The Rybakina withdrawal has removed the world number one and defending champion from the WTA Finals on the eve of the tournament, and with her goes the chance to become the first player since Serena Williams in 2014 to win the title in consecutive years. Organisers cited a viral illness. Rybakina herself said her “body is just not physically ready to compete.”

The 27-year-old Kazakh announced the decision on Saturday, a day before the round-robin event began at Indian Wells in California. Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk, the first alternate, takes her place in the eight-woman field.

A career-best season ends on a low note

The timing is cruel given how much Rybakina achieved in 2026. She won the Australian Open and the US Open, adding to her 2022 Wimbledon title. She also took the Stuttgart and Ningbo events and reached the finals at Indian Wells and Toronto. Beating Aryna Sabalenka in the US Open final ended the Belarusian’s 99-week run at the top, and Rybakina secured the year-end number one ranking in Tokyo in October.

Her numbers back up the ranking. She finishes the year 54-14, including 17-2 in Grand Slam matches, and she led the tour with 438 aces, 140 more than Sabalenka in second. She also hit 1,775 winners and won 10 matches against top-10 opponents, more than any rival.

The second half of her campaign has been rougher, though. Since New York she has dealt with physical problems, including a neck injury that forced her out of the Tokyo quarter-finals late last month. Tournament director Garbine Muguruza, a former world number one, told Reuters that Rybakina “was feeling so-so in Tokyo as well” and “really couldn’t recover on time.” Muguruza stressed that the priority was for the player to rest. “We don’t want her to feel like she has to play,” she said.

Who benefits from the Rybakina withdrawal

The most obvious beneficiary is Sabalenka, whom Rybakina beat in last year’s final. With the top seed gone, the world number two has an opening to close the ranking gap. Muguruza acknowledged as much, saying Sabalenka “might be thinking that this can be a good opportunity.” Sabalenka, who won Indian Wells earlier this year, is joined by French Open champion Mirra Andreeva, Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Elina Svitolina and Karolina Muchova.

Kostyuk was already in Indian Wells and practising as an alternate when the news broke. She makes her Finals debut after a breakthrough year that included the Madrid title and a move into the top 10. Muguruza noted that several first-time qualifiers are in the field, and argued that the round-robin format leaves no room for error. “Every match could be a Grand Slam final,” she said.

A tournament that has already moved once

The event was relocated to Indian Wells from Riyadh, with Muguruza saying that conflict in the Middle East made it “no longer safe” and that player security was the deciding factor. She said players welcomed the switch and that ticket sales have been strong.

Rybakina, for her part, says she will rest at home and prepare for 2027. After a season of this scale, the Rybakina withdrawal looks less like a surprise than the end of a long campaign catching up with her body. It still leaves the season-ending event without its biggest name.

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File photo: Elena Rybakina (2025 DC Open) 07 (cropped2).jpg by Hameltion

derivative work: Kacir, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Carlos Alcaraz finally has his Paris Masters title, and he got it against the man who ended his US Open defence two months ago. The 23-year-old Spaniard beat Ben Shelton 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 on Sunday at the Plenitude Arena in Nanterre, collecting a ninth Masters 1000 crown at his sixth attempt in the French capital.

A rematch with a lot of history

The final carried obvious baggage. In September, Alcaraz was only just back from months out with a wrist injury when Shelton knocked him out of the US Open quarter-finals in a five-set marathon that lasted around four and a half hours. Since then Alcaraz has lost just once in 17 matches and won three titles, including 500-level events in Tokyo and Vienna.

The Paris final was a very different contest, finishing in just under two hours. Alcaraz said afterwards that facing Shelton was “one of the toughest challenges we have in tennis right now” and predicted the American would only get harder to beat. “It’s something I’ve been chasing for a long time,” he said, recalling some of the toughest losses of his career in this event.

How the Paris Masters title was won

Little separated the two through the first set. Alcaraz saved all six break points he faced, and Shelton fended off two of his own. The tie-break decided it, and Shelton’s forehand let him down. By the Guardian’s count he overshot the baseline three times there, while Alcaraz won four of the last five points from 4-3 down.

The second set swung on a few games. Shelton broke for 3-2 after Alcaraz was undone by double faults and loose groundstrokes, but Alcaraz broke straight back to level at 4-4. He then asked the crowd for more noise and danced to the music at the changeover. Serving to stay in the match, Shelton sent two more forehands astray, and Alcaraz clinched it on his second match point with another forehand winner. He won five of the last six games.

