Skip to main content

Finn Russell helps Scotland overcome physical Tonga in bonus-point win

  • Pool B: Scotland 45-17 Tonga
  • Scots’ quarter-final hopes still alive as Tonga pick up red card

It could certainly be said that Scotland were dealt a bad hand when you consider the Pool B draw combined with its scheduling. But it’s all about controlling the controllables, so coaches say, and the possibility remains that Gregor Townsend’s men will play their unforgiving cards remarkably well. This sunny, satisfying victory against game opponents on the Côte D’Azur means another bonus-point win, against Romania in Lille next Saturday, will set up a decisive clash against Ireland in Paris on 7 October.

On this sort of form Scotland will back themselves to have a strong chance, at the very least, of surviving the pool of death. To the considerable credit of all concerned they looked like a team who had two weeks of constructive warm-weather training in the tank after the opening loss against South Africa. Prompted by their uniquely gifted fly-half, Finn Russell, passes were fizzed around with abandon and the dirty work, at the breakdown and set piece, was done plenty well enough to give their talented back division a platform. Seven Scotland tries were scored and it could easily have been more.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2OWc056

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

England booed off after failing against Iceland once more in Euros warm-up

It was a long way from being the triumphant Euro 2024 send-off for Gareth Southgate and his England players at a sold-out and increasingly fretful Wembley. Never mind the result because it was not the main thing, however much it stirred memories of you-know-when against Iceland. It was the performance that raised the difficult questions, the worst one for quite some time and at exactly the wrong time. The home fans, thousands of whom made for the exits before the end, were forced to watch the second half – from about minute 55 onwards – through the gaps between their fingers. And it had not been great before that. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/4ndfQL0

Bodies of Men: the love story taking on toxic masculinity in a time of war

Nigel Featherstone’s new novel tackles traditional conservatism and patriarchy through an unconventional romance How can you be a man and be anti-war? This is the question that Sydney-born novelist Nigel Featherstone, who is a pacifist, considered while he took up a three-month writing residency in a military library. He set out to discover what happens to very different expressions of masculinity placed under military pressure. “Australia does have a very defined, toxic brand of masculinity,” says the bespectacled Featherstone, seated by the window at his local pub facing the railway station at Goulburn, north of Canberra, while men on stools at the nearby bar sink beers and televisions on the walls screen horse racing results. Continue reading... from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2N8piOc

Coronavirus live news: California sees record daily cases as global infections top 15m

California Covid-19 cases pass New York’s after record day ; WHO emergencies chief says vaccinations unlikely before 2021; global cases pass 15m. Follow the latest updates US daily coronavirus deaths surpass 1,000 for first time since June California surpasses New York as state with most coronavirus cases after record day Nearly a quarter of people in Delhi have had coronavirus, study finds See all our coronavirus coverage 12.54am BST South Africa on Wednesday announced a record 24-hour increase of 572 coronavirus deaths, bringing its total number of fatalities to 5,940, AFP reports. The country is the worst-affected in Africa and among the top five in the world in terms of confirmed cases, with 394,948 infections reported to date. 12.33am BST Dr Deborah Birx, the chief medical officer on the White House’s coronavirus task force, has called the surge in infections across the United States, “a very different epidemic than we had in March and April”. Speaking on Fox news, Bir...