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NZ Herald
5 hours ago
- Sport
- NZ Herald
R360: Rugby's new breakaway league and why Mike Tindall is the driving force behind it
Mike Tindall, the Rugby World Cup winner and member of the Royal family, is one of the driving forces behind rugby's new breakaway global league which has been branded as 'R360, driving generational change in rugby'. Telegraph Sport can reveal the full details of the revolutionary blueprint for the first
Telegraph
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Jack Draper's four key strengths recall ‘King of Clay' Rafael Nadal
It all feels rather neat. As one left-hander with a nuclear forehand leaves the stage – via Rafael Nadal's touching farewell ceremony at Roland Garros last week – another is emerging from the pack. That second man is 23-year-old Jack Draper, the Surrey lad who has turned himself from an also-ran at this time last year to a proper contender, with his ranking closing in on No 4 in the world. It would be going too far to suggest that Draper is Nadal's heir apparent. He had barely seen a clay court until he reached voting age, and is still developing his relationship with this quirkiest of surfaces. But when you sat behind the court during Saturday's third-round match, in which Draper destroyed Brazilian wunderkind Joao Fonseca with his dive-bombing forehand, you found yourself in flashback territory. Telegraph Sport analyses the striking similarities. The Semtex forehand It's all about the trajectory. When the ball comes looping off Draper's racket, it looks as if it's flying into the next postcode. But then the top-spin grips, and the ball starts hurtling back towards the ground like Wile E Coyote after his legs have stopped spinning. On so many occasions in the Fonseca match, Draper's forehand dipped and landed in the final six inches of the court, before exploding upwards again at a sharp angle. As an opponent, you have two choices, and neither of them are good ones. 1. You can retreat way behind the baseline, and wait for the ball to come down at the end of its first bounce. Now you've become a passenger in the rally. You're giving Draper an age to wind up his shots and make decisions, while opening up the angles for him to push you left and right at will. 2. You can step in and take the ball early, but this requires perfect timing as it jumps off the court like a startled cat. Should Draper come through Monday's meeting with Alexander Bublik, he would probably earn a quarter-final with world No 1 Jannik Sinner. And the big question is whether Sinner – owner of the tour's smoothest groundstrokes – can pull off this feat regularly. So what does Draper himself think of the forehand comparison? 'It's tough for me to appreciate it because I'm the one hitting the ball,' he replied. 'But I see it when I'm on YouTube watching the highlights. I can appreciate it is getting better and better but I watch Rafa sometimes and I'm thinking, his forehand's a joke. So I want to get to that level but I definitely understand the comparison of how it's kicking up and the spin and the speed of it.' Draper 💥 #RolandGarros — Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 29, 2025 Draper's deft dropper If people don't remember Nadal as a drop-shot artiste, that's because they were distracted by his world-beating forehand. In fact, he was a master at shoving people back with that same high, heavy trajectory that Draper employs, and then popping the ball into the empty forecourt with minimal fuss. Draper has been developing the same tactic during this tournament. He used six drop shots in round one against Mattia Bellucci, 12 in round two against Gaël Monfils, and no fewer than 15 against Fonseca. Is Draper simply learning on the job, like some tennis intern? Perhaps, but he may also be tailoring his approach to the opponent. Where Bellucci remained fleet-flooted throughout, Monfils started cramping early in Thursday's match, and the 18-year-old Fonseca showed his physical immaturity. 'Do me a favour,' yelled a frustrated John McEnroe on commentary after a tiring Fonseca had declined to chase another short ball. 'Could you at least try for those?' Built like a rugby player 'Rafa is a physical freak,' said Mark Petchey, now Emma Raducanu's coach, when Telegraph Sport interviewed him for a long read on the Nadal forehand in 2021. Here was another under-rated virtue of the King of Clay. He made generating massive forces look so comfortable that few realised how hard he worked on every shot. But his injury-wracked career was testament to the strain he placed on his body, especially by comparison with Roger Federer's more classical, lower-impact style. Draper is a bigger man. At 6ft 4in and pushing 14 stone, he is probably the burliest figure in the world's top 20, with the build of a rugby flank-forward. Seeing him loom over Fonseca at Saturday's coin-toss, the phrase 'man and boy' came immediately to mind. Size has its drawbacks. Draper has already collected more serious injuries than most players his age. And if