Latest news with #TestMatches
BBC News
16 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
England tour will make me better player
Gloucester lock Arthur Clark said he has come away from England's tour this summer a better player. Clark won his first England cap in their 40-5 victory against the USA in July having been called up to his first national tour which also included Test matches in South 23-year-old said "definitely" when asked if the experience had improved him as a player."I feel like I probably need to put into practice all the stuff I learned," he told BBC Radio Gloucestershire."Being in that environment, being surrounded by people like George Ford, Ben Spencer, Henry Slade, Ben Curry, Charlie Ewels was just special, you naturally take on board their actions and the way they play the game."Yet Clark said the "most interesting" part was being able to talk to Borthwick, who played as a lock during his career for Bath, Saracens and England. "That was probably the most interesting and the best bit on the tour, being able to pick his brains and having meetings with him around the line-out - which was his speciality and hopefully will become mine," he added. Clark described the past 12 months as a "whirlwind" and a "breakthrough" season for him. He made 13 appearances for the Cherry and Whites - 12 of them league starts - played for England A in November in the win against Australia A, and then was called up to the senior squad for the Six Nations, albeit not making it onto the field. He was then one of 10 uncapped players called up to the summer tour and while he did not make the matchday squad of the first two Tests in Argentina, he was called up to start against the USA."I had good feedback throughout the whole campaign, saying I was training well and keep pushing but there's always that doubt in your mind that something isn't' going to go right," Clark said of being told he was starting the final Test."Then we found out the Tuesday morning. Because I was starting with the forwards I was the first row to go up and I sat back in my chair like oh my god, I'm up there. "Heart started beating a bit faster, the nerves started kicking in from there. It was an amazing feeling." 'A special moment for my family' Clark's father, Barry, played for Gloucester during the 1980s and together the family also run a farm in Stow-on-the-Wold. Clark will be the fourth generation of his family to take it on when he retires from sport. Plans then had to be put in place quickly to enable Clark's parents to fly out to Washington DC when they knew he was starting."I had to ping them a quick message Tuesday morning being like book flights, get out here," Clark said."My girlfriend said he [dad] didn't speak while I was running out and he was just on his own. "He's probably the biggest person in my rugby career and my life in general. I'm glad he could have made it out for that trip... it was made that bit more special having him in the changing room after, watching me receive my first cap. A very special moment for me and my family."
Yahoo
03-08-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
All Blacks scrum-half Roigard out of Argentina Tests
All Black Cameron Roigard has been ruled out of two Tests in Argentina, New Zealand Rugby announced Sunday, with the scrum-half joining a worrying injury list ahead of the Rugby Championship. Roigard suffered a stress fracture to his foot while playing in last month's 3-0 home series sweep of an under-strength France. Scan results confirmed he won't be fit for Tests against the Pumas in Cordoba on August 16 and Buenos Aires a week later, robbing New Zealand of a speedy half, who has emerged as a key player under coach Scott Robertson. The 24-year-old's availability for two home Tests against South Africa in September is unclear. Robertson will need to dig into his scrum-half depth when naming a 36-man squad on Monday to travel to Argentina. Noah Hotham was already ruled out with an ankle injury, leaving only Cortez Ratima available from the three scrum-halves involved in the France series. Robertson may consider a recall for 23-cap scrum-half Finlay Christie, whose last test was more than a year ago against England. Another candidate is Otago Highlander Folau Fakatava, who made two bench appearances against Ireland in 2022. Robertson had previously said first-choice prop Tyrel Lomax and winger Caleb Clarke will miss the Argentina Tests as they recuperate from injury, along with Hotham and back-rower Luke Jacobson. Captain Scott Barrett is likely to be included after missing the last two French Tests with a calf muscle complaint. His brother and playmaker Beauden Barrett is also expected to be available after shaking off an injury, along with key forwards Tupou Vaa'i, Wallace Sititi and Tamaiti Williams. dgi/fox
Daily Mail
02-08-2025
- Climate
- Daily Mail
The Lions will have beers flowing but champagne on hold after failing to whitewash Australia in the third Test with a 22-12 defeat - it is a mini sweetener for the Wallabies but neither team will feel satisfied with the series outcome, writes NIK SIMON
By the time the sun returns and the players are relaxing on Bondi Beach on Monday afternoon, the Lions will look back on this tour with a feeling of pride. By then, the lightning storms will have passed. History will remember the class of 2025 as series winners but there will forever be a nagging feeling that they did not finish the job. It was a good outcome, two Tests to one, but not one that will propel them into the pantheon of greatness.
