James Milner is one away from equalling the record for most Premier League appearances after remaining on the bench in Brighton’s defeat by Crystal Palace on Sunday.
He will match the record on Wednesday if he features in the Seagulls’ match at Aston Villa, one of his former clubs.
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Phoenix Open final-round leaderboard
-16 C Gotterup (US), H Matsuyama; -15 A Bhatia (US), N Hoejgaard (Den), S-Woo Kim (Kor), S Scheffler (US), M Thorbjornsen
Selected others: -13 M Fitzpatrick (Eng); -12 V Hovland (Nor); -10 J Smith (Eng); -6 J Parry (Eng)
Chris Gotterup beat Hideki Matsuyama in a play-off to win the Phoenix Open.
American Gotterup, who started the final round four shots behind overnight leader Matsuyama, shot five birdies in his last six holes to card a seven-under-par 64 and finish on 16 under.
Japan’s Matsuyama then bogeyed the final hole – his only dropped shot in a round of 68 – to miss out on the title and take the tournament to a play-off.
Gotterup, who followed up a first-round 63 with rounds of 71 and 70, said: “I didn’t think this would happen, especially after Friday and Saturday, but here we are.
“Hideki was playing great. I just figured I would stay loose.”
Victory gave Gotterup his the fourth PGA Tour title, and his second of the season after the Sony Open in Hawaii last month.
World number one Scottie Scheffler missed out on the play-off by one shot after going round in 64.
“I played pretty well – only one round where I didn’t have my best stuff,” said American Scheffler, who carded a first-round 73.
“If I get in the house the first day with a couple under par, it’s a little different story today.”
Five years ago, Wrexham’s fortunes changed immeasurably.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac completed their takeover of the north Wales side on 9 February, 2021 after receiving overwhelming approval from the Wrexham Supporters Trust three months earlier.
The Hollywood stars have overseen three successive promotions, although their impact goes way beyond the club’s seismic on-field achievements.
Wrexham’s on field success is plain for all to see, however, background developments and groundworks are equally important to sustain Reynold’s and Mac’s ambitions for the north Wales club.
Regulars at the Stok Cae Ras – or the millions of viewers watching games on screens around the globe – will also have noticed a number of alterations to the world’s oldest international football stadium still in continuous use.
The stadium’s iconic Kop Stand was demolished in 2023 having been abandoned for 16 years.
A temporary stand, holding around 3,000 supporters, was used during the 2024-25 campaign before being removed to pave way for a new permanent stand.
Work on the stand – which will hold 7,500 fans in total, taking the overall capacity at Stok Cae Ras to 18,000 – started early on in the 2025-26 season and is due to be completed in early 2027.
As they do not own their Colliers Park training complex, Wrexham are regularly required to train elsewhere, including at Carden Park or at The Rock – now owned by the club.
But even other aspects including catering and travel arrangements – which include flying to some away matches to help aid recovery – have been tweaked to improve performance.
“The difference is massive,” said former club captain Ben Tozer, who made 136 appearances and won back-to-back promotions with Wrexham.
“Even though some of the really big changes might not have happened – like we still don’t have our own training ground – the infrastructure has improved every year.
Getty ImagesThe growth is not limited to the men’s first team though. Far from it.
Academy manager Gus Williams and professional development phase lead coach Craig Knight are now in situ as the club aims to produce more home-grown talent.
The women’s side have made enormous strides too.
Wrexham were in the tier two Adran North at the time of the takeover but are now challenging for the top-flight Adran Premier title – with a place in Europe on the line.
They also face reigning league champions Cardiff City in the final of the Adran Trophy on 22 February – further typifying how they have developed into one of the best women’s sides in Wales.
It has all ensured the difference at the club is stark, particularly for new signing Davis Keillor-Dunn, who recently returned six years after leaving Wrexham.
“I’m just buzzing to see the club in the place it’s in now,” he told BBC Sport Wales.
