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Scrum-half Rhys Webb has realised an ambition by playing in a Barbarians jersey but looks like he will not perform in this year's World Cup.
Webb returned to an international venue as part of the Baa-Baas team that lost 51-43 to an England side at Twickenham.
Toulon's number nine will return to France for pre-season training rather than answer any last-gasp call-up for Wales.
"I have had a year to deal with it and that is that," said Webb.
The 30-year-old British and Irish Lions scrum-half is ineligible to play for Wales following his move to Toulon.
Welsh Rugby Union rules announced in 2017 prevent the ex-Osprey representing his country as he has only won 31 caps, with players based outside Wales needing to have played at least 60 games.
Webb had opted to sign a contract with Toulon and says his plan now is to return on 2 July for pre-season training in preparation for a second campaign in France.
So Webb will not be preparing for the World Cup in Japan later this year which means he will still to have played in the major global tournament but he says he is reconciled with that.
"I am looking forward to resting the body up and having four weeks off before returning to France and I will spend some time with the family," said Webb.
"I am going to take my mind off rugby and relax."
Webb says he was happy with his performance against the Barbarians after playing for 56 minutes before being replaced by fellow Wales scrum-half Rhodri Williams who scored a try against an England XV.
"It has been an honour and a privilege to wear this jersey and it's a pity we did not get the result," said Webb.
"We have come together and it will be a week I will cherish for the rest of my life.
"It was everything I expected and we lived up to the tradition of the Barbarians and played with some great style against an England side full of energy.
"It was nice to be back on the international stage running out at Twickenham with my family watching and wearing this famous jersey.
"It has a been a good year, my first season in France and now finishing off with this.
"It was tough for a nine in this Baa-Baas team when the ball was flying around everywhere.
"I did everything I needed to and gave everything. That's all that matters."
Webb also revealed he wore his Bridgend Athletic socks and a black armband as a tribute to former chairman Andrew Tellem who died last week after suffering from cancer.
"It has been a sad moment because we lost our chairman," said Webb.
"He has battled hard with his illness, he is a real warrior and the socks and blacks armband was for him.
"It really hurt us as a whole in the community and he has done a lot for the club. So this week was also for him."
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Sutherland rallies to set course record, win Principal Charity in playoff over Parel
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Golf
Sunday, 02 June 2019 10:49
DES MOINES, Iowa – This time, Kevin Sutherland only needed two extra holes to finish off Scott Parel.
Two months after beating Parel in Mississippi on the seventh playoff hole, Sutherland birdied the second extra hole Sunday at Wakonda Club to win the Principal Charity Classic in the third-largest comeback in PGA Tour Champions history.
Sutherland overcame an eight-shot deficit in the final round, making eight back-nine birdies in a course-record 10-under 62 to match Parel at 17-under 199.
''Leading wasn't in my consideration. But I knew if I shot a great round of golf, you never know,'' Sutherland said. ''It just worked out well for me.''
Parel closed with a 70. They broke the tournament record of 15 under set by Scott McCarron three years ago.
Parel bogeyed the par-5 15th and missed a 10-foot birdie try on No. 18 in regulation. They each parred the first playoff hole, but Sutherland sank a 10-footer after Parel left about a 12-footer short in a replay on the par-4 18th hole.
''I'm very disappointed. I should have never been in a playoff to begin with,'' Parel said.
The 54-year-old Sutherland won for the third time on the 50-and-over tour after winning once on the PGA Tour. He's the only player to shoot 59 on the tour, accomplishing the feat in the 2014 Dick's Sporting Goods Open.
Parel stormed to a five-shot lead after two rounds, shooting 15-under to tie the 19-year-old tournament's record-low score through just 36 holes. Still, he said after Saturday's round that he'd need to stay aggressive because someone would shoot ''7- or 9-under par.''
Parel was prophetic.
Not surprisingly, that player turned out to be Sutherland - who also has a 60 on his senior circuit resume.
Parel started slow, even picking up his first bogey of the tournament by missing a putt on the par-4 second hole by about an inch. But Parel then nailed a 30-footer for birdie on No. 8, and a 12-footer on 12 pushed his lead to four shots.
