WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Southern Hemisphere rugby will be put on show and possibly on trial in the Rugby Championship which begins Saturday with a match between the World Cup-winning Springboks and defending champions New Zealand.
Human-caused climate change made last week’s deadly heat wave in England and Wales at least 10 times more likely and added a few degrees to how brutally hot it got, a study said.
CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — South Africa took its Twenty20 international series with England to a decider after easing to a 58-run win in the second match on Thursday.
Rilee Rossouw hit 10 fours and five sixes in a 55-ball 96 not out to steer the Proteas to 207-3 in Cardiff after being put into bat.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa held off Wales 30-14 in the third test to clinch their series 2-1 and end a run of success for the northern hemisphere on Saturday.
Wales was hoping to match Ireland's historic series win in New Zealand earlier in the day, and England's victory in Australia, but didn't have enough in Cape Town.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Wales prop Tomas Francis will miss the rest of the rugby test series in South Africa after he was concussed on Saturday.
Francis took an inadvertent knee to the head within a minute of replacing Dillon Lewis in the first test in Pretoria.
LONDON (AP) — Jos Buttler was promoted to England's new white-ball captain on Thursday and took immediate charge of the Twenty20 and one-day international cricket teams.
Vice-captain since 2015, the 31-year-old Buttler has deputized for Eoin Morgan on 14 occasions, including in the Netherlands last week after Morgan sat out with a groin injury.
CHICAGO (AP) — The United States will play Japan and Saudia Arabia in its last two World Cup warmups.
The 15th-ranked Americans will play No. 23 Japan in an exhibition on Sept. 23 at a European site that's yet to be announced, the U.S.
Phil Bennett, the Wales flyhalf “with stardust in his boots” who started the move which led to one of rugby's greatest tries, has died. He was 73.
His death was confirmed Sunday by his former club Scarlets, which did not specify a cause.
LONDON (AP) — It was a night of stalemates for the big teams in the Nations League on Saturday, including a drab scoreless draw in the rematch of last year's European Championship final.
England was held 0-0 by Italy to leave Gareth Southgate's side without a win in three matches in the top-tier Group 3 this month as it prepares for the World Cup.
CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — Gareth Bale said Wales' qualification for the World Cup in Qatar will influence the next stage in his career as he weighs up which team to join after leaving Real Madrid.
KANSAS CITY, Kan, (AP) — Two months after the World Cup draw, the United States learned it will open the tournament against Wales on Nov 21.
“It's full steam ahead, concentrating on Wales," U.S.
CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — Weeks of back spasms were not going to stop Gareth Bale's mission to lead Wales back to the World Cup.
Try stopping the captain taking to the field when there is a 64-year drought to end.
CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — Ukraine's players wept in the rain while applauding their dejected supporters after missing out on qualifying for the World Cup by losing 1-0 to Wales in Europe's last playoff for the FIFA soccer showpiece on Sunday.
CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — Ukraine plans to resume competitive football in the country in August despite being under attack by Russia after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave approval.
A look at what’s happening in European soccer on Sunday:
WORLD CUP PLAYOFF
The final European spot at the World Cup will be determined in Cardiff where Wales hosts a Ukraine side trying to deliver an uplifting sporting success amid the ongoing Russian invasion.
CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — Far from battlefields and Russian invaders, the Ukrainian footballers exempted from military service are trying to complete the mission to lead their country to the World Cup.
MADRID (AP) — The third edition of the Nations League begins this week with many participants already thinking about the World Cup.
National teams will get a rare opportunity to play several matches in a row — practically serving as a preseason — as the international dates were moved to June because of the World Cup beginning in November.
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Ukrainian soccer star Oleksandr Zinchenko couldn't hold back the tears as he tried to explain what it means to represent his country's national team at this moment, with a spot at the World Cup within reach.
A look at what’s happening in European soccer on Wednesday:
WORLD CUP PLAYOFF
Scotland hosts Ukraine in Glasgow for the right to play Wales on Sunday for a place at this year's World Cup in Qatar.
LONDON (AP) — Jofra Archer will miss the entire summer of international cricket for England after being diagnosed with a stress fracture to the lower back, prolonging the fast bowler's injury woe that has seen him sidelined for the past year.
LONDON (AP) — A turbulent period for English cricket saw another high-profile departure among its leadership on Tuesday when chief executive Tom Harrison announced he will be stepping down.
Since the turn of the year, the men's test captain, head coach, director of cricket and now the CEO have all left their roles as the England and Wales Cricket Board launches a so-called “red-ball reset” amid troubling times for the test team.
Canada will prepare for its first World Cup since 1986 with an exhibition against Iran on June 5 at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Canada plays Curaçao at Vancouver on June 9 and is at Honduras on June 13, both in the CONCACAF Nations League.
LONDON (AP) — People in Britain voted Thursday in local elections that will decide the makeup of local authorities across the country — and possibly the fate of embattled Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
DUBLIN (AP) — Six Nations champion France will begin its title defense at the 2023 tournament by playing Italy in Rome before facing Ireland the following weekend in Dublin.
The schedule was announced Wednesday and again features the Calcutta Cup in the first round with Scotland visiting Twickenham looking for a third straight victory over England.
ZURICH (AP) — Ukraine's bid to qualify for the Word Cup will resume on June 1 against Scotland after its playoff semifinal in Glasgow was postponed in March due to the country being invaded by Russia.
MIAMI (AP) — The United States was drawn Monday to play 74th-ranked El Salvador and No. 170 Grenada in the CONCACAF Nations League in preparation for the World Cup in November.
All three U.S. first-round matches at this year's World Cup will kick off at 2 p.m. EST, the latest in the day possible under the schedule in Qatar.
The U.S. opens Nov. 21 against Wales, Scotland or Ukraine at Al Rayyan, then plays England on Nov.
VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Austria coach Franco Foda will leave his position after the friendly match against Scotland on Tuesday after failing to lead his team to the World Cup.
Foda used a news conference on Monday to suddenly announce his imminent departure, saying the time was right because “we couldn’t fulfill our big dream.”
CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — Gareth Bale demonstrated his enduring value for Wales by scoring two goals — including a sensational free kick — in a 2-1 win over Austria on Thursday, leaving his country one more victory away from a first World Cup in 64 years.
CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — Gareth Bale declared himself in “very good shape” and ready to play “whatever is necessary” for Wales in its World Cup playoff against Austria, days after pulling out of Real Madrid’s humiliating loss to Barcelona in the Spanish league.
The Six Nations panned out as most observers predicted.
France was first, Ireland second, followed by England, Scotland, Wales, then Italy.
Yet, on the final day on Saturday, Ireland led the championship for about three hours, England and Scotland were in danger of dropping in the standings, and Wales could have finished third.
More than two years have passed since a grinning Gareth Bale, celebrating a big win for his national team, held up a Welsh flag with the words “Wales. Golf. Madrid. In That Order” written on it.
At least in his soccer career, it appears little has changed.
CARDIFF, Wales (AP) — Paolo Garbisi booted the match-clinching conversion before throwing himself to the ground and bursting into tears.
After seven humiliating years, Italy finally won a Six Nations match.