Category Sports News

Women’s Six Nations: Wales v Ireland

Venue: Rodney Parade Date: Sunday, 20 April Kick-off: 15:00 BST

Wales and Ireland each have a point to prove on Sunday as the Women’s Six Nations nears its business end.

They arrive at Rodney Parade for the penultimate round off the back of heavy defeats to tournament giants France and England.

Ireland will be looking to build on their sole victory away to Italy, while Wales will be desperate to move off the bottom of the table and avoid a second consecutive wooden spoon.

In recent years Wales and Ireland have taken it in turns to give each other a hammering.

Wales ran out 31-5 winners in Cardiff in 2023 while Ireland repaid the favour in Cork last year with a 36-5 victory.

While it would appear to be Wales’ turn this weekend, form suggests otherwise.

Ireland are now the fifth best side in the world after an impressive autumn saw them beat world champions New Zealand, while Wales have slumped to 10th.

Wales vice-captain Alex Callender will make her first appearance of the campaign after recovering from a foot injury.

Usually a flanker, she has been named at number eight with Georgia Evans moving to her less favoured position of second row.

Kelsey Jones gets the nods ahead of Carys Phillips at hooker in the only other starting change.

Kayleigh Powell retains the fly-half jersey despite Lleucu George shaking off a calf injury which saw her miss the defeat to France. She is instead named among the replacements.

Keeping her company on the bench is GB Sevens player Catherine Richards who is set for her first tournament outing.

Edel McMahon returns to captain Ireland who are looking to cement their “best of the rest” status, with England and France once again set for a Grand Slam decider.

The openside flanker missed last week’s defeat by England through injury and is recalled to replace Erin King who has been ruled out of the rest of the tournament and the World Cup because of a serious knee injury.

There are four other changes to the side, with Siobhan McCarthy making her first Test start at loose-head prop, with Ruth Campbell coming into the second row.

Enya Breen returns in midfield while Molly Scuffil-McCabe makes her first appearance of the campaign at scrum-half.

Wales head coach Sean Lynn said: “One thing which Ireland will bring is that energy and work rate, but we can bring that too.

“That’s something that I’m asking these players, ‘let’s match their energy, let’s match their work rate and physicality’ and then it could be a tight game.

“Aoife Wafer has been outstanding [for Ireland], she’s a big ball carrier and Dannah O’Brien puts them in positions with her territorial game, they are the two big players and ones we will be looking at.

“I definitely have [seen improvements]. The big thing for me is collision dominance, attack and defence, and getting better at it.

“Second half against France, we’re making line-breaks, but to be in this championship and be a better team we have to be capitalising on these line-breaks.

“For me Carys Cox has been a standout ball carrier in our backline and we’re really excited.”

Ireland head coach Scott Bemand said: “I live fairly close and grew up next to Wales and I understand what it’s like to play in Wales. It’s an unbelievable experience. They are passionate about their rugby.

“We’ve said we want to go after winning games away from home because that’s going to be a massive part of a World Cup.

“Backing the Italy piece up this week and taking the green wave over there is going to be a massive for us.

“Playing away from home you’ve got the noise, the atmosphere, the occasion and we’ve got to learn to deal with it and get excited by it.

Gareth Rhys Owen said: “It seems strange to think that Wales travelled to Cork 12 months ago buoyed by a sense of optimism.

“The expectation was that they’d win, very few predicted a handsome Irish victory.

“That result was a reality check for the game in Wales. A new coach has brought fresh enthusiasm and until this game, little in terms of pressure.

“The red roses and France were a freebie – but having lost to Scotland – the next two matches come with a little bit of extra pressure.

Wales: Jasmine Joyce; Lisa Neumann, Hannah Jones (capt), Courtney Keight, Carys Cox; Kayleigh Powell, Keira Bevan; Gwenllian Pyrs, Kelsey Jones, Jenni Scoble, Abbie Fleming, Georgia Evans, Kate Williams, Bethan Lewis, Alex Callender.

