Murray came through the Crusaders academy in New Zealand and played for Canterbury in the domestic competition before arriving in Wales.

He linked up with Scarlets this summer and has played just six games for his new side but impressed Gatland, as he was named as only one of two uncapped players in the 35-man squad alongside Gloucester lock Freddie Thomas.

Murray, who has has been preferred to Rio Dyer and Tom Rogers, lines up in a back three alongside full-back Cameron Winnett and Mason Grady, who switches to the wing from the inside centre role he occupied in the summer.

It is the first time Dyer has not started a Test match since the World Cup quarter-final defeat against Argentina in October 2023.

Anscombe, 33, will play his first Test for more than a year after missing last season because of a groin injury.

Thomas featured at fly-half in the two losing Tests in Australia but switches to his more familiar inside centre role as Wales try out yet another centre combination.

It will be Thomas’ first international start in the Wales number 12 jersey.

Jaguar’s Mitch Evans finished the final day of pre-season testing at Jarama quickest ahead of Kiro’s Dan Ticktum and reigning Formula E champion Pascal Wehrlein.

Evans topped the final session on Friday morning with a 1m27.461s, the fastest lap recorded by the all-electric championship over the three days of testing, which left him 0.141s clear of Ticktum.

The result is the first time this week that reigning teams’ champions Jaguar has occupied top spot, with Porsche-powered cars finishing fastest in two out of the six sessions that have been held.

David Beckmann posted the fastest lap on Thursday morning for Kiro, the team having been rebranded from ERT last year as well as switching to using a Porsche powertrain as opposed to its own bespoke unit for the upcoming season.

Despite impressive times, neither Ticktum nor Beckmann have been signed by the team yet, but a decision on the driver line-up is expected in the week leading up to the season-opener in Sao Paulo on 7 December.

Antonio Felix da Costa posted the fastest time on the opening day for the factory Porsche team, while Wehrlein also led home his team-mate during the 24-lap simulation race.

Dan Ticktum, Kiro Race Co

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Formula E rookie Zane Maloney, who was unable to compete in Thursday’s simulation race due to a technical fault which left his Lola/Yamaha-powered Abt stranded on the grid, headed Friday’s times during the early running before slipping to eighth.

Full-time rookie Taylor Barnard finished Friday’s session in fourth for McLaren, just 0.319s behind Evans’s best, ahead of Beckmann, Nissan’s Oliver Rowland and Maserati MSG’s Stoffel Vandoorne.

The second Maserati MSG of Jake Hughes had finished fastest on Wednesday morning, with Maximilian Guenther (DS Penske) and Nyck de Vries (Mahindra) also ending quickest throughout the week.

Any further improvement in the final five minutes on Friday was denied after Guenther found the gravel at Turn 3, bringing out the only red flag of the session.

An all-female test is due to take place on Friday afternoon with all teams required to run at least one driver and a total of 18 set to compete in the three-hour session.

This includes three-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick, who once again tests with Jaguar having done so in 2020, as well as current F1 Academy points leader Abbi Pulling.

The 21-year-old Briton is on the cusp of the title in the all-female series with this year’s champion set to be given a fully funded drive in the UK’s GB3 Championship with Rodin for the 2025 season.

Formula E Jarama pre-season testing – Friday morning results

ENGLAND remain in pole position for an extra Champions League place next term – despite the Prem’s worst European week of the season.

Liverpool were the only Champions League side to taste victory, with Manchester City, Arsenal and Aston Villa all slipping to defeats.

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Spurs then lost for the first time in their Europa League campaign at Galatasaray, although Manchester United and Chelsea recorded home victories.

But since the start of the new league phase in September, the Prem sides have won 18 matches – more than any other nation – and lost the fewest, those four defeats this week.

Italy and Germany, both with eight teams in Europe at the start of the season, have won 16 and 15 respectively, with 13 Spanish victories and 11 for French sides.

The Bundesliga and La Liga sides have lost 11 matches, with Leipzig pointless from four Champions League fixtures and all four Spanish sides in the senior competition having lost at least one game.

It leaves England top of the pile at the half-way stage of the initial phase, with a current coefficient score of 9.428, when the points gained by the Prem’s teams are divided by the seven competitors.

Portugal, who only have two teams in Uefa’s biggest competition, are next with a score of 9.2, followed by last season’s top two, Italy – on 8.75 – and Germany, with 8.375.

France, on 8.071, are fifth, ahead of Spain – 7.857 – and the Czech Republic.

Uefa’s revamp means the two nations with the highest score at the end of the season will earn an extra berth in the Champions League next term.