he is taken to five sets by Sinner on a hot day, one suspects that he might tire first, despite his unsparing approach to fitness training. Yet Draper's physicality is also a weapon. Not only does he intimidate opponents, but he has also outworked them over the first three rounds of this French Open. Even Bellucci, who stayed the course better than Fonseca and Monfils, looked weary by the end. At just 5ft 9in, he had to keep jumping up to meet that high-bouncing forehand somewhere near his strike zone, and all the effort drained the energy from his legs. When asked this week about the inspiration he takes from Nadal, Draper replied: 'It's partly about his game but more so his competitive nature, his doggedness, his ability to never go away. Andy [Murray] is the same but I loved Rafa to be honest, the grunt, everything. He was someone who massively inspired me to become the player I am and hopefully I can get to his level.' Relentless focus There's another reason why Nadal was able to accumulate such extraordinary statistics at Roland Garros (14 titles), Monte Carlo (11), Barcelona (12) and Rome (10). He was playing on the surface that rewards incremental superiority, stroke by punishing stroke. On hard courts, you can recover from the corners more easily in defence, and you can try to counterpunch your way out of trouble. Clay is all about building a positional advantage, which often means creeping forwards during a rally until the whole court is at your mercy. People think that Nadal hit spectacular shots, but he actually hated taking risks, and only did so when he had no alternative. It is a model that both Draper and Cameron Norrie – the other British left-hander who has reached the fourth round here in Paris – are learning from. 'I was able to play consistent kind of vintage Norrie tennis,' said Norrie on Saturday night, after defeating Draper's fellow Briton and great junior rival Jacob Fearnley. 'Just playing seven out of 10 for 3½ hours.' We have already addressed Draper's physicality, but his mentality is equally as important. Asked this week about facing a succession of mercurial opponents, he replied: 'Being a consistent player is something I've wanted to achieve for a while now and I think I'm doing it better and better. I don't need to play my best level to win matches because I know my base level is high. 'If I'm able to play point by point I know it's tough for guys to beat me. Especially someone if they're up and down, like Monfils or Bublik, they're gonna play some great tennis and, yes, they could beat me for sure. But I know it's going to be very tough because I'm always going to be at that level.' According to Jez Green – who used to be Andy Murray's fitness trainer – the ideal clay-court mindset has an element of masochism, because anyone who comes out on this slow surface and tries to fire winners in all directions is unlikely to prevail. 'Rafa's mindset is perfect because he enjoys the whole experience of suffering,' said Green. 'He loves that clay-court feeling of building points slowly, churning out victories through sheer effort, taking the long way around.' So if Draper is going to continue his heroics next week, he will need to keep embracing the grind.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Doctors suspicious about rocketing number of British athletes ‘with ADHD'
There has been a sharp rise in athletes in Britain using ADHD drugs while competing, amid fears the medication could be abused to enhance performance. Data obtained by Telegraph Sport shows there has been a more-than threefold increase in just five years in the number of therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) granted at national level for athletes diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. There has also been a more-than fourfold rise in the number of TUE applications during the same period (2019-24). The data comes from a Freedom of Information request to UK Anti-Doping, made amid concerns that TUEs for ADHD drugs may have become too easy to obtain. Medication such as ritalin has long been linked with so-called 'brain doping', most notoriously by students sitting exams. But studies show ADHD drugs also boost athletic performance and they are banned in competition by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Concerns of misuse within sport are focused on the adult diagnosis of a disorder that is normally identified in childhood – at an age where there is no prospect of the TUE system being abused – and that does not necessarily require medication to treat. Ukad told Telegraph Sport it was unable to provide a breakdown of how many TUEs for ADHD it had granted to athletes who had first been diagnosed as adults. That raises questions about whether it is adequately monitoring any trends that may warrant further investigation, particularly given the sharp increase in the total number of those using ADHD drugs while competing. The data provided by Ukad showed that the number of TUEs it granted for ADHD rose from 19 in 2019 (from 24 applications) to 63 last year (from 106 applications). Some of those may have been from repeat applications. Football had the largest number of applications granted during that period, which climbed from just two in 2019 to 16 last year. Rugby union, cricket and rugby league were the next most prevalent sports. Telegraph Sport submitted its Freedom Of Information request after one doctor, who has worked in some of those four sports, raised concerns about potential ADHD medication misuse. Responding to the findings, the doctor– who spoke under the condition of anonymity – said: 'You'd have to question sometimes whether these diagnoses are true or whether these are diagnoses which help facilitate somebody having something, a medication, which enhances performance. 'ADHD is what I'd describe as a 'soft' diagnosis. It's a diagnosis which is in the opinion of a so-called expert. And there is no one speciality which is equipped to diagnose somebody with ADHD. 'The huge performance advantage, from a physical and from a mental point of view, of taking ADHD medication would either give your team a boost or individually raise you to a higher level that you might not have been able to reach without it. 'And whilst the majority of people who work in sport are scrupulous, there are some people who are not scrupulous – whether that be doctors, physios or agents involved in the management of players. 'If you've got a player who is struggling performance-wise and you get 10 per cent of their cut, it doesn't take a genius to go, 'Well, it could be that he has ADHD'.' Another doctor, who has worked both for Premier League football clubs and at international level, said TUEs in sport for ADHD had 'gone through the roof' and that it was 'easy' to obtain a diagnosis. In the required medical assessment for the condition, an ADHD specialist such as a psychiatrist would ask a subject about their history of symptoms, particularly if they started in childhood, as well as assessing how work and interpersonal relationships are affected, and their medical history. Yet, suggesting the condition was 'probably' being over-diagnosed when the opposite had occurred historically, the second medic added: 'The problem is, of course, that it's all relatively subjective and, therefore, it's difficult to say to someone, 'I disagree. I don't think you've got ADHD'.' John Brewer, a former Ukad board member and science and medicine expert, said: 'If I was still the science and medicine expert on the Ukad board, as a non-executive director, I would certainly be probing the executive team to try to get us some information or an explanation behind that type of increase in ADHD applications if that had been brought to the board.' He added of ADHD: 'It's a little bit like asthma. Because if you ask me to fail an exercise-induced asthma test, I could do that very easily, even though I don't have asthma. Because I know what to do and it's dead straightforward to do it. 'It doesn't take a lot, dare I say it, to work out what people are looking for when they are conducting subjective assessments, in order to get that prescription.' Suspicion falls on 'rogue doctors' Michele Verroken, a veteran in th e war on drugs in sport who ran anti-doping at UK Sport before Ukad was formed, said any investigation should look for 'rogue doctors' who may be behind multiple applications. 'Anti-doping organisations should be looking at any clusters, any population increases,' she said. 'They should be looking for potential patterns of abuse, because that helps all anti-doping organisations understand if they've got over-emphasis by certain medical people in the way that they're treating and supporting performance training, and whether they're medicalising the whole approach to what's going on.' Dr Oliver Runswick, a senior lecturer in performance psychology at King's College London, has carried out research into the impact of exercise on those with ADHD. He said being physically active was 'an incredibly good symptom-management tool' and suggested athletes actually could be 'better at managing' their symptoms than non-athletes. Dr Runswick, who has also worked in sport, said he would expect those with ADHD 'severe' enough to require a TUE to be struggling with 'day-to-day' living. He added: 'You'd have to be outlining some pretty severe symptoms, which would make it almost impossible for you to be a professional athlete.' The sharp rise of athletes in Britain using ADHD drugs is in stark contrast to the trend in the United States, another country in which diagnosis of developmental disorders in the general population has been on the increase. Data obtained from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) showed a decrease in the number of TUEs it has granted for the condition over the same period (2019-24). One sports organisation that publishes its TUE data for ADHD is Major League Baseball, a move triggered by the performance-enhancing drugs scandal that engulfed it in the early 2000s. This transparency has coincided with a major fall in the number of TUEs granted, which almost halved between 2014 and last year. A Ukad spokesperson said: 'ADHD is a debilitating disorder that can have a profound effect on the way an individual functions, regardless of whether they were diagnosed with the disorder in childhood or as an adult. 'Our primary concern is to ensure that only athletes properly diagnosed with ADHD are granted a therapeutic use exemption. Whilst there is the possibility that athletes could attempt to misuse the TUE system, we have put in place the following measures to safeguard against this risk: Our ADHD TUE policy sets out the type of clinician who we accept ADHD assessments from, and the medical evidence required to support TUE requests, which is in line with UK best-practice guidelines regarding the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. We have highly experienced psychiatrists on our TUE committee who are involved in the review of all ADHD TUE applications submitted to Ukad. The TUE committee also has the option to request a second opinion in instances whereby a diagnosis is ambiguous. 'Whilst the increases observed in the FOI data appear significant, the prevalence of athletes being treated for ADHD with stimulant medication in 2023 was 0.41 per cent of the UK national TUE pool. This is lower than the estimated prevalence of ADHD in adults, which is three to four per cent in the UK. The prevalence rate of 0.11 per cent of UK national TUE pool athletes being treated for ADHD with stimulant medication in 2021 is also lower than the 0.27 per cent of Olympians at the Tokyo Olympic Games being in receipt of a TUE for ADHD. 'Ultimately, the UK TUE prevalence data on ADHD is not out of place with national population and global athlete statistics [in a way that would] suggest that the increase in ADHD TUE approvals in recent years is down to athletes misusing the system.' Ukad also said the proportion of athletes it granted ADHD TUEs was in line with data indicating around 11 per cent of people with the disorder in England received medication for the condition.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Mary Earps divides opinion like no other women's footballer
Mary Queen of Stops or Mary Queen of Strops? That was the debate raging in the aftermath of Mary Earps' decision to retire from the Lionesses. The goalkeeper, who won 53 caps during eight years, chose to end her international career just five weeks before England launch the defence of their European Championship title. It comes after Earps was told by manager Sarina Wiegman that she would not be the No 1 goalkeeper at the tournament and that she would be deputy to Hannah Hampton. Earps's decision has divided opinion. There are some who believe, after everything she has achieved with the national team, that she has every right to bow out when she likes and on her own terms. There are others who view her actions as poorly timed and selfish. There are also people who sit somewhere in the middle. The vast majority will acknowledge that this is a sad way for a European champion, two-time Fifa Best winner and, in many ways, cult hero to finish her international career. Had she waited until after the Euros to retire, she would undoubtedly have been given a huge send-off. Wiegman seemed to indicate that could still happen after the tournament, but any farewell will now feel slightly tainted. Perhaps Earps was not bothered about getting a goodbye, but many fans would have appreciated the opportunity to see her in an England shirt one last time. Not every player can have a fairy-tale exit like Jill Scott and Ellen White, you only have to ask Steph Houghton, who had the decision taken out of her hands by Wiegman omitting her from both the Euro 2022 and 2023 World Cup squads. Earps undoubtedly changed the perception of female goalkeepers and broke ground with her campaign to force Nike to sell her shirt after the 2023 World Cup. That is what truly kick-started a rise which culminated in her being crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year. There were some who believed that, because the Lionesses did not win the World Cup, Earps was not worthy of the award, but many people backed and stood up for her. As well as her off-the-pitch actions, Earps also won popularity for her no-nonsense approach to goalkeeping. When Earps saved a penalty in the World Cup final, she screamed 'F------ yes, f--- off!' T-shirts with Earps holding the ball and that caption alongside her were printed and sold out after the tournament. But not everybody appreciated her on-pitch exuberance. It was sometimes perceived as arrogance. As one person told Telegraph Sport, Earps is the only goalkeeper they have ever seen make a save and then turn around to the TV camera and shout 'what a save!' Bellingham got the vibe from the great Mary Earps 🏴 "what a save!" 