Replacements: Carys Phillips, Maisie Davies, Donna Rose, Natalia John, Alaw Pyrs, Sian Jones, Lleucu George, Catherine Richards.

Ireland: Stacey Flood; Anna McGann, Aoife Dalton, Enya Breen, Amee-Leigh; Dannah O’Brien, Molly Scuffil-McCabe; Siobhán McCarthy, Neve Jones, Linda Djougang, Ruth Campbell, Dorothy Wall, Brittany Hogan, Edel McMahon (capt), Aoife Wafer.

With overtime victories over the Atlanta Hawks, the Miami Heat defeated the Atlanta Hawks to become the first 10th-seeded team to reach the NBA play-offs.

The Heat needed to win consecutive road games to advance to the first four-team Eastern Conference qualification competition.

After defeating the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, they moved on to a 123-114 overtime win over the Hawks to prepare for a first-round meeting with the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, who are conference top seeds.

The Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Dallas Mavericks 120-106 in the Western Conference playoff game, which will feature games against the Oklahoma City Thunder in round one.

The Mavericks’ defeat sees the conclusion of a terrible campaign that included Kyrie Irving’s season-ending anterior cruciate ligament injury and Luka Doncic’s trade to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Anthony Davis, who moved to Dallas as part of the Doncic trade, remained in the lead line with 40 points and nine rebounds throughout the game.

After falling behind to the Hawks for ten games last month, the Heat resurrected and won the post-season tournament. They led the Heat in the opening half, scoring 17 points at one point, before extending their lead to 62-53 heading into the break.

With five minutes and six seconds left, the Hawks fought back and were up 98-92.

With 12 seconds left, the Heat was beaten by a free throw from Tyler Herro, but Trae Young was able to put the game to overtime thanks to a late layup.

In the extra period, Davion Mitchell sank three three-pointers and Herro added two more as the Heat found their range from the perimeter.

Ja Morant scored 22 points, nine assists, seven rebounds, and three steals for the Grizzlies in Memphis after recovering from a sprained right ankle.

The 25-year-old two-time All-Star only received medical clearance before the game’s start on Friday because he injured himself in his team’s opening play-in loss to the Golden State Warriors.

“I had an MRI, an ultrasound, met with different doctors, I got a shot, I slept, I woke up, I went to the gym about 5:30,” Morant said.

“Sat for about 30 minutes until I needed to see a different doctor, get an injection, and get my pre-game stuff started.”

He laughed back when asked how the ankle felt after the game, “I couldn’t feel it, that’s why I was out there.”

The Grizzlies had 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Scotty Pippen Jr. had 13.

After the season, Mavericks coach Jason Kidd praised his players.

According to Kidd, “We had an incredible season when you look at the injuries we’ve had, the Doncic trade, and for us to even be here playing in this game is incredible.”

Conference in the West:

Memphis Grizzlies (8) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (1)

Golden State Warriors (7) versus Houston Rockets (2)

Los Angeles Lakers (3) and Minnesota Timberwolves (Six)

Los Angeles Clippers vs. Denver Nuggets (4)

Eastern Conference :

Cleveland Cavaliers versus Miami Heat ten games

Orlando Magic versus Boston Celtics (7)

Detroit Pistons (6) vs. New York Knicks (3)

Milwaukee Bucks (4) vs. the Indian Pacers (4)

Seeding is indicated by brackets.

Mark Allen, a native of Northern Ireland, says he is inspired by Rory McIlroy’s dramatic Masters victory in a bid to win the first World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

Allen has previously won the highly regarded Triple Crown, the Masters and the UK Championship, but he has yet to receive the biggest prize in the sport.

The 39-year-old says he wants to emulate McIlroy, who won at Augusta last weekend and won his first of four major championships.

“There are a lot of comparisons. This is my 19th Crucible, and that was Rory’s [16th] Masters. One more tournament away from winning the Triple Crown and the Grand Slam, Allen said.

I was glued to the ups, downs, drama, and every shot of the Masters final round that I watched on Sunday. He has won it, he has lost it, he has lost it once more, and he has lost it. You can see what it meant to him to win in a play-off.

