Category: Sports

The Wallabies have been unable to back up their opening Rugby Championship success, crashing to a 48-17 loss to Argentina in a helter-skelter affair in San Juan.

It was the Pumas’ biggest-ever win over the Australians and, on the back of the thumping bonus-point victory, they moved to the top of the four-nation standings.

Argentina raced to a 26-10 half-time lead with the Wallabies unable to repeat the second half surge that led to their Mendoza Test win last week.

Australia had a James O’Connor try, which would have given them the lead, disallowed in the 20th minute in a baffling refereeing decision and the Pumas scored minutes later for a 14-point swing.

It provided a turning point with the remainder of the game almost one-way traffic in a disappointing display by the visitors.

“Massive disappointment. It’s not good enough,” Wallabies coach Dave Rennie said. “We conceded four tries with kicks in behind us and certainly got dominated in the collision area and created plenty of opportunities but we’ve got to be patient. A ruck’s not a disaster; just not clinical enough.

“We had a good enough side on the paddock to do the job,” said Rennie. “We gave them a few soft points early on, fought our way back into it. We’ve got to be better and while we’ll get a few guys back, whoever puts the jersey on has to front and we weren’t good enough.

“We certainly want to earn the respect of the country and you don’t do it with performances like that.”

Rennie will return to Australia feeling out-coached after Pumas coach Michael Cheika switched up his gameplan and used Argentina’s contestable kicking game to expose the inexperience of Australia’s back three.

The home side piled on the pressure in a physical performance with the Wallabies, who are missing key men such as skipper Michael Hooper through personal leave and injury, bereft of answers.

Australia got off to the worst possible start and they trailed 14-0 after seven minutes. Veteran winger Juan Imhoff opened the scoring in the first minute when he pounced on a mix-up between Wallabies winger Jordan Petaia and full-back Tom Wright and raced to the line.

On the back of a 50-22 kick by Santiago Carreras the Pumas had an attacking lineout five meters out with fired-up prop Thomas Gallo barreling over.

The Wallabies started to find their feet and got on the board in the 12th minute after Rob Valetini charged ahead and set up a quick pick and go for skipper James Slipper to score, which was soon backed up by an O’Connor penalty for a 14 -10 scoreline.

It looked like the visitors would take the lead after O’Connor crossed after some clever interplay with Petaia but referee Karl Dickson and the TMO deemed an earlier clean-out by Slipper was illegal.

It provided a double blow when Argentina center Jeronimo de la Fuente scored down the other end with Emiliano Boffelli adding the extras for a 21-10 lead.

The Pumas again jumped on some box kick confusion from the visitors with flanker Juan Martin Gonzalez this time gifted the ball to touch down.

The half-time margin could have been more ugly but for a miracle try-saving tackle by Marika Koroibete.

The Wallabies were unable to build into the second half through errors and poor decision-making while the hungry Pumas marched on. Gallo grabbed his second and then Boffelli crossed before a try by Tomas Albornoz after full-time capped a memorable match for the home side.

The 31-point loss was the Wallabies’ heaviest against Argentina, surpassing a 15-point margin in 1983.

The shattered Wallabies captain James Slipper, deputizing for longtime leader Michael who flew home from the tour last week citing his “mindset”, cut a desolate figure at the end of the record defeat.

“Clearly disappointed,” said Slipper. “Off the back of a good performance last week we wanted to back it up. Probably fell short of today’s standards. They got the momentum and the crowd behind them and they’re a tough team to play catch up football against. I think we’re excited to get home. It’s been a really tough tour for us.”

With Los Pumas’ victory, and South Africa’s 23-35 defeat by New Zealand earlier in the day, all teams in the Rugby Championship have one win from two matches.

Antonio Colak scored for the third game in a row as Rangers swept St Johnstone aside to maintain their perfect start to the league season.

Malik Tillman gave the patient home side the lead in the 32nd minute with a close-range header. St Johnstone continued to make life difficult for the Light Blues until Croatia striker Colak, who had scored in previous games against Union Saint-Gilloise and Kilmarnock, drove in a second from 10 yards in the 62nd minute, with late goals by substitutes Scott Arfield and Tom Lawrence adding gloss to the scoreline.

It was a third Rangers victory at Ibrox in a week with three clean sheets and will boost confidence for the first leg of their Champions League play-off at home to PSV on Tuesday.

