Narrow win ‘ideal’ for England’s World Cup preparations, says Mitchell

John Mitchell said England’s one-point win over France was the “ideal” test for his side with the Rugby World Cup on the horizon.The Red Roses won their seventh consecutive Women’s Six Nations title after holding off a late French comeback at Twickenham. It was by far the closest match for England in this tournament, with their other four matches resulting in dominant wins. The lack of competition that the Red Roses face have led some to believe they needed a loss or a close game to learn from in order to know the answers if challenged at the upcoming World Cup.“We were sitting in the coaching room and saying: ‘It was ideal for us,’” Mitchell said

Aldcroft holds nerve but England will need to raise level to go all the way at World Cup | Andy Bull

There’s no such thing as an easy grand slam and, in the very end, England’s turned out to be as hard-won as any of them. One point up with one minute to play after conceding a sixth try at the tail end of one of the great helter-skelter Test matches, their skipper, Zoe Aldcroft, had the smarts to lead the team in a slow march back from the posts to the middle of the pitch as the clock ran on into the red. The Red Roses were, at that point, one more mistake, one more missed tackle, one more France score away from going down to their first defeat since the last World Cup, in their final match before the next one.Twickenham was only half full, but the crowd was as loud as double the number. And in all the tumult, it was the French who folded

Browns select Shedeur Sanders with 144th pick to end QB’s agonizing slide down NFL draft

One of the most extraordinary storylines in the history of the NFL draft came to a conclusion on Saturday as the Cleveland Browns, finally, selected Shedeur Sanders with the 144th pick in the fifth round of this year’s draft.Sanders entered the draft as the most famous current college player in the United States. Not only was he a star quarterback at Colorado, he was coached there by his father, Deion, one of the greatest football players of all time and one of US sports’ biggest personalities.But aside from his celebrity, Sanders was considered one of the best players in the draft at football’s most important position. While there were concerns over his size, arm strength and genuine arguments that his success at Colorado was partly down to his brilliant No 1 receiver, Travis Hunter, most analysts had him as a first-round selection, or a second-round pick at worst

England 43-42 France: Women’s Six Nations grand slam decider – as it happened

Sarah Rendell’s report is here:“It was a little bit nervy,” says Mitchell on the BBC. “Defence wins titles and that wasn’t really great today from us … but I thought our start was pretty good.“They got us through the middle, which we had planned for, but I don’t think we delivered. I thought we were poor in edge defence, to be honest. I’d rather get this kind of feedback any day of the week … we’ll have a little bit of a celebration and get ready for the World Cup

England hold on to claim Women’s Six Nations grand slam with one-point win over France

There was a moment after France’s Joanna Grisez scored where fans were looking left and right wondering if this would be the day England’s stranglehold on this competition would come to an end. The Red Roses were 31-7 up after 23 minutes but a resolute France stayed in the fight and cut back the lead to one point in the final minute . A French knock-on ended the game and the sheer pressure the hosts were under was plain to see by the wild celebrations by the England players at full time as they sealed their seventh successive Women’s Six Nations title.It felt like the French ran out of time and had their revival come five minutes earlier they could have become the first team since themselves in 2018 to beat England in this competition. It was most definitely the visitors’ best outing of this tournament with the scrum-half, Pauline Bourdon-Sansus, and the wing Kelly Arbey having particularly impressive performances

County cricket: Durham beat Worcestershire inside two days – as it happened

It was a late-April miracle that the Worcester groundstaff had coaxed New Road into action at all after the pitch was underwater for 39 days across five different floods during the winter. It still bore the scars, however, a verdant outfield that Worcestershire’s New Zealand fast bowler Jacob Duffy called “the slowest outfield he’d ever played cricket on”, and a surface that promised great bounty to the bowlers.And, in a match played at double-speed, it was injury-hit Durham who came out the best with a six-wicket win in a game where the highest individual score was 42. Twenty wickets fell on the second, and final, day, as first Durham were bundled out for 136, and then a hyperactive Worcestershire limped with chocolate sticks to 81 all out – Ben Raine, unplayable at times, taking four for 20 and Codi Yusuf four for 26. It left Durham chasing 108 for victory