I’ll try to draw as much inspiration from him as I can. If not this year, I’ll return the following year for more. I’ll just keep working hard, hoping that Rory’s door will open for me like it did for Rory.

Allen says he will approach snooker’s biggest stage with a similar positive mindset to McIlroy’s.

He claimed in his interviews that he always believed he had the edge to win in that area. He continued to make that claim in his interviews.

Allen joins the Crucible after a largely disappointing season that saw him fall from first place in the world rankings after the previous year’s event to eighth in the standings.

The Antrim cueman made his first five semi-final appearances in December, including the UK Championship and the Masters, despite frequently finding himself in trouble for his best form. He did, however, win the lucrative Riyadh Season Championship invitational tournament.

“The season hasn’t been good,” he said. I can’t explain why I’ve been working as hard as I always do; simply put, I’ve not played well enough, he said.

“I know I won out in Saudi, but I don’t feel like my game is as good as I would like it to be,” says the author, “but this isn’t a bad place to try to rectify that.”

You can see how bad Kyren [Wilson] had last year; he had a better year than I did, but he won the world championship after 17 days at Sheffield.

Allen has already accumulated two World Championship titles, but he now believes he has more of the ingredients for potential success to add to his already impressive career resume.

“You need to get the most out of your bad sessions, be mentally strong, pot a few balls at the right times, and have some luck along the way to win.”

In 17 days, you don’t need to play phenomenal snooker. You’ll never do that, ever. Just compete, be patient, and you’ll find some form soon.

“All you can do is prepare as well as you can prepare, which I always do. Working with the sports psychologist and working hard at the practice table help me a little bit get in shape.

Not that I’m not attempting to improve, I’m just trying. I don’t know what will happen, just that it hasn’t yet.

On Sunday, Allen will face Fan Zhengyi, the world number 46 player who is one of the top 10 Chinese players in the 32-player field.

When they met in 2023 at the same time, the county Antrim player defeated the 24-year-old 10-5.

“Fan is a very good player,” the saying goes. I’ll need to try and compete very well because he won the European Masters a few years ago and has since become a little quieter.

Mark Allen, a native of Northern Ireland, says he is inspired by Rory McIlroy’s dramatic Masters victory in a bid to win the first World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

Allen has previously won the highly regarded Triple Crown, the Masters and the UK Championship, but he has yet to receive the biggest prize in the sport.

The 39-year-old says he wants to emulate McIlroy, who won at Augusta last weekend and won his first of four major championships.

“There are a lot of comparisons. This is my 19th Crucible, and that was Rory’s [16th] Masters. One more tournament away from winning the Triple Crown and the Grand Slam, Allen said.

I was glued to the ups, downs, drama, and every shot of the Masters final round that I watched on Sunday. He has won it, he has lost it, he has lost it once more, and he has lost it. You can see what it meant to him to win in a play-off.

I’ll try to draw as much inspiration from him as I can. If not this year, I’ll return the following year for more. I’ll just keep working hard, hoping that Rory’s door will open for me like it did for Rory.

Allen says he will approach snooker’s biggest stage with a similar positive mindset to McIlroy’s.

He claimed in his interviews that he always believed he had the edge to win in that area. He continued to make that claim in his interviews.

Allen joins the Crucible after a largely disappointing season that saw him fall from first place in the world rankings after the previous year’s event to eighth in the standings.

The Antrim cueman made his first five semi-final appearances in December, including the UK Championship and the Masters, despite frequently finding himself in trouble for his best form. He did, however, win the lucrative Riyadh Season Championship invitational tournament.

“The season hasn’t been good,” he said. I can’t explain why I’ve been working as hard as I always do; simply put, I’ve not played well enough, he said.

“I know I won out in Saudi, but I don’t feel like my game is as good as I would like it to be,” says the author, “but this isn’t a bad place to try to rectify that.”

You can see how bad Kyren [Wilson] had last year; he had a better year than I did, but he won the world championship after 17 days at Sheffield.

