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Great Britain defeated Latvia 6-5 to claim their first win in the wheelchair curling mixed doubles event at the Winter Paralympics in Milan-Cortina.

Having been beaten 10-7 by Estonia in Wednesday’s opening game before losing 14-3 in just seven ends to world number ones South Korea on Thursday morning, GB needed a better performance in their second match of the day.

And against the Latvians, who had also lost their first two matches, Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean rallied after their opponents stole one in the opening end.

Butterfield, who is aiming to become the first Briton to win Winter and Summer Paralympic golds – having finished first in the club throw event at Rio 2016 – played a key role with two superb shots either side of the break.

Her last stone of the fourth end enabled a score of two to take a 5-2 lead into the interval, while her final stone of the fifth end resulted in a steal for a 6-2 advantage.

“We enjoyed that one. It is great to get our first win and hopefully we can build some momentum from that,” said Butterfield.

“We played so much better. It was a performance, especially in the first half, that we know we can play. That’s the team we know we can be.

“We actually played better this morning than we did last night, although the scoreline didn’t reflect it. We have been building in every game we have played so far. Tonight we came out even better.”

The Britons had struggled against the Koreans in the earlier match, which fell away in the fourth end with Hyejin Baek and Yongsuk Lee 3-2 up in the match and scoring four with one stone each to play.

Butterfield missed a takeout attempt and Baek sent her final stone into the house to secure a score of five to put them 8-2 ahead.

GB opted to use the powerplay in the fifth end but once again South Korea controlled the end and were able to steal two to leave them 10-2 up and firmly in control.

Although GB pulled one back in the sixth end, the Koreans maintained their dominance with another strong seventh end to add another four and the match was brought to an early conclusion before the scheduled final end.

It’s spring 2015 and Finn Russell is 22 years old, a rookie with five caps to his name with just two of them away from home, one at the BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston, the other at BMO Field in Toronto.

Now he’s in Paris in his first Six Nations game. Houston and Toronto, it is not. Twenty-eight minutes gone at the Stade de France and Scotland are piling on the pressure in the home 22.

It’s 6-3 to Thierry Dusautoir’s side. Russell drops into the pocket, ready for an easy three in front of the posts. He lines up the drop-goal – and shanks it. The stadium empties derision on his head. Russell has arrived in Test match rugby.

On Saturday, he will play France for the 14th time – won four, lost nine. It will be his 93rd cap. All going well, he will make it a century come the autumn.

One of Scotland’s greatest players, unquestionably. The greatest ever, very possibly. The one who has thrilled fans more than any other? If it was put to a vote it would be a surprise if he didn’t top it.

Saturday is huge. Win an unlikely victory against an outrageously talented French side and Russell has, at last, a shot at winning the title in the final game, in Dublin. Lose, and it’s a chance gone.

Playing France? Well, it’s been an adventure since the start and even more so during, and after, his years with Racing, when his adopted nation came to marvel at his natural ability. No trophies with Racing, but a whole lot of memories – Russell doing Russell things.

In cataloguing Finn versus France, there are highs and lows. That shanked drop-goal as a relative kid, the injury that took him out of the game early a year later, made all the more painful because Scotland won.

The sumptuous moments in 2016 and 2018 when the Scots won back-to-back Tests at Murrayfield, the history made when winning in Paris in 2021 for the first time in 18 years, a day made complex because Russell was red-carded for a forearm to the neck of Brice Dulin and was off the field when Duhan van der Merwe struck gold at the death.

So what do those who know him best say about him?

“Nothing ever flusters Finn,” says Scotland team-mate Kyle Steyn. “More than any player I’ve played with, he just has time on the ball. Something I’ve been really jealous of is his ability to flush something and be absolutely focused on the present. Whatever he’s done before, whatever he’s going to do next, that doesn’t affect the way he’s thinking now.”

Everybody says that about Russell. He never dwells on errors, he just kicks on. “Not many people shake it off like Finn does,” says Duncan Weir, the former 10 who won a Pro12 title with Russell in 2015.

Fraser Brown, who played alongside Russell for nine seasons with Glasgow and Scotland added: “His passing range, his speed of pass, his kicking short and long and now off the tee, some of it is natural but there are other elements he’s worked incredibly hard at.

“(The reality) dispels the lazy narrative that he’s just flash and carefree. ⁠He’s very intelligent. He has great vision but more than that, he has a very clear idea of what he’s looking for. He’s less off the cuff now.

What was life like for Scotland pre-Russell, pre the outrageous skill with hand and boot, pre the vision and the execution, the confidence and the personality that gets you off your seat and, yes, the risk-taking that can make you hide behind it at times when it goes wrong?

Scotland’s attack was largely barren in the Six Nations from 2000 to 2015, when Russell turned up in earnest. In 16 consecutive seasons Scotland never made double figures in tries scored in a five-game championship.

They averaged fewer than six tries per tournament. Crossing the line was a Herculean task.

