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Argentina 23-26 England: England overcome Pumas to win Rugby World Cup bronze-medal match
England completed their Rugby World Cup campaign with a victory as they narrowly overcame a proud Argentina performance in the third-place play-off in Paris.
Ben Earl slid over as England shot out to an early 13-0 lead, but Argentina clawed their way back and were briefly ahead through Tomas Cubelli and Santiago Carreras tries, before England’s Theo Dan charged down a kick and crossed. Owen Farrell’s boot kept England’s noses in front as he exchanged penalties with Nicolas Sanchez in a nervy finale.
Backed by a believing crowd, Argentina launched a late assault on England’s line but Sanchez pushed a penalty to tie the scores wide, allowing Steve Borthwick’s side to finish France 2023 with a win.
After seeming set to stroll to victory early on, there was heartfelt relief among England’s players as the final whistle blew. It means England’s campaign ends as it began. Seven weeks ago, they overcame the Pumas 27-10 in the heat of Marseille.
Three minutes into that game, facing 77 minutes without the sent-off Tom Curry and with five defeats in their previous six games behind them, things looked grim for England. But they ground their way to victory on that occasion to kick-start a campaign that came within three minutes and one point of beating South Africa in the semi-finals to make Saturday’s showpiece.
Several of England’s young guns pressed their cases for future inclusion in a game free of knockout pressure, but higher on quality than the teams’ previous meeting. Hooker Dan impressed with his energy and appetite for work, while Marcus Smith was enterprising and incisive in attack, even if not all of his ideas paid off.
There had been speculation that Henry Arundell, the scorer of five tries in the pool-stage thrashing of Chile, might challenge the national record of six tries in a single World Cup, achieved by Chris Ashton in 2011, or even rival this edition’s top-scorer Will Jordan, who has crossed eight times in total. However, he did not touch the ball once in the first half and gave away a penalty with a duff kick when afforded space for the first time in the second.
Line-ups:
England: Smith; Steward, Marchant, Tuilagi, Arundell; Farrell (capt), Youngs; Genge, Dan, Stuart, Itoje, Chessum, Curry, Underhill, Earl.
Replacements: Ford for Tuilagi (56), Lawrence for Arundell (66), Care for Youngs (51), Rodd for Genge (50), George for Dan (54), Cole for Stuart (50), Ribbans for Chessum (70), Ludlam for Curry (50).
Argentina:Mallia; Boffelli, Cinti, De la Fuente, M Carreras; S Carreras, Cubelli; Gallo, Montoya (capt), Kodela, Pagadizabal, Rubiolo, Gonzalez, Kremer, Isa
Replacements: Moroni for Cinti Luna (47), Sanchez for S. Carreras (56), Velez for Cubelli (51), Sclavi for Gallo (66), Creevy for Montoya (56), Bello for Gomez Kodela (61), Alemanno for Rubiolo (66), Bruni for Isa (47).
Referee: Nic Berry (Australia)
Assistants: Andrew Brace (Ireland) and Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
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More than 360 dead, 1,400 missing in Nepal and Tibet after Himalayan floods
Some 360 bodies have been recovered and more than 1,400 people are missing across Nepal and China’s Tibet region after a huge collapse of mud and rock into a Himalayan river triggered catastrophic flooding across local towns and valleys, authorities have said.
Rescue teams waded through mud on Thursday searching for the missing, as authorities in Nepal said at least 359 people have been killed there.
At least three people have died in the neighbouring Tibet region.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived at the mudslide site in Tibet on Thursday afternoon to “guide emergency rescue and relief work” a day after the disaster, state media reported.
Nepalese police and tourism officials said that more than 500 foreigners were among 910 people missing in Nepal.
Among the missing are tourists from more than two dozen countries: 177 are from India, 63 from the United States, 34 from Australia, 33 from the United Kingdom, and 25 from Canada.
Beijing’s foreign ministry also said nearly 100 Chinese nationals were among the missing in Nepal.
In Tibet’s Gyirong county, 558 people are reported missing, including 260 foreign nationals, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Search and rescue operations are proving to be a “massive challenge” as just simply “getting to the affected areas … to try and recover the survivors”, is proving to be extremely difficult as the roads and bridges there have suffered extensive damage, said Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez, reporting from the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
[Aljazeera]
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Unyielding Dinusha, spirited tail hold off India to save Colombo Test
India 503/9 decl (Devdutt Padikkal 117, Dhruv Jurel 115; Asitha Fernando 4-106, Prabath Jayasuriya 2-132) drew with Sri Lanka 290 (Sonal Dinusha 103, Pasindu Sooriyabandara 80; Prasidh Krishna 3-52, Manav Suthar 3-85) and 429/9 f/o (Sonal Dinusha 133*, Pasindu Sooriyabandara 92; Ravindra Jadeja 3-94, Manav Suthar 3-121)
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UAE’s Asif Khan handed 15-month ban for using a banned substance
Asif Khan the UAE batter, has been banned for 15 months after admitting to having tested positive for a banned substance – “a metabolite of mesterolone” – in an out-of-competition test conducted in September 2025, the ICC said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement said that Asif, 36, “had admitted the violation” of Article 2.1 of the ICC’s anti-doping code and accepted the period of ineligibility “pursuant to a case resolution agreement entered into with the World Anti-Doping Agency and the ICC”, which means there is no right to appeal on the part of the player.
The sanction is effective from September 8, 2025 and will run until December 7, 2026.
“Asif may return to training with a team or use the facilities of a club or other ICC Member organisation from 8 October 2026 but will only be eligible to play from 8 December,” the statement added. “The player’s individual results from 8 September 2025 until his provisional suspension on 29 December 2025 have been disqualified, along with all resulting consequences, including the loss of any medals, points, prize money or prizes.”
Asif, a former Pakistan Under-19 cricketer, made his UAE debut in March 2022 in an ODI against Oman in the ICC’s Cricket World Cup League 2. He turned out in 38 ODIs and 56 T20Is between then and September 2025.
The last three of those T20Is, against India, Oman and Pakistan in the T20 Asia Cup in 2025, came after September 8, and will be removed from his record.
[Cricinfo]
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