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All teams earn two points for a win and one for a draw but their club and national tally is also boosted by bonus points accrued through the three competitions.

Each of the 36 clubs in the Champions League starts with six bonus points, with the possibility of earning up to six more if they finish top of the eight-game table, although there are no pre-competition bonuses for either the Europa or Conference Leagues.

The top eight sides in all three competitions at the end of the first stage – the Conference League, with just six matches, ends before Christmas but there are two match rounds in each of the others in January – automatically make the last 16 knockout stage.

Teams ranked ninth to 24th are then drawn in a knock-out round to join them.

Currently, all seven Prem sides are on course to qualify for the knock-out stage, with Liverpool top of the Champions League standings, Villa eighth, City 10th and the Gunners in 12th.

In the Europa League, Spurs slipped from second to seventh with United now up to 15th, while Chelsea are romping away at the top of the Conference standings.

While things are almost certain to change, if all clubs finished in their current positions, England would extend their lead by picking up a 4.036 in bonus coefficients, taking the Prem tally to 13.464.

That would give England an advantage of fractionally under two full points – the equivalent of eight team wins – over Italy, swap places with Portugal, ahead of France, Germany and Spain.

Ruben Amorim leaves Sporting on a high

By Charlie Wyett

RUBEN AMORIM would have preferred to leave Lisbon in a blaze of glory after winning a third Primeira Liga title.

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Yet football does not work like that. And in what was surely his final game before taking charge of Manchester United, Amorim prepared to say his goodbyes at a half-empty Estadio Jose Alvalade in a League Cup quarter-final against Nacional.

Sporting won 3-1 thanks to  second-half goals by captain  Morten Hjulmand and Viktor Gyokeres, who scored two.

Luis Esteves pulled back for Madeira-based Nacional.

The stadium  will be a good deal more lively on Tuesday when Manchester City are here for  a Champions League match — although Amorim should by then have his feet firmly under his desk at Old Trafford.

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Liverpool and Aston Villa were both interested in Europe’s most sought-after coach. Even City could have been a possible destination post-Pep Guardiola.

Yet the United job is one Amorim, 39,  could not turn  down — even if not everyone saw it that way at Sporting last night.

There is clearly a huge split in the Portuguese club’s fan base over their coach leaving at this stage of the season with many believing he should have seen the job through.

Yet Amorim, along with the three-man coaching team who are expected to follow him, leaves a club in a much better state than when he arrived here in 2020.

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Inside the stadium, there was applause — albeit muted — when his name was read out before the game along with the line-ups.

And there did not appear to be any jeers when Amorim shuffled out from the tunnel awkwardly towards the dugout.

So, while his departure is hard to take for some, none of the fans will forget his legacy.

This is a club which is back as the dominant force in Portugal. Even this term, Sporting have won their first nine league games, scoring 30 goals and conceding just two.

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They are also eighth in the Champions League table, which is one hell of an effort.

In contrast, Lisbon was not exactly hit by League Cup fever last night.

Amorim made lots of changes, which saw Sporting’s star man Gyokeres, the former Coventry striker, start on the bench.

There was, however, a first appearance in six weeks for former Tottenham winger Marcus Edwards.

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He is certainly one player who has been transformed by Amorim since arriving at the club from Vitoria in 2022 and will be sorry to see the coach leave.

While he changed his team, Amorim stuck with his tried and trusted formation of a back three.

It will certainly be something Manchester United’s fans will have to get used to over the  coming months.

But looking at the Premier League table, none of them will be complaining about the change.

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Liverpool manager Arne Slot has challenged midfielder Curtis Jones to add consistency to his game because “the best players in the world show up every three days”.

Jones has been in impressive form recently, scoring in a league win against Chelsea and providing a brilliant pass in setting up Luis Diaz for a goal in Tuesday’s 4-0 win against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.

He has again been called up to the England squad for games in November. The uncapped 23-year-old was drafted in as an injury replacement at the last England camp but withdrew because of the birth of his daughter.

“With Curtis maybe it’s not me who did it because he became a father and I had nothing to do with that,” said Slot.

“You never know if that plays a part or not but, since the moment he became a father, he started putting great performances in.

“He did it in pre-season but then his performances dropped a little bit. Since he became a father, he’s outstanding again. It might have to do a bit with that but, in general, I think it has to do with how the team plays.”

In the summer, Jones spoke about how Slot’s style of play suited him “because I can get on the ball more and be free” after the Dutchman replaced Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager.

“He has a lot of quality on the ball,” added Slot. “He’s never afraid to do something special with it. Sometimes that leads to situations when, in my opinion, he touched that ball a bit too much because sometimes he’s a bit too over-confident.

