The pervasive gloom that had infected New Zealand rugby in recent months dissipated Sunday, neutralized by the All Blacks' record 52-16 win over South Africa's Springboks in Pretoria.
Until the eve of the Tri-Nations match, New Zealand fans clamored on sports talkback shows to express a lack of confidence in coach John Mitchell, his direction and the form of his controversial captain Reuben Thorne in a World Cup season.
The tenor changed yesterday after New Zealanders watched their team score seven tries to beat South Africa. Talkback callers were suddenly in a mood to forgive Mitchell, whose harsh selection policies and obtuse modes of speech had made him an unpopular figure within New Zealand. Now there's calls for an end to criticism which has dogged the All Blacks this year.
The axing by Mitchell of public favorites Christian Cullen, Taine Randell and Anton Oliver had soured New Zealanders on their national coach. Suddenly, critics were prepared to admit they discerned a method in Mitchell's madness.
Mitchell has spoken repeatedly of the All Blacks being on a "journey" in which individual results were less important than the World Cup in October.
Former All Black flyhalf Grant Fox described the performance in Pretoria as the best of Mitchell's era.
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