Sutherland rallied with six straight birdies, and Parel's round went sideways after he put his tee shot on 15 into high grass that swallowed him up when he tried to play his way back onto the fairway.
Parel was able to chip to within a few feet of the hole to save a bogey. But Sutherland, who hadn't birdied Nos. 17 or 18 in either the first or second rounds, did so on both on Sunday to pull into a tie with Parel.
''Sometimes when you're rolling like that you get hungry. The birdies come easy,'' Sutherland said.
Parel and Sutherland were nearly joined by Jerry Kelly. He left a 65-yard approach a foot right on No. 18 and finished a stroke back after a 66. David Toms was fourth after 13 under after a 68.
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Cantlay wins the Memorial for his second PGA Tour title
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Golf
Sunday, 02 June 2019 11:09
Patrick Cantlay fired a bogey-free round of 8-under 64 to win the Memorial by two over Adam Scott on Sunday at Muirfield Village. Here’s how Cantlay earned congratulations from Jack Nicklaus for the second time:
Leaderboard: Cantlay (-19), Scott (-17), Martin Kaymer (-15), Kevin Streelman (-13), Marc Leishman (-12)
What it means: This is Cantlay’s second PGA Tour victory, a follow-up to his breakthrough at the 2017 Shriners. Cantlay was the 2011 Nicklaus Award winner following his freshman season at UCLA. Eight years later, he walked off the 18th green Sunday and once was again greeted by Jack, this time as the winner of his tournament. Cantlay entered the week 17th in the Official World Golf Ranking and will now break into the top 10 for the first time in his career. Though it appears unlikely at this moment he’ll need to worry about his membership status on Tour in the future, the winner of the Memorial receives a three-year exemption, making Cantlay secure through the 2021-22 season.
Round of the day: Cantlay started with birdies at Nos. 2 and 5 and added three more on Nos. 7-9 to make the turn in 5-under 31. He tied Kaymer for the lead at 17 under par with another circle at 11. Two more birdies at 14 and 15 as Kaymer was leaking oil gave Cantlay a cushion on his way to the clubhouse. His 64 is the lowest final round by a winner in the history of the Memorial. He wrote down only threes and fours on his scorecard Sunday.
Best of the rest: Streelman and Bryson DeChambeau signed for 66. Tiger Woods was 7 under through 12 holes but lost momentum. He settled for 67 after bogeys at 14 and 18.
Biggest disappointment: Kaymer let his lead slip away with back-to-back bogeys at 12 and 13 and lost the tournament by playing his final seven holes in 3 over. Nevertheless, his final-round 72 and T-3 finish vaults him from 198th to 120th in the FedExCup standings, an important move with Kaymer’s five-year Tour exemption expiring at the end of this season.
Shot of the day: Cantlay’s crafty up and down from the front bunker at 18 to stay bogey-free and finish 19 under par.
Quote of the day: “Being able to win on this golf course, a golf course that I really like, and in front of Jack, making that putt on the last hole, I can’t tell you how good it feels.” – Cantlay
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Haney defends his 'prediction' as Lee6 marches to victory
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Golf
Sunday, 02 June 2019 12:00
Hank Haney reinserted himself in the narrative of this week's U.S. Women's Open with two strident tweets Sunday, as South Korea's Jeongeun Lee6 was busy closing out her first major victory.
Haney used the occasion to attempt to justify the comments that got him suspended from his SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio show.
Shortly after Haney sent his tweet, Lee6 emerged victorious, marking the ninth win by a South Korean in the last 15 playings of the U.S. Women's Open.
It's a too-good-to-be-true ending to a week that kicked off with Haney dismissing the event, the LPGA itself and Korean players in general.
Haney, whose commentary indicated that he did not know the major was taking place this week or where it was being played, quickly offered, "I'm gonna pick a Korean," and followed up with, "I couldn't name you six players on the LPGA tour. Maybe I could. I’d go with Lee. If I didn’t have to name a first name, I’d get a bunch of them right.”
