1) It’s England against the All Blacks at Twickenham this weekend, which is a rivalry of sorts … albeit deeply one-sided as New Zealand have won 16 of the 23 contests there since 1925. The Red Rose’s last victory was in 2012, featuring three tries in eight minutes and a show-stopping performance from Manu Tuilagi; for balance, witness Joe Rokocoko in his pomp in 2006 as the hosts were thrashed 41-20, the highlight being Carl Hayman scoring one of his two international tries, and what a try it was. Perhaps the greatest ever contest between the two teams, at least on English shores, was this try-fest from 2002; or maybe it’s this 26-26 humdinger from 1997. The opening match of the 1991 World Cup included a big hit by Peter Winterbottom on Graeme Bachop; the great No 7 had also been in action eight years earlier as England claimed their first win over New Zealand at Twickenham for 47 years.
2) No matter what transpires on Saturday afternoon, though, it’s unlikely to top Auguy Slowik’s 80m try for Jersey against London Irish in the Championship last weekend.
RussellEarnshaw (@russellearnshaw)
@EddyRobbo10 you guys will be in the mix for try if the month again! 😎 #Exit #BestWayToGoForward pic.twitter.com/uh5hXYcevV
3) This quite ridiculous back-spinning, baseline drop shot from Arthur de Greef against Pablo Cuevas had us digging for more of the same, so (with slight variations) enjoy: Cuevas being undone by a similar shot against Adrian Mannarino in Rome last year; Dustin Brown at Wimbledon 2015; Daria Kasatkina also slicing it up at the All England Club; Monica Niculescu doing mad things in Linz; Benoît Paire in Paris in 2015 and Sophia Antepolis in 2017; John McEnroe at the 1984 French Open; some bonkers work by Marcel Granollers, Alexandr Dolgopolov and Gaël Monfils in this compilation; plus, of course, 30 of the best from Roger Federer.
4) Down 28-7 with just over six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Minnesota high school St. Michael-Albertville somehow found a way to beat Edina – three recovered onside kicks obviously helped.
5) A fan finds a novel way to keep watching his beloved Ayr after being turfed out of Falkirk Stadium.
Hahaha Ayr fan chucked out of the Falkirk stadium finds alternative means to watch the game @Oldfirmfacts1 pic.twitter.com/lCMkYXyTKy
6) Elsewhere on Planet Football, 14-year-olds are scoring goals in the professional game as Fernando Overlar found the net for Cerro Porteño in Paraguay’s Superclásico against Club Olimpia. Other memorable moments from fresh-faced forwards from South America include Ronaldo scoring on his debut for PSV Eindhoven against Vitesse as a 17-year-old; Javier Saviola’s first strike for River Plate at the age of 16; and Gabriel Batistuta, who had a fair old career after his early days as a teenager with Newell’s Old Boys.
1) The best, and they really are something, ring walks of Japanese kickboxer Genki ‘Neo Samurai’ Sudo.
2) A selection of highlights from England v Sri Lanka Tests past: Muttiah Muralitharan taking 9-65 at the Oval in 1998; Stuart Broad claiming a hat-trick in the second Test at Headingley in 2014; and Sanath Jayasuriya, in his final Test innings in 2007, going to town on James Anderson in Kandy.
3) Chicago’s Brandon Saad channelling his inner Alessandro del Piero with a lovely backheel finish against Vancouver … except it’s ice hockey, so it didn’t count (fast forward to 3min 45sec).
4) Plenty of motorsport goodness with Aussie legend Peter Brock slippin’ and a slidin’ all over Bathurst; the infamous “Black Flag Incident” (unfortunately not featuring Henry Rollins) at Sandown, Melbourne in 1982 as a very angry Allan Moffat is disqualified (his win later reinstated); and Nigel Mansell behind the wheel of an F1 car in 2011, albeit in a virtual sense.
5) World Long Drive champion Justin James attempting to drive the green, across a lake, at the 555-yard Par 5 at Bay Hill.
Spotters badges: whobroughtoranges (a fine hat-trick), OlePonty, YorkerBouncer and Warspite1944