“It shows you how much work has been put in and you’re seeing the fruits of it on the pitch.”
Little by little, piece by piece, the club keeps evolving. But the headline-grabbing exploits of the first team have ultimately been the key driver.
“It’s the balance of building the club and understanding that the club needed some foundations put in place for the long-term,” said manager Phil Parkinson.
A mere 110 days after the high-profile change in ownership, manager Dean Keates left the club with Wrexham having missed out on a play-off spot in the fifth-tier National League.
Just 32 days later, Parkinson was tasked with leading the Welsh side’s resurgence. Despite a gut-wrenching end to his first season as manager, a 5-4 defeat by Grimsby Town in the play-offs, it has been quite the ride since then.
Parkinson has managed 213 regular season league matches and Wrexham’s record over that period borders on the ridiculous, in a positive way, of course.
He has overseen 125 wins, 51 draws and just 37 losses – with his side scoring 407 goals over that time.
It gives him an astonishing rate of exactly two points per game and an average of little more than 1.9 goals per match when it comes to regular season league fixtures.
In 2025, history was made as Wrexham returned to the second tier for the first time in 43 years, having become the first ever team to achieve three successive promotions in the English Football League.
In preparation for the Championship Wrexham smashed their own transfer record three times last summer, with Liberato Cacace, Lewis O’Brien and then Nathan Broadhead becoming their most expensive signing upon moving to north Wales.
Defender Cleworth is one of only two players, along with Ryan Barnett, to feature in the National League, League Two, League One and the Championship since Reynolds and Mac bought Wrexham.
On the back of signing a long-term contract extension with the club in January, the academy product said: “Since I signed my [first] pro deal, I couldn’t really have imagined to be sat here five, six years later in the Championship.”
Wrexham were seventh in the National League when Reynolds and Mac were announced as the club’s new owners. At present, they are sixth in the Championship – 73 places higher up the football pyramid.
The social media growth has also been vast. Wrexham had 41,000 followers on Instagram prior to the takeover, that figure has ballooned to 1.5m.
But perhaps the clearest indicator of the astronomical growth is the value of the club, which now stands at around £350m, an increase of 17,400% compared to the £2m Reynolds and Mac invested upon completing the takeover in 2021.
France were sensational yet inconsistent, England outpowered Wales and it was very, very wet in Rome.
Thursday night was an unconventional starting point for the tournament, and for the first 40 minutes hosts France seemed to be playing a different sport altogether in a 36-14 win against Ireland in Paris.
The electric Louis Bielle-Biarrey scored twice but it was the way France attacked from every position – and their strength in depth – that really impressed the pundits.
France were able to score seemingly at will, and all without all-time top try-scorer Damian Penaud – left out despite scoring 40 tries in 59 appearances for his country.
“The first-half performance from France was amazing – they blew Ireland away,” Grand Slam winner Donncha O’Callaghan told 5 Live Sport.
“They are a level ahead of Ireland, maybe two levels. Ireland couldn’t compete.”
To Ireland’s credit they did threaten a comeback in the second half but France then went again to wrap up an emphatic win.
Chris Ashton added on Rugby Union Weekly: “It was magic. France can flip and flop to different styles seamlessly. There is so much you have to contend with playing against them – you don’t know which fire to put out first.
“It’s got to be a worry for everyone. France have so much depth – the sport is getting bigger and bigger in the country.”
2026 Six Nations
Round one review
If anyone can match France for strength in depth it is England, who started their campaign by thrashing Wales 48-7.
Wing Henry Arundell was handed a first start for two years and promptly helped himself to a first-half hat-trick, the first treble by an England men’s player since Arundell himself scored five tries against Chile at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Incredibly, it was the team’s first Six Nations hat-trick since Jonny May against France in 2019.
Ben Earl showed some of the fluency France would admire by moving from number eight to centre late on as England showed they are continuing to move in the right direction.
“England now realise where they can be,” former scrum-half Matt Dawson told Rugby Union Weekly.
