Australia’s home Rugby World Cup campaign will kick off against debutants Hong Kong China rather than bitter rivals New Zealand, who also feature in the same pool.
Chile return for a second World Cup to round out Pool A at next year’s hotly anticipated tournament, the first hosted in Australia since 2003.
It will be Australia’s first match against the South American nation.
“It’s incredibly exciting to have the schedule locked in for the Wallabies’ pool fixtures, ahead of what’s going to be a truly special tournament here in Australia next year,” Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh said.
The Wallabies will be rated favourites alongside the All Blacks, second on the World Rugby rankings, to finish in the top two of Pool A and advance to the knockout stage.
Four of the six third-placed teams from the group stage will also progress.
Should Australia place second in their pool, they will face the Pool F runners-up — one of England, Wales, Tonga and Zimbabwe — for their first knockout clash.
Win their pool, and Australia would face the third-placed team from Pool C, E or F in the round of 16.
Perth will host Australia’s first pool match on October 1 next year, before the All Blacks clash in Sydney on October 9, then the match against Chile on October 16 in Brisbane.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have rallied to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 in extra innings of a decisive seventh game of the World Series to become Major League Baseball’s first repeat champion in 25 years.
Los Angeles overcame 3-0 and 4-2 deficits and escaped a bases-loaded jam in the ninth to become the first repeat champion since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees, and the first from the National League since the 1975 and 1976 Cincinnati Reds.
The Dodgers were down 3-4 in the ninth inning when Miguel Rojas tied the game with a home run, followed by Will Smith hitting a solo home run in the 11th inning for what would be the winning 5-4 scoreline.
Smith’s hit on a 2-0 slider off Shane Bieber into the Blue Jays’ bullpen in left-field, was the Dodgers’ first lead of the night.
“You dream of those moments, you know, extra innings, put your team ahead — I’ll remember that forever,” Smith said.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw 96 pitches in the Dodgers’ game six win, escaped a bases-loaded jam in the ninth and threw 43 pitches over 2 2/3 innings for his third win of the Series.
He gave up a lead-off double in the 11th to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who was sacrificed to third. Addison Barger walked and Alejandro Kirk hit a broken-bat grounder to shortstop Mookie Betts, who started a title-winning 6-4-3 double play that ended baseball’s 150th major league season.
Los Angeles used all four of its post-season starting pitchers, with Yamamoto joined by Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell.
“We’ve got a special group of guys, man,” Smith said.
“We just never gave up. … Oh man, that was a fight, for seven games.”
Bo Bichette put Toronto ahead in the third with a three-run homer off Ohtani, the two-way star pitching on three days’ rest after taking the loss in game three.
Los Angeles closed to 3-2 on sacrifice flies from Teoscar Hernández in the fourth inning off Max Scherzer and Tommy Edman in the sixth inning against Chris Bassitt.
Andrés Giménez restored Toronto’s two-run lead with an RBI double in the sixth off Glasnow, who relieved after getting the final three outs on three pitches to save game six.
Max Muncy’s eighth-inning homer off star rookie Trey Yesavage cut the Dodgers’ deficit to one run, and Rojas, inserted into the slumping Dodgers’ lineup in game six to provide some energy, homered on a full-count slider from Jeff Hoffman.
Toronto put two on with one out in the bottom half against Snell, and Los Angeles turned to Yamamoto.
He hit Kirk on a hand with a pitch, loading the bases and prompting the Dodgers to play the infield in and the outfield shallow. Daulton Varsho grounded to second, where Rojas stumbled but managed to throw home for a forceout as catcher Smith kept his foot on the plate.
Ernie Clement then was caught by Andy Pages, who made a jumping, backhand catch on the centre-field warning track as he crashed into left fielder Kiké Hernández.
Seranthony Domínguez walked Betts with one out in the 10th and Muncy singled for his third hit.
Hernández walked, loading the bases. Pages grounded to shortstop, where Giménez threw home for a force-out. Guerrero fielded a grounder to the right side and threw to pitcher Seranthony Domínguez covering first, just beating Hernández in a call upheld in a video review.