The win also leaves Alcaraz unbeaten in finals in Paris, after his two French Open titles. As at Roland Garros, he got there by surviving match points, this time two against Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals. He is the first Spaniard to win the event since David Ferrer in 2012, and Boris Becker handed him the trophy.

Turin next, with Sinner’s Masters 1000 record in sight

Alcaraz arrives at the ATP Finals in Turin, which run from November 15 to 22, on a nine-match winning streak. He has won five tour-level titles this year, behind only the injured Jannik Sinner on six. He has also won seven of the nine different Masters 1000 tournaments. Only Canada and Shanghai are missing, and with them he could become the third man after Novak Djokovic and Sinner to win all nine.

For Shelton, the world number four, it was a first defeat in a Masters final after he won both of his earlier ones, at the last two Canadian Opens. He has had a strong year, with four titles and a first major final. Both players have qualified for Turin, so a quick rematch is possible. After that comes the Davis Cup finals later this month, but Alcaraz’s focus will be on finishing a year that began with a career Grand Slam in Australia on a high.

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File photo: Carlos Alcaraz Roland Garros 2025 (cropped).jpg by Like tears in rain

derivative work: Kacir, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

President Donald Trump has publicly offered the job of White House press secretary to UFC chief executive Dana White, an announcement that stands out even by the standards of a president known for breaking political norms. White says the two will meet on Monday, but nobody outside their circle knows whether the offer is serious.

Trump made the announcement on Truth Social on Saturday from his golf club in Florida. He called White “a violent Fighter and Warrior” and wrote: “Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other. Dana, please take the job!” He also asked White to bring along several UFC fighters as “assistants”, naming Islam Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes and Kayla Harris. He acknowledged that “some are not from our Country” and said, “We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left.”

How Dana White responded

White was in London for a boxing event when the post went up. He shared Trump’s message on Instagram alongside an image of himself behind the lectern in the White House briefing room, captioned “On to the next chapter”. It was not clear whether he meant it as a joke. At a news conference afterwards he said he was flying to Washington and had a meeting with Trump on Monday. According to AP, he seemed confused when asked how he would balance the role with his current jobs. “I got a lot of jobs already,” he said, adding that he was sure there would be more to discuss after the meeting.

He has plenty to balance. Besides running the UFC, White leads Power Slap and has just launched Zuffa Boxing, which AP says he runs with Saudi Arabian backers. He also sits on the board of Meta. CNN, citing a source familiar with the matter, reported that White had declined the idea. White himself has not said so publicly. White House communications director Steven Cheung, meanwhile, cheered the idea on X.

A vacancy at the centre of a shaken White House

The role has been empty for some time. NPR reports that Karoline Leavitt left at the end of August. Trump then tried out Katie Zacharia, who quit less than five days into the job in mid-October after a single, uneasy appearance before reporters. Since then the president has had no chief spokesperson.

The offer comes at a turbulent moment. Republicans lost control of both the House and the Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections, including in areas they had held for decades. On Friday, Trump announced he was replacing chief of staff Susie Wiles, who was seen as a tempering influence, with Stephen Miller, the architect of the administration’s hard-line immigration policies. Whoever fills the White House press secretary post would be the public face of an administration in the middle of that reset.

A long friendship, and a few caveats

White’s closeness to Trump is well documented. He credits Trump with helping save the UFC in 2001, when Trump hosted two of its events at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City while mainstream venues shunned the sport. White spoke at the Republican National Conventions in 2016, 2020 and 2024 and appeared on stage for Trump’s 2024 victory speech. In June, the UFC staged a card on the White House South Lawn to mark America’s 250th anniversary and Trump’s 80th birthday.

Still, the job is a very different proposition from the cage. The press secretary deals with reporters daily, and White has a combative record with the media. He has publicly attacked journalists over coverage of the UFC, including a 2020 clip criticising reporters who questioned holding fights during the pandemic. In 2009 he released an expletive-laden video tirade that included an anti-gay slur.

Al Jazeera also noted a side thread on social media. Some users speculated that the administration may have meant to name a more experienced Black woman who shares the same name. That is online speculation, and none of the other sources back it up. The White House and a UFC spokesperson did not respond to AP’s requests for comment on Saturday.

