Have your say: What's your favourite Lions memory?
What are your favourite, or least favourite, memories and stories from
Lions tours
down the years? Waltzing O'Driscoll in 2001? Jeremy Guscott's drop goal in 1997? Seán O'Brien's try against the All Blacks in 2017? Any others that instantly spring to mind?
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Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Rugby Championship: TV details, fixtures and team news for southern hemisphere competition
Who is playing and when? With two years to go until the Rugby World Cup in Australia, this year's Rugby Championship offers an early glimpse into the plans of the southern hemisphere heavyweights as they start shaping their squads for the 2027 tournament. South Africa and Australia open this year's championship at Ellis Park in Johannesburg at 4.10pm on Saturday, while Argentina and New Zealand clash in their round one opener in Cordoba later in the day at 10.10pm. Where can you watch the games? You can watch all the games on Sky Sports Action, with coverage generally starting 10 minutes before kickoff. Full list of fixtures August 16th South Africa v Australia, 4.10pm Argentina v New Zealand, 10.10pm August 23rd South Africa v Australia, 4.10pm Argentina v New Zealand, 10.10pm September 6th Australia v Argentina, 5.30am New Zealand v South Africa, 8.05am September 13th Australia v Argentina, 5am New Zealand v South Africa, 8.05am September 27th New Zealand v Australia, 6.05am South Africa v Argentina, 4.10pm October 4th Australia v New Zealand, 10.45am Argentina v South Africa, 2pm How are the teams looking? South Africa are the current world champions and Rugby Championship holders, and look the team to beat again despite a tough two-test visit to New Zealand, including their nemesis Eden Park in Auckland, where they have not won since 1937. The All Blacks swept their three-match July series against an understrength France and will have eyes on regaining a title they have won for a record 20 times, boosted by facing their bitter old rivals at home. Australia finished their British & Irish Lions series on a high with a victory in the rain in Sydney as coach Joe Schmidt continues their rebuild until he hands over the reins to Les Kiss in mid-2026. Argentina, a threat to any side on their day but also prone to inconsistency, start again as underdogs but with plenty of bite. South Africa look to settle on best side With the new Rugby Nations Championship to start in 2026, this will be the last southern hemisphere tournament until a likely shortened version ahead of the 2027 World Cup. Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus has used close to 50 players this year in easy wins over Italy (twice) and Georgia, but it will be a step up in quality against Australia in tests in Johannesburg and Cape Town in the opening two rounds. South Africa's coach Rassie Erasmus. Photograph: Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Erasmus has continued to innovate tactics and the influence of attack coach Tony Brown on their style of play has become evident. This Springboks side is vastly improved from the one that lifted the World Cup in 2019, and is arguably also superior to the winning side in 2023. But Erasmus admits a concern as to their battle-readiness after their July canter. 'You can look at battle-readiness in two ways,' he said. 'We haven't lost a player to injury, which bodes well for the Rugby Championship, but none of the matches we played were close. 'We could pick from a full squad, and we weren't challenged tactically by Italy and Georgia, but those were physical matches.' New Zealand still with work to do New Zealand may have swept France, but the general consensus is they are still a work in progress for coach Scott Robertson after he took over from Ian Foster following the last World Cup. They have talisman Beauden Barrett back from a hand injury and it will be interesting to see who gets the nod at outhalf with Damian McKenzie also in the mix, and ahead of the return of Richie Mo'unga next year. 'You've got an Aussie team that played some great footy at the back of their Test series [against the Lions],' Robertson said. 'You've got the South Africans. We know how strong they are and the Argentinians on their day are so creative. It's a hell of a competition, very tight and just what we need.' Injury concerns for Australia and Argentina Schmidt is juggling several injury concerns for Australia, whose last Rugby Championship title came in 2015, but expects the key trio of loose-forward Rob Valetini, lock Will Skelton and prop Taniela Tupou to be fit for Saturday. Outhalf Tom Lynagh and prop Allan Alaalatoa remain longer-term casualties. Argentina have several injury concerns too, but welcome back Juan Cruz Mallía, Santiago Chocobares, Marcos Kremer, Bautista Delguy, Mateo Carreras and Ignacio Ruiz from the squad that lost their July series 2-0 to an understrength England. (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Jac Morgan's pivotal Lions moment reignites jackling debate in rugby
Another Lions tour added to the annals, and everyone is more or less happy. The British & Irish Lions take a series win, just about, and Australia have a pivotal moment at the end of the second Test to whinge about, or console themselves over, depending on your viewpoint. Certainly, these days, it is difficult to know what disciplinary outcome may pertain to each incident in the cut and thrust of elite rugby. Most people with eyes can appreciate there was no head contact when Jac Morgan tried to clear out the jackling Carlo Tizzano in the build-up to Hugo Keenan's winning try, but there is no doubt, either, that Tizzano was in an exposed position, just as that particular split-second represented an impossible situation for Morgan. Had he gone any lower he would have made contact with the head, higher and he would have missed the clearout altogether. Beyond the noise of yet more grown-ups who should know better carrying on as if they were the first to find themselves on the wrong side of a contentious decision, a wider question has bubbled up again – and this one has been brewing for a while – about whether the time has come to put the jackal to sleep once and for all. Indeed, lexically, World Rugby has tried to do just that. In the latest amendment to its law book, all mentions of 'the jackal' and its variations have been replaced by 'the stealer'. This may be because of the conjugation of a verb that did not exist in the English language until rugby came along. Before it removed them altogether, World Rugby chose to spell the inflections of the verb 'to jackal' so that they matched those of the verb 'to tackle', rather than 'to pedal', causing mayhem in editorial offices across the world. READ MORE Some people consider the jackal sacrosanct, the ultimate embodiment of the contest