With injuries to Ryan Kent and James Sands from last Tuesday’s European game, Ben Davies made his first start and Rabbi Matondo, Ryan Jack and Scott Wright also came in against unchanged St Johnstone.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst gave praise to those who stepped in. “Really pleased because we changed some players today, some we had to and some we gave more minutes, so overall it was a positive day for us,” he told BBC Scotland.

There was a half-hearted appeal for a penalty early on when Colak tumbled inside the area after a challenge by Alex Mitchell. The referee, Nick Walsh, took no notice.

St Johnstone suffered some disruption three minutes later when Cammy MacPherson went off injured to be replaced by the former Watford midfielder Daniel Phillips for his debut.

It was one-way traffic but in the 17th minute, when a deep cross bounced off the Rangers defender Borna Barisic eight yards out, Theo Blair knocked the ball wide of a post from on the ground and a good chance was gone.

Rangers kept the visitors pinned in and when James Tavernier took a Wright pass and floated the ball over to the back post, Tillman, on loan from Bayern Munich, rose high again to head in off the bar.

In the 50th minute Matondo, playing off the left, cracked the woodwork with a drive from the edge of the area and Barisic cleared the bar by inches with a free-kick from a similar distance.

When St Johnstone conceded a second, it was their own fault. A hesitant Drey Wright was robbed by Matondo inside the penalty area and the ball fell to Colak who swiftly turned and drove the ball low past Matthews.

Colak made way for Alfredo Morelos in a triple substitution with Wright and Tillman replaced by Arfield and Lawrence.

The points were already secured and it was a case of Rangers trying to add to their tally, which Arfield did with 10 minutes remaining when he converted a Matondo cutback from 12 yards.

Three minutes later, Arfield set up Lawrence for his first Rangers goal and after a comprehensive domestic display Van Bronckhorst can focus on Europe and PSV.

the QPR goalkeeper Seny Dieng scored a stoppage-time equalizer to force a 2-2 draw at Sunderland in the Championship.

Dieng headed home deep into time added on to complete a remarkable comeback by Michael Beale’s team. Sunderland were 2-0 up and coasting towards a win after first-half goals from Ross Stewart and Ellis Simms. But Elias Chair got Rangers back in it in the 87th minute and five minutes later Chair’s cross was incredibly converted by Dieng, who then made an incredible stop at the other end.

“At half-time we had honest words, told them to live more dangerously, we played on the front foot and Ilias scores a great goal,” said Beale. “I thought the moment had gone but Seny had other plans. It was a great goal followed by a great save. When Seny went up an assistant said: ‘Are you happy?’ I said I am not going to bring him back. When the goalkeeper goes up, who picks him up, he attacks both balls in. A crazy game.”

Rotherham enjoyed a stellar afternoon as they hammered Reading 4-0 at the New York Stadium. The Millers blew Paul Ince’s side away in the first half, racing into a 3-0 lead after only 18 minutes and adding a fourth before the break. Reading’s goalkeeper Joe Lumley had an afternoon to forget. After Richard Wood headed the hosts in front, Lumley allowed Conor Washington to score from an acute angle, before letting a weak Jamie Lindsay shot through his hands from him. Chiedozie Ogbene piled on the misery for Lumley, beating the keeper to the ball and finishing into an empty net.

“All that going forward didn’t please me as much as our defending,” said the Rotherham manager Paul Warne. “Generally speaking we defended really well. I thought we deserved to win but maybe not by four goals – but I’m not complaining.”

Millwall came from two goals down to beat Coventry 3-2. The Sky Blues were in dreamland after just 28 minutes as Kyle McFadzean and Matty Godden put them 2-0 up. Jake Cooper’s goal before half-time proved pivotal as it gave the Lions something to cling on to and they quickly leveled after the restart through George Honeyman. Gustavo Hamer was sent off for Coventry and then George Saville’s 85th-minute goal won it for the hosts.

Meanwhile, Coventry have had a second Championship game postponed due to the condition of their pitch, with Tuesday’s home match against Wigan called off by the EFL due to ongoing issues with the playing surface at the Coventry Building Society Arena. Last weekend, their opening home fixture against Rotherham was postponed, and the Carabao Cup tie with Bristol City was moved to Burton’s Pirelli Stadium.

Norwich are enduring a difficult start following relegation last season as they lost 2-1 at hull, who climbed to third. Óscar Estupiñán scored twice, once in either half, to extend the Tigers’ unbeaten start to the campaign, despite Marcelino Núñez’s consolation for the Canaries, who sit bottom after three games.