For now, the only firm fact is the Monday meeting. Whether it produces a new White House press secretary or just a friendly catch-up between two longtime allies is still an open question.

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File photo: Dana White in June 2025 (cropped).jpg by Press Service of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Jon Rahm goes into the final round of the Abu Dhabi Championship with a one-shot lead, but Tyrrell Hatton, Francesco Laporta and Rory McIlroy are all within two shots of him. The Spaniard shot a bogey-free six-under 66 at Yas Links on Saturday to reach 18 under.

Rahm’s response under pressure

Rahm began the day in a three-way tie for the lead with Hatton and Laporta and pulled clear late. Hatton briefly drew level after his seventh birdie of the round at the 14th. Rahm reclaimed the outright lead at the 15th with a curling 20-foot birdie putt. He nearly stretched his advantage at the last but narrowly missed another birdie chance.

The 31-year-old is chasing his first individual win outside the LIV tour since the 2023 Masters. He has said recently that he does not know what 2027 holds after leaving LIV. Reports this week say the breakaway league has confirmed it will wind down after five years.

Hatton and Laporta both signed for 67s and sit on 17 under. All three will play together again on Sunday, and Hatton has made clear he relishes the pairing. “Naturally we are going to want to beat each other,” he said. “Hopefully I can get off to a good start and put him under some pressure.” Laporta, 36, led after round one with a 10-under score and is bidding for a first DP World Tour title.

McIlroy’s record chase

The biggest name in the chasing pack is McIlroy, who is on 16 under after a 67. He has recovered from a two-shot penalty in round one for improving his lie before a chip. In round two he made 11 birdies in a 63, then added eight more on Saturday. He also ran off seven birdies in a row from the seventh to the 14th.

Two costly holes cost him the outright lead. He made a double-bogey six at the par-four 10th, then dropped another shot at the par-three 17th after sharing the lead earlier in the round. He admitted to being “a little rueful” about the missed chances but still likes his position. “I’m going to have to go out and shoot a low one, something in the mid to low 60s to get it done,” he said.

The stakes go beyond the trophy. A win would reportedly give McIlroy an eighth Race to Dubai title, matching Colin Montgomerie’s record. He is already projected to rise to second in the standings behind Eugenio Chacarra, who is on eight under after a 67.

Who else is in contention

Adam Scott has not dropped a shot all week. His 66 on Saturday moved him to 15 under and fifth place. Matthew Jordan and David Puig are a shot further back on 14 under. Three Masters champions are in the top five: Rahm (2023), McIlroy (2025 and 2026) and Scott (2013).

The event is the first leg of a two-week playoff series. Seventy players entered, and the top 50 advance to a $10 million finals event in Dubai next week. That gives players lower down the board something to play for on Sunday, even if the title looks likely to go to one of the leading names.

Sky Sports Golf has live coverage of the final round of the Abu Dhabi Championship from 6.30am UK time on Sunday.

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File photo: Jon Rahm Ryder Cup 2025-130 (cropped).jpg by Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Usman Khawaja has reopened the most notorious episode in modern Australian cricket, claiming that sandpaper ball tampering during the 2018 South Africa tour was known to the entire touring group and not just the three players who were punished. The retired opener’s claim, taken from his autobiography Sabr, is flatly at odds with the findings of Cricket Australia’s investigation and with years of denials from the team’s bowlers.

“It was all of us. Not the batters, not the bowlers, not the staff. All of us,” Khawaja told Nine newspapers, including the Sydney Morning Herald. The 39-year-old, who played 88 Tests and scored 6,229 runs before announcing his retirement in January, said he had expected the full story to emerge long before now. “I genuinely thought after eight years the truth would have been out by now,” he said.

What Khawaja says happened in Port Elizabeth

Khawaja’s account pushes the timeline back beyond Cape Town. He says the team used sandpaper in the second Test at Port Elizabeth, now Gqeberha. According to extracts of the book, open discussion in the dressing room about roughing up the ball led to the “discovery of sandpaper as an effective agent”. He says Cameron Bancroft volunteered to use it in South Africa’s first innings, when the ball swung considerably.

Khawaja also writes that Steve Smith “essentially threw his hands in the air” and said he did not want to know. The plan unravelled in the third Test at Newlands, when television cameras caught Bancroft handling the sandpaper on the field.