for the ball that distinguishes rugby union from various other collision sports. Once upon a time it tended to be the preserve of the openside flanker. Nowadays, with hundreds of tackles a match, a team need multiple players proficient at the skill. But once upon a time really is not very long ago in this case. The jackal is a phenomenon of the professional era. A few years ago, in the Welford Road press room, discussing it were a couple of former internationals; one who retired just before the game turned pro, the other whose career started just after. When they were asked who first became renowned for their jackling, there was a moment's silence. The international from the amateur era looked blank. The one from the pro era, after some thought, offered Josh Kronfeld, the All Blacks openside of the late 1990s. Which feels about right. New Zealand flanker Josh Kronfeld hurdles in on England's Matt Perry during the Rugby World Cup pool match at Twickenham in 2009. Photograph:This is not to say no one ever went for the ball after a tackle in the amateur era, but there was not a name for the practice, and the window of opportunity was brief, with 'hands off' called the moment an opponent bound on to form a ruck. There are two main arguments for querying the jackal's pervasiveness in the modern game. The first is a safety matter, although why we should pick on that area above any other is not obvious. Rugby is a dangerous game. The sooner the authorities recognise that by reserving their sanctions for deliberate acts of recklessness, the fewer impossible disciplinary quandaries there will be to resolve. Jacklers, though, do place themselves in vulnerable positions – and it is not just the head that is exposed. A team doctor in the English Premiership mused about 15 years ago that there was a new injury in rugby, which had been seen previously only in surfing, when the surfer is hit by a wave while crouched on the board. That injury, a serious one, is called an avulsion, when the hamstring is torn from the bone, and it is the jackler who suffers it if hit hard enough by a clearout. So much for the safety. There is also a compelling argument on rugby grounds. The great poser these days is how to get players back into the ruck. The game has never been more vibrant and entertaining on the field, but insofar as there are bad games, which of course there are, they usually play out to the relentless thud of hit-up after hit-up as defenders fan across the field. The main reason they can do that is that they need to send only one player in at every tackle to jackal, who in turn invites two or three of the attacking side to clear out, thus tilting the balance beyond the ruck in favour of the defending side. Make it illegal to use hands after the tackle, so the theory goes, and the ruck will become the primary contest for the ball at each tackle. A turnover can be won when the first defender steps over the ball. Thus teams will need to resource the rucks if they want to maintain possession or win it back. That should create space elsewhere. It sounds reasonable, but there will almost certainly be downsides, as there always are in rugby's eternal quest for the perfect set of laws. A personal view is that far too much latitude has been extended to the jackler, who is now granted rights to handle the ball, if the first one there, long after any ruck has formed. At the very least, rugby might consider a return to what used to be lore: that all hands come off the moment a ruck is formed. A happy side effect might be to calm the ardour of the clearout, where players almost panic at the sight of a jackler and charge in desperation. Any situation that permits a defender to put the attacking side in an impossible situation needs reviewing. The jackler is a prime example. Coming to a law trial near you … –
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Former Premier League referee David Coote given eight-week ban over Jürgen Klopp comments
Former Premier League referee David Coote has been given an eight-week suspension and told to attend an education programme over abusive words he used about ex- Liverpool head coach Jürgen Klopp . Coote was charged by the English Football Association in June after the comments about Klopp came to light in a video circulated on social media last November. The FA said he had subsequently admitted the charge. Coote's misconduct was defined as an aggravated breach under the FA's rules because there was a reference to Klopp's nationality. Coote was sacked by Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) last December, a month after the video filmed in July 2020 came to light. READ MORE PGMOL said in confirming Coote's dismissal last December that his position had become 'untenable'. In it, Coote is heard saying it had been 's**t' to be fourth official at a Liverpool match in the summer of 2020, describing Klopp as a 'German c**t'. He also said Klopp was 'f*****g arrogant'. When the FA charged him over the Klopp comments in June, the governing body said Coote would face no further action in regard to separate allegations of gambling misconduct, which he had strenuously denied. The FA said those allegations had been fully investigated. Coote was banned by European football's governing body Uefa in February until June 30th, 2026 after a different video emerged of him snorting a white powder through a bank note while in Germany for last summer's Euros. In January, Coote came out as gay in an interview with the Sun and said that a lifelong struggle to hide his sexuality had contributed to the rant about Klopp, and to his drug use. 'My sexuality isn't the only reason that led me to be in that position. But I'm not telling an authentic story if I don't say that I'm gay and that I've had real struggles with hiding that,' he said. 'I hid my emotions as a young ref and I hid my sexuality as well – a good quality as a referee but a terrible quality as a human being. And that's led me to a whole course of behaviours.' Coote's formal response to the FA charge was detailed in the regulatory commission's written reasons which were published alongside the confirmation of the sanctions imposed. He accepted his words about Klopp were 'crass, inappropriate and unworthy of the role that he held within the game' and asked the commission to accept that his decision not to attend the hearing was not made out of avoidance, but due to his mental state. Coote said the words did not respect his true view of Klopp, for whom he had always had a deep professional respect. The panel wrote: 'DC [Coote] stated that he felt an immense sense of shame. He had lost a career that formed the very core of his identity. He had lost all his income and the media attention had deepened his sense of humiliation and despair. 'He was trying to piece his life back together, from a place of near total collapse.'
