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Irish authors longlisted for William Hill Sports Book of the Year

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IRISH SPORTSWRITERS MIGUEL Delaney and David Walsh have been named on the longlist for the 2025 William Hill Sports Book of the Year award.

15 books have been nominated for the prestigious prize, including Delaney’s States of Play — an an exploration of football’s shifting culture and power structures — and The Escape, co-written by Walsh with legendary cyclist Pippa York.

The Racket, by Conor Niland and The 42′s Gavin Cooney, won the 2025 award.

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They were the first winners from the Republic of Ireland since Paul Kimmage in 1990, with Delaney and Walsh now looking to follow in their footsteps.

The William Hill Sports Book of the Year is its 37th year, having began in 1989. It is described as the “richest, most prestigious literary sports book prize in the world,” with the prize worth £30,000 [€34,373].

Duncan Hamilton, Michael Holding, Jeremy Wilson and Lauren Fleshman are among other past winners.

The 2025 judging panel will be chaired by Alyson Rudd, with Clarke Carlisle, Elis James, Gabby Logan, Mark Lawson, Dame Heather Rabbatts and Michelle Wilder making up the rest of the panel.

The shortlist will be announced on 30 October, with the winner to be revealed at an awards ceremony on 25 November.

The 15 longlisted titles for the 2025 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award are:

  • Finding the Edge by Jimmy Anderson
  • Ultra Women by Lily Canter and Emma Wilkinson
  • I Can’t Stop Thinking About VAR by Daisy Christodoulou
  • The Warrior by Christopher Clarey
  • States of Play by Miguel Delaney
  • More Than a Shirt by Joey D’Urso
  • European Football’s Greatest Grounds by Leon Gladwell
  • Chasing Salah by Simon Hughes
  • The Last Bell by Donald McRae
  • Engulfed by James Montague
  • Go to War by Jon Spurling
  • The Escape by Pippa York and David Walsh
  • Test Cricket by Tim Wigmore
  • The Power and The Glory by Jonathan Wilson
  • The Art of Batting by Jarrod Kimber.

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Savea leads ‘stung’ All Blacks, Australia’s Slipper to hit 150 Test milestone

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FLANKER ARDIE SAVEA will captain New Zealand against Australia on Saturday [KO 6.05am Irish time, Sky Sports Action] while prop James Slipper will make his 150th appearance for the Wallabies after the teams were named Thursday.

The All Blacks made four changes to a side “stung” by their record 43-10 humiliation to South Africa and Australia made six alterations to the team who started in the 28-26 loss to Argentina in Sydney two weeks ago.

Lock by Fabian Holland replaces regular All Blacks captain Scott Barrett who has a shoulder injury.

Veteran hooker Codie Taylor is recalled after recovering from injury along with scrum-half Cam Roigard and wing Caleb Clarke.

For the Wallabies, fit-again wing Harry Potter comes back and youngster Max Jorgensen will play at fullback in place of the injured Andrew Kellaway.

Centre Len Ikitau returns from injury while the half-back pair of veteran fly-half James O’Connor and scrum-half Tate McDermott are promoted from the bench.

There is a new-look second row, with Nick Frost back from injury and Luukhan Salakaia-Loto to make his first start this year.

Tom Hooper moves from lock to the back row to replace the injured Rob Valetini.

New Zealand coach Scott Robertson resisted making sweeping changes as the All Blacks try to preserve a 31-year unbeaten record at Eden Park and retain the Bledisloe Cup.

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“Once you’ve been hurt and stung like we were, the best thing to do is play,” Robertson said.

“You learn on stage and they’ve been under the spotlight and it’s another chance for them.

“So you bring those four players back and then you keep the cohesion of the rest of the group and that’s when you start to cement a little bit of form together.”

Australian loosehead prop Slipper, 36, will become just the third player to play 150 Tests after Welshman Alun Wyn Jones and New Zealand’s Sam Whitelock.

Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt said Slipper’s achievement was “phenomenal”.

“The thing I love about Slips is that he’s still trying to get better, he’s still working on his game to add to the team as best he can. He’s a massive team man.”

Schmidt said scrum-half Jake Gordon wasn’t yet ready to return after two months recuperating from injury, resulting in a rare start for McDermott.

He said it then made sense for O’Connor to replace Tane Edmed at fly-half for the 35-year-old’s first appearance against New Zealand in five years.

“James has got a long-term relationship with Tate, they’ve gone back a wee way at the Queensland Reds,” Schmidt said.

“And it was an opportunity for a little bit more experience. This match is going to be a pressure cooker.”