Smith and David Warner were each suspended for 12 months, and Bancroft for nine. Cricket Australia’s investigation found only those three had prior knowledge. Khawaja dedicates the “sandpapergate” chapter to them and says he urged teammates in the dressing room to share the blame. “Obviously, it didn’t work that way, and those three guys got crucified,” he said. He also said he was surprised that nobody asked him for evidence during the inquiry.

Denials from bowlers, coach and Cricket Australia

The claim that bowlers knew has been the central unresolved question. Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon issued a joint statement in 2021 saying they “did not know a foreign substance was taken on to the field” until they saw the images on the big screen. They also noted that the umpires inspected the ball and saw no damage. That statement came days after Bancroft, asked in a Guardian interview whether the bowlers knew, called the answer “pretty probably self-explanatory”.

Cummins, now Test captain, said on 8 October that Khawaja had given him a heads-up about the book. He told reporters he had no concerns, saying it was “all dealt with then”.

Darren Lehmann, who was coach in 2018, was cleared of wrongdoing but resigned afterwards. He told ABC Sport he did not believe everyone could have known the details, and said the claims “drag up some bad memories”. He argued that tampering had long been a part of cricket, but conceded that “that doesn’t make it right” and that “we paid a heavy price”.

Cricket Australia said it remained “comfortable” with its original findings. It added that anyone with relevant information still has the opportunity to present it, and that all material submitted so far had been properly considered.

Why the sandpaper ball tampering claims matter now

Nothing in Khawaja’s account has been tested by any investigation, and those he implicates deny it. The dispute also rests on competing recollections of private dressing-room conversations from eight years ago, so it is unlikely to be settled quickly.

Still, the claim carries weight because of who is making it. Khawaja was a member of the squad and was himself cleared in the inquiry. The question of how far knowledge of the plan spread through the squad has hung over the scandal since 2018, and a former teammate’s detailed account will keep it alive. Whether Cricket Australia’s offer to hear new information leads anywhere is now the open question, with the book due out this week.

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File photo: 2018.01.05.17.43.25-Usman Khawaja & Steve Smith (38876757994).jpg by www.davidmolloyphotography.com from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Header image: AI-generated illustration by WordUp News.

The headline from the Crown Jewel 2026 results is simple: Roman Reigns walked out of Riyadh with the Crown Jewel Championship, but only after Sami Zayn pushed him to the edge in a match that kept teasing an upset. Reigns, the World Heavyweight Champion, finished Zayn, the WWE Champion, with a Superman punch and two spears at the ANB Arena.

A champion-versus-champion main event three years in the making

The match carried history. Per The Standard’s preview, it was the first one-on-one meeting between the pair since the 2023 Elimination Chamber, when they fought over the undisputed title after Zayn turned on Reigns at the Royal Rumble. Forbes noted that the booking returned to the peak of The Bloodline saga, with Zayn now at the top of SmackDown and Reigns at the top of Raw.

The build also had a twist. Penta, the 2026 Money in the Bank winner, can cash in his contract for a title match at any time, and he teased doing so on the October 26 Raw. That hung over the main event. Forbes’ account suggests Reigns, like LA Knight and Penta before him, ultimately avoided the fate of an upset.

How the match unfolded

According to Forbes’ blow-by-blow, the Riyadh crowd sided with Zayn and chanted “overrated” at Reigns, as it had for Cody Rhodes earlier in the night. Zayn kept the champion off balance with a sunset flip powerbomb off the top rope, a Blue Thunder Bomb for a near-fall and a dive to the outside. Reigns answered with a uranage and a string of Superman punches.

The match turned on its referees. Reigns accidentally took out the first official, and Zayn’s Helluva Kick found its mark with no one there to count. When a second referee arrived, Reigns kicked out because of the delay. Zayn, frustrated, hit that referee with a Helluva Kick too. Reigns then landed a Superman punch and a spear, but the original referee was so slow to count that Zayn kicked out of that as well, which drew one of the loudest reactions of the night.

With the officiating chaos spent, the two traded signature moves in the middle of the ring. Zayn hit a Superman punch of his own and even tried a spear, but Reigns beat him to it with two spears and got the 1-2-3.

The handshake that didn’t quite land

Afterward, Zayn offered his hand and, in Forbes’ telling, demanded that Reigns shake it. Reigns hesitated and slapped it away, then pulled Zayn into a hug. The moment suggested lingering respect between the former allies without erasing the tension, and Zayn’s performance did nothing to hurt him.

