‘Too late to slow down': Koroibete on that Adelaide tackle and unfinished Wallabies business
'I predicted right – but I got there too early,' Koroibete continues. 'Instead of tackling with my right shoulder, I used my left. I was lucky I didn't get a yellow card, maybe, looking at it. But I did try to use my arms.
'I was full-tilt. And when the ball was there, it was too late to slow down. I thought, 'Yep, just have to do this'.'
Without a single tap on the brakes, Koroibete collided with Mapimpe, sending the Boks winger skyward and almost straight over the corner post like a high jumper. Commentators were confused – did Mapimpe leap? – until replays revealed the crazy that had unfolded.
'It was like he was shot out of a cannon,' former All Black Andrew Mehrtens said of Koroibete.
Koroibete: 'It didn't hurt, it was just a shock. It's a full sprint and then eyes up and the ball was there. It happened so quick. I was just lying down and thinking, 'What's just happened?' The boys pulled me up and go, 'You got him'.'
'The boys pulled me up and go, 'You got him'.'
Marika Koroibete
Koroibete also scored a try that day, and was in the middle of everything. He was man of the match as the Wallabies defeated the world champion Springboks.
'That was my first time playing here,' Koroibete said. 'And hopefully there are some more good memories to make this weekend.'
This weekend Koroibete is back in the City of Churches as one of the star attractions of the Australian and New Zealand Invitational XV, who play the British and Irish Lions on Saturday night, in the last tour match before the Test series gets underway.
In 2022, when Koroibete was at the peak of his powers and won his second John Eales medal, it would have been easy to assume the flying Fijian would go on to be part of the Wallabies' Test campaign against the Lions in 2025. He is still only 32.
But some challenging years then followed for Koroibete. The 2023 Rugby World Cup, and Test season, was a slog with no real winners, and 2024 saw Koroibete's form dip for the Wallabies. It ultimately ended in surgery for a broken wrist.
So when Joe Schmidt was putting together a squad to take on the British and Irish Lions, he rang Koroibete in Japan and explained he was going with local players.
'I understood that,' Koroibete said. 'They have a lot of players playing well and I spoke to Joe, and totally agreed with what he was saying.'
The mystery of Koroibete's fall from grace tracks back to the end of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, when the former Storm star says his love for rugby was majorly challenged. They'd been preparing intensively for months.
'You work so hard for something, and get nothing for it, it's tough,' he said.
But as many Australian-based players went home and took a long break, Koroibete had two weeks off and was straight back into the grind for Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan.
'I went back and thought, 'I'll play well for my club, and then get my break'. Playing for the Wallabies, and building for a World Cup, it takes a big toll out of you,' he said.
When that season finally finished, Koroibete was cooked, and, believing the Wallabies would look to rebuild their squad in 2024, he didn't expect a call-up from new coach Schmidt.
'I relaxed, and was in half-holiday mode. I didn't do any training and in my mind I was going to come back to the Wallabies. My mind switched off. I was just like, 'I will go home and then go back to Japan in September',' Koroibete said.
'But I got picked, and I went in. Yeah, I know I wasn't in my best form last year. And I ended up getting injured.'
Koroibete broke his wrist in the first ten minutes of the Wallabies' tight loss to New Zealand in Sydney but played on, and it wasn't revealed until a week later. He thought it was only a bruise but when asked to do a push-up, he couldn't. Surgery followed.
Koroibete had an injury-affected season in Japan but says he is now in good nick, and returns to Adelaide in a far better place mentally as well.
He is not done, as far as Wallabies aspirations go, and plans on showing Schmidt – and the Australian rugby public – as much against the Lions.
'This year, mentally, I am totally different,' Koroibete said. 'Even though I didn't play that much games with my wrist injury, this year I am in good shape and I want to get back to my best, and show that.
'There is a lot of high expectation for me from people, because I had been playing well for the Wallabies for the last few years.
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'Meeting that expectation is my big motivation this year. I want to get back to my best.
'Not being picked in the Wallabies, I understood. But now we have just this weekend to try and show my potential. Hopefully,I will get a call from Joe later on, if he needs me.'
The AUNZ side is a unique chance to impress a whole bunch of people.
'It is a team that hasn't played together since 1989 – 36 years there – so for us, it is a massive opportunity to show the Anzac spirit,' Koroibete said.
