The ACT Brumbies ground out a 24-13 victory over South Africa’s Lions in a rain-soaked Super 14 match in Canberra yesterday.
The Brumbies dominated the game but the home team’s frustrations were compounded by their inability to secure a bonus point for a fourth try despite hammering away at the Lions line for the majority of the contest.
Christian Lealiifano and Stephen Moore scored tries for the Brumbies and the team were also awarded a penalty try. Matt Giteau slotted over three conversions and a penalty.
Lions flyhalf Burton Francis kicked two penalties and converted Hannes Franklin’s second half try for the visitors as both sides struggled to cope with the wet conditions.
“A win’s a win, but we are disappointed in the last 10 minutes we couldn’t get that bonus point,” Brumbies captain Stephen Hoiles said in a televised interview.
■Reds 23, Chiefs 18
REUTERS, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
Queensland fullback Luke Morahan scored a match-winning try as the Reds fought back from 15 points down to beat the Waikato Chiefs in their Super 14 match in Hamilton yesterday.
The injury-ravaged Reds trailed 15-0 inside the first 20 minutes and also had winger Brando Va’aulu sin binned for a dangerous tackle but fought back to beat the heavily favored Chiefs, who had won their first three games away from home.
“You can’t win games when you’re struggling for ball and tackling like that,” Chiefs captain Mils Muliaina said in a televised interview. “It’s very disappointing to come home and lose like that, especially with the way we started.”
“Outstanding effort from the boys, just really proud. We really dug deep when we were down in the second half,” Wallaby scrumhalf Will Genia said after the game.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later