What the rest of the card and the road ahead look like

The Standard’s pre-show card listed a Women’s Crown Jewel title match between Liv Morgan and Chelsea Green, a tag title bout with Penta and Je’Von Evans against The Vision (Bron Breakker and Austin Theory), and a last man standing match between Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton. That match was billed as a rematch from WrestleMania, where Orton punted Rhodes after the finish. The card’s formatting appears to list winners, but the sources I reviewed don’t give full accounts of those bouts, so they’re not detailed here. A related Yahoo headline also refers to Tiffany Stratton cashing in on Chelsea Green.

Forbes points toward Survivor Series: WarGames. Reigns has so far largely avoided the new heel faction 946, even as it targeted his cousins in The Bloodline, and the outlet expects a clash between Raw’s top two factions. With Reigns now expected to head into WrestleMania season as world champion, the Crown Jewel 2026 results give him momentum and leave Zayn, despite the loss, with a boost from the crowd.

WWE’s Crown Jewel 2026 aired from Riyadh on Saturday, November 7, and in the UK it streamed on Netflix.

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The Sao Paulo grid penalties handed out on Saturday have scrambled Sunday’s race. Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton will start from the back, Charles Leclerc drops 10 places and George Russell five. The four drivers are separated by only 16 points in the fight for second place behind newly crowned world champion Kimi Antonelli.

Why the Sao Paulo grid penalties hit these four drivers

All four penalties come from power-unit rules, but the reasons differ. Verstappen’s Red Bull team found problems after Friday practice and fitted an all-new engine, which put him at the back. Russell takes a five-place drop for a new internal combustion engine. It is the second time he has gone past that component’s limit, which is why his penalty is smaller.

Ferrari’s situation is more painful. Leclerc’s 10-place penalty is larger than Russell’s because it is the first time Ferrari have exceeded the four-engine allowance on his car. Hamilton began the day with the same 10-place penalty. His replacement engine then failed in final practice, and Ferrari chose to fit a complete new power unit, which sends him to the back too.

That failure was visible on track. Hamilton complained of vibrations, came in, then returned to the pits with smoke pouring from the rear of the car. His mechanics started taking it apart with 23 minutes left. He managed only seven laps and finished 12th.

Ferrari tension and a rare opening for rivals

The timing is awkward for Ferrari. Hamilton and Leclerc held talks with team boss Fred Vasseur on Thursday evening after Hamilton’s anger over Leclerc’s first-lap overtake in Mexico. Hamilton questioned his team-mate’s mentality and said he would not be silenced at the team. Vasseur and Leclerc say the matter is now settled. Having both cars sent backwards by engine trouble will not make the weekend any easier.

Their Mexico clash also helped Verstappen win last weekend. He has now taken three of the last four races and has climbed to second in the standings. Starting from the rear is familiar for him in Brazil. He has done it in each of the last two years and famously won from 17th in the wet in 2024.

Pace is not the problem. Verstappen was fastest in final practice in 1:11.622, only 0.025s ahead of Antonelli, with McLaren’s Lando Norris a further 0.106s back in third. Russell was fourth and Leclerc, after big setup changes, was fifth, 0.274s off the pace.

Wet weather could add to the chaos

With so many front-runners penalised, Antonelli and Norris look the favourites for pole. Rain began about an hour before qualifying and could return at any point on race day. Oscar Piastri, sixth in practice, and the Racing Bulls and Red Bull drivers from seventh to ninth could all benefit from the shuffled order. Home hope Gabriel Bortoleto was 10th for Audi.

Haas have also made a change. Rafael Camara makes his F1 debut after the team said Esteban Ocon will not drive in the remaining races following a dispute in Mexico. Camara was 15th in practice, ahead of team-mate Oliver Bearman.

Away from the track, F1 announced a five-year extension that keeps Interlagos on the calendar until 2035. Series chief executive Stefano Domenicali called Brazil “an important part of F1’s history and our future”.

For the fight over second place, the Sao Paulo grid penalties make Sunday a damage-limitation exercise. Whoever carves through the field best, especially if rain arrives, could gain the most.

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The Gloucestershire rebrand is now official: from 2027 the county’s men’s and women’s T20 sides will compete as Bristol, ending more than 150 years in which the club’s white-ball cricket carried the county name. The change is aimed at a specific financial problem. Income from the Blast fell 21% in 2026 compared with 2025.