Australia lead the Rugby Championship with two rounds to play, sitting one point ahead of South Africa and New Zealand.

They are also trying to win the Bledisloe Cup, contested annually between Australia and New Zealand, for the first time since 2003.

New Zealand

(15-9) Will Jordan; Leroy Carter, Billy Proctor, Jordie Barrett, Caleb Clarke; Beauden Barrett, Cam Roigard.

(1-8) Ethan de Groot, Codie Taylor, Tyrel Lomax; Fabian Holland, Tupou Vaa’i; Simon Parker, Ardie Savea (captain),Wallace Sititi.

Replacements: Samisoni Taukei’aho, Tamaiti Williams, Fletcher Newell, Patrick Tuipulotu, Peter Lakai, Cortez Ratima, Quinn Tupaea, Damian McKenzie

Australia

(15-9) Max Jorgensen; Harry Potter, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Len Ikitau, Corey Toole; James O’Connor, Tate McDermott.

(1-8) James Slipper, Billy Pollard, Taniela Tupou; Nick Frost, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto; Tom Hooper, Fraser McReight, Harry Wilson (captain).

Replacements: Brandon Paenga-Amosa, Angus Bell, Allan Alaalatoa, Jeremy Williams, Carlo Tizzano, Ryan Lonergan, Tane Edmed, Filipo Daugunu.

– © AFP 2025

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Go all in on Man City – our FPL team of the week

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The fixture list has thrown up a scenario which is too good not to take advantage of in FPL.

Manchester City, with the second best expected goals (xG) in the league and a goal machine up front, will be taking on a team at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Burnley have let in eight goals this season but their expected goals conceded (xGC) is 10.2 – in other words, they have got away lightly with picking the ball out of their net just eight times.

Compare that to West Ham – with a league-worst 13 goals conceded to an xGC of 7.6 – and it suggests a thrashing could be round the corner for the Clarets.

Will that come on Saturday? And, if so, do you triple captain Erling Haaland?

The guys from the FPL Podcast on BBC Sport, along with expert Pras, will be debating that question on Friday, but for now here’s our team of the week.

The team of the week is selected based on current FPL prices to fit within a £100m budget, as if you were playing a Free Hit.

Don’t miss our FPL special Q&A with expert Pras live on the BBC Sport website at 15:30 BST on Friday, 26 September.

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How did last week’s team do?

A shambles of a week – no goals, no clean sheets and just two assists for 35 points all out.

FPL team of the week for gameweek six

BBC Sport FPL team of the weekBBC Sport

Keeper and defence

David Raya, Arsenal, £5.5m – Newcastle (a)

Arsenal’s defence has been so good this season that you’d back them even in this tough fixture, on paper, at Newcastle.

The Magpies have been pretty blunt in attack so far, evidenced by three successive 0-0 draws on the road.

At home, they will be a different prospect, but whether they can break through the Gunners backline is a different matter.

James Tarkowski, Everton, £5.5m – West Ham (h)

As forecast in pre-season, Tarkowski has turned into a defensive contribution points (defcon) magnet, scoring the two bonus points on four of five occasions this season.

A home game against troubled West Ham is a nice fixture for Tarkowski, with a decent enough chance of a clean sheet too. The Hammers have scored just five goals this season and three of those came in the final six minutes at Nottingham Forest.

They also have the worst xGC from set-pieces, while Everton have the second best xG from them.

Four points feels like the floor for the Everton centre-back this week.

Micky van de Ven (£4.7m) and Pedro Porro (£5.6m), Spurs – Wolves (h)

Wolves have yet to pick up a point and their attack has been toothless so far.

Spurs, meanwhile, have let in just three so it is worth doubling up on their defence.

Van de Ven offers value and goal threat (he’s had three shots in the box) while Porro is an assist waiting to happen. He hasn’t had one yet this season, but with an expected assists (xA) of 0.74, only Crystal Palace’s Daniel Munoz has better stats among defenders.

Nico O’Reilly, Manchester City, £4.9m – Burnley (h)

O’Reilly is a cheap way into a City defence that has a great chance of a clean sheet this week.

Along with being poor at the back, Burnley have the third-worst xG in the league.

O’Reilly had a decent run at the end of last season from left-back and he should take up the same kind of high-potential attacking positions we expected from the injured Rayan Ait-Nouri.

Midfielders

Iliman Ndiaye, Everton, £6.5m – West Ham (h)

Taking on a Hammers defence that has conceded a league-high 13 goals, Ndiaye is, just about, the best option from Everton’s great-value midfield trio.

You might prefer Jack Grealish (£6.8m) after his four assists so far, or budget-friendly Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£5m), who has taken as many shots as Ndiaye.

