I Dig Sports
Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou said his side did not have the right mindset for their Europa League round-of-16 match at AZ Alkmaar on Thursday and was glad to leave the Netherlands with only a 1-0 deficit to overturn.
An own goal in the first half by 19-year-old midfielder Lucas Bergvall gave AZ Alkmaar a narrow win, and while Spurs enjoyed the lion's share of possession they managed just one shot on target.
Chasing a first trophy since winning the Carabao Cup in 2008, the Europa League is Spurs' only hope of winning silverware this season. They are 13th in the Premier League and have been knocked out the FA Cup and League Cup.
"I don't think it's a matter of effort or attitude. I don't think it is going out there and not trying, but like I said we didn't really come to grips and have the right mindset to tackle an away fixture in Europe," Postecoglou said.
"It is always tough and we obviously conceded the goal, which was a disappointing set of events. But even after that we didn't really settle down into the game at all.
"You are going to face some pressure when you play away from home in Europe and weather the storm and get to grips with it, but we never really did so that was a disappointment.
"It's only 1-0 so I guess that's a positive in that we didn't let the game get away from us."
Striker Dominic Solanke was forced to come off with an injury in added time and Postecoglou was unsure of his availability for Sunday's Premier League game against Bournemouth.
"It looks like a knock but I haven't really seen it. Hopefully nothing too bad," Postecoglou said.
McSweeney open to possibilities in bid to earn Test recall
"I don't know," he said. "All I can do is make runs and get back to being a consistent run-scorer which is what got me the opportunity in the first place. So wherever my spot is, if the opportunity comes I'm happy to bat wherever. And I think my game is suited to that. All I can focus on now is trying to punch out some runs. Hopefully that means South Australia in a Shield final,"
He will get a second innings in this game before South Australia host Queensland in the final round of the season. That game and a possible final will be his only playing opportunities before the WTC final unless an opportunity in England presented itself.
"I'd love to get over and play some county cricket but at this stage I'm just staying in Adelaide," McSweeney said. "I haven't looked too much past the next couple of weeks for us. It's massive for South Australia. So hopefully we can nail the end of this game and the next couple of weeks leading into hopefully a Shield final. But post that I'd love to head overseas and keep working on my game."
"It was nice to spend some time middle," McSweeney said. "It's been a little bit of a stop start season for me, I guess, and I haven't played heaps of cricket. Not the score I would have liked. But it's nice to spend some time out there and face plenty of balls and hopefully I can get make use of that in the second innings and really come out and hopefully score a bit more freely."
The selectors were pleased with what he showed technically and temperamentally in his first three Test matches but there were concerns over his scoring limitations, which ultimately was the reason why they opted to omit him. His innings at the Junction Oval perfectly incapsulated both the positives and the negatives of his game.
He showed outstanding defensive skill and decision-making to withstand Test-quality spells from Boland but struggled to rotate the strike, particularly in the evening session on day one when he was 9 off 52 balls and the morning session on day two. He got busier and more proactive as the innings wore on before nicking a good delivery from Victoria seamer Fergus O'Neill who also probed with unerring accuracy all innings to claim five wickets.
McSweeney's brief taste of Test cricket has shown him that he needs to keep trusting the foundations of his game but add some different scoring options.
"A little bit of both," McSweeney said. "I think I know a method that works in Shield cricket for me, but you're also trying to keep learning, keep getting better. And from my experiences in Test cricket, there's definitely some learnings to try and add and scenarios where I can tinker with my game to hopefully be better for it.
"I think it's also important to know what worked for me leading into that and what makes me a good player. So it's been an enjoyable last couple of months, a challenging one, no doubt, but I definitely like to think I'm better for it."
A tearful Nick Kyrgios was forced to retire from his first-round Indian Wells match with a wrist injury as his tennis return suffered another setback.
The Australian, playing his first match since January's Australian Open, trailed Botic van de Zandschulp 7-6 (9-7) 3-0 before ending the match early.
Kyrgios became visibly upset when speaking to the trainer about his right wrist, which he had surgery on in September 2023.
The 29-year-old also struggled with knee and foot injuries over an 18-month period before making his return at the start of the year.
"No-one in the sport has had a wrist reconstruction and tried to play after that," Kyrgios said.
"There's been players that have had wrist surgeries and nowhere near as bad as what I had.
"It's all an experiment at this point. I was told I was arguably maybe not ever playing tennis again.
"I feel I'm like right there, I feel like I can compete."
