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☆ Kevin Sinfield carries friend and former teammate Rob Burrow across marathon finish line
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( George Ramsay | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —It’s an image that encapsulates the power of friendship through adversity: Kevin Sinfield, a legendary figure in the sport of rugby league, stops short of the finish line of a marathon to gather Rob Burrow, his friend and former teammate, into his arms. The poignant moment came at the end of the inaugural Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon on Sunday and the pair received cheers from those spectating when they crossed the line together. Sinfield pushes Burrow during the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon. The fact that he’s going to be right under my nose this time, I won’t be short of inspiration.”Sinfield kisses Burrow as the pair cross the finish line. He ran Sunday’s marathon in a jersey bearing the number seven, which Burrow wore throughout his rugby career.

☆ Players forced to run for cover as raging bull creates havoc at a rugby league match in France
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Issy Ronald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Chaos ensued before a rugby league match between the Catalans Dragons and St Helens on Friday when a bull escaped from a pre-match parade and rampaged around the field. Television cameras showed the bull breaking free of its handler, dragging him along the ground, and charging around the field. Scattering players dropped rugby balls as they ran for cover, while some players even jumped over the barriers into the crowd. It marked a significant win over the reigning Super League champion St Helens, sealed by tries from Arthur Mourgue, Matt Ikuvalu and two from Tom Davies. “It was a bizarre start to the match,” Dragons head coach Steve McNamara said afterwards.

☆ Rugby league-Rampaging bull disrupts Super League match
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 6 (Reuters) - A bull broke free during a Super League match in Perpignan, France on Friday, causing the players of Catalans Dragons and St Helens to run for cover at the Stade Gilbert Brutus. The bull eventually slowed down, allowing handlers to regain control and no injuries resulted from the incident, British media reported. In a statement before the match, Catalans said three bulls and two cows would take a lap of honour on the pitch during the warm-up as part of a programme to "honour local livestock". The event was organised in partnership with local meat-processing plant Guasch Viandes, owned by Catalans chairman Bernard Guasch. Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Ed OsmondOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Rugby league-'Marvel' coach Bennett hailed ahead of 900th match
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Ian Ransom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Some 36 years on and seven National Rugby League (NRL) titles later, the 73-year-old supercoach will plot the Sharks' downfall again on Saturday when he coaches the Dolphins in his 900th championship match. Emotions may run high during the game, but the famously taciturn Bennett will likely have his usual poker-face on while looking to engineer victory. Tributes from players, fellow coaches and NRL head office have rained down on the luminary this week. No NRL coach has come close to Bennett's tally of games, with second-placed Tim Sheens, the 72-year-old Wests Tigers manager, yet to crack 700. He wandered into it when asked to mentor a junior side at Queensland's police academy after the team's coach fell ill.

☆ The trans soccer team that’s making history
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Hannah Ryan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

On the rainy evening of March 31, 2023, he captained what he says is the first ever all trans masculine soccer team in Europe in a match. “I was quite nervous before the match,” Webber told CNN. They now also aim to make soccer a more inclusive sport and connect the trans community. “After the all trans feminine team played their game and once I’d played with the all-gender team, she took me aside and said she’d been thinking about what we could do next and asked if I’d be interested in captaining an all trans masc team,” Webber said. “One day, there’ll be hundreds of trans people playing football all over the country at all levels.”

☆ Australian Rules-Tasmania savours victory in 'hard fight' to secure AFL team
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Ian Ransom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The state government signed off on commitments to secure the AFL's 19th team license and has targeted the 2028 season to launch in the Australian Rules top flight. "This has been a hard fight ... by many, many Tasmanians over a number of generations," state Premier Jeremy Rockliff said in the state capital Hobart. The AFL targeted richer eastern states and continues to spend a fortune propping up expansion teams in territory long owned by rugby league. AFL clubs relying on league distributions balked at the prospect of another drain on the league's coffers. ($1 = 1.5006 Australian dollars)Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter RutherfordOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Jarryd Hayne: Former NFL and Australian rugby player jailed ahead of sentencing
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Ben Morse | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Former Australian rugby and NFL player Jarryd Hayne has been jailed ahead of his sentencing hearing after being found guilty of raping a woman in 2018. Earlier this month Hayne had been found guilty by a jury of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent. In a statement to CNN, Hayne’s barrister Margaret Cunneen said that jury did not understand the standard of proof. He was then tried a second time and, in March 2021, Hayne was found guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent. Hayne is one of the National Rugby League’s most famous players, having won numerous awards for his success on the field.

☆ Over 150 ex-soccer, rugby players join concussion lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

London sports law firm Rylands Garth said it would issue proceedings in court on Tuesday on behalf of 100 rugby league players, 40 rugby union players and 15 football players, taking the total number of claimants to 380. The players allege that the sports' governing bodies failed to protect them from concussion and non-concussion injuries that caused various disorders including early onset dementia, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease and motor neurone disease. "Acting on the latest science, evidence and independent expert guidance, we constantly strive to safeguard and support all our players – future, current, and former...," World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) said in a joint statement. Rylands Garth represents over 250 rugby union players with brain damage, including England World Cup winner Steve Thompson and former Wales captain Ryan Jones, in a claim against World Rugby and the governing bodies of England and Wales. The firm also represents 100 rugby league players as part of a separate but similar potential claim against England's RFL.