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The Advertiser
37 minutes ago
- The Advertiser
Norris closes gap on Piastri in Hungary thriller
Oscar Piastri tried everything to overtake Lando Norris in a tense finish but his McLaren teammate held on to win the Hungarian Grand Prix and boost his F1 title chances heading into the mid-season break. Norris clung on with worn tyres as Piastri loomed behind him in the final laps. He celebrated on Sunday with a double fist pump on top of his car after claiming McLaren's 200th F1 win by less than a second to cut Piastri's lead to nine points from 16. "I'm dead. It was tough, it was tough," Norris said. "The final stint, with Oscar catching, I was pushing flat out." It was a race shaped as much by smart strategy as gritty driving. Norris briefly dropped to fifth on the first lap but made his tyres last to stop only once, while Piastri changed twice. When race engineer Will Joseph asked Norris on the radio, "Lando, 40 laps on the hard tyre, you up for it?" Norris replied: "Yeah, why not?" Piastri said: "I pushed as hard as I could. After I saw Lando going for a one-stop, I knew I was going to have to overtake on track, which is much easier said than done around here." Looking at his late passing attempt, he said: "I think I needed to be at least a couple of tenths closer which was going to take a mistake from Lando to achieve that. "I felt that was going to be my best chance. You never want to try and save it for the next lap, then it never comes, so I thought I would at least try." Piastri steadily cut into Norris' lead in the latter stages of the race but the British driver held on with old tyres to take the win. Piastri nearly collided with his teammate when he locked up a wheel while trying to pass on the second-to-last lap, earning a mild rebuke from his team. "Remember how we go racing, Oscar," came the warning from his race engineer, Tom Stallard. Norris held on to have the last word in their title fight as F1 heads into a four-week break. "Good racing. Good strategy. Good call," was how Norris summed it up on the radio. For the dominant McLaren drivers, it was their seventh 1-2 finish on the season and the team's 11th victory in 14 races in 2025. George Russell took third for Mercedes after fighting his way past Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in a contest that earned Leclerc a time penalty for nearly colliding with Russell. Defending champion Max Verstappen was only ninth. He stays third in the standings, but drops to 97 points behind Piastri. Leclerc started on pole position with hopes of landing Ferrari its first Grand Prix win of the year, but ended up fourth. "This is so incredibly frustrating. We've lost all competitiveness," he told the team over the radio. Leclerc dropped so far off the pace in his final stint that the two McLaren drivers and Russell questioned what happened to him as they chatted after the race. A day after calling himself "useless" and questioning whether Ferrari might need to replace him, Lewis Hamilton ended up 12th, exactly where he started. Hamilton said he's facing issues "in the background". "When you have a feeling, you have a feeling. There's a lot going on in the background that is not great," Hamilton said. But asked if he'd lost his love of racing, he said no. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: "Lewis is wearing his heart on his sleeve. "It was very raw what he said. He was hard on himself. We have seen it before when he felt he had not met his own expectations." Fernando Alonso took Aston Martin's best result of the season with fifth on a slow track that suited his car, with Gabriel Bortoleto a surprise sixth for Sauber and Lance Stroll seventh in the other Aston Martin. The season resumes with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 31. With agencies Oscar Piastri tried everything to overtake Lando Norris in a tense finish but his McLaren teammate held on to win the Hungarian Grand Prix and boost his F1 title chances heading into the mid-season break. Norris clung on with worn tyres as Piastri loomed behind him in the final laps. He celebrated on Sunday with a double fist pump on top of his car after claiming McLaren's 200th F1 win by less than a second to cut Piastri's lead to nine points from 16. "I'm dead. It was tough, it was tough," Norris said. "The final stint, with Oscar catching, I was pushing flat out." It was a race shaped as much by smart strategy as gritty driving. Norris briefly dropped to fifth on the first lap but made his tyres last to stop only once, while Piastri changed twice. When race engineer Will Joseph asked Norris on the radio, "Lando, 40 laps on the hard tyre, you up for it?" Norris replied: "Yeah, why not?" Piastri said: "I pushed as hard as I could. After I saw Lando going for a one-stop, I knew I was going to have to overtake on track, which is much easier said than done around here." Looking at his late passing attempt, he said: "I think I needed to be at least a couple of tenths closer which was going to take a mistake from Lando to achieve that. "I felt that was going to be my best chance. You never want to try and save it for the next lap, then it never comes, so I thought I would at least try." Piastri steadily cut into Norris' lead in the latter stages of the race but the British driver held on with old tyres to take the win. Piastri nearly collided with his teammate when he locked up a wheel while trying to pass on the second-to-last lap, earning a mild rebuke from his team. "Remember how we go racing, Oscar," came the warning from his race engineer, Tom Stallard. Norris held on to have the last word in their title fight as F1 heads into a four-week break. "Good racing. Good strategy. Good call," was how Norris summed it up on the radio. For the dominant McLaren drivers, it was their seventh 1-2 finish on the season and the team's 11th victory in 14 races in 2025. George Russell took third for Mercedes after fighting his way past Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in a contest that earned Leclerc a time penalty for nearly colliding with Russell. Defending champion Max Verstappen was only ninth. He stays third in the standings, but drops to 97 points behind Piastri. Leclerc started on pole position with hopes of landing Ferrari its first Grand Prix win of the year, but ended up fourth. "This is so incredibly frustrating. We've lost all competitiveness," he told the team over the radio. Leclerc dropped so far off the pace in his final stint that the two McLaren drivers and Russell questioned what happened to him as they chatted after the race. A day after calling himself "useless" and questioning whether Ferrari might need to replace him, Lewis Hamilton ended up 12th, exactly where he started. Hamilton said he's facing issues "in the background". "When you have a feeling, you have a feeling. There's a lot going on in the background that is not great," Hamilton said. But asked if he'd lost his love of racing, he said no. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: "Lewis is wearing his heart on his sleeve. "It was very raw what he said. He was hard on himself. We have seen it before when he felt he had not met his own expectations." Fernando Alonso took Aston Martin's best result of the season with fifth on a slow track that suited his car, with Gabriel Bortoleto a surprise sixth for Sauber and Lance Stroll seventh in the other Aston Martin. The season resumes with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 31. With agencies Oscar Piastri tried everything to overtake Lando Norris in a tense finish but his McLaren teammate held on to win the Hungarian Grand Prix and boost his F1 title chances heading into the mid-season break. Norris clung on with worn tyres as Piastri loomed behind him in the final laps. He celebrated on Sunday with a double fist pump on top of his car after claiming McLaren's 200th F1 win by less than a second to cut Piastri's lead to nine points from 16. "I'm dead. It was tough, it was tough," Norris said. "The final stint, with Oscar catching, I was pushing flat out." It was a race shaped as much by smart strategy as gritty driving. Norris briefly dropped to fifth on the first lap but made his tyres last to stop only once, while Piastri changed twice. When race engineer Will Joseph asked Norris on the radio, "Lando, 40 laps on the hard tyre, you up for it?" Norris replied: "Yeah, why not?" Piastri said: "I pushed as hard as I could. After I saw Lando going for a one-stop, I knew I was going to have to overtake on track, which is much easier said than done around here." Looking at his late passing attempt, he said: "I think I needed to be at least a couple of tenths closer which was going to take a mistake from Lando to achieve that. "I felt that was going to be my best chance. You never want to try and save it for the next lap, then it never comes, so I thought I would at least try." Piastri steadily cut into Norris' lead in the latter stages of the race but the British driver held on with old tyres to take the win. Piastri nearly collided with his teammate when he locked up a wheel while trying to pass on the second-to-last lap, earning a mild rebuke from his team. "Remember how we go racing, Oscar," came the warning from his race engineer, Tom Stallard. Norris held on to have the last word in their title fight as F1 heads into a four-week break. "Good racing. Good strategy. Good call," was how Norris summed it up on the radio. For the dominant McLaren drivers, it was their seventh 1-2 finish on the season and the team's 11th victory in 14 races in 2025. George Russell took third for Mercedes after fighting his way past Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in a contest that earned Leclerc a time penalty for nearly colliding with Russell. Defending champion Max Verstappen was only ninth. He stays third in the standings, but drops to 97 points behind Piastri. Leclerc started on pole position with hopes of landing Ferrari its first Grand Prix win of the year, but ended up fourth. "This is so incredibly frustrating. We've lost all competitiveness," he told the team over the radio. Leclerc dropped so far off the pace in his final stint that the two McLaren drivers and Russell questioned what happened to him as they chatted after the race. A day after calling himself "useless" and questioning whether Ferrari might need to replace him, Lewis Hamilton ended up 12th, exactly where he started. Hamilton said he's facing issues "in the background". "When you have a feeling, you have a feeling. There's a lot going on in the background that is not great," Hamilton said. But asked if he'd lost his love of racing, he said no. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: "Lewis is wearing his heart on his sleeve. "It was very raw what he said. He was hard on himself. We have seen it before when he felt he had not met his own expectations." Fernando Alonso took Aston Martin's best result of the season with fifth on a slow track that suited his car, with Gabriel Bortoleto a surprise sixth for Sauber and Lance Stroll seventh in the other Aston Martin. The season resumes with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 31. With agencies Oscar Piastri tried everything to overtake Lando Norris in a tense finish but his McLaren teammate held on to win the Hungarian Grand Prix and boost his F1 title chances heading into the mid-season break. Norris clung on with worn tyres as Piastri loomed behind him in the final laps. He celebrated on Sunday with a double fist pump on top of his car after claiming McLaren's 200th F1 win by less than a second to cut Piastri's lead to nine points from 16. "I'm dead. It was tough, it was tough," Norris said. "The final stint, with Oscar catching, I was pushing flat out." It was a race shaped as much by smart strategy as gritty driving. Norris briefly dropped to fifth on the first lap but made his tyres last to stop only once, while Piastri changed twice. When race engineer Will Joseph asked Norris on the radio, "Lando, 40 laps on the hard tyre, you up for it?" Norris replied: "Yeah, why not?" Piastri said: "I pushed as hard as I could. After I saw Lando going for a one-stop, I knew I was going to have to overtake on track, which is much easier said than done around here." Looking at his late passing attempt, he said: "I think I needed to be at least a couple of tenths closer which was going to take a mistake from Lando to achieve that. "I felt that was going to be my best chance. You never want to try and save it for the next lap, then it never comes, so I thought I would at least try." Piastri steadily cut into Norris' lead in the latter stages of the race but the British driver held on with old tyres to take the win. Piastri nearly collided with his teammate when he locked up a wheel while trying to pass on the second-to-last lap, earning a mild rebuke from his team. "Remember how we go racing, Oscar," came the warning from his race engineer, Tom Stallard. Norris held on to have the last word in their title fight as F1 heads into a four-week break. "Good racing. Good strategy. Good call," was how Norris summed it up on the radio. For the dominant McLaren drivers, it was their seventh 1-2 finish on the season and the team's 11th victory in 14 races in 2025. George Russell took third for Mercedes after fighting his way past Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in a contest that earned Leclerc a time penalty for nearly colliding with Russell. Defending champion Max Verstappen was only ninth. He stays third in the standings, but drops to 97 points behind Piastri. Leclerc started on pole position with hopes of landing Ferrari its first Grand Prix win of the year, but ended up fourth. "This is so incredibly frustrating. We've lost all competitiveness," he told the team over the radio. Leclerc dropped so far off the pace in his final stint that the two McLaren drivers and Russell questioned what happened to him as they chatted after the race. A day after calling himself "useless" and questioning whether Ferrari might need to replace him, Lewis Hamilton ended up 12th, exactly where he started. Hamilton said he's facing issues "in the background". "When you have a feeling, you have a feeling. There's a lot going on in the background that is not great," Hamilton said. But asked if he'd lost his love of racing, he said no. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: "Lewis is wearing his heart on his sleeve. "It was very raw what he said. He was hard on himself. We have seen it before when he felt he had not met his own expectations." Fernando Alonso took Aston Martin's best result of the season with fifth on a slow track that suited his car, with Gabriel Bortoleto a surprise sixth for Sauber and Lance Stroll seventh in the other Aston Martin. The season resumes with the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort on August 31. With agencies
Herald Sun
3 hours ago
- Herald Sun
Lando Norris wins Hungarian Grand Prix as Oscar Piastri dudded by McLaren strategy
