Category Sports News

Elinor Snowsill, a former fly-half, calls it “very frustrating” when England place second place behind Wales’ best young talent.

Since turning her Wales career into a career in 2012, Snowsill has been in charge of one of the Welsh Rugby Union’s (WRU) player development centers.

She also serves as the head coach of Cardiff Met and Wales Under-18s, where she claimed that there is a “golden generation” emerging.

However, “headhunting” from across the border worries Snowsill.

She stated on the Scrum V podcast that some of England’s most gifted players in the age range have been contacted and asked to travel there instead.

Given the success of Wales-born Meg Jones and Lucy Packer, Snowsill said she “feels wrong” about playing for the world champions.

“You’ve seen the Red Roses’ high investment by the RFU,” said Bob. In contrast, she said, “Wales and Scotland have invested heavily in their respective pathways over the past few years.”

“They have a lot of players playing because England is so dominant right now.”

A number of Welsh players claim that this is what I want to do, though.

They watched Wales fail to win the World Cup in the first two stages before watching England win the trophy and the atmosphere.

However, Snowsill claims that having a Welsh birthplace has advantages.

Because we are a small country, she said, “We can really combine our resources.”

Snowsill praised the WRU’s additional funding for Gwalia Lightning and Brython Thunder as a Celtic Challenge champion.

With the intention of bringing Welsh talent back to Wales, it will allow for dual contracts, additional coaching staff, and resources.

If players aren’t returning to the team roster or playing a lot of rugby, “we’re going to be bringing them back,” she said.

However, Snowsill thinks the package must be competitive for players to stay in England, even if they aren’t playing on matchday teams.

With this new funding, the challenge is to make it as appealing as possible for us to stay in Wales and participate in the journey, she said. “We’ve worked hard to develop our talent.

It won’t happen overnight, he said.

However, I firmly believe that Wales will succeed in the upcoming World Cup and subsequent ones.

Philippa Tuttiett believes Wales would benefit from having just one professional team, whether that be the Celtic Challenge or the possibility of joining the PWR.

Every player should be supported in the most effective setting to pursue their goals, Tutiertt said on the Scrum V podcast.

How are you going to make two professional teams out of Wales’ bottom-seeded Six Nations team, which had 30-35 players in the World Cup? You must add even more players.

Tuttiett also emphasized the value of making players strive to be professionals rather than just receiving contracts.

When I was younger, I worked so hard to even join my club team. I’m not sure if it would have kept my hunger alive if someone turned to me when I was 18 and said, “There’s a professional contract,” she said.

Let’s not get too big too soon, I personally would prefer it to be a one-professional team and build.

At Euro 2028, co-hosts England may travel two games away from Wembley.

The Three Lions will play one of their three group games at one of Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Villa Park, Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium, and St James’ Park in Newcastle, according to BBC Sport. They will need to qualify for the tournament to advance to the final five English stadiums, where they will host games.

England would also have to play a game away from home if they qualified for the knockout round at Wembley because there are no last-16 games being played there.

Scotland, Wales, and the Republic of Ireland are all hosts by England.

The opening game will be held at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, as first reported by the Times.

At the official launch of Euro 2028 in London on November 12th, the full schedule will be revealed.

The FA and Uefa, the body responsible for football in Europe, have both declined to comment.

At Wembley during the Euro 1996 semi-finals, England reached every match of their own competition.

Apart from their quarter-final victory over Ukraine in Rome, they also hosted games at Euro 2020, which was played across several nations, and played all of their games at Wembley.

England, Scotland, Wales, and the Republic of Ireland must meet qualifying requirements, according to Uefa, but any of those host nations who do not will be able to qualify will lose two spots in the finals.

Games will also be played at Glasgow’s Aviva Stadium and Hampden Park in Dublin.

The decision to remove the national team from their traditional home was largely driven by the number of recently developed and expanded stadiums in England, according to a senior source.

England’s men’s and women’s teams have played a number of games across the nation recently.

Due to Coldplay’s Wembley concerts, the men’s team played Andorra at Villa Park in Birmingham in September. The match was played at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground because the English friendly against Senegal in June and concert season clashed.

England have hosted home games at St James’ Park, Old Trafford, Manchester United’s Old Trafford, and Molineux, a Wolverhampton Wanderers’ ground since 2018.

Games have also been played at Leeds United’ Elland Road, Southampton’s St Mary’s, Leicester City’s King Power Stadium, and Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough.

Former England batter Jonathan Trott will leave his job as head coach of Afghanistan after next year’s men’s T20 World Cup.

The 44-year-old has been in charge of Afghanistan since July 2022 and has overseen a successful period including guiding the team to the semi-finals of last year’s T20 World Cup.

An Afghanistan Cricket Board statement said the decision was part of their “long-term strategic planning” for the “next phase of the national team’s growth”.

Trott said it had been “privilege” to coach the side and to “witness their passion, resilience, and hunger to achieve greatness”.

“I am proud of what we have accomplished together, and I will always remain a supporter of Afghan cricket,” added Trott.

Trott has coached Afghanistan for over three years but has never visited the country and still lives in Birmingham.

He travels when the players meet for camps in the United Arab Emirates, which is home to their main training base and hosts many of their fixtures.

The majority of the players live in Afghanistan and play in the domestic cricket leagues.

Ex-Warwickshire player Trott played 52 Tests and 68 one-day internationals for England, scoring 6,654 runs across both formats.