☆ Another 55 amateur players join concussion lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Lori Ewing | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

MANCHESTER, England, March 14 (Reuters) - Another 55 amateur rugby players who are suffering from neurological impairments joined the growing list of claimants in a class-action concussion lawsuit on Monday, claiming that the sport's governing bodies failed to take reasonable action to protect them. "The players we represent love the game," Rylands Garth said in a statement. "(CTE) is a cruel and progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in many players of contact sports leading to repetitive brain trauma," they said. World Rugby pointed to studies in France and South Africa that showed positive advancements in terms of player safety and overall game experience. In 2019, the NHL paid $18.49 million to settle a concussion lawsuit brought by more than 100 players.

☆ The Rugby Giant Who Protects the Eagles’ Blind Side
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Joshua Robinson | Andrew Beaton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

MELBOURNE, Australia—The biggest player in this NFC Championship game is a 6-foot-8, 365-pound lineman who grew up playing the wrong sport. Long before he was dwarfing the NFL’s most menacing pass rushers, Jordan Mailata’s real dream was to play professional rugby league in his native Australia. The only problem was that even rugby league thought he was too huge.

☆ Amateur players send letter of claim in potential legal action over brain injuries
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 19 (Reuters) - More than 55 amateur rugby union players sent a letter of claim to World Rugby, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) and England's Rugby Football Union (RFU) on Thursday to begin the pre-action phase of their lawsuit over possible brain injuries. The group includes several retired female internationals, elite male players who played before 1995, elite youth players and the family of a deceased rugby player. Richard Boardman of Rylands Garth, which represents more than 275 ex-professional rugby union, rugby league and football players with brain injuries, in July last year brought a similar claim against those rugby bodies and the Rugby Football League. Ahead of this year's Rugby World Cup in France, World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont pointed to the advancement of player and women's welfare in rugby in 2023, a year in which the sport will celebrate its 200th anniversary. "There will also be developments related to the other key pillars of our welfare plan, including our commitment to education and support for former players," he added.

☆ Rugby Union-Hatred of England is a powerful tool, says defence coach Sinfield
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Mitch Phillips | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Sinfield built a strong bond with former Scotland lock Doddie Weir, who died in November from Motor Neurone Disease. "I understand that and I understand that that's quite common across the other nations as well," he told reporters. Asked if he thought that "hatred" could lift England's defence to a new level of intensity, he said: "I don't just think it's powerful defensively, I think it’s powerful right the way across. "I've been here (Twickenham) a number of times to watch Six Nations games as well. That 2003 team (England's Grand Slam and World Cup winners), there are some real heroes of mine in that team.

Actor Johnny Depp topped Google’s list of trending people in 2022. Heard was the third top trending person on Google Search this year. The Depp-Heard trial also took a prominent spot in users’ search history this year. Andrew Tate, the self-described “success coach” who has been criticized online for what many see as misogynistic advice, topped Google’s 2022 category for trending “who is …” questions. In the gaming sphere, the popular online puzzle Wordle was the top trending game worldwide and in the U.S., according to Google Search.

☆ Rugby league-Samoa one step away from ultimate sporting fairytale
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Peter Hall | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

But the Samoans, who did not win a single match at the 2017 World Cup, tore up the script. No Pacific Island team had previously made the Rugby League World Cup final and no nation have made their debut in the final since 1998. "Samoa making the Grand Final is a massive achievement, it's really reuniting Samoans, not just here in Samoa but all around the world," Tagaloa Faafouina Su'a, Samoa rugby league federation president and chairman, told Reuters. The Kangaroos have a 100% record against Samoa in rugby league tests, with the aggregate scoreline from their two World Cup clashes 112-10. Reporting by Peter Hall; additional reporting by Ian Ransom, editing by Ed OsmondOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Nikki Hiltz: How this professional runner is making their sport more inclusive
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Issy Ronald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

“I was open about my sexuality at that point, but not my gender identity,” Hiltz tells CNN Sport. After coming out as trans and non-binary, Hiltz continues to compete in the women’s division. “You know, I have no business putting on an in-person race,” Hiltz jokes. Spencer Cox’s veto of a bill that bans transgender women from competing on women’s and girls’ sports teams. Since coming out as trans and non-binary last year, Hiltz has had conversations with race directors and announcers about making running more inclusive.

☆ Argentina limit changes for Sunday's Twickenham test
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Argentina will field two new front rowers and have made a switch on the wing in three changes for Sunday’s test against England at Twickenham. England and Argentina share the same World Cup pool next year but Cheika told a virtual news conference on Thursday that was not an immediate concern in their approach to Sunday's test. "For us it's about changing a little bit the style of our and our mental approach as well," he said. Cheika has split this week with coaching Lebanon at the Rugby League World Cup, where they play Australia in the quarter-finals at Huddersfield on Friday. Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Christian RadnedgeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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