But Senegal forward Ndiaye is the biggest goal threat and also on penalties.

Mohammed Kudus, Spurs, £6.6m – Wolves (h)

Like West Ham, Wolves are a team worth targeting and Kudus seems to be the best bet for Spurs from an attacking standpoint, after Xavi Simons was benched last week.

The Ghanaian has four assists so far – the joint most in the league – and has been involved in 40% of Tottenham’s goals.

Morgan Gibbs-White, Nottingham Forest, £7.5m – Sunderland (h)

Forest are a hard team to read this season, with a managerial change already and just one victory.

We were expecting them to be much better and, with Ange Postecoglou taking charge of his first home game, a more attacking Forest side could emerge.

Gibbs-White has taken nine shots in five games and is worth a punt this week.

Sunderland have a top-six defence so far and have been impressive in the first five weeks – will that continue?

Phil Foden, Manchester City, £8m – Burnley (h)

Is Foden back to near his best? The England midfielder was so good in the derby win over Manchester United and has had two league starts in a row.

If you can afford him, why not go for it?

Last season was a bit of a write-off, but we know what he can do – 19 goals and eight assists in the 2023-24 Premier League is proof of his ability.

Antoine Semenyo, Bournemouth, £7.7m – Leeds (a)

No need to lose faith in Semenyo after last week’s blank.

He’s on penalties, takes lots of shots and has been involved in a whopping 83% of Bournemouth’s goals this season.

Striker

Erling Haaland (captain), Manchester City, £14.3m – Burnley (h)

Haaland is the obvious captain choice this week. We all know how good he is, but his underlying data this season is off the charts.

With an xG of 6.2 – no other player has even half of that – and 20 shots in the box in five games, he could easily be sitting here with three or four more goals than the six he has scored so far.

Haaland will be highly owned and highly captained – you either stick the Triple Captain chip on him this week and hope for a haul, or keep it in the bag for a bigger differential pick later on.

Substitutes

Robin Roefs, Sunderland, keeper, £4.5m – Nottingham Forest (a)

Beto, Everton, striker, £5.4m – West Ham (h)

Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Leeds, striker, £5.5m – Bournemouth (h)

Gabriel Gudmundsson, Leeds, defender, £4m – Bournemouth (h)

Team total cost: £96.2m

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McCarthy and Doyle among Irish crews into world rowing finals in Shanghai

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IRISH MEN’S DOUBLE sculls duo Fintan McCarthy and Philip Doyle, and singles stars Siobhán McCrohan and Jake McCarthy, have qualified for their respective A finals at the 2025 World Rowing Championships in Shanghai, China.

McCarthy and Doyle finished second in their semi-final overnight, having won their heat on Monday. The race was due to take place yesterday, but was postponed with crews already in the water after wind caused problems for the organisers.

The Irish duo shook off the delay to finish second in 6:33.14. Romina won in 6:31.08, with Spain third in 6:35.98. Serbia won the other semi-final in 6:36.46, with the final scheduled for tomorrow.

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Doyle is stepping in for Paul O’Donovan at this championships, who is unavailable due to work commitments. McCarthy and O’Donovan won back to back Olympic lightweight double sculls at Paris 2024, but have transitioned to heavyweight.

Doyle won double sculls bronze with Daire Lynch at last summer’s Games. O’Donovan has also shared a boat with Lynch this year.

McCrohan won her lightweight women’s single sculls semi-final, clocking 8:06.23 to pip Mexico’s Kenia Lechuga Alanis (8:06.27) and neutral athlete Mariia Zhovner (8:06.35) to prevail.

The 2024 world bronze medallist previously finished third in her heat to Alanis and Canada’s Karissa Riley. The final is set for Saturday.

siobhan-mccrohan-celebrates-after-winning-bronze
Siobhan McCrohan (file photo). Maren Derlien / INPHO


Maren Derlien / INPHO / INPHO

McCarthy finished third in his lightweight men’s single sculls semi-final in 7:33.01.

Uruguay’s Felipe Kluver Ferreira (7:28.40) and Halil Kaan Koroglu of Turkey (7:31.12) finished ahead of the Skibbereen man, who held off Uzbekistan’s Shakhzod Nurmatov to progress to Saturday’s A final rather than the B decider.

Meanwhile, Nathan Timoney and Ross Corrigan placed sixth in the men’s pair A final.

Timoney and Corrigan clocked 7:00.73, crossing seven seconds after fifth-placed Lithuania. The New Zealand crew triumphed in 6:37.87, with Romania and Switzerland second and third respectively. 

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