😂😂 — Jacqui Oatley (@JacquiOatley) June 30, 2024 This is not the first time Earps has divided opinion in a football sense. When she returned from the World Cup she was heavily linked with a move from Manchester United to Arsenal. It is understood Earps wanted the transfer, but that United and Arsenal could not come to an agreement over a fee. There were reports that Earps had cut an 'isolated' figure in training and looked as if she did not want to be there, which provoked the ire of United fans. Earps later hit out in an interview with ITV, saying: 'It's been hard to see how I've been portrayed at times. Having your body language and your facial expressions heavily scrutinised. I care deeply about Manchester United as a club and all I have ever tried to do is give my absolute best.' There were some fans who sided with her while others felt she was being disingenuous. The public is split on Earps and it is understood so is the England dressing room. Several players posted glowing messages for Earps on their Instagram accounts, with the goalkeeper sharing each one on her own story. After the awkward meeting in which Earps informed her team-mates of her decision to retire, many wanted Wiegman to speak up and say something nice about her career. Instead, Wiegman is understood to have expressed her anger and frustration in front of the room. While some players were unhappy with how the meeting played out and felt Earps deserved better treatment, privately many viewed her decision to retire now as selfish and were disappointed by her actions. The 32-year-old said it was the right time to 'step aside and give the younger generation an opportunity to thrive'. But the two goalkeepers behind Hampton, Anna Moorhouse and Khiara Keating, are uncapped and inexperienced at international level. Some feel she has left England in the lurch when they needed her, while others believe it is completely fair that she does not want to go to a tournament and sit on the bench. Earps will likely give a full account of her story in time and we will hear what Wiegman has to say at her pre-match press conference on Thursday. It may unfold into a PR battle between the two. Who was in the right? Who was in the wrong? Who will people believe? Opinion will no doubt remain divided. Earps will always be one of England's greatest goalkeepers and somebody who fought for and achieved change off the pitch. But some will not view her international career through the same glittering lens they would have had she retired in better circumstances.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Revealed: English women's cricket becomes match-fixing target
There are growing fears that English women's cricket is becoming a soft target for corruption, with hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of bets placed on matches. Corruption in men's cricket has been a longstanding issue for the sport, with numerous high-profile examples coming to light. A Telegraph Sport investigation can reveal a crackdown taking place in the women's game after uncovering: A total of £300,000 bet on one domestic match Players approached for team information via social media Anti-corruption officials sent to matches as part of crackdown Players forced to hand in mobile phones to officials during games Minimal security at venues during matches The men's game has been embroiled in plenty of infamous match-fixing scandals from the Hansie Cronje affair to three Pakistan players being banned and jailed for spot-fixing against England in 2010. It was only in February of this year, however, that the first female player was banned for corruption by the International Cricket Council. Former Bangladesh international Shohely Akhter, who played two ODIs and 13 T20Is, was found guilty of attempting to fix matches, offering a bribe, failing to disclose full details of an approach to the ICC's Anti-Corruption Code and obstructing the organisation's investigation. In one instance, she even tried to convince a fellow player to get out hit wicket in a match against Australia during the 2023 T20 World Cup, promising to pay 2 million Bangladeshi Takas (£12,000) for the fix. Akhter formally admitted breaching five provisions of the anti-corruption code and was banned from all cricket for five years. Players at lower levels of the women's game have been asked to report approaches made to them and Telegraph Sport understands that there have been some made via anonymous accounts on social media by those looking for team information about a particular match. There is also evidence of high sums being bet on domestic women's matches. As part of a wider restructure of the domestic women's game, the T20 County Cup has been launched as an FA Cup-style knockout including all minor counties as well as the 18 first-class ones across tiers one, two and three. A number of games have been taking place at grounds rarely used for first-class cricket like Exmouth, Brecon and Fenner's. These venues come with far less security, facilities and monitoring of those in attendance. Just a few days ago, the quarter-final match between Kent, a tier-two county side, and the Blaze, who represent Nottinghamshire, had a total of more than £296,000 placed on it via the Betfair exchange, which is just one betting platform. The match was also viewed by more than 77,000 