England's clash with USA halted due to lightning fears
England players celebrate scoring a try in the first half of their Test match against the United States (Alex Brandon/AP)
Scottish referee Sam Grove-White took the players off the field after telling them that was more lightning in the area.
The game had been due to start at 1705 local time (2205 BST) but USA Rugby released a statement 10 minutes before the scheduled kick-off time.
'Match Update. Weather delay ahead of the USA Men vs England match,' the governing body wrote on X.
Match Update
Weather delay ahead of the USA Men vs England match.
New Kick off time will be shared shortly.
— USA Rugby (@USARugby) July 19, 2025
'New kick-off time will be shared shortly.'
The game eventually began at 1805 local time (2305 BST).
England Rugby posted on their X account that the kick-off was delayed due to a lightning strike in the American capital.
A giant screen at Audi Field told fans to 'exit the seating bowl' and 'seek shelter in the concourse'.
The USA v England game at Audi Field, Washington DC, has been delayed due to weather.#USAvENG pic.twitter.com/gst8E5JqxW
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) July 19, 2025
Football's Club World Cup was recently held in the US and the tournament was plagued by extreme weather.
Several games were played in fierce heat with temperatures sometimes exceeding 35 degrees Celsius, and Chelsea's tie with Benfica suffered a lengthy delay after a Charlotte thunderstorm forced the players off the field.
Steve Borthwick's England were due to wrap up their season against the Eagles after beating Argentina 2-0 in South America.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
16 minutes ago
- Daily Record
Josh Taylor not willing to 'play the lottery' with his health as Scottish boxing hero lifts lid on shock retirement
The former undisputed champion of the world hung up his gloves for good last week Josh Taylor admits he could have carried on his boxing career - but it could have came at the expense of his health. The Prestonpans fighter - who reigned as super-lightweight world champion of the world between 2021 and 2022 and the only UK boxer to ever hold all four major belts in a division - announced his retirement from the sport last week after being advised to pack it in on medical grounds. Taylor says he made the decision to call it quits after learning he had suffered damage to his left eye retina in the wake of his loss to Ekou Essuman at the end of May. The 34-year-old - who was also a 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, reveals that he could have carried on fighting if his own-well being did not come first. Speaking to iFL TV, the ex 135-pound champion said: "It was the right decision for my health. I would have loved to continue. "It's all healed up now as I had laser surgery on my eye. They thought they saw a wee tear in my retinal tissue and in the end they found six tears. "So I thought 'right, that's it, I've got to look after my health now'. I probably could have continued but it was a big risk to take. "I was literally one punch away from going blind in that eye. "Could I have continued? probably. But given the risks from what I got told and given what I have achieved in the sport, it's the best decision I have to make for my health. Taylor finished his career with three consecutive defeats to Essuman, rival Jack Catterall and American star Teofimo Lopez. And the Scot concedes he is still coming to terms with putting up the gloves for good. "I've had a couple of weeks to digest it now but it's all still a bit raw and emotional", he added. "It's a big of f****** heartache still but I am getting there. "I have got six belts sitting in my living room that I can sit and look at, think about and be proud of. "I am very proud of what I have achieved for Scottish boxing and to pave the way for the next generation coming through. I feel very proud that I have put it back on the map. "It's still quite raw knowing it's the end and that I haven't gone out on my own terms. "I have had problems with my eye since 2019 and had three operations on it. I'm not playing the lottery with my health anymore."