Raducanu stalking incident 'not a security failure'
Archer also addressed the suspension of Stefano Vukov, the former coach of 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
The Czech has been banned for an undisclosed period by the WTA following an independent investigation into his behaviour towards the player.
Vukov, who is currently unable to access accredited areas at tournaments, has denied any wrongdoing.
Rybakina has said she was never mistreated by the Croat and would like him to be able to resume full coaching duties.
"We are able to offer support and advice to Elena," Archer said.
"Our responsibility is to Elena as well as to the hundreds of other WTA players and it's really important that we keep our environment safe.
"This is the workplace of my staff, our athletes and it is a place where fans come to enjoy our sport.
"That is what is at the forefront of my mind - we have to keep our environment safe.
"In doing so we are certainly providing resources to the affected individuals within our community, like Elena in this case, to the extent that's necessary and desired."
Baxter questions viability of Championship clubs in cup
Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter says a Premiership Rugby Cup made up solely of top-flight teams would be better commercially for the country's leading clubs.
Reports have cast doubt on the future participation of Championship clubs in the competition, which plays its semi-finals this weekend.
Second tier sides have been part of the event for two seasons.
Reigning Championship champions Ealing reached the semi-finals last year and face Exeter at Sandy Park on Saturday for a place in the final.
Two Premiership and two Championship sides faced each other home and away in each pool this season - with second-tier sides often having their biggest gates against their Premiership opponents.
But Baxter says Exeter's lowest crowds this season have been in the cup - where they faced Gloucester, Hartpury and Cornish Pirates in the pool stage.
"The game is needing to develop more money not less, and if the key element to that at the moment is revenue through the gate, through people coming and buying tickets, then ultimately that's the one Premiership clubs have to look at," he told BBC Sport.
"I don't need to explain my position on playing Championship rugby, I captained Exeter Chiefs in the Championship for eight years.
"For me, all these grounds we've been going to I've played numerous times at with Exeter, I enjoyed that time doing that, you don't need me to champion Championship clubs, I've done enough of that.
"But that is, at this stage, not the point. The point is making these competitions commercially viable and I think that's what's ruling the way."
The 'special' duel at the heart of Ireland v France
Peruse Ireland and France's line-ups for Saturday's potential Six Nations title decider and you'll find no shortage of instantly compelling head-to-head battles.
Caelan Doris v Gregory Alldritt pits two of the world's best number eights against one another, Andrew Porter v Uini Atonio will be an engrossing scrum-time tussle, while powerhouse Irish centre Bundee Aki will meet his match in Yoram Moefana.
But naturally, most eyes are drawn to the battle of the scrum-halves.
In Antoine Dupont, France have a generational talent. A world player of the year in both the 15s and sevens codes, an Olympic gold medallist and a poster boy for his sport, Dupont has gleefully exhausted superlatives in recent years.
His otherworldly gifts even moved his Toulouse team-mates to refer to him as 'the Martian', Emmanuel Meafou revealed last year.
Dupont's worthy adversary on Saturday is Jamison Gibson-Park. 'Jamo' to his team-mates, he is Ireland's unflappable metronome and the frontrunner to wear nine for the British and Irish Lions in Australia this summer.
"Yeah, it will be interesting," said Ireland interim head coach Simon Easterby.
"Two fabulous players at the peak of their game. There are a number of individual battles across the teams, but that one will be pretty special."
This will not be the first time Gibson-Park and Dupont have crossed paths, of course. They have twice met in the Champions Cup, including last year's final when Dupont's Toulouse beat Gibson-Park's Leinster in extra time.
They have met three times in the Six Nations, although not since 2022 (Gibson-Park was injured in 2023 while Dupont skipped last year's championship).
This time, the stakes are suitably sky-high.
The Edmonton Oilers added defenseman Jake Walman to their blueline in a deal with the San Jose Sharks ahead of Friday's NHL trade deadline.
The Sharks get AHL forward Carl Berglund and a conditional 2026 first-round draft pick in the deal with Edmonton.
The pick is top-12 protected. If the selection is in the top 12, Edmonton might choose to transfer its 2027 first-round selection to San Jose instead. Should the Oilers do so before the 2026 NHL trade deadline, their 2026 first-round selection will transfer to San Jose, unconditionally.
Walman is having the most productive season of his six-year NHL career. The defenseman has 6 goals and 26 assists in 50 games for the Sharks, skating to only a minus-1 on the NHL's worst defensive team. He skated a career-high 23 minutes, 11 seconds per game.
Walman is signed through the 2025-26 season with a $3.4 million cap hit.