The epic night matched the Marlins’ 3-2 win over Cleveland in 1997 as the second-longest World Series game seven, behind only the Washington Senators’ 4-3 victory against the New York Giants in 1924.
The Dodgers became the ninth team to win games six and seven of a World Series as the away team.
Alex de Minaur’s Vienna Open has ended at the semifinal stage, with the Australian falling to world number one Jannik Sinner for the 12th time in as many meetings.
But de Minaur’s ambition to achieve his first win over the Italian will have to wait until their 13th meeting at least, as Sinner downed the Australian 6-3, 6-4 in 90 minutes.
The Sydneysider did become the first player to break Sinner’s serve in the tournament, doing so twice, but it mattered little.
In the first set, he was already 4-0 down having won just four points when he broke. In the second set, he was already a break down, and Sinner immediately broke back.
De Minaur did have plans to change his losing streak, as Sinner recognised.
“He changed a couple of things, which I was ready for today,” Sinner said.
“I don’t want to say [what]. He knows. He knows what to do, how to put [me] under pressure and the moment when you don’t serve very well, you have to play every ball and every point.
“He can get very physical, he changed up with the slice a bit, also the slice down the line today and opening the court. Many small things he has changed.”
But none of them stopped Sinner reaching his eighth consecutive final on the ATP Tour, the first player to do that since Novak Djokovic a decade ago.
“I came here quite late to the tournament, tried to take every day in the best possible way and I’m happy to be here in the final. It was not easy to reach the final here, so I’m very happy,” Sinner said.
“[I was] trying to play some good tennis, trying to serve very well. The first set was very physical, so I’m happy that I won in two sets today.”
Sinner has now won 20 straight matches on indoor hard courts and will contest the 31st final of his career on Sunday, having claimed 21 titles so far.
The Italian will face Alexander Zverev in the final, after the German defeated Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, 7-5 in the other semifinal.
“It’s going to be a great challenge,” Zverev said.
“Playing one of the two best players in the world, seeing where my level really is.”
Both players have already won this event, Zverev in 2021, Sinner in 2023.
An unbeaten century partnership between Annabel Sutherland and Ash Gardner has steered Australia to another World Cup triumph as the two masterful all-rounders shattered England’s spirits once again in a six-wicket rout.
The dynamic duo enjoyed sensational days at Indore’s Holkar Stadium as Gardner added her second century of the tournament (104 not out) to her earlier two wickets, while player-of-the-match Sutherland also finished unbeaten on 98 after taking three scalps.
Their only disappointment on yet another day that demonstrated both champions’ extraordinary strength and capacity to rebound from a real predicament was that they could not quite contrive a finish in which they both got hundreds.
“I’m very happy — the spinners did a fantastic job with the ball, we had a little bit of a shaky start with the bat, but then Bels and Ash were just world-class,” said Tahlia McGrath, who filled in as captain for the injured Alyssa Healy.
“So good to watch them. It was clinical and I feel for Bels a bit, not getting a hundred. She thoroughly deserved it.”
Annabel Sutherland was named the player of the match after picking up three wickets earlier in the match. (Getty Images: Surjeet Yadav)
The other star of unbeaten Australia’s fifth victory of the tournament, which puts the team back atop the league table, was leg-spinner Alana King.
She grabbed 1-20 off 10 immaculate overs that thoroughly strangled England mid-innings, enabling them to be held to 9-244.
In reply Australia had another stuttering start and slumped to 4-68.
But Sutherland and Gardner put on 180 off 151 balls, helping Australia reach its target on 4-248 with 9.3 overs to spare.
It was Australia’s highest fifth-wicket partnership in women’s ODIs — Gardner scored a similar ton at number six on this very ground during a struggle against New Zealand at the start of the tournament.
Alana King was miserly once again with the ball, strangling England’s batters during the middle overs. (Getty Images: Surjeet Yadav)
She was so dominant against a deflated England attack that by the end that she raced past Sutherland, blitzed her way to a ton off 69 balls and then blocked the next three deliveries to allow her partner, on 95, to get to three figures too.
Alas, it did not quite work — a weary Sutherland eked out three more runs at the start of the next over before losing the strike and telling Gardner she should finish the job.