Scotsman
16 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Inside Dundee United's memorable European trip of 28 years ago as milestones up for grabs in Vienna
I was there for both legs of thumping win over Andorrans Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Of all the ties involving Scottish clubs this week, one in particular sticks out. Rapid Vienna versus Dundee United sets the pulse racing, evoking memories of the night the great penalty innovator Antonin Panenka graced the Tannadice turf (along with Hans Krankl) but could not stop Jim McLean's side progressing to the last four of the European Cup. 'It was the fulfilment of another impossible dream for the club that has dragged itself forward in the past decade,' wrote Wallace Moore in the next morning's Daily Record. Sweeter still, it meant emulating Dundee's achievement of 21 years earlier. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad United are returning on Thursday to Vienna, where Derek Stark slammed home a priceless away goal in March 1984. They have been emboldened by last week's long overdue aggregate victory over Luxembourg's UNA Strassen. While this success hardly seemed like news to stop the traffic, there was surprise from many – manager Jim Goodwin among them – when it was noted that it was in fact United's first victory in a European tie since 1997. It was not news to me, however. I was there for both legs of the thumping aggregate win over Club Esportiu Principat of Andorra. Derek Stark was on target the last time Dundee United travelled to face Rapid Vienna en route to reaching the European Cup semi-finals. | SNS Group What has been surprising to discover is that United have not progressed through successive rounds of European competition since that never-to-be-forgotten run to reach the Uefa Cup final in 1987, when the likes of Borussia Moenchengladbach and Barcelona were put to the sword. Maybe not as memorably, but nearly as impressively, very decent opposition in the shape of Lens, Hadjuk Split and Universitatea Craiova were also taken care of. So while playing for a place in the semi-finals of Europe's premier club competition is now a pipe dream for both United and Rapid Vienna, there's still much at stake in this tie, with the winners rewarded with a Conference League play-off round berth. Additionally, a victory in the rebuilt Weststadion in the Hutteldorf district of Vienna would represent a very significant milestone for United. It would stand as their 50th victory in Europe stretching all the way back to that celebrated maiden win in 1966 against the team now firmly installed as their patsies: Barcelona. Modern times have not been so storied, with aggregate wins over the likes of Glentoran, Coleraine and Fimleikafelag Hafnarfjordur of Iceland interspersed with painful KOs delivered by the Tatran Presovs and MyPa-47s of the world. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Fans of Rapid Vienna, who host Dundee United in the first leg of the UEFA Conference League third qualifying round on Thursday, hold up their scarves in support of their team at the Weststadion. (Photo by) | Getty Images Goals galore and a recognisable referee The games against Principat were, however, a lot of fun. The first leg in Andorra – 23 July, 1997 - was particularly memorable for this writer since it was my first European trip for The Scotsman and involved taking a charter flight from Dundee airport with Tommy McLean's team to Toulouse. We were then decanted into a bus for a nausea-inducing ride through the Pyrenees to Andorra. However far they had fallen from the days the previous decade when they were jousting with giants, if a soothsayer had told anyone on that trip that United, recent European aristocrats, would not win another European tie for almost thirty – yes, thirty – years, well, it would have called for another round of (stiff) drinks for their fans. The tiny principality proved a hospitable place for the 100 or so supporters who made the trip. The generosity extended to United, who helped themselves to eight goals (Robbie Winters 4, Gary McSwegan 3 and Lars Zetterlund). Re-reading my report of the match, it ought to have been more. Erik Pedersen's penalty was saved by overworked 'keeper Rui de Castro. It was awarded by referee Pierluigi Collina. Whatever became of him? The Andorran leg was the first leg so the job was only, er, half done. The second leg was of course academic although United had a record aggregate victory in their sights. An 11-0 win would have done it, bettering Rangers' 18-0 aggregate win over Valetta in 1983, which still stands as the record for a Scottish club. United 'only' hit another nine to book an appointment with Turkish side Trabzonspor from the Black Sea port city of Trabzon (interestingly, Rapid Vienna were potential opponents when the draw was made). Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad That, too, was a strange but memorable trip. Popular United 'keeper Sieb Dykstra complained about being distracted by the call for prayers from the mosque behind his goal at Trabzonspor's winner. Jim Goodwin is the first Dundee United manager since Tommy McLean in 1997 to win a European tie. (Photo by Marcel Bonte / SNS Group) | SNS Group What became of Principat? But that's another story. We're recalling the time Dundee United beat a team from Andorra whose HQ appeared to be a restaurant. A quick internet search suggests Charlie's restaurant, which was themed on Charlie Chaplin obviously and sponsored the team, has since closed. This also appeared to have been the fate of the club. Wikipedia claims Principat folded in 2015, which was sad news given the memories of the 1997 tie and their European pedigree that extended beyond debut games against Dundee United to involve ties against Ferencvaros (1-14 – a goal!) and Viking of Iceland (0-18). However, an email address found on the Andorran FA website suggested the club still existed in some form, and so it proved. They had re-formed as a futsal team, the small-sided, indoor version of football, so unlikely to re-appear on the European stage anytime soon, but still performing a very admirable function. A phone number was produced. I learned from an official that not only does the name survive, the actual club is set to return to competitive 11-aside football. Principat will play in the second tier of the Andorran league, with their opening game scheduled for as soon as next month in La Massana. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