Lando Norris has taken the chequered flag to win the Hungarian Grand Prix, holding off teammate Oscar Piastri in a nail-biting finish. Norris suffered a horror start to the race as he slipped down to fifth place, but a decision to go with a one-stop strategy paid off for the British driver as he secured his fifth win of the season. Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship™ LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1. Piastri hunted his teammate down but couldn't get past him in the final laps as he had to cross the line second with his championship lead shrinking to nine points. The Aussie driver pitted early in an attempt to undercut Ferrari's Charles Leclerc but the strategy left him with a mountain of work to do late and had fans watching on questioning if the team had favoured Norris. 'I don't know if trying to undercut Leclerc was the right call in the end but we can go through that after,' Piastri said. Behind the McLaren duo it was Mercedes' George Russell who secured the final spot on the podium with Leclerc falling down to fourth. The Ferrari driver was left seething with his own team after his race was ruined by a change in setup to the car. The Formula 1 grid will now head off for the summer break before returning for the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday, August 31. Originally published as Lando Norris wins Hungary GP as Oscar Piastri dudded by strategy
Sydney Morning Herald
3 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Absolutely insane': Harris wins first gold as Short digs deep after hospital visit
'I'm stoked,' Harris said. 'I'm sure I'll process it later, but I'm so happy. That's the most fun I've had in a race.' Short, who trains alongside Harris, watched her swim from the marshalling room ahead of his own 30-lap battle. 'It was absolutely insane,' Short said. 'She said to me, 'imagine if we both win gold'. I was thinking 'jeez that's going to be a tough ask for me'. But I wanted to pull my weight. She has worked so hard.' While Harris, McEvoy, Mollie O'Callaghan and Kaylee McKeown all claimed individual golds in Singapore, as well two from Moesha Johnson in the open water, Short left the meet with a trio of what-ifs. He missed gold in the 400m freestyle by 0.02 seconds, was forced to withdraw from the 800m due to illness, and fought bravely for fourth in the 1500m final, clocking 14:43.08 — the second-fastest time of his career. Short had to cancel lunch plans with his parents at a Singapore pub on Saturday, convinced he'd be too battered by illness to even qualify for Sunday's final. 'It's been a pretty horrible week, to be honest,' said Short, who lost three kilograms while sick. 'The 800 heat felt phenomenal and the next two days were horrible. 'I couldn't really leave my bed. I was just throwing up and had really high temperatures. I was really down the dumps. I'm just stoked to get in the final. '14:43 is a pretty good time after the week I've had.' Head coach Rohan Taylor added: 'That was unbelievable. He's a fighter.' With Australia's men's medley team failing to make the final, it was up to the Dolphins' women to try and land a final blow on the USA. With the men's medley relay team failing to make the final, it was left to McKeown, Ella Ramsay, Alex Perkins and O'Callaghan (3:52.67) to chase one last gold for the Dolphins. But the Americans, anchored by Torri Huske, were too strong, taking the title in 3:49.34. O'Callaghan, stuck on 11 world championship golds, will now have to wait until Budapest 2027 to surpass Ian Thorpe's Australian record. There were more memorable moments on the final night: France's Leon Marchand claimed gold in the 400m individual medley, though fell short of his own world record. Summer McIntosh won her fourth gold of the meet in the same race. If McIntosh were a country, she would have finished fourth on the medal tally. And 12-year-old Chinese sensation Yu Zidi, turned heads again with another fourth-place finish but did become the youngest medallist at an international swimming meet in 89 years after helping China to a relay medal as a heat swimmer. Forrester's silver medal — shared with Japan's Mio Narita — was especially sweet after she missed the final in Paris. 'I was honestly just in disbelief. That was crazy,' Forrester said. 'I feel like it's been a really tough two years. I'm super proud of myself.' The USA pipping Australia on the medal tally will be salt in the wound but it was one of those weeks, with illness affecting both camps. Australia could have won more and the same could also be said for the USA. With no Ariarne Titmus, Kaylee McKeown dropping the 50m backstroke, and Short robbed for the chance for supremacy in the 800m freestyle, there were golds left on the table in the first major international swimming competition since the Olympics. There was also a bad mixed 4x100m freestyle heat that Australia will learn from. Loading The Dolphins' haul of eight golds wasn't quite the 13 they collected in Fukuoka in 2023, but it remains their second-best world championship return since 2007. 'There was a lot of turmoil through the week but I think we handled it well,' Taylor said. 'Obviously, we were one gold medal short [of the USA]. It's nice for it to come down to the last relay. We did our best but they were too good on the day. It makes us more hungry. 'Jenna Forrester getting back on the podium is a great story. Harrison's Turner's bronze from lane eight. Jeez, that 800 freestyle final with Lani [Pallister] was special. 'The relays at the beginning were great. Sienna Toohey making a semi-final. Each moment was special to me.'