The Independent
02-08-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Andy Farrell is wrong to obsess over the Lions ‘redwashing' the Australia Test matches
Am I alone in being disappointed that British and Irish Lions head coach Andy Farrell is sending out virtually the same team for the third Test against Australia as the one that won last week's second, for the supposed sacred prize of a 3-0 clean sweep of Test matches? I don't believe most British rugby fans are as obsessed with that as Farrell. He appears to think a 'redwash,' as it has been called by some after the Lions' red shirts, over Australia, will elevate him and his Lions to the status of South African Springbok or New Zealand All Black conquerors. It won't. It is true, it would be the Lions first clean sweep for nearly a century. But this Australian team is, frankly, regarded as a team of second-raters by many rugby critics. There are other reasons why I think Farrell could and should have taken a more, let's say, imaginative approach. What about the other 20 or so members of his huge squad, who have seen little meaningful action for half the five-week tour? What about the notion of the Lions being a more noble cause than conventional national teams? Players on Lions tours often talk about the unique all-for-one and one-for-all spirit the tours inspire. Now it looks more like all for one: the one being Andy Farrell, who says it would 'mean the world' for the Lions to win all three Tests. He has already appeared self-serving by calling up his son Owen Farrell to join the tour halfway through, despite Farrell Jr being woefully out of form. The pair risk resembling mercenaries, not Musketeers. If Andy Farrell wants to show his Lions are a cut above the Aussies, let him prove it by beating them with a team made up of all those who have been left idle on the sidelines. It is not unusual for the Lions to do this in the last Test when the overall series result is already decided. It is not just about fairness and sentiment: one or two Lions who played last week, and who have been selected again, Tom Curry and Bundee Ali, for example, look physically shattered and would benefit from a break. And Farrell's reservoir of untapped reserves is flooded with talent: the precocious Henry Pollock, an overnight star in Australia despite not being picked for any of the Tests, and the exciting young English backs Finn Smith and Marcus Smith. They must be kicking lumps out of their hotel room doors in frustration. If Farrell gave his Lions also-rans a run out in the third Test, they would be sure to give their all, if only to prove why they should have been picked in the first place. They would also be free to put on a swashbuckling Barbarians-type performance, thrilling all. If they won – fantastic. If they lost, it would not be the end of the world. Everyone, England and Aussie fans alike, would have seen a match to remember. The Lions tour will be marked up in history as a victory anyway – and they would be lauded as Corinthians in a sporting world of cynics.
France 24
31-07-2025
- Sport
- France 24
Talks over France, Lions game 'progressing': Benazzi
The teams last met in 1989 with former Les Bleus captain Benazzi eyeing a possible fixture before the invitational touring side head to New Zealand in four years' time. The Lions are currently in Australia, and clinched the series last weekend with one Test to go, on Saturday in Sydney, with a reported 40,000 fans having travelled for the tour. Before this year's series, the Lions played Argentina in Dublin. "It's progressing, but nothing formal," Bennazzi told AFP. "Every four years we see the wave of people and enthusiasm it generates in all countries. "A collaboration with our neighbours, remains something conceivable," the 56-year-old added. Rugby already has a busy schedule but financial problems exist in the sport across the planet with a Nations Cup competition set to begin next July, replacing traditional Test matches between countries. "We have to find a new approach to be able to energise a bit of world rugby's global image," Benazzi said. "We want to find a model that satisfies everyone. "We have to reform because there's the Nations Cup that starts next year. "All of that will be in coordination with all bodies, the players' union in France, the French national league, and the global players' union," the 78-time international added.