The Guardian
17 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Oasis-style ticketing and expendable fans: the battle to retain football's soul
'I'm a bit younger, so this is all I've known,' says Nick Clarke, 'but something that defines this moment is the feeling that it's our last chance. You know that phrase: 'The game's gone'? I think the game is genuinely going away. It's excluding traditional supporters and the communities that built the clubs in the first place.' Clarke has just celebrated his 30th birthday and is coming off the back of a big season. As one of the four season-ticket holders behind the MCFC Fans Foodbank Support, Clarke has been active among the Manchester City fanbase and in the community since the pandemic. With the growing concern over the pricing and provision of tickets at his club last year, he helped coordinate protests by fans whose rivalries go back generations, but whose problems are increasingly shared. Supporters of Everton, Liverpool and Manchester United and others joined City fans under the banner 'Stop Exploiting Loyalty' and in doing so became part of a new wave of supporter activism. 'I know there's all these things about multi-club ownership, private and state ownership, playing games abroad, accusations of killing the soul of the game,' Clarke says. 'But, really, what is the game? It's the communities that go to it, it's the communities that have made the clubs who they are, going back four, five, six generations till their very inception. 'The wider football supporter community are only just now cottoning on that we have so much more in common and if we don't stand together the game is going to be gone before we know it. That's all we have to do and all we can do. We just need to really keep up that momentum.' It already seems there will be reason for fans to take a stand once more this season. It is not the first time they will have come together to demand change, but for those with clubs at the top of the pyramid there is a sense the ground is shifting and the needs of fans is becoming an afterthought, if not an outright problem. At the heart is a concern that clubs want to move away from having matches filled with season-ticket holders towards something more casual, and more lucrative. Imagine every Premier League fixture becoming more like an Oasis gig, for ever. 'The problems are different at different levels of the game,' says Tom Greatrex, the new chair of the Football Supporters' Association, who drove the Stop Exploiting Loyalty campaign. 'In the Premier League, and at the top of the Championship, Stop Exploiting Loyalty has helped to bring to the fore a set of issues that have been developing over a period of time. 'We are seeing that parts of clubs' fanbases, which have traditionally been loyal and go home and away, are now almost expendable to not all, but many of the people that currently run a number of those clubs. It's gone beyond exploitation to expendability.' Fans are suffering rises in ticket prices, the lowering or ending of ticket concessions and initiatives that require season-ticket holders to attend a certain number of games each season or risk losing their place, as examples of this trend. According to Greatrex, the effects are being felt in some grounds. 'The number of people who are there almost to experience something which they're not necessarily part of has tipped into a significant proportion to the extent that it undermines the thing they're going there to experience,' he says. 'There is a real danger that in a short-term push for increased revenue from matchday tickets and associated spend that clubs are in danger of actually undermining the whole 'product' they're so proud of.' One topic that crystallises the anxiety over expendability is that of matches being selected for TV. There will be more televised games than ever this season, with Sky showing a minimum 215 Premier League fixtures. With each televised match comes possible rescheduling and a potentially challenging (or even impossible) journey for fans. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion 'There can be very very short-notice changes, which make it very difficult for people to be able to attend those matches. I don't think there's been enough focus on things that could be done to mitigate some of the frustration that comes from those changes.' The FSA has called for a 12-week notice period on fixture rearrangements, the provision of more 'football special' trains and the extension of the £30 cap on away tickets into the EFL. The Premier League has committed to giving six weeks' notice of fixture adjustments on all matches until January, but last month had to apologise after failing to meet its own deadline of announcing all September adjustments by 9 July. It is striking that the mood among fans is so febrile at the time the government has passed legislation designed, in part, to give supporters more influence over their clubs. Fan consultation is a central requirement of the new Independent Football Regulator for the English men's elite game and legislation is, in part, the result of long-term campaigning by the FSA. It is not a panacea and its influence is unlikely to take hold for some seasons yet, but Greatrex, a former Labour MP, believes it can form a platform for better understanding between fans, clubs and competitions. 'More than ever, there is an appreciation – among some, it's reluctant, but among others, it's embraced – that supporters have a legitimate voice that deserves to be heard and their views to be considered,' he says. '[The regulator] is actually the basis for a much more constructive approach, which means that if clubs are sensible you can prevent a lot of the flashpoints getting to the point at which they become high profile, because you've dealt with it sensibly ahead of that time.' Clarke would much rather have dialogue than protest. 'I don't want to be doing another protest all my life,' he says. 'I know there's no easy answers but a lot of this protest energy has come because people feel they're not being listened to. That's where the anger comes from.'