Dean Smith urged Norwich fans to stay calm following the defeat. “We’re giving ourselves tough things to come back from with silly mistakes, but I don’t think after three games there’s any cause to panic,” he said. “We should have won the game in the first 20 minutes – the chances we created and the players who they fell to.”

Huddersfield earned their first points of the season by beating Stoke 3-1. Lee Nicholls’s penalty save from Lewis Baker in the first half provided pivotal as Yuta Nakayama headed the Terriers in front before the break. Baker made amends for his spot-kick miss as he leveled after the restart but late goals from Danny Ward and Jordan Rhodes gave Danny Schofield his first win as Terriers manager.

swansea got their first win of the campaign as they beat blackpool 1-0. After Andy Fisher saved Jerry Yates’s penalty early in the second half, Olivier Ntcham scored in the final 10 minutes to get the Swans up and running for the campaign.

Cardiff manager Steve Morison said he was “pleased as punch” with his team’s performance as they dominated birmingham to win 1-0, with Aston Villa loanee Jaden Philogene scoring the only goal in 17 minutes. “We should have had a couple more,” he said, “but, on the whole, it was really pleasing … Anyone can beat anyone this year, I don’t think there’s going to be a Fulham, it’s going to be very tight so it’s about stringing results together and getting that consistency.”

Elsewhere, Brad Potts’s acrobatic finish was enough for Preston to beat Luton 1-0 while wigan and Bristol City drew 1-1.

Australia’s Cam Smith has been forced to battle hecklers calling him a “sellout” amid links to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series as he battled in the third round of the St Jude Championship.

Smith shot a 67 in the third round to find himself tied for a third spot on 199 with American pair Will Zalatoris and Trey Mullinax. He is two strokes behind the leader, JJ Spaun (197) and one behind the second-placed Sepp Straka.

Speculation is rife over Smith’s future in the game, with the Australian widely expected to sign a reported $143 million deal with LIV, and his potential defection has not been lost on those in the crowd in Memphis watching him play.

READMORE: Pumas deliver Wallabies to record loss

READMORE: Hynes makes a passionate plea after big win

READMORE: ‘Clutch’ Pickett kicks late winner to sink Blues

According to Memphis-based columnist, Mark Giannotto, the Australian was branded a “sellout” by a fan while hitting a tee shot on 14, with the sledge one of many alluding to the LIV links.

Public opinion on Smith has soured drastically in recent weeks due to his refusal to shut down links to the Saudi-backed rebel tour, despite him winning his first major just a month earlier.

While an official move to LIV Golf could see Smith officially made into a villain by the public, former Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor said the Queensland-native could potentially turn it into a win.

“There’s no doubt there’s a bit of reputational damage at the moment … but I want to go in and bat for him,” Taylor said on Nine’s Sports Sunday.

“It’s a lot tougher for the non-Americans with this LIV Golf. As an Australian golfer or a South African golfer, you’ve got to make the big move to the (United) States to become a regular PGA Tour.

Cameron Smith ‘ready to cop some heat’

“That’s what Adam Scott has done, that’s what Greg Norman did many years ago, so it’s tougher for those guys to commit full-time to the PGA Tour when there’s another option which is also talking about moving events to Australia.

“If Cameron Smith moves to LIV, yes there will be some reputational damage, but I think he can make it work for him.

“LIV are already talking about having three tournaments in Australia and the Australian golf tour is nowhere near what it used to be. This influx of money from LIV will be great for Australian golf. I’d love to see Cameron Smith buy into it.

“If I was his manager, I’d say, ‘Well if you’re going to sign up for this amount of money, put 10-20 per cent of it into Australian golf and buy in and get Australian golf back to where it used to be.

“If he does that, it’ll be a win for him and a win for Australian golf. I think eventually LIV, the PGA, they’ll get back together in some form or another and I think it’ll be a win- win for him and Australian golf.”

Smith has so far shot down questions from multiple journalists regarding a potential defection, notably after his Open win last month, but said earlier this week that he is “ready to cop some heat.”

“That’s just their job – that’s what they’re there to do. They’re there to sell stories and I’m sure they’ve had a few looks at it the last few days,” he told Sky Sports of questions regarding the LIV tour.

“You know I’m ready to cop some heat… but like I said I’m here to win the FedEx Cup Playoffs – that’s my number one goal and whatever happens after that will come from me.”

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!

The backstories and controversies that have ignited feuds involving athletes