What is changing, and what is not

The new identity covers T20 only. In the County Championship and the One Day Cup the club will continue as Gloucestershire. Fixtures for the 2027 Blast are due on 24 November, and the new name, kit and logo are expected to be revealed at the same time.

The club has framed the move as a way to “attract new audiences across the region” and to “drive commercial reinvestment back into the sport”. Chief executive Neil Priscott told members the plan was to keep strengthening the club’s identity as it chases a top-eight ambition while creating “a distinct Bristol-based T20 team to reach a new audience”. The club says it spent several months consulting players, a members’ working group, the England and Wales Cricket Board and other stakeholders.

The numbers behind the decision

The business case rests on one awkward contrast. Overall attendances at the club are rising, but the Blast, which accounts for about 20% of ticketing revenue, is going the other way. A format that should be the commercial engine is weakening.

That is especially striking because Gloucestershire won the competition as recently as 2024. They beat Somerset in the final at Edgbaston for their first major trophy in nine years, and the title is their only Blast win. Even a championship season has not stopped the slide in income, which is presumably why the club has decided a change of brand is needed rather than just better results.

The Warwickshire precedent

The clearest comparison is Warwickshire, who became the Birmingham Bears in 2014 with the stated aim of getting more people through the gates and reaching a new audience. By the club’s own account, the city-based name did help. Attendances grew to record levels, and commercial income rose.

Yet Warwickshire dropped the experiment ahead of the 2026 season. Chief executive Stuart Cain said the city name had worked, but that with the long-term future in mind and after member feedback, “we represent the county, and that’s what returning to Warwickshire Bears is about.” The lesson is not straightforward. The rebrand delivered commercially, but the club still judged that the cost to its county identity outweighed the gains.

Members push back

The reaction from some supporters suggests Gloucestershire could face a similar tension much sooner. Life member Tim Lezard, a supporter for 40 years and author of a book on the club’s 2015 One-Day Cup win, said he was “horrified” when he heard the news at the members’ meeting in Bristol. He called the decision “a massive misstep” and “marketing madness”, and said everyone he had spoken to was appalled. Some, he said, would not bother attending if the name changed.

His sharpest criticism was geographic. Gloucestershire has played matches across the county, and he argued that a Bristol-branded team risks alienating fans in the north of the county, who may feel detached from it. A second members’ meeting was scheduled for Cheltenham, which he expected to be “quite feisty”. He did acknowledge that the club was trying to do something positive and needed new income.

What to watch next

The Gloucestershire rebrand puts the club in a gamble with two sides. The potential gain is a fresh audience in a large city, in a format where income is falling. The risk is that loyal members, who are the base of the club’s support, turn away. The club has promised that Gloucestershire Cricket “will always remain” its overarching identity, but that reassurance will be tested when the Bristol name, kit and logo are unveiled on 24 November. How the Cheltenham meeting goes, and how many members stay engaged through 2027, will show whether Gloucestershire ends up with the Bears’ attendance gains or their reversal.

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File photo: The Gloucestershire County Cricket Club ground at Bristol – geograph.org.uk – 7212930.jpg by Ruth Sharville, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Scotland All Blacks fixture has produced 33 Tests and no Scottish wins. On Saturday at Murrayfield (2.10pm kick-off), Gregor Townsend’s side try to change that in a 34th meeting, and they will do it with their two most influential players back in the starting XV.

Fly-half Finn Russell and captain Sione Tuipulotu both start after missing July’s 33-17 win over Fiji. Russell’s selection is also a milestone. The Independent reports he will win his 100th international cap, made up of 96 appearances for Scotland and four Tests for the British and Irish Lions. Huw Jones returns alongside Tuipulotu in midfield, restoring the Lions centre pairing that Scottish Rugby’s own social media has nicknamed “Huwipulotu”.

Scotland All Blacks: how the teams line up

Townsend has made sweeping changes from the Fiji game. Rory Sutherland is the only forward to keep his starting place, and he gets the nod at loosehead ahead of Pierre Schoeman despite making just one appearance for Glasgow this season because of a calf injury. Ewan Ashman, Zander Fagerson, Gregor Brown, Scott Cummings, Matt Fagerson, Rory Darge and Jack Dempsey make up the rest of the pack.

