England produced a slick performance to beat the US 45-7 at the Rugby World Cup in Japan yesterday, earning a vital bonus-point win ahead of sterner Pool C tests against Argentina and France, while Italy outclassed Canada in Pool B.
Eddie Jones’s men made their forward dominance count, scoring seven tries at Kobe Misaki Stadium against the US, who played the final 10 minutes with 14 men after the tournament’s first red card, with flanker John Quill sent off after a shoulder charge connected with Owen Farrell’s head.
Referee Nic Berry checked the TV pictures before sending Quill from the pitch.
Photo: Reuters
Italy’s 48-7 thumping of Canada in Fukuoka all but confirmed their automatic entry into the next World Cup, leaving coach Conor O’Shea with one remaining mission in Japan.
He wants Italy to qualify for the quarter-finals for the first time, but that will require a huge lift in performance as they prepare for a clash with heavyweights South Africa next week.
With a powerful forward pack and free-running backline, Italy have so far notched 14 tries to have two bonus-point wins in two matches against minnows Namibia and Canada, putting them atop Pool B, but with the All Blacks and the Springboks to play — the overwhelming favorites to advance from their group.
Barring an upset by either Canada or Namibia against the top sides, Italy are assured of at least third in their pool to be guaranteed a berth at the 2023 World Cup in France.
“The first objective we had was to play two matches in four days and I think we have demonstrated that we can qualify for the next World Cup as well,” the coach said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier