A cheeky backheeled conversion capped a scintillating eight-try display by the Barbarians as the invitational rugby team thrashed England 52-21, despite playing with 14 men for 43 minutes of the match, at Twickenham on Sunday.
It ended up being a humiliating afternoon for England and their coach, Eddie Jones, who was without players from Leicester and Saracens — they played in the English Premiership final on Saturday — and put out an experimental team that was outclassed by a BaaBaas lineup that had been together for just a week.
Australian lock Will Skelton became the first player sent off in Barbarians history when his shoulder to the head of Patrick Schickerling ended the England prop’s afternoon because of a failed head injury assessment.
Photo: Reuters
That did not stop the Barbarians from toying with England as Charles Ollivon, Damian Penaud (two), Baptiste Couilloud, Louis Carbonel, Max Spring and Antoine Hastoy all crossed for tries to follow on from an early penalty try.
Former England lock George Kruis captained the BaaBaas and converted three of the tries — one of them while facing the wrong way as he backheeled the ball over the crossbar and between the posts in his final professional game before retirement.
It was the biggest win for the Barbarians against England, giving Jones food for thought ahead of next month’s three-Test series against hosts Australia.
Photo: Reuters
Jones played down the significance of the rout.
“We approached the game in a particular strategic way. We wanted to try to play a bit differently, extend ourselves and give the young guys an opportunity to show their ability, particularly with the ball,” Jones said.
“But we were beaten pretty badly at the breakdown, so it’s a good reminder of how much work we have to do before Australia,” Jones said. “It’s great preparation for Australia, but we’re obviously not happy with the result.”
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
RSS