Lee6 features a number of the end of her name to differentiate her from the multiple other Jeongeun Lees on the Korean LPGA, where Lee6 racked up victories before winning the LPGA Q-Series.
Once Lee6 was officially the champion, Haney doubled down on "his prediction," misspelling the champion's name.
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CHARLESTON, S.C. – Jeongeun Lee6 is No. 1 at the U.S. Women's Open.
The 23-year-old South Korean shot a 1-under 70 on Sunday, enduring some shaky moments after opening up a three-stroke lead with three to play to hold off third-round co-leader Celine Boutier.
Lee6 was ahead by three after a birdie on the par-5 15th, but took bogeys on the 16th and 18th to give Boutier a chance over the final two holes. But Boutier missed a long birdie attempt on the 17th and put her approach to the par-4 18th in a bunker. Her sand shot rolled off the green.
Lee6, playing two groups ahead of Boutier, was practicing putts when the Frenchwoman could not make the sand shot. Lee6 bent down in joy when her victory was secure, countrywoman and 2011 U.S. Women's Open winner So Yeon Ryu coming over to embrace the new champion.
Lee6 finished at, naturally, 6-under 278 to claim the USGA's first $1 million women's winner check a few days after Tiger Woods' former swing coach, Hank Haney, made disparaging remarks about women's golf by predicting a ''Korean'' would win and ''I'd go with Lee.''
Lee6 has the number in her name because she was the sixth player with the name on the Korean LPGA. She has embraced the number, answering to it and writing a large ''6'' on her balls. Her South Korean fan club is called ''Lucky 6.'' Jeongeun Lee5 also plays the LPGA Tour.
Lee6 won a few days after Haney was suspended for his comments on his PGA Tour SiriusXM radio show when asked who'd win. ''I'd go with Lee,'' Haney said. ''If I didn't have to name a first name, I'd get a bunch of them right.'' Haney was suspended for his remarks.
Boutier made a double bogey on the final hole to fall into a tie for fifth at 3 under. She shot 75. Lexi Thompson, Ryu and Angel Yin tied for second, two shots behind. Thompson shot 73, Ryu 70 and Yin 68.
Gerina Piller, Jaye Marie Green, Mamiko Higa of Japan, and third-round co-leaders Yu Liu of China and Boutier were tied for fifth. Piller was the only under par at 68. Higa and Liu shot 74s.
Boutier and Liu, the good friends and former Duke teammates, figured to fight for the title. Instead, both threw away chances early as they combined for three bogeys and a double bogey on the first three holes.
Thompson began the round a shot off the lead in search for a second career major. But she too struggled early with bogeys on the first, third and fourth holes to drop off the pace.
Lee6 is hardly a surprise winner. She came in ranked 17th in the world and has won six times on the KLPGA Tour. She tied for fifth in this event in her 2017 debut and has three top 10s on the LPGA Tour this season.
''So looking at her as a rookie to play this tournament so well, I'm really proud of her as a fellow competitor and same country girl as well,'' Ryu said.
Higa faded in the final round after being a major contender at her first U.S. Women's Open. She set the tournament mark for lowest debut with her opening 65. She was a stroke in front through 36 holes and only a shot behind when the final round began. But she had five bogeys on her first 13 holes to fall back. She finished tied for sixth after a 74.
NCAA women's individual champion Maria Fassi started her first tournament as a pro 72-73 to make the cut on the number. She took flight on the weekend, going 68-70 to tie for 12th with a group at 1 under that included the tournament's low amateur in Gina Kim, part of Duke's recent NCAA team champion.
Two-time major champion Lydia Ko had a hole-in-one Sunday - the only of the week - on the difficult 11th hole. She hit a 6-iron from 172 yards and, moments later, heard cheers up near the green, but wasn't sure why. She found out soon enough for her second career ace, the other coming at the Rio Olympics. The 11th, built with a false front and two large protective bunkers on each side, played as the hardest hole this week.