“He combines this with an incredibly hard work-rate and we can trust him in defence. He’s quite complete but for him now it’s all about consistency. The best players in the world show up every three days.”

Liverpool are top of the Premier League table, with a two-point lead over champions Manchester City going into Saturday’s game against Aston Villa and, after four wins in four, are also top of the Champions League group in its new format this season.

Slot has guided the Reds to 14 wins in his first 16 games since replacing Slot but insists no-one at the club is getting carried away.

“We are there to do our work and become better players on a daily basis or keep having the same level,” he said.

“It’s not the first time that this club is where it is at the moment. I think for most of these players it is a normal situation and I don’t think they get carried away at all by us being top of the league at the moment.

“They know how small the margins are when it comes to our results and the amount of points we are ahead of the other teams.”

He added: “I’m not trying to manage expectations with the squad because we don’t talk about expectations.

“The only expectations I have is that they put the same effort in on a daily basis. That’s the only thing we focus on.”

Pakistan crushed world champions Australia by nine wickets in Adelaide to set up a one-day international series decider.

The hosts were dismissed for just 163 off 35 overs as fast bowler Haris Rauf ripped through the middle order, taking 5-29.

Saim Ayub smacked 82 off 71 balls, with Abdullah Shafique adding an unbeaten 64 off 69, as Pakistan’s openers put on 137 in reply.

Babar Azam then pulled Adam Zampa for six to take the tourists to their target with 23.3 overs to spare.

The third and final ODI is at Optus Stadium in Perth on Sunday.

The two sides will then face each other in a three-match T20 international series.

When Fortec Motorsport bowed out of International Formula 3000 at the end of 2000, it did so with a single podium courtesy of Jamie Davies finishing second in Monaco. Another provisionally taken by Andreas Scheld at the Nurburgring was chalked off for the most minor of technical infractions, a stray piece of tape on the front wing endplate following a change of nose robbing the German of a true shock result in mixed conditions.

But it is conceivable that the team’s tally might well have been far higher had a promising test with a future world champion resulted in a race deal. The small matter of a route to Formula 1 unexpectedly opening up for Jenson Button ultimately took care of that.

Button’s meteoric rise from British Formula 3 to F1 with Williams for 2000, after beating Bruno Junqueira in the race to replace Alex Zanardi, is well-known. But less remembered is his appearance at a three-day end-of-year F3000 test at Jerez 25 years ago, as he evaluated the next stage of a career that would a matter of days later take in a maiden F1 test as his prize for winning the previous year’s McLaren Autosport BRDC Award.

Button made his F3000 bow with Super Nova before moving on to Fortec, a team new to the category for 1999 that had peaked with two fifth places for ex-F1 racer Norberto Fontana. After setting the sixth-fastest time, he made an impression on team boss Richard Dutton.

“If you’d asked me a week ago whether he was ready for F3000, I’d have said not,” he told Autosport at the time. “After what I’ve seen, however, I’d say he’s ready now.”

It turned out that Button was ready for far more than F3000 – a point that was quickly apparent to Fortec team manager and Button’s engineer at the test, David Hayle.

“He was definitely one of those drivers that was mature beyond his years in terms of ability,” recalls Hayle. “Nothing fazed him. You couldn’t put him off his stride, he was permanently in the zone when he was in the car. It was a really, eye-opening experience to get somebody so young, so mature and so good all together.”

Button impressed Fortec with his maturity when he stepped up from F3 in November 1999

Photo by: Russell Batchelor / Motorsport Images

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Button had graduated from Formula Ford to the F3 ranks for 1999 with the Renault-powered Promatecme team, ending up best of the rest behind title protagonists Marc Hynes (Manor Motorsport) and Luciano Burti (Paul Stewart Racing). His performances had attracted attention from the Prost F1 team, who would give him a trial at Barcelona in December and ignite speculation that he could race for its F3000 arm – a race winner with Stephane Sarrazin in 1999 – if he didn’t return to F3 with Promatecme.

Fortec had run Kristian Kolby and Matt Davies to fourth and fifth in the 1999 British F3 standings, and so got a close look at the upstart Button. Hayle says the “massive PR campaign” behind Button had intensified its desire to beat him and admits to becoming saturated by the hype, but it bred in him a curiosity that this might just be a very special driver who Fortec couldn’t afford not to try out at the next level.

