Archive August 2, 2025

Women’s Rugby World Cup warm-up

England (43) 97

Tries: Feaunati, M Packer, Rowland (3), Breach, Bern (2), Shekells, Ives Campion, Sing, Campbell, Botterman, Dow, Jones Cons: Harrison (7), Sing (4)

Spain (0) 7

England ran in 15 tries as they walloped a limited Spain side 97-7 in a match that quickly morphed from a contest into a glorified training session.

However captain Marlie Packer may miss some of England’s pool-stage campaign at the forthcoming Rugby World Cup after the 35-year-old was shown a red card for a clumsy clearout that caught the leg of Spain full-back Claudia Pena.

The incident will be reviewed by a disciplinary panel in the coming days.

England have one more match – a warm-up away to France next Saturday – before they open the World Cup against the United States in Sunderland on 22 August. Fixtures against Samoa and Australia follow before a potential quarter-final in Bristol.

John Mitchell’s side are stacked in back-row options with Zoe Aldcroft, Alex Matthews and Sadia Kabeya among those who didn’t start against Spain, but Packer’s dismissal is a definite hiccup for preparations.

Before the second-half red card, England had enjoyed their afternoon in front of 5,286 fans at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

The Red Roses crossed after a little more than three minutes with number eight Maddie Feaunati, a rampaging presence in the loose, taking a short ball from fly-half Zoe Harrison and crashing over.

The crowd had already begun cheering Spain’s spirited moments by that point. Prop Mireia de Andres’ turnover in the shadow of her own posts earned applause from the north stand, while there were groans of disappointment when Las Leonas were held up over the line on a rare attack.

With Spain ranked 13th in the world, the gulf in class and power to an England side who have swept all before in recent years was clear.

Rowland completed her hat-trick three minutes into the second half, with Bern grabbing a second and Lilli Ives Campion, Emma Sing and replacement May Campbell also registering before Packer’s red.

Pena shrugged off Breach to race in for Spain’s solitary and well-celebrated score.

Hannah Botterman and Abby Dow came off the bench to further plump up the scoreline with tries, before Megan Jones, who is leaving Leicester for Ealing this summer, crossed with the clock in the red.

England have now won 56 out of their last 57 matches, with their only defeat in that time the World Cup final against New Zealand in 2022.

Before being shown a red card, Marlie Packer did much to prove that she is still a force as she heads into her fourth World Cup.

The 35-year-old, captain here but replaced by Zoe Aldcroft as regular skipper in January, pinballed around the pitch, providing a feast of front-foot ball for her backline and cajoling younger team-mates to follow her into the fray.

However, on the hour, she misjudged her entry into a breakdown to make a regulation clearout.

Losing her balance, she toppled, shoulder first, into the leg of Pena. The Spaniard escaped injury as she buckled under Packer’s weight and the England flanker was immediately apologetic.

But having reviewed the action on the big screen, referee Aurelie Groizelau issued a straight red card.

Elsewhere prop Bern showed up well, making metres with her standout pace and all-court game, while Rowland, starting on the wing for the first time, crossed three times, while finding her feet in the wide channels.

England: Sing; Rowland, Jones, Shekells, Breach; Harrison, L Packer; Clifford, Atkin-Davies, Bern, Ward, Ives Campion, Burton, M Packer (c), Feaunati

Replacements: Campbell, Botterman, Muir, Aldcroft, Kabeya, Hunt, Heard, Dow

Spain: Pena; Cortes, Vinuesa (c), Z Perez, Piquer; Argudo, Aresti; Silva, Blanco, De Andres, Castelo, Martinez, Peralta, Rosell, Capell.

Women’s Rugby World Cup warm-up

England (43) 97

Tries: Feaunati, M Packer, Rowland (3), Breach, Bern (2), Shekells, Ives Campion, Sing, Campbell, Botterman, Dow, Jones Cons: Harrison (7), Sing (4)

Spain (0) 7

England ran in 15 tries as they walloped a limited Spain side 97-7 in a match that quickly morphed from a contest into a glorified training session.

