2:43 AM BST ESPN staff The United States has thrown its hat into the ring to host the Rugby World Cup, with USA Rugby clearing the first hurdle in an attempt to bring the game’s global showpiece to North America for either the 2027, 2029 or 2031 events. USA Rugby was on Thursday “formally accepted”
2:40 AM ET Bukayo Saka has hailed Arsenal teammate Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang‘s impact on his career, including the origin of his nickname “little chilli.” The 19-year-old ended a breakthrough season with Arsenal by earning a call-up to Gareth Southgate’s 26-man England squad for Euro 2020. Saka quickly became vital to Mikel Arteta’s side and revealed the
1:12 AM ET LAS VEGAS — The Vegas Golden Knights are going to the semifinals for the third time in four years — not bad for a team that has been around for only four years. Vegas knocked out the Colorado Avalanche with a 6-3 win in Game 6 on Thursday, its fourth straight win
1:39 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Claressa Shields is a champion. She has showed that for years in the boxing ring, winning gold medals in two Olympics and becoming a three-division world champion (twice undisputed) in an undefeated professional in-ring career. On Thursday night, she showed a different side of her championship mettle by surviving a
11:33 AM ET Friday’s French Open men’s semifinals are evenly split between the new and old guard: On one side, two fast-rising youngsters try to solidify their claim as the future face of the sport; on the other, a pair of no-doubt legends battle it out with history on the line. While some tennis observers
11:04 PM ET Associated Press DALY CITY, Calif. — Irish rookie Leona Maguire shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday at Lake Merced to take the first-round lead in the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship, the tour’s second straight event on the San Francisco Peninsula. Lexi Thompson followed her Sunday back-nine meltdown in the U.S. Women’s Open at
4:50 AM BST Dual international Lote Tuqiri knows better than most what winning the right to host the Rugby World Cup would mean for Australian rugby. Having been enticed over to the 15-player game in the lead-up to the tournament, the former Wallabies winger was blown away by the scale of rugby’s showpiece in 2003
6:14 PM ET Two former Michigan football players said Thursday they believe they could have been spared from sexual assaults if their coach, Bo Schembechler, had addressed complaints about former team doctor Robert Anderson made by Schembechler’s son Matt. Both players said they also tried to warn Bo Schembechler about Anderson’s abusive treatment and were
5:39 PM ET LAS VEGAS — WBC junior lightweight champion Oscar Valdez is set to return to the ring in September for a voluntary title defense against veteran Andrew Cancio in Arizona, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told ESPN on Thursday. Valdez (29-0, 23 KOs) is coming off a significant upset victory over Miguel Berchelt
6:43 PM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova needed more attempts to reach a Grand Slam final than any other woman in the Open Era. Barbora Krejcikova had to get through the longest women’s semifinal match in the history of the French Open. Now Pavlyuchenkova and Krejcikova, two of the unlikeliest finalists in recent memory, will