“Whether that’s winning a Grand Slam or a World Cup, only they will know their internal targets.
“But you can see that winning a scrum is not enough, scoring a try, not enough, winning the game, not enough. They are setting their standards.”
Dawson’s former team-mate Paul Grayson was impressed with England’s speed out of the blocks at the start of a new cycle.
He said: “England were straight in at full tilt – they were ruthless and accurate.
“England are exciting to watch now. There are lots of moving pieces being done brilliantly well and that’s why England are hard to play against now.”
That England visit comes at a crucial time for Scotland and their coach Gregor Townsend.
He came into the tournament courted by Newcastle Red Bulls and with question marks over his commitment to the cause.
A tame display in some horrendous weather in Rome as Italy picked up a famous 18-15 win has left some calling for a change.
Former Scotland forward John Barclay told Rugby Special: “I thought before the Six Nations that Scotland had to finish third or above.
“If they don’t, which is now going to be very hard, I think it becomes a necessity to see a change.
“It’s a good group of players and if you are not seeing an improvement there is an option for change. That might be the best thing for Gregor and for Scotland.”
The conditions made the going tough, but it was Scotland’s heart, not hands, that were questioned.
“Italy were more aggressive and that’s down to desire, not the rain,” former Scotland and British and Irish Lions prop Peter Wright told BBC Scotland.
“Townsend is an experienced coach and should have known they couldn’t play the rugby they wanted to play in those conditions. Scotland lost the war in the set-pieces.”
The defeat was a fifth away loss in a row in the Six Nations for Scotland and their beleaguered coach.
Before the match, Townsend – who is contracted as head coach until the end of the 2027 World Cup – dismissed a report that he has agreed to take over at Newcastle Red Bulls after the World Cup as “pure speculation”.
More displays like this may make that contract end date a moot point. Scotland need to dig deep and find another level of performance against England.
If that defeat left Scotland in crisis, where exactly are Wales?
Thrashed at Twickenham, they have now won only two of their past 24 Tests and have not won a Six Nations match since 2023.
Discipline is a major issue. Wales conceded 16 penalties against England – the most they have conceded in a Test since 2009 – and had four yellow cards, the joint most any team has been shown in a Six Nations match.
Barclay said Wales’ issues are mental, not technical.
They have shipped 248 points and conceded 34 tries in coach Steve Tandy’s first five games in charge.
“It appears there is so much to try and fix in a week for Wales,” Barclay said.
“First up has to be their tackling. Defence is easier to sort than attack – it’s a mindset.
“The lack of intent in the tackle is something to look at. How do you fix ill-discipline? If you fix your defence and be a hard team to beat that will sort itself.”
The opening-day win for Italy was a 17th in the Six Nations – and ninth over Scotland.
Their best campaigns to date have featured two wins, and matching or beating that may be on the agenda.
Italy’s only other home game this year is against England on 7 March, but the Azzurri will surely have their eyes on a trip to Wales a week later.
“It makes you feel very confident in what you can do,” captain Michele Lamaro said. “So now we’ve got a dream in our head. We keep going on.”
2026 Guinness Six Nations
Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has promised to cut taxes and keep her cabinet intact as she celebrated her Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) landslide victory in Sunday’s general election.
Takaichi’s pledge on Monday came as projections by the NHK broadcaster showed the conservative LDP securing 316 seats in the 500-member National Assembly and winning a “historic” two-thirds majority in the lower house.
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The results marked the best result for the LDP since its founding in 1955, surpassing the previous record of 300 seats won in 1986 under then-Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.
LDP’s junior partner Japan Innovation Party won 36 seats, while the main opposition Centrist Reform Alliance managed to keep only 49 of the 172 seats it previously held.
Analysts credited the LDP’s triumph to the extraordinary popularity of Takaichi, who is Japan’s first female leader, and say it will allow her to pursue significant changes in Japan’s security, immigration and economic policies.
