Susie Appleby has added four more names to Exeter Chiefs’ playing strength. They are Brooke Bradley, Clara Nielson, Kakako Kobayashi and Olivia Jones. Together they bring greater depth and experience to a squad that was already good enough to post a record run of seven wins last season and beat both the finalists. Nielson’s surprise
The Premier Rugby Sevens league in the USA, which I first reported on in May, has announced further details. It will be fascinating to see whether Sevens can thrive in this completely new format. Never before has a fully professional league been attempted. They don’t do the women’s game many favours, but we can enjoy
Now we know the three semi-finalists, Southern Brave, Oval Invincibles and Birmingham Phoenix. No, not semi-finalists, because the ECB believes firmly in a triangular formation for its knock-out stages, a preference which is stunningly hard to accept. It means that only one of the three will play two more matches; the Eliminator losers and the
Just before we reach the climax of the newest cricket competition, let’s have a look a fundamental decision the planners took, the eight franchises. Spoiler warning: I try in vain to find a defence of franchises in cricket. Last year the ECB announced eight new regional hubs to improve the organisation of women’s cricket in
The RFU has announced four matches for the Red Roses this autumn. They offer the sort of opposition everyone would have hoped for, but other elements are frustratingly absent. Canada, New Zealand and the USA are teams of the strength needed to provide a real challenge to English hopes. Two games against the Black Ferns
Sandro Fiorino, Canada’s Head Coach, has announced the names of 48 players who are taking part in the first pre-World Cup training programme in Halifax, Nova Scotia (13-21 August). The list (in full below) contains familiar names from past campaigns led by Laura Russell, whom we can reliably expect to lead the Maple Leafs once
Sky’s camera-operators can count themselves among the best in the world, but they aren’t always allowed to display their talent fairly. Here are some comments about the way cameras are used to cover The Hundred. We are offered a staggering number of angles from which to enjoy the game, from all around the ground, from
Did news of England’s month-long training session in Bath take you by surprise the way it did me? If you knew, you have spies in all the right places. We have to thank the University for the revelation, not the TW2 news agency. Sooner or later we will learn who the 26 players were. We
Africa, Asia and Europe in contention It’s been a long, long time coming, but at last it’s here: Kenya’s Lionesses will meet Colombia’s Tucanes in Nairobi on 25 August. For both the contestants these are heady days; never before have they been so close to taking part in the final stages of a World Cup.
The Maple Leafs are a team that should never be overlooked. They currently rank third in the world and are about to meet up for a selection training in Nova Scotia (13-21 August). They suffer from the same problem as the Wallaroos and the Eagles: they inhabit a country so vast that regular practice together
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