Allen has already accumulated two World Championship titles, but he now believes he has more of the ingredients for potential success to add to his already impressive career resume.

“You need to get the most out of your bad sessions, be mentally strong, pot a few balls at the right times, and have some luck along the way to win.”

In 17 days, you don’t need to play phenomenal snooker. You’ll never do that, ever. Just compete, be patient, and you’ll find some form soon.

“All you can do is prepare as well as you can prepare, which I always do. Working with the sports psychologist and working hard at the practice table help me a little bit get in shape.

Not that I’m not attempting to improve, I’m just trying. I don’t know what will happen, just that it hasn’t yet.

On Sunday, Allen will face Fan Zhengyi, the world number 46 player who is one of the top 10 Chinese players in the 32-player field.

When they met in 2023 at the same time, the county Antrim player defeated the 24-year-old 10-5.

“Fan is a very good player,” the saying goes. I’ll need to try and compete very well because he won the European Masters a few years ago and has since become a little quieter.

Since becoming a boxer, Dalton Smith has made numerous sacrifices.

They include evenings with friends, travel dates abroad, and putting aside all the other indulgences that young men in his hometown of Sheffield consider rites of passage during their transition from youth to adulthood.

But their deepest regret is probably their biggest one, perhaps. The 27-year-old reveals it involves his own sense of self and bond with his father and trainer, Grant, before Saturday’s crucial fight against Mathieu Germain.

Boxing is “a sport that completely overtakes your identity,” he said. According to Smith, “I’ve been doing it since I was six, and I’m labelled as a fighter.”

Every fighter can only reveal who they really are once their careers are over.

I’m referring to the individual, not the fighter.

“You don’t really know who you are as a person or what you’re all about until you give it all up and make a decision.”

All I know about me is how strong I am right now. And to be honest, that’s the only thing I need to know right now.

This weekend’s visit from Canada will be Smith, who has already won the British, Commonwealth, and European crowns at the Canon Medical Arena in Sheffield.

The gym is a short walk away, and Smith has chosen to give up another aspect of his life to pursue greatness under Grant’s watchful eye.

He acknowledges that “I won’t have my dad until I retire as just my dad.” Before I stop fighting, we won’t be able to have the kind of relationship we’d like.

We cannot think of ourselves as parents and children. Because I’m a fighter, a warrior, and I have to prepare for war, we must see ourselves as boxers and coaches. Before I stop, we won’t have the attachments we want.

Although Smith’s comments reveal why he calls boxing “the loneliest sport of all,” he says it would be mistaken to interpret them as a plea for sympathy.

Smith hopes to have earned the WBC light-welterweight belt when he eventually embarks on that discovery journey.

beating Germain would expand Smith’s unblemished professional record to 18-0, giving him the chance to almost certainly get a chance to visit the Dominican before Christmas, and it would also make Alberto Puello the top contender to win.

They might have ended up in a conventional relationship if they had chosen to pursue their dreams together. Smith explains that by doing this, he and Grant have demonstrated their mutual respect.

It demonstrates how much we are willing to accept that we are father and son in the same way that others might view it until I give up, he continues.

We are seen as more than just a father and son, in fact, because of the position we are in.

“Don’t get me wrong, it can be challenging at times. We can have some of the biggest fallouts at the gym, but when we succeed together and understand how difficult it was to make sacrifices, it just feels so special.

After recovering from an injury that kept him out of action for almost a year, Smith celebrated his return with a round that defeated Walid Ouizza.

He later gave up on the European strap during that contest.

Smith claims that despite having a complicated relationship with his father, the gym and his training partners still give him a sense of “family set-up.”

The biggest rows and biggest love are inside. However, that’s what families are: having disagreements and still having love, according to Smith.

I’m not altering anything that has led me this far, I say.

“Dad knows me better than anyone else,” he says. Because he has witnessed me in numerous situations both inside and outside of the ropes, he probably knows me better than I do.

Halo World Championship

Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre Dates: April 19 to May 5

Can Kyren Wilson sever the “crucible curse”? Will Judd Trump win the elusive second world title?