The trade was a stellar bit of asset management by Sharks general manager Mike Grier. He acquired Walman and a second-round pick from the Detroit Red Wings in 2024 for yet to be defined "future considerations." He has now turned Walman into a first-round pick.
Berglund, a UMass-Lowell product, has played with Bakersfield for the past three seasons. He has 12 points in 45 games this season.
The Sharks have been busy ahead of the deadline, trading goalie Vitek Vanecek and forward Nico Sturm to the Florida Panthers in separate transactions.
The Oilers made a splash this week when they acquired center Trent Frederic from the Boston Bruins, adding another key role player to a team trying to make the Stanley Cup Final for a second straight season.
O'Neill, Boland share nine as McSweeney shines in Junction arm wrestle
Victoria 285 & 46 for 0 (Kellaway 23*, Harris 17*) lead South Australia 283 (McSweeney 60, O'Neill 5-51, Boland 4-53) by 48 runs
O'Neill took his fifth career five-wicket haul to maintain his outstanding Sheffield Shield record, while Boland claimed 4 for 53 with spells that were every bit the equal of the best he has shown at Test level, to bowl South Australia out for 283 and give Victoria a narrow two-run first innings lead. That advantage swelled to 48 as Campbell Kellaway and Marcus Harris batted impressively in the final hour of the day.
Victory is crucial for Victoria if they are to maintain a realistic chance of making the Shield final.
Their lead would have been more without McSweeney's 199-ball 60 in very challenging batting conditions. He only struck six boundaries and had to defend and leave stoutly in the face of some high-quality bowling from O'Neill and Boland who delivered 38.4 of the 67.4 overs he was out there for.
He began the day on 9 off 52 balls and was unable to gain any fluency early after Jason Sangha was adjudged lbw not offering a shot to O'Neill for 19.
McSweeney started to flow from there despite the loss of Liam Scott, who was also trapped plumb infront by an excellent Xavier Crone yorker. Scott's front foot slid from under him to leave him on all fours as the finger was raised.
Nielsen and Ben Manenti then counterattacked against the old ball as Boland and O'Neill rested before the new one was due. The pair added 61 for the seventh wicket before Boland returned to remove them both in quick succession.
Manenti flashed a drive against the second new ball and nicked to Macdonald at first slip. Boland then nipped one back through Nielsen's gate from around the wicket to splay off stump in almost identical fashion to Conor McInerney's dismissal on the first evening. But Nielsen's 45 was vital in the context of the match.
Brendan Doggett and Henry Thornton combined to frustrate Victoria, adding 34 for the ninth wicket before O'Neill switched ends again to take the final two wickets. He took a sharp return catch to remove Doggett for 19 before clean bowling Jordan Buckingham.
It set up a tricky 16-over period in the evening session for Kellaway and Harris to negotiate. But the pair left and defended well against the new ball while rotating the strike impressively to give Victoria the chance to build a significant lead on day three.
Henry's availability for Champions Trophy final 'a little bit unknown'
Neser's six-wicket burst leaves Queensland in command
Tasmania 161 (Weatherald 55, Neser 6-37) and 70 for 1 trail Queensland 425 for 9 dec (Khawaja 127, Hearne 74) by 194 runs
He ripped through the home team's top order in their Sheffield Shield match on Friday, taking the first six wickets of the Tasmania first innings in a devastating nine-over spell after lunch - all the wickets coming in the space of 39 balls.
Replying to Queensland's first innings of 425 for 9 declared, Tasmania collapsed after lunch from 86 without loss and were dismissed for 161 at Bellerive Oval. Tasmania followed on and were still 194 runs behind with two days left.
While Queensland and Tasmania started this penultimate round as the bottom two teams, a big win would keep one of them in the hunt to make the final against SA.
Following Usman Khawaja's century on Thursday, Neser's command performance confirmed Queensland have the game by the throat.
He snared 6 for 37 from 15 overs. It is his third Shield game back after a hamstring injury in November while playing for Australia A cruelled his hopes of a Test return this summer.
The 34-year-old has played only two Tests, most recently against the West Indies in late 2022. Neser has had to bide his time, stuck in Australia's pace-bowling queue behind Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland.
Neser bowled Weatherald for a top score of 55 and took a wicket in each of his next three overs. When he trapped Radhakrishnan lbw for 39 and bowled Beau Webster, Tasmania were 122 for 6 and Queensland were in the box seat.
Mark Steketee had Radhakrishnan caught behind for 24 late on day two, with Weatherald unbeaten on 39.
Gabe Bell and Webster took three wickets apiece in Queensland's first innings.
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