In a televised interview with NHK on Monday, Takaichi said she will emphasise policies meant to make Japan strong and prosperous.
She told NHK that she will push for the reduction of consumption taxes as promised by the LDP. During the campaign, the governing party had said it would ease household living costs by suspending the 8 percent food sales tax for two years.
“Most parties are in favour of reducing the consumption tax, such as reducing the tax on food items to zero, or to 5 percent, or reducing the tax on all items to 5 percent,” Takaichi said.
“The LDP has also campaigned for a consumption tax cut. I strongly want to call for the establishment of a supra-party forum to speed up discussion on this, as it is a big issue.”
Takaichi also indicated that she will not make any changes in her cabinet, calling it a “good team”.
The head of Japan’s top business lobby, Keidanren, also welcomed the result, saying it will help in restoring political stability.
“Japan’s economy is now at a critical juncture for achieving sustainable and strong growth,” Yoshinobu Tsutsui said.
United States President Donald Trump, who endorsed Takaichi ahead of the election, congratulated Takaichi in a post on social media and wished her “Great Success”.
South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung also offered his congratulations and said he hoped to see her soon in Seoul.
The leaders of India, Italy and Taiwan also welcomed Takaichi’s win.
Al Jazeera’s Patrick Fok, reporting from Tokyo, said the message from Taiwan’s President William Lai Ching-te to Takaichi could upset China.
“Remember that Takaichi triggered Chinese anger after suggesting that Japan might intervene in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan,” he said, referring to the diplomatic storm the Japanese leader set off last year shortly after taking office.
“How she handles that relationship between Tokyo and Beijing is likely to define Japan’s foreign policy,” Fok added.
China regards Taiwan as part of its territory and has been keeping a close eye on Takaichi and the results of the polls.
The strong mandate for Takaichi could also accelerate her plans to bolster military defence, which Beijing has cast as an attempt to revive Japan’s militaristic past.
“Beijing will not welcome Takaichi’s victory,” said David Boling, principal at the Asia Group, a firm that advises companies on geopolitical risk.
Tottenham Hotspur are in a relegation battle, says former England captain Wayne Rooney.
A 2-0 defeat by Manchester United stretched their winless Premier League run to seven games to leave Thomas Frank’s side 15th in the table and only six points above the relegation zone.
Spurs finished 17th last season – leading to the dismissal of manager Ange Postecoglou, even after winning the Europa League.
“You’d have to say they are [in a relegation battle] with their current form,” said the ex-United striker on The Wayne Rooney Show.
“West Ham have been in form, Nottingham Forest pick up results here and there.
“You can’t think that they’re not in a relegation battle where they are. I think they’ll definitely be looking over their shoulders.”
Captain Cristian Romero was sent off in the first half at Old Trafford for a late lunge on Casemiro, his sixth dismissal in a Spurs shirt.
“I can see why it’s been given but I think it’s a little bit harsh,” said Rooney.
“Sometimes you lose your head at times. And I think he’s done that throughout his time at Tottenham.”
It came days after Romero’s social media post which seemed to criticise the people who run the club – when he said it was “disgraceful” they only had 11 fit players for a 2-2 draw with Manchester City.
“What doesn’t help is comments in the week before about the lack of players Tottenham have,” added Rooney.
“He clearly speaks his mind as well. But unfortunately, you’ve got to go and back that up with performances when you’re vocal like that – and I don’t think he’s done that. All that’s going to do is bring more pressure on Thomas Frank.”
Rooney has sympathy for Frank, who managed Brentford for seven years before moving across London last summer to replace Postecoglou.
“I feel for Thomas Frank because he looks tired, he looks like he’s aged 10 years,” he said.
“That’s what that Tottenham job has done to him in a short period of time. I hope they stick with him because he’s fantastic manager, but I think it’s going be very difficult for them to do that.
“And you don’t need your captain going out getting sent off on a regular basis or being as vocal as he was this week.”
