England star Ed Slater suffered a Six Nations injury scare while playing for Leicester in their 26-6 defeat at Saracens in the Aviva Premiership on Saturday.
Slater limped off inside the opening half-hour of the clash at Allianz Park and his right leg was later encased in a knee brace.
Only two weeks ago, Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill said that Slater, a lock who can also play in the back row, was capable of captaining England.
However, with recently appointed England forwards coach Steve Borthwick watching from the stands, the Leicester captain sustained a blow that leaves him facing a race against time to prove his fitness before England’s Six Nations opener in Scotland on Feb. 6.
“Slater has tweaked his medial ligaments. We will do the medical checks over the next few days,” Cockerill said.
Slater’s injury capped a dismal day for Leicester, who were blown away by dominant displays from Saracens locks George Kruis and Maro Itoje.
Thanks to that duo, Saracens, unbeaten in 15 matches in all competitions, extended their lead at the top of the Premiership to six points.
James Hook kicked 17 points as Gloucester fought back to beat London Irish 27-14 at Kingsholm.
Irish led 14-6 at half-time through converted tries from Alex Lewington and Ciaran Hearn as they sought to make it back-to-back Premiership wins for the first time in nine months.
Gloucester were struggling at that stage, but Hook’s fine kicking, slotting over five penalties and a conversion, coupled with second-half tries from Matt Kvesic and replacement Billy Burns ensured the visitors went home with nothing.
Newcastle’s Craig Willis kicked two late penalties as his side secured their first Premiership success of the season with a 19-14 win against Bath.
The Falcons led for much of the match, were pegged back and then stole the points through the boot of Willis.
In the day’s late match, Danny Cipriani’s foot was the decisive factor as Sale beat Wasps 15-9.
After Cipriani’s early penalty, Wasps led 6-3 at the break when stand-off Jimmy Gopperth’s penalty was followed by center Elliott Daly’s drop-goal.
However, Cipriani leveled it again with the first of three second-half penalties.
Gopperth kicked a second penalty, but Cipriani’s drop-goal secured a third Premiership win of the season to lift them above Bath into seventh.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS