Category Sports News

United Rugby Championship quarter-final, following extra-time

Sharks (0) 24

Hooker, Fassi, and Mbatha Cons: Ja Hendrikse 3 Pen: Ja Hendrikse.

Munster (7) 24

Cons: Crowley 3 Pen: Murray

After the Sharks’ incredibly dramatic quarter-final of the United Rugby Championship in Durban ended 24-24 after extra-time, they defeated Munster 6-4 in a place-kick match.

The shootout, which involved six kicks from three players from each team, saw Rory Scannell’s missed penalty save the lives of Bradley Davids, Jaden Hendrikse, and Jordan Hendrikse, all convert their two shots at the posts.

With just two kicks each, Conor Murray and Jack Crowley scored for the visitors.

After twice before falling short of the quarter-finals, Sharks’ thrilling victory made it their first time to reach the final four of the competition.

Next weekend, they travel to South African rival Bulls, with Leinster hosting Glasgow in the other semi-final.

A converted Calvin Nash try gave the Irish province a 7-0 lead at Kings Park after the break, but a 10-7 lead was given early by an Ethan Hooker score and Jaden Hendrikse penalty.

Munster appeared to be in control after Josh Wycherley and Diarmuid Kilgallen scored on additional touchdowns, but Aphelele Fassi and Fez Mbatha headed in the opposite direction to give the hosts a three-point lead.

Munster were seven points ahead of them when Kilgallen weaved his way past three defenders to get the ball to Crowley, who sent a cross-field kick bouncing into the corner.

Makazole Mapimpi was supposed to have it, but it evaded him and was perfectly happy to finish it for Nash.

After the Sharks had been penalized at the breakdown, Crowley pulled his effort wide after adding the extras, but he was found guilty of a bad miss off the tee.

Jordan Hendrikse missed with a 45-meter penalty attempt, but Munster’s team struggled to put their pressure on themselves by putting up a lot of attacks in the first half as a result of a combination of regular handling errors and some obstinate defense.

However, when wing Hooker cut inside and sprinted past three defenders to score close to the posts, John Plumtree’s side were level within six minutes.

When Nash was stopped just short of the line, Jaden Hendrikse’s penalty gave his team a 1-0 lead, but Wycherley’s advantage was dwindling as a replacement prop dipped over with his first touch after accepting a flat pass from Craig Casey.

When substitute Mike Haley passed through, Mapimpi slipped, and Kilgallen won the race, scoring 14 points at the hour mark.

The Sharks went over for the score that would lower their arrears to four as a result of the pressure in the Munster scrum.

The visitors eventually moved the ball quickly to full-back Fassi, who crossed, but they were fortunate not to concede a penalty try.

The Sharks were ahead as their pressure indicated six minutes after regulation time ended. After the line-out, they gained a quick ball, and replacement hooker Mbatha bucked his way over.

Munster weren’t done, so Murray forced extra-time by successfully landing an enormous kick from just inside the Sharks half to bring the game level.

Mbatha, Mchunu, Jacobs, Van Heerden, Buthelezi, Venter, and Penxe are their replacements.

Munster: Abrahams, Nash, Farrell, Kilgallen, Crowley, Craig Casey, Milne, Niall Scannell, Archer, Kleyn, Beirne (capt), O’Mahony, Hodnett, Coombes, and Farrell.

In a third-round French Open match that was halted by loud fireworks outside Paris St-Germain’s stadium, Cameron Norrie kept his focus on defeating British rival Jacob Fearnley.

Fearnley, 23, took Norrie’s place as the country’s top two earlier this year, but he resurrected himself in a 6-3, 7-6, 6-2 victory.

PSG fans savagely awaited their team’s Champions League final against Inter Milan in Munich while the match was largely over the course of the match.

Norrie, who is ranked 81st in the world, described how managing the fireworks next door was the “toughest part” for both of us.

After a few challenging seasons, Norrie, who was playing at his best, used his experience to overthrow his fellow Scot.

Fearnley, the French Open debutant, appeared to have picked up a broken leg in the second set.

As Norrie made its first appearance in the final 16 of the clay-court Grand Slam, Fearnley, who is ranked 55th, produced a double fault on match point.

Novak Djokovic, who played later on Saturday, might get to meet with the reward.

After a three-hour contest played in bizarre circumstances, Norrie and Fearnley, who had never previously played at ATP level, embraced warmly at the net.

Nearly 50 000 supporters poured into Roland Garros’ Parc des Princes to watch the game on large screens.

When Norrie had a 4-1 lead in the second-set tie-break, he had to abort his serve, but he refocused and took the lead.

In addition to the fireworks, the audience could also hear police sirens and car horns that were tooting during the opening two sets.

As the football match’s kick-off time approached, the noise faded in the third set, and Norrie won.

It was very difficult to get there, said Norrie, and I feel great about it.

Lewis Hamilton calls the introduction of a new front wing flexibility regulation at the Spanish Grand Prix “a waste of money.”

To limit how many teams could use their movement on the track to gain aerodynamic advantage, the governing body, the FIA, imposed a stricter load test on the front wings.

However, Hamilton said, “We just wasted everyone’s money.” Nothing has actually changed.

Everyone had to make new wings and spend more money to make these because everyone’s wings still bend. It’s only half the bending. Simply put, it is illogical.

