I was there: Red Roses lifted the Rugby World Cup with a roar like no other

Recalling the moment that England’s captain, Zoe Aldcroft, lifted the Rugby World Cup still brings goose bumps. Twickenham was bathed in September sunshine, there was not one empty green seat and when the Gloucester-Hartpury star raised the silverware with gold streamers and fire pyrotechnics, the roar from the crowd was a sound unmatched at any other women’s rugby game I have attended.England had rewarded the home fans, executing the perfect gameplan against Canada, the in-form team who were the underdogs despite knocking out the six-time champions New Zealand in the semi-final. The stadium was sold out with a women’s rugby record of 81,885 creating an electric atmosphere. Future World Cup finals will be sell-outs with a party-feel celebration but I am unsure if anything will be able to replicate the feeling on 2025 final day for everyone invested in women’s rugby

MCG curator concedes pitch went ‘too far’ in favouring bowlers amid criticism over short Boxing Day Test

The MCG’s head curator has conceded staff went “too far” in preparing a pitch that favoured the bowlers too heavily in the Boxing Day Test, saying he was in a “state of shock” while watching the match unfold.But the stadium’s chief executive is standing by the under-fire curator after the Test match between Australia and England finished within two days.Cricket Australia is bracing for a heavy financial loss from the match, only a month after the Ashes opener in Perth also ended with three days to spare. It is the first time the same series has had multiple two-day Tests in 129 years.Millions of dollars in refunds will be handed to patrons who had purchased tickets for day three, which had been sold out and could have attracted a third successive crowd of more than 90,000

PDC world championship: James Hurrell stuns Stephen Bunting in thriller

By the end, the room had gone still and quiet. The air was warm and smelled faintly of spilled pints. The chants of “One Stephen Bunting” had long since died away, and all that was left was one Stephen Bunting: three darts in his hand and no more tricks up his sleeve. No place left to run.And so as James Hurrell pinned tops to win 4-3 and claim the biggest victory of his life, there was just the merest whiff of anticlimax to it all: a seismic shock that also somehow felt like the most natural thing in the world

Tommy Freeman hat-trick topples Bath and sends Northampton to Prem summit

The champions have been mugged at home by the team they deposed. Well, not quite the team. Northampton rung the changes for this match, but the understudies proved the stars of the show to terrorise their hosts. Six tries, a hat-trick for Tommy Freeman and the lead, no less, of the Prem for good measure.The bookies gave Northampton a 20-point head start for this one

Bowen and Curtis bag famous home win in Welsh National with Haiti Couleurs

It is seven years and counting since Native River became the last horse trained in Britain to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, but the beleaguered home team has conceivably emerged from the first two days of the Christmas programme with not one, but two realistic contenders for next year’s race, after Haiti Couleurs put up a magnificent performance to win the Welsh Grand National here under 11st 13lb on Saturday.Or, as Haiti Couleurs’ connections might prefer it, England has a chance with Friday’s King George winner, The Jukebox Man, and Wales has a shout with Haiti Couleurs, who is trained by Rebecca Curtis in Pembrokeshire and ridden by Sean Bowen, the champion jockey, who was born just down the road from her yard.Bowen gave another demonstration on Haiti Couleurs of what is now his trademark ability to seize the initiative in a race and not let go. His mount was a little free behind the pace on the first circuit, and despite his big weight and the distance still left to travel, Bowen did not hesitate to allow him to stride on into the lead.Haiti Couleurs did not see another rival from there, and there were definite echoes of Native River’s front-running performance under a similar burden in this race in 2016, 15 months before his Gold Cup victory, as the eight-year-old powered clear with O’Connell turning for home and then held him at bay with an unflinching gallop from two out

Bristol survive scare but Newcastle off the mark in Prem as Spencer seals bonus

In the end Bristol had too much. A display of equal parts grit and skill by Newcastle threatened a huge festive upset in the freezing-cold south-west, but two tries by the elusive Louis Rees-Zammit and some classically fluent attacking by Pat Lam’s buoyant team eventually enabled them to overpower their spirited visitors.After the Bears ruined Harlequins’ Christmas at Twickenham last Saturday, sticking 40 points on the London club in Big Game 17, they were widely expected to ease to victory against the Prem’s bottom side, who were yet to muster a bonus point after seven matches. The question seemed to be not if Bristol would win, rather by how many.But the work Newcastle are doing under the head coach, Alan Dickens, now assisted by the former Wales international Stephen Jones, is beginning to bear fruit