Hayle recalls making a pitch to a reluctant Dutton before proceeding anyway to organise a meeting at Towcester’s Little Chef with Button’s manager David Robertson. “We agreed a very favourable deal for him to do it,” he says, clarifying that this was initially only for one day of the test due to the proximity of Button’s run in the 1998 world championship-winning McLaren MP4-14.

“We got in the car and I was like, ‘this is amazing’. The position was great, low, it was like ‘what’s going on?’”
Jenson Button

Speaking to Autosport in 2020, Button revealed he didn’t get on well with Super Nova’s Lola B99/50. “I hated the test, was really slow on the first day,” he said.

But when he headed to Fortec, it was a revelation for both parties. Button recalled: “The next day and we got in the car and I was like, ‘this is amazing’. The position was great, low, it was like ‘what’s going on?’”

Hayle was assigned to be his engineer and, as he got to know the driver that would become a 15-time Grand Prix winner, discovered that he was “really pleasantly surprised by what I saw as the real Jenson Button, as opposed to the Jenson Button that we’d been competing against all season”.

“Underneath there was a really just genuine, easy-going boy that was bloody good in a race car,” he says. “We did the test and it was one of the easiest days at a race track that I’ve that I’ve had. He was great; he was calm, bought into everything that you asked him to do.”

First day in Lola B99/50 was a struggle with Super Nova before productive test with Fortec

Photo by: Russell Batchelor / Motorsport Images

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Conversation soon turned to the prospect of continuing for the final morning of the test on 10 November. “We hastily moved stuff around and got him in,” says Hayle, before the team and Button’s entourage – which included his late father, John – went to dinner at a pizza joint near the track.

“I sat next to Jenson and said, ‘I owe you an apology’,” relates Hayle. “‘All year long, I’ve really been giving you a hard time. Not just me; everyone’s giving you a hard time because of the whole PR thing that’s behind you and I joined the bandwagon. I thought you were made up and it wasn’t real, but I got it wrong; you’re bloody good in a car, I’m really enjoying the test. I’m sorry’. And he said, ‘Oh, yeah, but I’m used to it, I got it from everyone’.”

To Hayle, Button’s performances on the second day were telling of his approach. In Jerez, he explains, typically teams would use one set of tyres in the morning then save a set for the afternoon. Since Button was only staying for the morning, Hayle devised a plan to use both sets. He says minimal changes were made after the first run, which was benchmarked against Mario Haberfeld in the sister Fortec car.

“It was nothing significant, it was more a case of ‘just show me where I need to improve,’” explains Hayle. Once that was taken on board, Button went out again, taking the rest of the pitlane by surprise.

Hayle recalls “the whole paddock scrambling to get drivers and people back on the cars, putting on another set of tyres” to follow suit, bucking convention. “He ended up P6 out of 44 cars, or something like that,” adds Hayle. “It was just incredible.”

How representative testing times are can be up for debate. After all, the test was topped by Haberfeld, who went on to sign for Fortec but didn’t score a point in a season blighted by a huge qualifying accident in Barcelona. Davies was brought in for two races while the Brazilian recovered, his Monaco showing putting to rest memories of a trying 1999 with Edenbridge as he focused subsequently on sportscars.

But other rookies in 2000 provide a hint of what Button might have achieved in the category. Sportscar convert Mark Webber (European Arrows) was a winner at the second time of asking at a wet Silverstone, after a robust move on fellow newcomer Darren Manning (Arden). Fernando Alonso was unable to take the start at Silverstone due to a technical irregularity with his Astromega car’s engine studs, but tracked winner Junqueira all the way to the flag in Hungary before putting together a dominant performance in Spa on his way to F1 with Minardi.

Fortec’s only podium of 2000 came with stand-in driver Davies in Monaco

Photo by: Lorenzo Bellanca / Motorsport Images

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And while Button himself admitted that the Apomatox/Prost Junior team would have been the more likely option for 2000, if Williams had chosen Junqueira instead, he believes he could have mastered the Lola B99/50.

“You get used to something over time,” he said. “Super GT when I jumped in it, didn’t enjoy it at all and I was nowhere. After a few days testing, we were on the pace and we won the championship that year [in 2018], so it just takes time. We learn to adapt, some cars take longer than others.”

But when the Williams opportunity came, F3000 would naturally fall by the wayside and his affiliation with Fortec proved fleeting. Yet Hayle has no doubt that “skipping F3000 was absolutely the right thing to do for him”, as Button put together a decent first season in F1, reaching the points in the second race and on five further occasions to peak with fourth at Hockenheim.

“If you get the chance to go to F1, without doing [F3000], why wouldn’t you?” he says.

Button joined Williams for 2000 and the rest was history

Photo by: Motorsport Images