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Six Nations: Ireland closer to Grand Slam after thrashing Scotland

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The Irish are one win away from a Grand Slam in the Six Nations.

By outlasting Scotland 22-7 at Murrayfield on Sunday, Ireland earned a fourth straight victory in the championship to move onto 19 points, just four more than defending champion France.

The French are the only team capable of stopping Andy Farrell’s relentless squad from claiming their first Six Nations title since 2018. That would require Ireland losing at fortress Lansdowne Road to visiting England as well as France beating Wales in a match which takes place a few hours earlier next Saturday.

England is coming off a record 53-10 loss to France in Round 4.

Scotland’s 12th loss in its last 13 meetings with Ireland ended the hosts’ title challenge, though the result was in the balance at halftime with the Irish only leading 8-7 thanks to Mack Hansen squeezing over for a try in the right corner in the 28th minute.

Ireland showed its experience and class in the second half, with two quick-fire tries around the hour mark killing off the hopes of the Scots, who didn’t manage to score a point after the break.

“At halftime, we said this is where we want to be,” Hansen said. “We thought we’d turn it on in the second half.”

After Hansen took an up-and-under on the right flank, the ball was recycled to the left and, after a series of phases, Jamison Gibson-Park’s miss-pass found winger James Lowe, who barged through a challenge to ground in the corner in the 57th.

Five minutes later, Hansen also played a key role in Ireland’s third try by sending in replacement Jack Conan along the right touchline. The back-row forward had the huge figure of Duhan van der Merwe to hold off, but he did and got over the line.

One more try was needed to claim a fourth straight bonus-point win this tournament and it nearly arrived after a length-of-the-field move. It ended with flanker James Ryan tackled about five meters out and his offload just evading Lowe.

Ireland centre Garry Ringrose will surely not be playing against England next weekend after appearing to lose consciousness making a tackle with around 10 minutes remaining.

After a lengthy period of treatment, he was carried off on a stretcher to applause around the ground.

Ireland also lost forwards Caelan Doris, Dan Sheehan and Iain Henderson to injury in the opening 25 minutes of a bruising game.

“We knew this was going to be our toughest game of the year,” Hansen said. “To be fair to the Scottish lads, they showed up — it was such a tough test match.”

Ireland captain Jonathan Sexton couldn’t wait until next weekend.

“We’ll be playing against an English team that are hurting and one that we have huge respect for,” he said. “The Irish people will get behind us next week. We’re looking forward to that.”

The last of Ireland’s three Grand Slams in the championship was in 2018.

For Scotland, it was back-to-back defeats after starting the tournament with wins over England and Wales. Italy is the visitor in Round 5.

“Just frustration that we didn’t put our game out there,” Scotland coach Gregor Townsend said.

“What we wanted today was a complete, 80-minute performance. We only got it for 40. We know we’ll have to play well next week. Italy comes here with nothing to lose.”

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Milan, Tammy Abraham sheds light on her future

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Tammy Abraham punished Inter again in the derby first leg of the Coppa Italia semifinal. After the decisive goal in Riyad with which he gave the Super Cup to the Rossoneri, the English striker found the goal of the momentary lead with the Nerazzurri, who tied the score with Calhanoglu.

“I am really happy for the goal for me and for the team– Abraham said in the press conference. “Then we didn&#8217t win, so we are not happy and we have to fight for the next game, being positive, knowing that we are a good team”.

Then the’ex-Roma spoke about his future: “I do not know my future now. Milan is a great club, very passionate. I want to fight until the end for this club. Staying does not depend only on me”.

“It is a difficult season for everyone. We have other games though, every game is a final. There are always ups and downs. I would have liked to score more but the season is not over. There are 11 games to fight for. We want to play in Europe. We want to try to win the Italian Cup” Abraham concluded.

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Lewis Hamilton, disqualification behind: “Immediately looked ahead”

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Lewis Hamilton spoke at a press conference on the eve of the Japanese Grand Prix, scheduled for the weekend. “I heard some people say some nonsense – he began – like I would be losing faith in the team. I can say I believe 100% in this team, obviously there was a huge hype at the beginning of the year, probably a lot of people expected us to win right away, starting from the first race, but that was not what I expected.”

“I’m coming into a new culture, a new team, and it’s going to take time – added the British driver. “I’ve spent the last couple of months just observing how the team works compared to the other two I’ve worked in before. During the past week I have been able to take notes and point out areas where I think we can improve, and this process will continue throughout the year as we learn more and more from each other”.

Then he came back to the disqualification in China: “In general during a race you always avoid areas of the asphalt where there are bumps, in Shanghai at the exit of turn 13 the bottom was not touching the asphalt, there was not even rebound or anything like that, so I had no warning. Regarding disqualifications, we all know that all these single-seaters are set to the limit in every parameter, personally I didn&#8221t feel any frustration when I was made aware of it. It is what it is”.

“We immediately looked ahead, I was in Maranello on Wednesday and learned a lot. I would say the most impressive thing was seeing how the team worked, how they processed the data and how we worked ahead of this weekend, that is the most important thing” Hamilton concluded.

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Jannik Sinner, Riccardo Piatti name 4 names for post-Darren Cahill

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Riccardo Piatti, former coach of Jannik Sinner, gave a lengthy interview to Corriere della Sera in which he spoke about his former pupil with whom he parted ways more than three years ago: “When I finished with Jannik I admit I had a few months of daze, then I went toward what I like: teaching tennis. The Piatti Center is not a supermarket: you go through a growth process here. I did that myself. It was a mental click, priorities changed but tennis remains at the top of my thoughts. Now I chase kids” dreams.

“Everyone remembers the match with Daniel, in Melbourne, in January 2022, when he said: ‘be calm, ca**o’ – continued the Italian coach -. He was mad at me for court stuff, it had happened before: it is normal dynamic between coach and player. That is not the problem. I always wanted Jannik to become independent, I knew he would leave one day. But with him I had to be the strict, sometimes rigid coach: that was my role. Ljubicic scolds me that I used to tell him: you decide, Ivan, but then you do as I say. For Jannik, this penalty, at one point, was too much to handle”.

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Then he mentioned a few names for the post-Darren Cahill, who will leave the’Alto Adige at the end of the season: “Carlos Moya, who I had already considered. He has been No. 1, he knows the circuit. Humanly he is a very good person, like Darren. Renzo Furlan, now that he stopped with Paolini, is free. Ljubicic is very good. Or Becker, whom we had contacted; however, working with Boris is more complicated. The names are these”.

Closing on the return of the world number one, expected at the Internazionali d’Italia: “He will be strong right away. I really believe he can make the Grand Slam this year. The suspension has extended his life: he will arrive at the end of the season fresh. You play too much, mentally you never stop. He will come back energized and motivated. He always has been. In the pandemic many took advantage of it by not training, Gasquet in the doping stop gained eight pounds, Jannik did not lose a day. He knows perfectly well where he wants to go”.

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