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Spieth finishes T-7 at Memorial: 'Feels good to be on the rise'
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Golf
Sunday, 02 June 2019 12:20
DUBLIN, Ohio – As Jordan Spieth walked off the podium near the Muirfield Village media center, he glanced up to a nearby TV to watch tournament winner Patrick Cantlay finish off a par save on the 72nd hole and started doing the math.
Even if a few more things had gone his way, Spieth realized, he wasn’t going to keep pace with Cantlay who shot a 64 to finish the week at an eye-popping 19 under.
Spieth started the final round alongside Cantlay at 11 under, four behind overnight leader Martin Kaymer. But while Cantlay started pouring in birdies ahead of him, Spieth largely stalled out and didn’t get into red figures for the final round until a birdie on No. 8. By then, it was too late.
“I wasn’t necessarily trying to win today. I was trying to just go out and shoot a number, and if it was good enough, great,” Spieth said. “I wasn’t really going to do much scoreboard watching, and I didn’t.”
The numbers for Spieth added up to a 1-over 73 and a tie for seventh, as he was the only player among the top 16 finishers who shot over par in the final round at Muirfield Village. But despite playing his last 10 holes without a birdie and dropping two shots over his final four holes, Spieth still salvaged his third straight top-10 finish following a T-3 result at the PGA Championship and a T-8 finish last week at Colonial.
It’s mounting evidence that the return to form Spieth has professed for months to be within reach may, actually, be here.
“Right now I’ve been in a position come Sunday the last three weeks of having a chance to probably do something special and win,” Spieth said. “This is where I like to be. I feel like I didn’t play fantastic golf this week by any means, and I’m in the top 10 and had a chance to win. That’s where I’d like to live week-to-week, and then when it’s on, I’m out in front.”
Spieth remains in search of his first victory in nearly two years, a drought that dates back to the 2017 Open at Royal Birkdale. But now he’ll turn his attention to the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, having won the 2015 event at Chambers Bay and having lifted a trophy at Pebble Beach in 2017 during the AT&T event.
While Spieth realizes the course he’ll encounter in two weeks won’t resemble the receptive track where he won two years ago, he’s still brimming with optimism after enduring a lean first half of the season and bounced back in a big way during a stretch of four events in four weeks that started with a T-29 finish at the AT&T Byron Nelson.
“I’m kind of on the rise from kind of a trough, and it feels good to be on the rise,” Spieth said. “It feels good to have some momentum.”
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Virgil van Dijk has said that Liverpool's Champions League triumph is the beginning of a new era for the club.
Liverpool secured their first trophy under Jurgen Klopp with a 2-0 victory over Tottenham on Saturday in Madrid.
"This is just the start," Van Dijk told reporters at the Wanda Metropolitano. "It's not like we're going away. In July, we start again. Everyone starts even, and we go again.
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"We're going to try everything we can to be challenging for the [Premier League] title, challenging for the Champions League, but also for the [domestic] cups.
"We definitely want to have these nights more often, but it's not easy, and the only thing to do is keep believing, keep working hard, stay humble -- and I think we'll definitely be doing that."
Van Dijk, named Man of the Match, said he believes Liverpool have the right age mix to be regular trophy challengers.
"We've got young guys, we have experienced guys, we have players there who can be playing for the next, hopefully, three to four years together at least," he added.
Liverpool missed out on the Premier League title by a point as Manchester City secured the crown on the final day of the season, and Van Dijk said it had been key to bounce back.
"If we didn't get anything, then we would definitely be disappointed because of the way we played during the whole season. We deserved something," he said.
"To be able to win the Champions League, the biggest club competition in football, is something special. To write history for this group of players, the staff, all the fans and everyone who was involved, is something to be proud of. In the end, to lift the trophy was incredible."
Van Dijk said Klopp ensured that his players felt responsibility to everyone associated with Liverpool.
"We want to keep working hard for all of the fans but also for our teammates, for everyone working in the club," he added.
"The people at Melwood [training ground], for example, the people who work at the stadium, everyone who is connected with Liverpool, you want to make them proud, and the manager definitely put that in our heads even more.
"The togetherness -- I've never really experienced it like this. It's very special."