Former England batter Jonathan Trott will leave his job as head coach of Afghanistan after next year’s men’s T20 World Cup.

The 44-year-old has been in charge of Afghanistan since July 2022 and has overseen a successful period including guiding the team to the semi-finals of last year’s T20 World Cup.

An Afghanistan Cricket Board statement said the decision was part of their “long-term strategic planning” for the “next phase of the national team’s growth”.

Trott said it had been “privilege” to coach the side and to “witness their passion, resilience, and hunger to achieve greatness”.

“I am proud of what we have accomplished together, and I will always remain a supporter of Afghan cricket,” added Trott.

Trott has coached Afghanistan for over three years but has never visited the country and still lives in Birmingham.

He travels when the players meet for camps in the United Arab Emirates, which is home to their main training base and hosts many of their fixtures.

The majority of the players live in Afghanistan and play in the domestic cricket leagues.

Ex-Warwickshire player Trott played 52 Tests and 68 one-day internationals for England, scoring 6,654 runs across both formats.

Elena Rybakina stunned Iga Swiatek to confirm her place in the knockout stages of the WTA Finals while Amanda Anisimova produced a comeback victory to stay in contention in Riyadh.

Former Wimbledon champion Rybakina was outplayed in the opening set against world number two Swiatek but completely dominated thereafter.

Sixth seed Rybakina won 12 of the final 13 games to storm to a 3-6 6-1 6-0 win and snap a four-match losing streak against Swiatek.

“Mentally, I am happy that I stayed focused. I got some confidence in the second set and everything was going my way,” Rybakina said.

“Hopefully I will play like that through the whole tournament.”

Anisimova battled back from a set and a break down to beat compatriot Keys 4-6 6-3 6-2 and set up a winner-takes-all final group match against Poland’s Swiatek on Wednesday.

Wimbledon and US Open runner-up Anisimova, appearing at her first Finals, let out a roar of frustration after going 2-0 down in the second set but recovered superbly to win 12 of the next 15 games.

Keys did not shake hands with Anisimova at the end of the match, explaining to her opponent that she was ill.

Rybakina was backed to challenge Aryna Sabalenka and Swiatek for the sport’s top prizes after her Wimbledon triumph in 2022.

But, while the world’s current top two have won eight of the 13 slams since then, the 26-year-old Kazakh has been unable to build on that breakout success.

Swiatek had won all four of her previous meetings with Rybakina in 2025, losing only one set in the process, and leads the WTA Tour for match wins this year (62).

Rybakina, who only secured her spot at the year-end championships two weeks ago, responded emphatically after Swiatek edged the opening set with an early break of serve.

The tour leader for total aces in 2025 (480), the big-hitting Rybakina found rhythm on serve and forced Swiatek to play deep behind the baseline, while Swiatek’s own first serve points won fell from 90% in the first set to 53% in the second.

A double break of serve ensured Rybakina swiftly restored parity – and the outcome never appeared in doubt after she rallied from 40-15 down to break Swiatek at the start of the final set.

A fading Swiatek was powerless to halt her opponent’s progress as she amassed 42 unforced errors – 36 of which came in sets two and three – compared to just 12 winners.

Rybakina completed a statement first win over Swiatek for 19 months with a second serve ace to extend her winning run to eight matches.

Elena Rybakina stunned Iga Swiatek to confirm her place in the knockout stages of the WTA Finals while Amanda Anisimova produced a comeback victory to stay in contention in Riyadh.

Former Wimbledon champion Rybakina was outplayed in the opening set against world number two Swiatek but completely dominated thereafter.

Sixth seed Rybakina won 12 of the final 13 games to storm to a 3-6 6-1 6-0 win and snap a four-match losing streak against Swiatek.

“Mentally, I am happy that I stayed focused. I got some confidence in the second set and everything was going my way,” Rybakina said.

“Hopefully I will play like that through the whole tournament.”

Anisimova battled back from a set and a break down to beat compatriot Keys 4-6 6-3 6-2 and set up a winner-takes-all final group match against Poland’s Swiatek on Wednesday.

Wimbledon and US Open runner-up Anisimova, appearing at her first Finals, let out a roar of frustration after going 2-0 down in the second set but recovered superbly to win 12 of the next 15 games.

Keys did not shake hands with Anisimova at the end of the match, explaining to her opponent that she was ill.

Rybakina was backed to challenge Aryna Sabalenka and Swiatek for the sport’s top prizes after her Wimbledon triumph in 2022.

But, while the world’s current top two have won eight of the 13 slams since then, the 26-year-old Kazakh has been unable to build on that breakout success.

Swiatek had won all four of her previous meetings with Rybakina in 2025, losing only one set in the process, and leads the WTA Tour for match wins this year (62).

Rybakina, who only secured her spot at the year-end championships two weeks ago, responded emphatically after Swiatek edged the opening set with an early break of serve.

The tour leader for total aces in 2025 (480), the big-hitting Rybakina found rhythm on serve and forced Swiatek to play deep behind the baseline, while Swiatek’s own first serve points won fell from 90% in the first set to 53% in the second.

A double break of serve ensured Rybakina swiftly restored parity – and the outcome never appeared in doubt after she rallied from 40-15 down to break Swiatek at the start of the final set.

A fading Swiatek was powerless to halt her opponent’s progress as she amassed 42 unforced errors – 36 of which came in sets two and three – compared to just 12 winners.

Rybakina completed a statement first win over Swiatek for 19 months with a second serve ace to extend her winning run to eight matches.