“I’m happy she got it done,” smiled the young champion, whose 98 off 112 balls had her hailed as “such a gun” by admiring captain McGrath.
Earlier, it had been King who suffocated England in familiar fashion, aided by three more scalps for the tournament’s leading wicket-taker Sutherland (3-60) and a couple each for spinners Sophie Molineux (2-52) and Gardner (2-39).
With Healy sidelined as a precaution with a “minor calf strain”, McGrath elected to field first and led her troops with fine tactical aplomb after a tough start when Tammy Beaumont and Amy Jones led off with a half-century partnership for England in the powerplay.
Sutherland, who has now taken a tournament-high 15 wickets, made the breakthrough when her outswinger clipped the top of Jones’s off-stump.
King hypnotised the England batters from the start and made the key breakthrough by tempting captain Nat Sciver-Brunt to slice one sky-high into the safe hands of Sutherland at mid-off.
“She’s a special player — a big wicket,” King of Sciver-Brunt’s dismissal.
“I was happy to see the back of her — we know how damaging she can be. She’s got us many times in the past before.
“I kept it really simple, kept the stumps in play as much as possible and tried to extract as much spin as I can.”
It was a combination that proved too much for the English batters.
Beaumont, England’s mainstay, battled to a fine 78 off 105 balls, but trying to push on amid King’s strangulation of England’s middle-order, it was Sutherland who got her caught niftily on the boundary by an off-balance Georgia Voll, who had to throw the ball up and re-catch it to avoid giving away a six.
Alice Capsey (38 off 32) and Charlie Dean (26 off 27) provided a bit of late impetus and England dreamt briefly when Phoebe Litchfield (one), Voll (six), Ellyse Perry (13) and Beth Mooney (20) all fell cheaply.
But for the side whitewashed 16-0 in the Ashes, though, nothing appears to have changed.
Alyssa Healy has scored back-to-back centuries to lead her Australian champions into the semifinals of the World Cup, inspiring them to a merciless 10-wicket trouncing of Bangladesh.
Healy hit a glorious unbeaten 113, which came four days after her equally brilliant 142 to see off hosts India at the same Visakhapatnam stadium.
This time she shared a magnificent unbroken double-century opening partnership with Phoebe Litchfield (84 not out) to race to their target of 199 in 24.5 overs.
The supreme professionalism of Thursday’s chase came after perhaps Australia’s shoddiest display in the field under Healy’s stewardship, after which the skipper scolded herself for spilling two of the six catches that went down.
“I thought I was a little bit poor behind the stumps and probably a little bit as skipper as well tonight, but we’ll take the two points and move on,” she said after the win.
“I was a little bit disappointed with my glove work and I had a little bit to make up for with the bat, and luckily got the job done.”
Healy (right) and opening partner Phoebe Litchfield combined for an unbeaten opening partnership of 202 runs. (Getty Images: Alex Davidson)
The half-dozen dropped catches represented Australia’s worst fielding display at a Women’s World Cup since the collection of fielding stats began in 2013.
“Maybe it’s just that time of the tournament — we’ve been here a little while, and it’s something we’ll reflect on,” Healy said.
The errors helped Bangladesh eke out 9-198 after choosing to bat, which was the team’s highest total in an ODI against Australia.
Sobhana Mostary compiled the Asian side’s first-ever half-century against the world champs.
Alana King (left) was named the player of the match after another sensational spell with the ball. (Getty Images: Pankaj Nangia)
But Alana King’s mesmeric, unbroken 10-over spell in which she took 2-18 with four maidens was key to ensuring Australia’s target was not too challenging.
Healy was delighted to learn that the victory, which put her unbeaten side top of the group table on nine points after four wins and a wash-out, guaranteed them a place in the last-four.
“That’s really cool,” she said at the presentation.
The 35-year-old skipper sped to her hundred off 73 balls, which was the fastest century of the tournament, and ended with 20 boundaries as she pulled away from Litchfield.
Earlier in the innings they had gone practically boundary-for-boundary towards their 50s.
Left-hander Litchfield struck 12 fours and a six to get to her first World Cup half-century off 46 balls soon after Healy got there off 43.
