PARTNERS AND EQUIPMENT providers of Israel-Premier Tech targeted by pro-Palestinian protestors at the Vuelta a Espana are pressuring for the cycling team to rebrand.
Various stages of the Vuelta were hit by protests against the private outfit’s participation with around 100,000 protestors in Madrid engulfing the final day of the race, one of the sport’s three big Tours.
Co-sponsors the Canadian multi-national Premier Tech released a statement calling for change.
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“We are sensitive and attentive to the situation on the international scene which has evolved considerably since our arrival on the World Tour in 2017,” Premier Tech said.
“Our expectation is that the team will evolve to a new name excluding the term Israel, and that it will adopt a new identity and a new brand image.”
The company that provides equipment, Factor, said they have also asked for change.
“I’ve already told the team that without a name change, without a change of flag, we will not continue,” the founder of Factor, the team’s equipment supplier, told Cycling News, who met with the team’s owner, Israeli-Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams, on the subject.
These requests have so far gone unheeded by IPT.
“We are in the planning phase for the brand in 2026, and we will communicate any potential changes in due course,” the team responded in a statement Thursday.
The final stage of the Vuelta a Espana was abandoned while organisers had to scramble to shorten or even neutralise other stages.
AS THE EUROPEAN team stood backstage and in line to be called onto stage at yesterday’s opening ceremony at the Ryder Cup, Viktor Hovland made the small talk and said he had that day had his best session on the range for two years.
“F*****g yes”, exclaimed Lowry, embracing Hovland and adding, “That’s what I like to hear.”
Lowry was being genuine. His love of the Ryder Cup runs deep and he has no interest in hiding it.
“I can’t be anyone but myself”, says Lowry, “and the way I think about things is maybe different to other players. Other players might be more individual, but honestly, I love this. I live for this.”
He lives for this as he lives for life as part of a team. This was his family’s sporting life, to which Lowry made oblique reference in an earlier press conference when he responded a question about his first sporting ambitions by saying he grew up dreaming of winning an All-Ireland medal with Offaly in Croke Park.
Golf has provided Lowry with a lengthier and wildly more lucrative career, but only the Ryder Cup can satisfy his craving for the camaraderie his father and uncle could take as a given in Offaly and Ferbane dressing rooms.
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“Professional golf is monotonous”, says Lowry. “Week-in, week-out, you’re on your own. You’re playing practice rounds on your own. You’re sitting on a Tuesday morning having breakfast on your own. It can get a little bit boring and a little bit, ‘What’s this all about?’
“When you’re here this week, you have your team-mates, so you have people to laugh with, you have people to be serious with, to hang on to and bounce off and feed off, and I enjoy that much more.
“It is what it is. It’s much more enjoyable than the week-in, week-out grind of professional golf. That’s what I love so much about it. You’re not only here playing for yourself, or your family and friends and the people you play for all year, it’s a lot more than that. That’s what I love so much about it.”
Lowry made his Ryder Cup debut under Pádraig Harrington in heavy defeat at Whistling Straits in 2021, but returned two years later as part of Luke Donald’s victorious side in Rome. Across both his sheer enthusiasm for the whole enterprise was irresistible, a commitment many of the rusty, jet-lagged Americans must have found utterly daunting two years ago.
Lowry celebrates a holed putt at Whistling Straits. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
“I think what got me here is being myself, and I think I have to be the best version of myself this week”, he says. “If my emotions do come out, it will be a good thing in certain ways.
“When we’re sitting over there in the team room and back in the hotel, I think I bring good energy, good vibes, a sense of lightheartedness to the team.
“Honestly, the last two weeks, I’ve never laughed so much in my whole life. We’ve just had a great time. We’ve enjoyed getting ready together, preparing together, and I think I kind of bring some of that to everyone.
“Yeah, but obviously that’s no good to anyone if I don’t play well and win points. There’s no point being good fun if you don’t perform.”
Lowry’s Ryder Cup record is mixed, matching the cadence of his team’s varying results at Whistling Straits and Rome. He played only fourballs in 2021, winning a point with Tyrrell Hatton but losing with Rory McIlroy, both against Tony Finau and Harris English.
Two years later he played only foursomes: twice with Sepp Straka, first beating Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa and then losing to Max Homa and Brian Harmon. Singles-wise, he was beaten by Patrick Cantlay in 2021 and tied with Jordan Spieth two years ago.
The Europeans have spent this week playing practice rounds in groups of four, with Lowry out with McIlroy on Tuesday and again today. Asked today whether this means he and McIlroy will reprise their defeated partnership from Whistling Straits, Lowry replied, “We’ll see.”
“If you had told someone on the Sunday evening at Whistling Straits that we would have won in Rome and coming here to Bethpage with a chance to win, they would have laughed at you”, says Lowry. “To be part of a team coming here with the chance to do something so big, that’s a huge carrot dangling for us. We have a great opportunity this week. Like I say, it’s going to be very very hard, but I think we are ready for it and we will give it our best shot. “
Clayton McMillan is well aware of Munster’s history of early-season struggles, and insists he isn’t expecting to need a bedding-in process in his first campaign as head coach.
The New Zealander made a small signal of intent by announcing his team for the first day of the season one day ahead of schedule, with Craig Casey captaining the province in Saturday’s URC opener away to the Scarlets.
While Munster have started each of the last two seasons with wins, they have been slow to get up to speed in the first block of games; in Graham Rowntree’s first season in charge they won just two of their first seven, the following year they won three out of six, while last season they started with two wins and four defeats.