people on YouTube. At the same point on the same day, the total bet across all nine men's county fixtures totalled just £8,535 on that website. In the women's domestic game, there is no suggestion, at present, that any matches have been fixed. But one of the initial concerns was caused by the number of wides being bowled, especially in tier-two competition. Across the first 60 matches of the domestic women's season, there were 1,888, at an average of 31.46 a match. There were 15 matches with 40 or more wides. In one innings, a side conceded 72 extras of which 61 were wides, while the other team conceded 26 extras, making the match total 98. However, as a non-professional league where the players receive no compensation for playing cricket, the standards can often vary, which could be the cause of the high numbers of extras. Anti-corruption officers are now expected to look for patterns when it comes to extras as it is not a market often offered by legal betting companies. Some women's streams on YouTube can draw thousands of viewers, with the majority of remarks in the comments section referencing what people need for bets to come in and how much they have placed, rather than the action. During one Women's One-Day Cup match, viewers in the comments openly posted about their bets in Hindi and, of the 2,000 who watched the stream, the majority are believed to be based overseas. There was even one comment referencing a Raja Bets website, which is not licensed for operations in the UK. Some users have posted their bets on social media with links to websites of which almost all finish in '.in', the country code for India. In light of examples like these, the England and Wales Cricket Board has been sending anti-corruption officers to women's matches with a particular focus on those further down the pyramid in the T20 County Cup and in tier two. By the midway point of the first innings of one such match, a total of almost £20,000 had been bet on the Betfair exchange. While it is not an exceptional amount compared to the millions that are sometimes bet on overseas T20 franchise tournaments, it is a considerable sum given the crowd in attendance was fewer than 50 people. Another game in the same competition was also brought to the attention of the ECB's anti-corruption officials for the sums bet on it. It is understood that the ECB is looking to increase education programmes attended by all players at the start of the season. Extra measures have been put in place, too. Players have to hand in their phones at the start of the match, a practice that has long existed in international cricket and televised men's county games, with only a select few in the dressing room, including media officers and medical staff, allowed their devices. But that is not yet uniform across the women's county set-up. For some tier-two matches players are allowed to keep their phones, but not in games that are part of double-headers alongside the men's team or any matches against a tier-one side. Although some counties apply designated players and match official areas, which unaccredited people cannot access, it is not a uniform rule across the divisions. At the smaller grounds, Telegraph Sport discovered first-hand it can be far too easy for those without accreditation to wander into areas which should be reserved for umpires and players without being stopped by any security. Some matches have also had free entry, with no one checking tickets or any monitoring of who is watching the match. In cricket, because of the nature of the game, there is almost no limit to the number of bets that can be placed on a particular match. The markets go far beyond simply who will score the most runs, take the most wickets or which side will win. It can go as detailed as specific scores by players, economy rates of bowlers, what score a team will have at a particular point in the game or even whether both teams hit a boundary in their first over. The case involving Pakistan, from the Lord's Test in 2010, related to the deliberate bowling of no balls. But the bigger concern is the relaying of data from the ground overseas to tell someone what is going to happen prior to the betting market being closed known as 'courtsiding'. This relies on speed, but the delay of betting markets being closed can take longer than someone passing on a message to another individual. Betting sites are often banned for those in the ground to try to prevent that, but that does not necessarily stop it. Anti-corruption officials are keen to make the point that their presence does not imply players are doing anything improper. 'The presence of an anti-corruption official is not indicative of the players doing something wrong,' Steve Richardson, who was investigations coordinator for the ICC's anti-corruption unit for seven years until 2023, said. 'It's indicative of the level of risk that the ECB perceives the women's game to be at, and the women's game is now more professional than it's ever been. With that comes betting markets and with that comes a risk of corruption.'