However captain Marlie Packer may miss some of England’s pool-stage campaign at the forthcoming Rugby World Cup after the 35-year-old was shown a red card for a clumsy clearout that caught the leg of Spain full-back Claudia Pena.

The incident will be reviewed by a disciplinary panel in the coming days.

England have one more match – a warm-up away to France next Saturday – before they open the World Cup against the United States in Sunderland on 22 August. Fixtures against Samoa and Australia follow before a potential quarter-final in Bristol.

John Mitchell’s side are stacked in back-row options with Zoe Aldcroft, Alex Matthews and Sadia Kabeya among those who didn’t start against Spain, but Packer’s dismissal is a definite hiccup for preparations.

Before the second-half red card, England had enjoyed their afternoon in front of 5,286 fans at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

The Red Roses crossed after a little more than three minutes with number eight Maddie Feaunati, a rampaging presence in the loose, taking a short ball from fly-half Zoe Harrison and crashing over.

The crowd had already begun cheering Spain’s spirited moments by that point. Prop Mireia de Andres’ turnover in the shadow of her own posts earned applause from the north stand, while there were groans of disappointment when Las Leonas were held up over the line on a rare attack.

With Spain ranked 13th in the world, the gulf in class and power to an England side who have swept all before in recent years was clear.

Rowland completed her hat-trick three minutes into the second half, with Bern grabbing a second and Lilli Ives Campion, Emma Sing and replacement May Campbell also registering before Packer’s red.

Pena shrugged off Breach to race in for Spain’s solitary and well-celebrated score.

Hannah Botterman and Abby Dow came off the bench to further plump up the scoreline with tries, before Megan Jones, who is leaving Leicester for Ealing this summer, crossed with the clock in the red.

England have now won 56 out of their last 57 matches, with their only defeat in that time the World Cup final against New Zealand in 2022.

Before being shown a red card, Marlie Packer did much to prove that she is still a force as she heads into her fourth World Cup.

The 35-year-old, captain here but replaced by Zoe Aldcroft as regular skipper in January, pinballed around the pitch, providing a feast of front-foot ball for her backline and cajoling younger team-mates to follow her into the fray.

However, on the hour, she misjudged her entry into a breakdown to make a regulation clearout.

Losing her balance, she toppled, shoulder first, into the leg of Pena. The Spaniard escaped injury as she buckled under Packer’s weight and the England flanker was immediately apologetic.

But having reviewed the action on the big screen, referee Aurelie Groizelau issued a straight red card.

Elsewhere prop Bern showed up well, making metres with her standout pace and all-court game, while Rowland, starting on the wing for the first time, crossed three times, while finding her feet in the wide channels.

England: Sing; Rowland, Jones, Shekells, Breach; Harrison, L Packer; Clifford, Atkin-Davies, Bern, Ward, Ives Campion, Burton, M Packer (c), Feaunati

Replacements: Campbell, Botterman, Muir, Aldcroft, Kabeya, Hunt, Heard, Dow

Spain: Pena; Cortes, Vinuesa (c), Z Perez, Piquer; Argudo, Aresti; Silva, Blanco, De Andres, Castelo, Martinez, Peralta, Rosell, Capell.

Head coach Andy Farrell said the British and Irish Lions were disappointed to have lost the final Test to Australia but should be “unbelievably proud” to win the series.

Farrell’s side had been seeking to clinch the Lions’ first 3-0 series whitewash since the 1927 tour of Argentina but failed to compete with Australia’s physicality as the hosts ran out 22-12 winners in torrential rain.

The defeat also ended the Lions’ 100% winning record on Australian soil as they failed to emulate the 1974 side, who were the last Lions team to go unbeaten on tour.

“There’s going to be frustration there – all along we’ve said we want to win every game,” said Farrell, who did not rule out coaching the side again.

“The best team won on the night. It might take one or it might take two beers but they’ll be unbelievably proud of what they’ve achieved on this tour. On reflection we can be unbelievably proud.

“The legacy for us is in the changing room. The togetherness – it’s been an absolute delight.

“We’ve played some outstanding rugby and that’s accumulated into a performance that last week ended up being a moment that will stay with us forever.”