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Police in Brazil are investigating football star Neymar's video disclosure of a woman who has accused him of rape.
Neymar was accused in Brazil on Friday of raping a woman in Paris last month. Neymar plays professionally for Paris Saint-Germain.
In addressing the accusations in a seven-minute Instagram video Saturday, Neymar showed private communications between him and the woman that included intimate images of her.
"The Office for the Investigation of Cyber Crimes (DRCI) will investigate the alleged video disclosure by the player Neymar," the Civil Police told ESPN Brazil. "The 110th precinct has already taken steps to assist in this investigation."
Neymar may have violated a Brazilian law that deems it illegal to "offer, exchange, provide, transmit, sell or exhibit for sale, distribute, publish or divulge, by any means -- including mass communication or computer or telecommunication -- photograph, visual or other audiovisual record containing a scene of rape or of vulnerable [people] or that makes an apology or induces its practice, or, without the victim's consent, sex scene, nudity or pornography."
If found guilty, Neymar could face up to five years in jail. He has called the rape accusation against him a "setup" and an extortion attempt.
Police in Rio de Janeiro appeared Sunday at the Brazilian national team's training camp headquarters, where the team is preparing for the Copa America.
Neymar Sr., who is his son's agent, appeared on Brazilian television Saturday and said he has evidence that his son was blackmailed, including pictures and witnesses, although he did not show either in the interview. He also said Neymar is preparing his defense for a legal case if needed.
The woman told police that she and Neymar met in France after exchanging Instagram messages. She said a representative of his named Gallo bought her tickets to Paris and booked her a hotel room.
She told police that Neymar arrived "apparently drunk" at the hotel and described to police that they "touched each other, but in a given moment, Neymar became aggressive and, with violence, had sexual intercourse against the victim's will."
The report states the woman left Paris two days later and that she did not file her complaint in Paris because she was shaken.
Neymar implied a sexual encounter took place but denied raping the woman.
"There was a relationship between a man and a woman between four walls," Neymar said in the video. "On the next day, nothing happened. I hope investigators read the messages and see what happened."
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UEFA Champions League alternative awards: From best goal to funniest meltdown
Published in
Soccer
Sunday, 02 June 2019 07:46
The 2018-19 Champions League came to an emotional end on Saturday night in Madrid as Liverpool outlasted Tottenham 2-0 to win and claim their sixth European Cup/Champions League title in the process. This season's edition was notable not just for ending with an all-Premier League final; Nick Miller recaps the most memorable highs and lows from a tournament with plenty of both.
Best goal
Winner: Ivan Rakitic, Barcelona vs. Tottenham, group stage
Picking the best goal from a Champions League season is like trying to choose your favourite star. This season has been no different, with any number of brilliant goals from Mauro Icardi's volley against Tottenham, to David Neres' superb team goal against Real Madrid in the round of 16, to about five of Leo Messi's including his inch-perfect free-kick against Liverpool at the Camp Nou.
But our top choice is Rakitic's superb volley/half-volley against Tottenham at Wembley: The technique required to arrange his whole body so he didn't shank such a difficult, bouncing chance way over the bar was remarkable. The fact that it pinged in off the post was just an aesthetic bonus.
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Best game
Winner: Man City vs. Tottenham, quarterfinal second leg
How could it be anything other than the utterly bananas quarterfinal between two of the Premier League's best teams? After a nervy 1-0 win for Spurs at Wembley in the first leg, the first 21 minutes of the return leg alone would probably qualify for "best game" honors alone: The score was already 3-2 and the lead had changed hands three times before anyone could figure out what was going on.
The denouement, with City convinced they had won it only for the VAR to intervene and find the most marginal offside, added a perfect and probably unrepeatable moment of drama.
Best performance
Winner: Ajax vs. Real Madrid, round of 16 second leg
While Tottenham's comeback in the semifinal was glorious drama, Ajax almost deserved to be in the final simply because of their performance against Real Madrid in the second round. It was the hubris that made it: Real's 2-1 win in the first leg seemed to convince them the tie was in the bag; Sergio Ramos getting booked so he would miss the return confirmed that. But the most thrilling performance imaginable from Ajax blew the holders away in the Bernabeu: from Hakim Ziyech's opener to Lasse Schone's outrageous free-kick to seal it all, this was utterly extraordinary.
