The Lions' worst nightmare: Australia's returning 6ft 8in, 23st giant is ready to bulldoze the tourists and bring bodyline to rugby - here's why Andy Farrell should be terrified
Will Skelton is back, as the symbol of heightened Australian might and menace, for a game the hosts cannot lose. Joe Schmidt 's wounded Wallabies are primed to respond to their 'submissive' surrender in Brisbane last Saturday by meeting fire with fire.
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Glasgow Times
7 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Family announces death of Irish training great Edward O'Grady
O'Grady trained a whole host of top-class horses over the course of his long and illustrious career and for a long time was the leading Irish trainer at the Cheltenham Festival where he saddled 18 winners, the first being Mr Midland in the 1974 National Hunt Chase. A statement released by his family through Horse Racing Ireland read: 'It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of Edward O'Grady, who passed away peacefully yesterday evening at St James's Hospital (in Dublin), surrounded by his family. 'Edward was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and also one of the most respected and successful racehorse trainers of his generation. 'Over the course of an extraordinary career that spanned more than five decades, Edward trained just shy of 1,700 winners under rules. His name became synonymous with Irish National Hunt racing, and he was a formidable force at Cheltenham and across the racing world. 'Beyond the winners and the headlines, Edward was a man of deep intelligence, sharp wit, and remarkable warmth. He had friends on every continent, a story for every occasion, and a lifelong passion for the sport, the hunting field and everything equestrian. 'Funeral details will be announced in due course.' Edward O'Grady gives interviews after Cash and Go won at Leopardstown (Niall Carson/PA) Perhaps the most talented horse to pass through O'Grady's hands was Golden Cygnet, a brilliant winner of the 1978 Supreme Novices' Hurdle but fatally injured in the Scottish Champion Hurdle the following month. More recent Festival winners for O'Grady include Pizarro, who landed the 2002 Champion Bumper in the hands of top Flat jockey Jamie Spencer, and the 2003 Supreme scorer Back In Front. Away from Cheltenham, O'Grady saddled Sound Man to win successive runnings of the Tingle Creek at Sandown in 1995 and 1996, while his final Grade One winner was Cash And Go in the Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown's Christmas Festival in 2011. Other top-class horses he trained include 2002 Irish Champion Hurdle winner Ned Kelly and his half-brother Nick Dundee, who both carried the colours of Coolmore supremo John Magnier. O'Grady trained for more than 50 years from his base in County Tipperary, taking over at Killeens after the death of his father, Willie – a former dual Irish champion jockey and later trainer – in January 1972. His final winner came via Our Soldier in a Bellewstown handicap hurdle at the start of July, while his last runner, Sovereign Banter, finished unplaced in a Cork sprint on Friday night.
Daily Mirror
7 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
'There'd be an extra Bank Holiday and a dozen knighthoods if the boys won the Euros'
If the men's team had the success of England's Lionesses, there'd be a Bank Holiday and knighthoods, says Fleet Street Fox. No matter how many times you smash the patriarchy, there's always more of it The future king was there. Three Lions On A Shirt was belted out from the stands. And a clean sweep of newspaper front pages this morning, to be followed by an open-top bus parade through the capital city and a Downing Street reception. To many, those are all signs that women's football is now as beloved and celebrated as that played by men. And for the fans, that's absolutely true. But for the England Lionesses who swept to victory in the Euros for the second time in three years, it couldn't be more wrong. Because if it had been the Lions who'd lifted the cup - any cup, frankly, and just the once would do - there would be so much more. The actual King watching. A song of their own. A reception hosted by the Prime Minister, not his deputy. Newspaper front pages not just when they win, but when they marry, have babies, retire, or drink a yard of ale in a dentist's chair. And there'd be a bank holiday. No ifs or buts about the economic cost, because it would be as important a national event as the late Queen's Jubilee or the Coronation. Rachel Reeves would say "it's not like anyone will get any work done, so take the day and at least the pubs will be busy". It wouldn't be a dull Downing Street party if the men had won, in the same way you wouldn't have had to tell off Prince William in 2023 for not attending the World Cup finals. There'd be a drunken conga through the ballrooms of Buckingham Palace, and knighthoods would rain from the sky. The Lionesses have been honoured. And manager Sarina Wiegman is to be made an honorary dame. But here's what's really wonky: Gareth Southgate was knighted, and under him the Lions won rock all. At this point a (male) keyboard warrior will say that this is about demanding more for women when they already get plenty. Only Sarina's salary is about £400,000 with performance-related bonuses, and Southgate was on £5m for a performance that was nowhere near as good. It takes Harry Kane a week at Bayern Munich to earn what Sarina gets in a year, with none of the pressure or paperwork. There has been equal pay for Lions and Lionesses since 2020, all of them getting a nominal fee of £2,000 per match. For winning the Euros, the women also share 40% of the £4.3m prize pot, landing them another £75,000 each. But the prize pot for the men is FOUR TIMES that. At the World Cup in 2023 where the Lionesses got to the final, they shared £2.3m, which could have been £3.3m if they had won. By comparison the men's team pocketed £13.3m, and they were knocked out in the quarter-finals. When Southgate's team successfully shot some penalties, the nation decided it was down to the waistcoat and sales of three piece suits leapt. When Wiegman's team does better, and goes further, there is no such thing as a lucky hairband or sexy spectacles. Had the Lionesses lost, it would have been painted as a shameful defeat. When that happens to the men, over and over and over again, they're plucky British underdogs who won a moral victory. What men don't realise, and women everywhere do, is that as it is for the Lionesses so it is for the rest. The constant need to prove you're worth accepting even after you've been accepted, the lower pay and higher demands, the pats-on-the-head rather than pats-on-the-back. Even when they've smashed the patriarchy, taken back control of the game women have played for more than 2,000 years, made it more beautiful, less violent, and told a better story, it's still not enough to convince some fat desk jockey they're worth the sponsorship, salary and perks that men take as their due. Men who do worse. Men who play worse, achieve less, and get more praise and honour for what they can't do as well. It happens in every workplace, every classroom, every family home. Boys get told 'well done', and girls are told 'try again'. It's the same for actual lions, too - the men get the glorious mane, and wander up for first gnaw on the antelope after the women went to all the effort of killing it. There are just two perks women footballers have which the men don't. They're allowed to be gay, and they keep being given a damned good reason to go out and smash it again next week. Sport often leads the way in social change - women's football in Victorian England, the apartheid boycotts of the 1980s - so perhaps one day the Lionesses will have won enough that mums and dads, bosses and big brothers and HR directors, will all start treating males and females according to their successes, and not an outdated sense of social inferiority. Maybe it will take a Lionesses v Lions match to finally settle the point; I bet you the men would rather not. But don't worry too much about missing out on a Bank Holiday. Because if the Lions were playing last night, you still wouldn't have one.
BBC News
7 minutes ago
- BBC News
Itoje & Furlong approach nine Lions Test caps
Lions captain Maro Itoje and prop Tadhg Furlong will win their ninth Test caps for the Lions if selected for Saturday's men are on their third tours for the Lions and will move into elite territory if they face Australia in Farrell currently has seven caps and will hope to win his eighth this a look at the top 10 most-capped Lions players:17 caps - Willie John McBride13 caps - Dickie Jeeps12 caps - Mike Gibson, Graham Price, Alun Wyn Jones10 caps - Tony O'Reilly, RH Williams, Gareth Edwards9 caps - Syd Millar, Mako Vunipola