They went on to record the third-highest partnership by any Australian pair at a Women’s World Cup.
Earlier, during the uncharacteristically poor fielding display, Healy spilled the simplest of edges off Darcie Brown and also failed to grasp a difficult lofted one off Annabel Sutherland.
She did take a clean catch off Brown but did not have it reviewed when the umpire rejected her appeal.
The recalled Brown sent down the fastest deliveries at the World Cup so far but still ended up with the expensive figures of 0-52 off her nine overs.
Instead, it was the spinners who thrived, led by King, whose spell could have been even more productive if Beth Mooney had not dropped one in the slips.
Fellow spinners Georgia Wareham (2-22 off seven) and Ash Gardner (2-48 off nine) both chipped in, while Sutherland consolidated her position as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with her 2-41, taking her tally to 13.
Rubya Haider’s 44 and Mostary’s unbeaten 66 off 80 balls took Bangladesh to their record total against the Aussies, but the total was made to look easy by a side who had chased down 330 against India four days earlier.
“It’s always nice when you’ve got the ‘Q’ next to your name in a World Cup,” said King, the player of the match.
“No doubt it doesn’t stop here. We look forward to going back to Indore to take on England and South Africa.”
Noemie Fox has just missed out on a dream start to the ICF Slalom World Championships, finishing fifth in the kayak cross time trials.
Reigning Olympic kayak cross champion Fox was Australia’s best on Monday but missed out on a podium finish on the first day of the championships at Penrith Whitewater Stadium by 0.12 seconds.
Swiss paddler Alena Marx set an unbeatable time of 62.09 seconds to take gold.
Slovenia’s Ajda Novak was second, with Brazilian kayaker Ana Satila in third.
Fox posted a time of 63.35 against Satila’s 63.23.
But the Australian will progress to the head-to-head knock-out rounds, among the best 42 across the men’s and women’s kayak cross time trials.
The 28-year-old shapes as Australia’s best hope of a title at home, with older sister and three-time Olympic gold medallist Jess still recovering from an unexpected surgery to remove a tumour on her kidney.
While labelling Monday’s performance as “frustrating” after an early mistake at the first upstream, the younger Fox believes she has never been better prepared to tackle the world championships.
Fox placed better than top seed Kimberley Woods, with the Briton going 15th-fastest.
“It’s bittersweet because I had a big mistake at the top, but then held it together,” Fox said.
“What’s changed is, previously, I know that that could have derailed me or made me feel that the race was lost.
“To be able to come back and not let something like that affect you when you know it was a bit of a time loss, that’s what I’m really proud of.”
Fox said she wasn’t concerned with proving herself in her sister’s absence, feeling she’d already done so at the Paris Games.
“In Paris, I was there as an individual and not part of a package,” Fox said.
“Regardless of whether she was racing or not here, my approach was going to be the same.
“It’s just harder not having her as a teammate and hard as a sister.”
Australia’s next best woman in the time trials was debutant Codie Davidson, who replaces Fox in the 11-strong squad.
Davidson was 37th-fastest with a time of 78.01 seconds.
Fellow debutant Georgia O’Callaghan won’t progress after a fault at the second gate, placing 50th out of 51.
Timothy Anderson was Australia’s best in the men’s time trials, setting a time of 58.09 seconds to place 10th.
Ben Pope was 33rd after posting a time of 60.19 seconds, while Lucien Delfour just made the cut in 41st.
Anderson trailed 2.88 seconds behind first-placed Spaniard David Llorente.
British top seed Joseph Clarke was second, while Czech kayaker Jakub Krejci was third.
Melbourne product Anderson admitted expectation for podium finishes in Penrith had intensified since the Paris Games, especially in the absence of Jess Fox.
“People know who slalom athletes are now, especially around here. We’re quite well known in the community,” Anderson said.
“You do feel a bit of pressure to perform well.
“It’s been fun, though. It’s nice to have something to motivate you.
“I feel like after the Olympics, it was quite hard to find the fire and the drive again for quite a long time, so it’s really nice to have something to really work towards every day.”
Australia’s paddlers will return on Tuesday for the canoe slalom heats, with the championships to run until Saturday.