The Ferrari driver continued, “I didn’t anticipate anything of the change before coming to Spain.”

According to Hamilton, “I drove it on the simulator, and it’s pretty much the same.” A little more oversteer in the high speed, I guess. You know, “Could have given it everything to charity”?

Along with funding for research and development, the new F1 front wing costs about $100,000.

Because it anticipated that the majority of teams would introduce new front wings in Spain anyway as part of their regular development plans, the FIA delayed the implementation until this race, the ninth of the season.

Red Bull’s pressure on the FIA over McLaren’s use of flexi-wings, which were being exploited by all the top teams and the majority of the others, is widely believed to have led to the move in F1.

Red Bull have been contacting the FIA in recent months regarding a number of legal-related aspects of the McLaren car, but nothing has been discovered regarding the design or the procedure.

The impact, according to McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, was “relatively negligible” because, according to Stella, “we always assumed that because of the small numbers that were associated with this change of aero-elastic effect, both in terms of downforce and downforce variation with speed, they would have been fairly minor.”

If we hadn’t told Lando that this wing was a different wing when we tested it in Imola [two races ago], he wouldn’t have noticed it, and when we simulated it, it was almost zero.

We therefore did not anticipate a change in the pecking order in light of the technical directive that was made available for this race.

Because the technical directive has been around for a long time, and we could find effectiveness in terms of how you planned to introduce this modification, we did not have time to consider whether or not to waste the money.

Teams use flexible front wings because they increase cornering and improve cornering without sacrificing straight-line speed. They also increase cornering and improve cornering.

The front wing flaps should bend downwards as the load is reduced, reducing drag, before rising back up to increase corner downforce.

Teams have also discovered that flexi-wings improve their balance at various cornering speeds under the most recent generation of cars.

Low-speed understeer and oversteer (no enough front grip) are common in high-speed corners, which also generate the majority of their downforce from shared underbodies known as venturis.

Hamilton, who starts fifth in Barcelona, stated that his goal was to “try and get to the podium.” I haven’t appeared on a podium in a while.

His most recent podium appearance was in Las Vegas in November, when he was a Mercedes driver.

He made reference to George Russell’s former teammate’s reigning fourth-place finish in Spain last year.

“Long way to turn one,” “” George started with “Hamilton said” last year, which we witnessed. I’ll make every effort possible to get things off to a good start. Then it’s just about managing the tyres here, which is challenging, and then, after that, it’s all about managing the tires.

Piastri warned against “trying to get a good start” because he was worried about the “long run to turn one.”

He continued, “It will still be a fascinating race, and it’s not as straightforward as taking the lead at the beginning and moving on from there.” Managing the tyres and getting your stops right will be difficult. There will be a lot going on.

Verstappen once said, “Yes, turn one is when it’s time to shine.” Make the pictures three [cars] wide. Not, why?

It’s not bad that my long run on Friday practice was bad, but if you consider the difference today, it’ll be difficult to put up a really, really good fight. That doesn’t, however, mean we won’t try.

Lancashire defeated Nottinghamshire by 47 runs to claim two wins from two in the T20 Blast, led by Keaton Jennings, who scored 95 from just 49 balls.

After winning the toss at Old Trafford, their T20 captain, Luke Wells, who had a career-best 87 from 50 balls in the record opening stand of 177, led from the front.

Notts were bowled out for 169 in the final over after Moises Henriques made a brief chase-threatening 60 from 32.

After struggling in the County Championship Division Two, beleaguered Lancashire found some relief in their first T20 game against Worcestershire, which they then followed with a dominant performance against Notts.

In boosting his second-best T20 score, Jennings hit eight fours and six sixes, and Wells added a new highest score with seven boundaries and six maximums.

Their 177-run T20 partnership put them out of sight, making it their best ever total for any wicket for Lancashire.

Durham won the match’s opening 17 balls and took three wickets in Edgbaston to secure a comfortable victory.

Sam Hain’s only batsman for the Bears, making 45 in 28 balls, but Jimmy Neesham of New Zealand took 3-34 as the Bears were bowled out for 143.

With 40 from 23 deliveries, including five fours and sixes, Graham Clark delivered the ideal start to the chase before Robinson took the mantle and ran out 45 from 36.

According to Sarries director of rugby Mark McCall, Saracens and Racing 92 have discussions about a potential return for former club captain Owen Farrell.

Farrell spent his entire career in north London before joining the French club last summer.

After his side beat Bath on the final day, McCall told TNT Sports, “I think there are some discussions with Racing about whether or not they would release him from his contract.”

With Alex Lozowski expected to miss out for a while with an Achilles injury sustained at the end of March, Saracens are looking to find replacement players.

The club defeated an under-strength Bath side 36-26 on Saturday to end an inconsistent season in the Premiership.

Saracens finished outside of the top four for the third time since 2009.

Farrell won six Premiership titles and three European Champions Cups, including the double in 2015-16 and 2018-19, while also winning 256 games in a trophy-filled career in north London.

His final game for the club was a 22-20 defeat to Northampton Saints, who had defeated him in the semi-final of the previous season.

Due to his recovery from injuries and previous form, he has made 17 appearances for Racing this year.

You are allowed to bring in an injury dispensation for that player because he’s going to be out for such a long time, according to McCall.

“We need to bring someone in to fill that position, and we need to find someone with the lower pay.”