What about John Higgins and Mark Selby as they attempt to win their fifth World Championship?

Ronnie O’Sullivan, who hasn’t played competitively since January, will obviously struggle to achieve his record eighth title in the modern era.

Since 1977’s relocation to the Crucible Theatre, no first-time winner has been able to keep the title.

Lei Peifan, the winner of the Scottish Open, will be Wilson’s first opponent on Saturday morning.

The 33-year-old Wilson has relished carrying the title of the reigning world champion, winning four ranking competitions this year and making the Masters and Championship League final.

A new era for the sport is being beckoned by a growing rivalry with Trump, who he has faced three times in this term’s finals. At the same time as the well-known trio of O’Sullivan, Higgins, and Mark Williams are in their 50s or are about to enter.

Trump, the world’s number one, has won three tournaments this campaign, including the Saudi Arabia Masters and the UK Championship, two of the sport’s four majors.

His earnings have increased to levels never before seen by a player in a single season, and the £500, 000 top prize would bring him close to the £2 million mark.

The 35-year-old has previously played it down, but he would adore receiving the World Championship trophy for the second time in his career to formally establish himself as one of the game’s greats.

Trump has the ability to essentially sweep his closest competitors away if he produces the scintillating, fast-paced snooker he is renowned for.

O’Sullivan was surprisingly chosen as one of the bookmakers’ favorites to win the Crucible before even making his decision to participate.

The Rocket, who withdrew from his Championship League group because he was so irritated with his game, decided to withdraw from all five of his matches before going on the World Snooker Tour.

Even if Wilson and Mark Selby are on the same side of the draw, O’Sullivan would be foolish to discount him even though he hasn’t played in anything more than a best-of-seven since his first-round defeat by Barry Hawkins at the UK Championship in November.

Since becoming a professional in 1992, the Englishman has been a constant fixture at the tournament.

O’Sullivan, who is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, famously won the trophy in 2013 after only one competitive match prior to the showpiece event.

The 49-year-old is more than capable of delivering a historic triumph, according to recent footage that shows him putting together a maximum 147 break in less than seven minutes of practice. He is also the author of seven titles.

Scotland’s Higgins is yet another player from the sport’s renowned “Class of 92” who deserves to be missed. He is up in the leader’s circle and is currently third in the world rankings.

Since winning his first ranking position at the World Open in March, the four-time champion has appeared revitalized.

Higgins returns after claiming a second championship victory over Selby in a top-notch final.

Higgins, who turns 50 in May, has the temperament and talent to win his first world title since claiming a fourth one in 2011 and has a proven record in the long format of the game.

Williams’ victory at the November Champion of Champions appears to have faded away, in contrast.

The “Welsh potting machine” has had eye issues in recent months and gave a mediocre assessment of his chances after falling 10-3 to Ding Junhui in Manchester and following last month’s Players Championship.

The 50-year-old said, “Whoever qualifies is going to be praying they draw me in the first round.”

Ben Woollaston, a friend and practice partner of Selby’s, and Ben Woollaston, a friend, are the two-time champions in the first round, making him a strong favorite to advance.

One of the game’s greatest players was significantly resurrected by victories at the British Open and Welsh Open.

Selby enters the tournament in a way that suggests he could win another four world titles, including victories over Ding Junhui and Neil Robertson earlier this month.

Shaun Murphy, the Masters winner from 2005, will relish his chance, having already won one Triple Crown this year.

Ding Junhui’s chances of winning the Crucible’s four straight first-round defeat are undoubtedly uncertain.

China’s hopes of a first world champion are unreal, but the 38-year-old is far from resting on his shoulders.

Zhang Anda, Xiao Guodong, Si Jiahui, Zhao Xintong, Zhou Yuelong, Fan Zhengyi, Pang Junxu, Lei Peifan, and Wu Yize are just three of the top 10 Chinese players in the tournament who have advanced to the top 10.

A first-round matchup with Zhao, the 2021 UK champion, and Wilson, the beaten finalist from 2024, will hardly appeal to Jak Jones, who has a chance to face off in the second round.