The Lions secured their first series win since the 2013 tour of Australia, but did speak openly about wanting to win 3-0.

The Wallabies – who for the first time in their history failed to qualify for the knockout stage of a Rugby World Cup in 2023 – improved as the series went on after starting slow in the first Test in Brisbane.

In Sydney the Wallabies, ranked sixth in the world, scored three tries and looked in control of the game for large periods to show further improvement.

“I said in the week it would be insulting to question Australia’s place on the series and I repeat that,” Farrell added.

“Special things are going to happen to Australia over the next 18 months. They have special athletes and special players.”

Australia only played one warm-up game against Fiji in the lead-up to the series, which former Lion Andy Nicol believes was a big factor in their slow start in Brisbane.

“Joe Schmidt has got this wrong or Australian Rugby Union have got this wrong,” he told BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly podcast.

“The preparation was just not right. We have said on so many occasions it is not like the Lions have crept up. The Lions has been 12 years in the making.

“They will absolutely rue the lack of preparation for that first Test because we have seen in Test two and three they are very competitive and in some cases a match or even better than the Lions.

“The fact the Lions won that first Test at a canter allowed them to be down in that second Test and come back and take the lead in the 79th minute.

“That has been hugely important and has won the Test series.”

The decision not to rule out Keenan’s winning try in Melbourne for a clearout from Jac Morgan was something Schmidt openly disagreed with.

However, he was not willing to use that as an excuse for the sole reason for losing the series and said his side started the campaign slowly.

“We can’t get those points back, we can only play the points that are in front of us. I’m not going to look back at maybes,” Schmidt said.

Grand Prix of Hungary

Hungaroring Dates: 1-3 August Race start time: 15:00 BST on Sunday

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took a sensational, surprise pole position at the Grand Prix of Hungary ahead of McLaren’s title contenders Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

Leclerc surpassed Piastri by only 0.0226 seconds in the final stage of qualifying, which is nowhere near McLaren’s pace.

Norris was 0.015secs behind his team-mate, who was 16 points adrift in the championship.

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll locked out the third row, with Mercedes’ George Russell coming in fourth place ahead of the two Aston Martins’ outstanding performances.

Lewis Hamilton, Leclerc’s teammate, will start 12th after failing to advance past the second knockout session.

Max Verstappen from Red Bull was struggling all weekend, trailing only Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto.

Leclerc was skeptical when Bryan Bozzi, his engineer, told him he was in command. “What”? he responded. “Mamma mia”.

He continued, “I have no words; it is probably one of the best pole positions I’ve ever had because I did not expect that.”

“Today I can’t understand anything in F1. The entire process involved in qualifying. And I don’t mean that exaggeration when I say that.

“We had to work hard to get to Q2 and it was difficult to get to Q3. I knew I had to do a clean lap to target third in Q3, but things changed a little bit, and it ended up in pole position.

Piastri remarked, “The wind turned the circuit in two places, from Q2 to Q3, and that.” In those circumstances, it is challenging to judge. We couldn’t move that quickly, which surprised me.

“Charles has been quick all weekend, and we were expecting a lot more from him in final practice this morning.” He did a good job, even though I didn’t anticipate being second to a Ferrari this weekend.

Hamilton struggled in qualifying even though he was only 0.01 seconds away from placing in the top 10, despite Leclerc’s outstanding performance.

He said, “I’m just useless.” I was a terrible driver.

Aston Martin locked out the back row of the Belgian grid just a week ago, causing the car’s high drag to be difficult to drive in Spa-Francorchamps’ long, high-speed sections.

The Hungaroring’s tight, twisty nature significantly increased its chances of success, and recent car upgrades have also improved the team.

Both drivers’ overall best performance of the season came just over 0.01 seconds off pole.

Alonso remarked, “Seven days ago, we felt competitive and with a very different layout than Spa. We are now in the fifth and sixth rows after the grid’s final row.

“Sounds a significant change, and we need to understand why, learn how to use the car here, and apply these lessons to the upcoming grand prix.”

Verstappen remarked, “We tried a lot as a team, but nothing, sadly, really helped our balance.”