Then, Russell. In his second Six Nations, Scotland scored 11 tries, then 14, then 11, then 14 again. That number slumped to seven in 2000 – the year Russell and his coach, Gregor Townsend, were estranged. The following year, with Russell restored, the try count rose to 18. They average around 14.5 per Six Nations nowadays.

They have 10 in their first three games this time around. This is not all on Russell. He’s had Darcy Graham, Van der Merwe and Steyn out wide, he’s had Huw Jones and Sione Tuipulotu in the midfield. He’s had Blair Kinghorn at full-back and Ben White and George Horne at scrum-half.

After the debacle in Rome, Scotland have come good. Two brutally hard games to go, but they’re in a healthy spot for now. Russell’s leadership behind the scenes post-Italy has been mentioned before. What he’s done on the pitch since then has been there for all to see.

His flick on to Jones for his first score against England, this his impromptu burst down the short side, his footwork and his chip ahead for the Ben White try. Just magical.

Chris Paterson won 109 caps for Scotland and has studied Russell for the entirety of his career.

“Some players have a lot of knowledge but not a great understanding of what it means and how to apply it,” he says.

“What makes Finn different is that he likes to make out that it all comes easily to him. Don’t be fooled. He does the work. One of his best attributes is his bravery in trusting his instincts.”

Pete Horne is now one of Townsend’s assistants but back in the day he was Russell’s Glasgow and Scotland team-mate.

“As a player, I was always fully aware of how talented he was and knew that behind the scenes, even though it didn’t match the kind of young, cool and free image, there was a lot of hard work going on,” Horne explains. “He was on the laptops a lot.

“The conversations that he’d be having, you could tell he thought really deeply about the game. That’s the thing with really high-skilled players. When they’re absolutely dialled in, it’s almost like time slows down a little bit for them. They’re just in that flow state.”

Whether Russell can achieve such karma against the mighty France is a moot point, but if he does then Scotland must have a fighting chance. The day will need him at his gobsmacking best; poking and prodding, controlling and surprising, putting men into gaps and sticking points on the board.

UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has signed for boxing promoter Eddie Hearn’s new talent agency.

The Englishman, 32, has been the standout performer in the UFC’s heavyweight division in recent years, with seven of his eight wins ending in the first round.

The move comes two weeks after boxer Conor Benn left Hearn’s promotional outfit Matchroom to join Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing.

Hearn has now launched a “Matchroom Talent Agency”, which will “nurture athletes’ careers by managing their brand and building their reputations”.

Aspinall’s deal, though, is a “commercial and advisory” one and not promotional as the Briton remains signed to the UFC.

“Eddie has built one of the biggest brands in sport and understands how to take athletes to the next level, both inside and outside of competition,” said Aspinall of the decision.

“I’m really looking forward to working together and exploring some exciting opportunities as I continue my journey back into the cage.”

Aspinall has been dealing with eye problems since his title fight with Ciryl Gane last October had to be stopped because of repeated eye pokes.

He had double eye surgery in February and it is unclear when he will be able to return to action.

Hearn, 46, has been publicly feuding with UFC president White since the launch of Zuffa Boxing.

Aspinall became part of that war of words when Hearn suggested White “humiliated” him by not backing the fighter after the eye controversy.

Aspinall is the first signing to Hearn’s agency.

“We believe in creating opportunities where others see obstacles,” said Hearn.

“At the heart of everything we’ve done as a business over the last 40 years is identifying ordinary people, who have extraordinary talent.

A key distinction in this deal is it is a “commercial and advisory” one and not promotional.

Aspinall is signed to the UFC, the world’s leading MMA promotion and they steer his career and have rights over his image and use of it.

This deal will be seen as a retaliatory strike at White after Zuffa Boxing poached Benn, a deal bankrolled by Saudi Arabia.

Hearn was publicly heartbroken and seething by Benn’s switch – and his decision to make Aspinall his marquee signing is a clear message to White and Zuffa Boxing that he is ready to fight back, both in boxing and MMA.

Aspinall’s relationship with the UFC, and especially White, has been strained as of late. The Briton expressed frustration with the business of the UFC after he felt he wasn’t fully backed following the eye-poke controversy in October that has threatened to derail his fighting career.

Aspinall’s father and coach Andy has also suggested his son will pursue a boxing career in the future, although his current UFC contract does not allow for him to fight in any other combat sport without their permission.

UFC fighters have managers and advisers who work independently from the UFC. One of the most famous of those is Francis Ngannou’s agent Marquel Martin, whose determined advocation for his fighter’s worth eventually saw the heavyweight leave the UFC as a reigning champion and earn millions in two boxing fights.

The worlds of boxing and UFC have collided with Zuffa’s arrival and the differences couldn’t be starker when it comes to fighter pay. Boxing offers big purses to fighters that aren’t elite level – Benn is getting a reported £11m to fight Regis Prograis in a relatively low-risk comeback contest in April.

The UFC do not offer those kind of purses to their world champions.

The question now is how much can Hearn actually achieve for Aspinall, given his talents are in the promotional side of fighting.