South Africa inflicted England’s worst ever defeat at Twickenham, New Zealand knocked off Wales to close in on another Grand Slam and Australia beat France for another Tri-Nations sweep over Six Nations teams on Saturday.
In other rugby internationals, Ireland beat Argentina 17-3 in a bad-tempered game, Scotland crushed Canada 41-0, the Pacific Islanders beat Italy 25-17 for their only win since they were formed four years ago and Japan beat the US 32-17 to complete a two-Test sweep.
After unimpressive wins over Wales and Scotland, South Africa rebounded to crush England 42-6. They punished England’s errors in the same way Australia did at Twickenham last week and the error-ridden performance piled pressure on manager Martin Johnson, who has lost two of his first three matches in charge.
PHOTO: AFP
Danie Rossouw, Ruan Pienaar, Adrian Jacobs, Jaque Fourie and Bryan Habana all scored tries as the Springboks, who beat the English 15-6 in the World Cup final in France a year ago, registered their biggest score at Twickenham and the home side mustered only two penalties by fly-half Danny Cipriani, who had another poor game.
The margin of defeat surpassed the previous Twickenham worst, a 41-20 defeat to New Zealand in 2006.
Three penalties by Wales fly-half Stephen Jones threatened an upset at the Millennium Stadium where Wales led New Zealand 9-6 at halftime. But in a second-half turnaround in which New Zealand applied all the pressure, Dan Carter kicked the All Blacks ahead and converted both tries to Ma’a Nonu and Jerome Kaino to win 29-9 for their 20th straight victory in 55 years against Wales.
Hooker Stephen Moore and winger Peter Hynes scored tries as Australia beat France 18-13 at the Stade de France, following up their victories over Italy and England with another triumph on the road, their first against the French in France since 2000.
France kicker David Skrela missed five penalties and the home team squandered a 13-10 lead.
Ireland’s game against Argentina could have gone either way until a late surge.
There was an early blow for the Pumas when imaginative fly-half Juan Martin Hernandez limped off with a groin strain during the warm-up and had to be replaced in the starting lineup by Santiago Fernandez.
The replacement kicked the first points in the 37th minute, but Ronan O’Gara leveled a minute later to send the two teams into halftime at 3-3.
The Ireland fly-half contributed three penalties and a drop goal and provided the cross-field kick that sent winger Tommy Bowe over for the only try late in the game.
Scotland ran in six tries against Canada at Aberdeen’s Pittodrie Stadium, with winger Nikki Walker scoring two in his home town. Ben Cairns, John Barclay, Al Strokosch and Rory Lamont also crossed the Canadian line.
Fijian winger Vilimoni Delasau scored two of his team’s three tries against Italy at Reggio Emilia, in the Pacific Islanders’ first win in nine Tests and the last match on their latest three-Test tour.
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
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
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
Taiwan yesterday survived Bosnia and Herzegovina to win their Davis Cup World Group I tie at the Taipei Tennis Center. The tight series started on Saturday with world No. 123 Jason Tseng losing 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Mirza Basic in the opening singles matchup. However, teammate Tony Wu kept the tie even, dominating world No. 86 Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-1. Yesterday, 24-year-old Ray Ho and partner 25-year-old Hsu Yu-hsiou kept up the momentum, making short work of Basic and Nerman Fatic, winning 6-3, 6-4. Tseng then suffered another defeat, losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to Dzumhur in a brutal match that lasted more than two