Those slow starts have left the province needing to go on late-season runs to salvage their campaign, and while none of that was under McMillan’s watch, the new man in charge is keen to avoid a repeat scenario.
“We worked hard to make sure we’re physically, technically, tactically ready to enter the season in the best possible position,” the former Chiefs coach said on Thursday.
There has been a real changing of the guard in the off-season, with Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray, Dave Kilcoyne and Stephen Archer retiring, while Rory Scannell also left the province.
Between them, the quintet account for 1128 Munster appearances, and 300 Ireland caps.
But McMillan (above) dismissed the idea that his team would need a “bedding-in” process under his coaching.
“I’m not giving myself or the team any outs around, ‘we’ve lost some experience’ or ‘we haven’t had long enough in the pre-season’,” he added.
“I think we’ve had enough time and we’ve shown enough in our pre-season games to show that we’re ready and as ready as we can be.
“We’re not the finished product. Every team’s going to grow and learn each week and you want to be playing your best rugby at the back end of the season, not at the front end, but you want your starting point to be higher than where you were the previous season.
“Again, that’s the expectation, what we’re aspiring to do and we’ll be able to answer that on Monday morning.”
The 51-year-old’s main emphasis has been on “consistency of performance” in pre-season, something he says has been lacking in Munster’s game in recent times.
“If the team has been guilty of anything over the last couple of years it’s being able to perform on the big stage when backs are against the wall and then seemingly having a really poor performance the next week.
“I think if we want to be the team that we aspire to be, just having the consistency of performance is a great starting point.
“I just think the game is pretty simple and sometime made complicated by coaches so set-piece, winning the territorial battle, valuing your possession, converting pressure into points. Those things, no matter where you are, hold a team in pretty good stead and that’s what we’ll be looking to do on the weekend.”
Five of the province’s matchday 23 featured for Ireland on the summer tour of Georgia and Portugal, with Casey (above) and Alex Kendellen starting, with Tom Ahern, Gavin Coombes and Jack Crowley on the bench.
“Given that the internationals came in a little bit later, we’ve largely rewarded performance through the pre-season to those who have been here for the balance of pre-season, knowing that having that international experience and x-factor coming off the bench is really a luxurious position to be in.
“We hope they will come on and be in a position to finish the job for us.
“There are a few caveats around that; John Hodnett, who is injured, means we’ve gone with a specialist seven in Alex Kendellen, and obviously Craig Casey is the captain. In those two instances, that theory hasn’t quite played out, but it was certainly our intention to do that.”
Meanwhile, Munster have also confirmed that Alex Codling has linked up with the squad this week, to begin his full-time position of forwards coach.
Codling worked with the province on a part-time basis last season following the departure of Andi Kyriacou, but will now work solely with Munster having finished his contract with the Ireland women’s team.
Sean Cronin has also been announced as a full-time member of the caching staff. The former Ireland and Leinster hooker has been confirmed as scrum coach.
Nottinghamshire have won the County Championship title, denying Surrey a fourth straight crown.
Division One leaders Notts picked up the two points they needed for the title by scoring 300 in their first innings against Warwickshire.
It is a first County Championship for Nottinghamshire since 2010 and ends three years of dominance by Surrey in the competition.
The East Midlands side, led by a rejuvinated Haseeb Hameed, took a huge step towards the title when they beat Surrey in the previous round of fixtures.
Hameed has enjoyed a superb 2025 with the bat and starred once again at Trent Bridge in bringing up his fourth century of the season.
Once the 28-year-old fell for 122 to leave them 218-5, South Africa wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne made sure the hosts would not have to wait until Friday to be crowned champions.
Verreynne’s composed fifty took Notts past the 300 they required for two batting bonus points and ensured they could not be caught by second-placed Surrey.
Hameed leads from the front
Rex Features
Nottinghamshire’s turnaround this campaign has been somewhat remarkable.
In Hameed’s first year as captain in 2024, they only avoided relegation in the final round of fixtures
Five years earlier they had gone down without a victory.
However, this season’s achievements have been a team effort under the guidance of coach Peter Moores who has now won County Championships with three different clubs.
Hameed’s hundred against the Bears took him to 1,253 runs in red-ball cricket this year, second only to Surrey opener Dom Sibley’s 1,274.
Lyndon James, Ben Slater and Jack Haynes have also made vital contributions with the bat and average above 40.
The bowlers have shared the wickets around.
Seamer Brett Hutton leads the way with 35, but England’s Josh Tongue, Mo Abbas, Dillon Pennington, James and Liam Patterson-White have all taken more than 25.
‘A fantastic feeling’ – Newell
Nottinghamshire director of cricket Mick Newell coached the county to their previous title win 15 years ago.
He has been in his current role since Moores became head coach in 2016.
“We always knew this run of three games [in September] was going to be key because when we played the Kookaburra ball games in June and July, nothing really happened for us,” Newell told BBC Radio Nottingham.
“We didn’t win any, we didn’t lose any, we just held our position, tucked in behind Surrey.
“We’ve been blessed with good weather to enable us to get on the field and get the points we need.
“Anyone who comes ahead of Surrey has played some really good cricket because they’re really good. For us to come ahead of them is a great tribute to our players.”
He added: “It means a lot to win it at Trent Bridge and it’s still the competition that the players and the coaching staff want to win the most, so we will enjoy it knowing we’ve had to work really hard over a period of 12 months to get here.”
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