javier Milei, who wants to turn clubs into for-profit companies. Argentina, which gave the world Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi, is home to some of the world’s most devoted soccer fans — a fact attributed by supporters like Gabriel Nicosia to the clubs’ community outreach. Nicosia is a lifelong supporter of San Lorenzo, a more than 100-year-old first division club based in the working-class Buenos Aires neighborhood of Boedo where
Cristiano Ronaldo scored a penalty and an overhead kick on Friday as Portugal beat Poland 5-1 to guarantee a place in the UEFA Nations League quarter-finals. Ronaldo turned in a man-of-the-match performance in a blistering second half. Rafael Leao broke the deadlock with a fine header 14 minutes into the second half and then Ronaldo got his 134th international goal from the penalty spot 13 minutes later. Bruno Fernandes scored a stunning third from almost 30m out and three minutes later Ronaldo’s pass gave Pedro Neto the space to lash home a fourth from a tight angle. Ronaldo made it five — and 135
RSS