England’s iron-chinned boxers get on the right side of ifs and buts | Andy Bull
Another week, another one-point win.This was an ugly, bloody and basic victory, as pretty as Steve Borthwick’s broken nose, but funnily enough the 80,000-odd England fans inside the stadium didn’t seem too fussed about that when England bundled the ball into touch at the final whistle.It’s been eight years since they last saw England win a Calcutta Cup game here at Twickenham, and if it was Scotland who filled the highlights reel, and outscored England by three tries to one, well, England’s one workaday try, along with a conversion and three penalty kicks, added up to more than enough to shout about.It was a match that was characterised, in the large part, by the dogged efforts of England’s proud pack of forwards.They crushed every scrum, clattered into every ruck and reached, over and again, right down into the dark and nasty places, returning, often as not, with the ball in hand.
They won 14 turnovers in all the chaos, and a couple of them, by Ben Curry and Maro Itoje, were crucial in turning back the course of the match at points when Scotland were threatening to run away with it,It was, truth be told, meat and potatoes rugby: England had all the wit and verve of a wet sandbag,But it worked for them, and after the year they have had, that’s all that really matters,It has been 12 months since the last time they won two matches back to back, against Wales and Italy in last year’s Six Nations,They have lost so many close games in the inbetween that watching them close out two matches in the past fortnight has been like seeing a toddler learn to walk.
They are progressing, one tentative step at a time.Borthwick has certainly turned them into a tough old bunch, like one of those iron-chinned boxers whose most notable talent is their ability to make it to the 12th even after they have been repeatedly punched in the head.They did not throw so many blows themselves, apart from the odd lumpen haymaker.Their one try, scored off the back of an attacking lineout in the first half, was a real piece of sledgehammer work, an endless series of short passes and full-steam ahead charges into whichever sorry Scot happened to be standing in front of whoever was on the ball.It was Tommy Freeman who eventually bashed his way through to score.
Freeman was superb, again, at almost everything he turned his hand to, as he seems to be every week.And he needed to be, because the men around him spent most of the match being run ragged.In the first half England seemed to have armed themselves with a gameplan that was expressly designed to play to Scotland’s strengths.They kicked the ball 36 times altogether, and made only 101 passes.They do say it’s the trend these days to play the game without the ball, but it’s surely a sight easier to actually score when you have it.
And Scotland are just about the one side who don’t need a second invitation to come running.In the first half England played like a man handing a plank to the bloke who was trying to hit him around the head.“Here, try this.” Every time they booted the ball downfield they ended up scrambling to try to fill the gaps in their defensive line as one of Blair Kinghorn, Duhan van der Merwe or Kyle Rowe came charging back at them.Ollie Sleightholme, yanked off after 45 minutes, set up Scotland’s first with a lumpen chip straight to Kinghorn in the Scottish backfield.
The plan also exposed the weakness of England’s defence out wide, where Joe El-Abd’s system was tested and found failing, over and again.Ollie Lawrence missed a tackle on Van der Merwe in the run-up to Scotland’s first, then Marcus Smith slipped off him like a wet towel as he tried to take him down when he came barrelling down the wing before their second.All in all, England spent a hell of a lot of time trying to exit from their own 22, like 15 men looking for the way out of a revolving door.Sign up to The BreakdownThe latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewedafter newsletter promotionTruth is that if Finn Russell had only made any of the three conversions he missed, Scotland would have won, just as if Damien Penaud had only been able to hold on to the ball, France would have too.England seem to be on the right side of the ifs and buts at the minute, and maybe they deserve it after they were on the wrong side of a few last year.
But then luck, as they say, is mostly what you make of it, and if this England aren’t a handsome team, they’re surely a hell of a determined one.
Gregg Popovich not expected to return to San Antonio Spurs this year – report
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, the NBA’s all-time winningest coach, is not expected to return this season as he continues recovering from a mild stroke suffered in November, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. The future of the 76-year-old Hall of Famer remains uncertain as the team navigates a challenging season without him.Popovich, who has led the Spurs since 1996 and won five NBA championships, suffered the stroke on 2 November before a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson stepped in as interim head coach and has since compiled a 21-27 record while leading a young Spurs squad.The Spurs faced another setback when franchise star Victor Wembanyama was shut down for the season on Thursday after being diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder
Dmitry Bivol defeats Artur Beterbiev for undisputed light heavyweight championship – live reaction
And the new! Dmitry Bivol is the undisputed light heavyweight champion of the world after defeating Artur Beterbiev by a majority decision in a close, competitive fight marked by ebbs and flows in both directions. The official scores were 114-114, 116-112 and 115-113. (The Guardian had it 115-113 for Bivol.)It’s the first professional defeat for Beterbiev, whose eight-year championship reign at 175lb is over.That’s all for tonight
Joseph Parker stops stand-in Martin Bakole in two rounds for crushing win
Joseph Parker overcame the surprise of fighting a very different opponent from the man he had been expecting to face when he knocked out Martin Bakole with devastating force in the second round of their heavyweight contest in Riyadh. The New Zealander had been scheduled to challenge Daniel Dubois for his IBF world heavyweight title but, after the champion fell ill with a virus on Thursday, Bakole flew to Saudi Arabia from the Democratic Republic of Congo as an emergency replacement.The odds against Bakole were underlined by the fact that he had only landed in Riyadh at 3am on the morning of the fight. Less than 22 hours later, at 1.10am local time on Sunday morning, Bakole ambled calmly to the ring
How Dyson Daniels’ home town became an unlikely hotbed of Australian basketball talent | Jack Snape
Bendigo has long had fertile sporting soil but has now produced one of the NBA’s best defensive players as well as successful WNBL and NBL 1 teamsDyson Daniels opened his sparkling silver jacket on NBA draft night in 2022. Under the bright lights of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the lining on his right breast revealed the names of his parents and brothers. On Daniels’ left was stitched a map of Bendigo.About two hours’ drive north-west of Melbourne and with a population of 122,000, Bendigo is no Brooklyn. But thanks to Daniels and a dominant professional women’s team, the regional centre generously described by some as a city has emerged this year as a genuine power in global basketball
Scotland’s Gregor Townsend questions England’s crucial penalty decision
Scotland’s coaches and players believe two key officiating decisions potentially denied them another historic Calcutta Cup victory. Gregor Townsend feels his team were unlucky to concede the crucial second-half penalty kicked by Fin Smith that ultimately proved decisive and doubts have also been raised over the solitary English try, scored by Tommy Freeman.Townsend was particularly unhappy about the crucial penalty given against Rory Darge and Tom Jordan for lifting Ben Curry out of a ruck. “I’m going to go through the game two or three times to see whether we could have got better decisions,” said Townsend, the head coach. “I did feel the decision that counted against us for the winning three points where we cleared someone out of the ruck … I just don’t know how that’s a penalty
Scotland are a joy to watch but still can’t deliver what they promise | Michael Aylwin
They must be sick of this. Not losing to England necessarily – this is the first time they have done that since 2020, after all – but sick of running rings around opponents for large stretches of a match and failing to come away with the win. Of promising that this might be their time at last and failing to follow through with anything tangible.Anyone who loves rugby loves this Scotland team. And yet what does that consolation serve than to make the pain of another championship gone all the more acute
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