Best comeback
Winner: Tottenham vs. Ajax, semifinal second leg
Liverpool might reasonably complain that their brilliant evisceration of Barcelona isn't chosen here, but they at least had a whole game to overturn a 3-0 deficit, starting their scoring early: Tottenham had 55 minutes to stop what looked like an unstoppable Ajax side and score three goals. That they did it, and that the third came deep, deep, deep into injury time, simply added to the magic.
Best player
Winner: Lionel Messi
Sometimes, Messi probably gets pretty annoyed that he is forced to share a pitch with mere footballers. The thing about him is that he often spends long periods of games wandering around and not really doing much, but then he'll do a couple of absolutely otherworldly things and the rest doesn't matter even a tiny little bit. It certainly wasn't his fault that Barcelona did not win a Champions League that, from the round of 16 onwards, certainly looked to be theirs for the taking.
Best XI
There are plenty of Liverpool players represented but equally, some of the heroes who helped get Tottenham to the final and Ajax within minutes of it make the cut.
Allison (Liverpool); Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Mathijis De Ligt (Ajax), Virgil Van Dijk (Liverpool), Jordi Alba (Barcelona); Lasse Schone (Ajax), Moussa Sissoko (Tottenham); Hakim Ziyech (Ajax), Son Heung-min (Tottenham), Sadio Mane (Liverpool); Leo Messi (Barcelona)
Most underwhelming team
Winner: Bayern Munich
At least the other giants to flame out this season -- Juventus, Barcelona, Manchester City, Real Madrid -- did so with some drama, but Bayern Munich simply shuffled out with barely a whimper. This is a team in transition and it really showed against Liverpool, who in the second leg of their round of 16 game simply cruised past them without any particular problems. They may dominate the Bundesliga but it might take a while for Bayern to reach that level in Europe again.
Biggest choke
Winner: Paris Saint-Germain
Who knows what the central reason for PSG's apparent mental fragility in the Champions League is, but they keep doing it. When they faced Manchester United in the round of 16, they faced a severely weakened opponent and had a 2-0 lead from the away game, an advantage no team had ever squandered in Champions League history. But they somehow managed to do just that and even if United had some help from the VAR and a harsh interpretation of the handball law, they should have been out of sight well before that.
Unlikeliest hero
Winner: Divock Origi
Last summer, Liverpool were trying to send Divock Origi out on loan to Huddersfield. With no chance of getting in the first-choice front three, he was also probably behind Xherdan Shaqiri, Daniel Sturridge and Dominic Solanke in the pecking order, with youngster Rhian Brewster waiting too. But here he is, having scored twice in the semifinal comeback at Anfield and calmly notching the clinching goal in the Champions League final. There really is nothing like football for redemption stories.
Best assist
Winner: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool vs. Barcelona
He'll never have to buy a drink in Liverpool again after one of the great corners of all time.
Most ludicrously cool assist
Winner: Dele Alli, Tottenham vs. Ajax
If you're in injury time and know that unless you do something quickly, you won't make the Champions League final, panic would be understandable. But instead Dele Alli summoned some unnatural composure to gently dink a pass with the outside of his boot around an Ajax defender and perfectly into the path of Lucas Moura, who did the rest.
Best quote
Winner: Jurgen Klopp
"They are f---ing giants." After Liverpool's win over Barcelona, Jurgen Klopp either forgot he was on live TV or didn't care. Probably the latter.
Funniest meltdown moment
Winner: Neymar
"This is a disgrace. Four guys who know nothing about football watch a slow-motion replay in front of the television. It was nothing! What can [Kimpembe] do with his hand while his back is turned? Go f--- yourselves!"
Posting on Instagram, the preferred medium for a good rant, Neymar didn't take the decision to give Manchester United a penalty against PSG particularly well, earning him a three-game suspension that means he'll miss half of next season's group stage as a result. Shame.
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