Behind the scrum, Kyle Rowe is preferred to Blair Kinghorn at full-back, and Kinghorn sits on the bench. Kyle Steyn and Jamie Dobie are on the wings, with Ben White at scrum-half. Record try-scorer Darcy Graham and wing Duhan van der Merwe have been left out.

New Zealand made just two changes to the side that beat Australia 43-21 in Sydney on October 17. Ethan de Groot replaces George Bower at loosehead, and Jordie Barrett returns from injury in place of Timoci Tavatavanawai. Both of those players are on the bench. Codie Taylor captains the side, and he and Beauden Barrett are both centurions.

A familiar face in the opposition camp

The occasion has plenty of Scottish links on the other side. All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie is a former Glasgow Warriors boss, a job Townsend later took over from him. Rennie’s coaching staff also includes former Scotland scrum-half Mike Blair, whom he praised for his decision-making and innovative coaching.

Rennie also said the two sides “play a pretty similar type of game” and noted that the last four meetings have been tight. His team edged last year’s contest 25-17. “We’re well aware of the quality of the side and the performance required to beat them,” he said.

Townsend, though, is wary of a changed opponent. He described a New Zealand side “playing much more ambitious rugby” that is “informed” and “cohesive” after a busy summer of Tests. He also pointed out that this is Scotland’s first match of the season, which makes it a tougher ask. “We’re going to have to find ways to win, find ways to stay in the fight because they’ll have a lot of possession too,” he said.

The match opens a heavy month at Murrayfield. Australia visit on November 15 and Japan on November 21, and BBC Sport says a fourth opponent is still to be confirmed for finals weekend. That makes the Scotland All Blacks game a test of both ambition and depth.

The scale of the task is clear from the long wait. A BBC Scotland podcast framed it as 121 years without a win, and Scotland’s record in the fixture is still no wins from 33. With Russell, Tuipulotu and Jones all back, and New Zealand missing several injured players, Saturday gives Townsend’s side a strong chance to end it.

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File photo: 2017.06.17.15.35.32-Finn Russell charge down try (34527432994).jpg by www.davidmolloyphotography.com from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

New England Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson has revealed that unexplained neurological symptoms put him in hospital for several days, ending weeks of vague “illness” listings on the team’s injury report. The 24-year-old said doctors still cannot explain what happened, even though his test results have been encouraging.

Henderson shared the news in a statement on social media on Friday, 6 November. He described “an unexpected and unusual medical emergency” that required hospitalisation and extensive testing. The results, he said, came back “positive and reassuring”, yet the cause “remains unknown and unexplainable”.

What Henderson Says the Symptoms Have Done

The most concrete detail in his statement is how the episode has affected him physically. Henderson said the symptoms have hit his strength, coordination and “some of my physical functions”. He is working with specialists and physical therapists on his recovery. He added that he is “committed to doing everything necessary to return to full health”, and that his long-term wellbeing is his top priority.

He closed by asking for “continued prayers and privacy”. That request suggests he does not plan to say much more in public for now. No timetable has been set for his return, and the sources do not say what diagnosis, if any, doctors are working towards.

A Timeline Pieced Together

Henderson appeared on the Patriots’ injury report on 29 October with an illness, and he has not practised since late October. His last appearance was a 30-24 road loss to the Chicago Bears, in which he carried three times for nine yards. He then missed the 24-19 win at the Miami Dolphins. He is expected to sit out Sunday’s home game against the Green Bay Packers at Gillette Stadium.

Until his statement, the team had publicly referred only to illness. That made the full picture, including the hospital stay, a surprise to many followers of the team. The Patriots had not commented publicly on Henderson’s situation beyond those injury listings, according to the reports.

Why the Absence Matters to New England

Henderson was a second-round pick, 38th overall, in the 2025 draft. He played every regular-season game as a rookie, running for 911 yards and nine touchdowns on 180 carries, and he added a receiving score. The Patriots reached the Super Bowl last season but lost 29-13 to the Seattle Seahawks.

This season he has made six appearances, rushing for 203 yards on 52 attempts with one touchdown. The Patriots are 5-3 and second in the AFC East, so they will have to manage without one of their main backs while his health remains uncertain.

Before the NFL, Henderson starred at Hopewell High School in Virginia, then at Ohio State, where he was part of a national championship-winning team. That history helps explain the local attention his announcement has drawn in Virginia.

For now, the football questions are secondary to the medical one. Henderson has said that the unexplained neurological symptoms are real and have affected his body, but also that the early testing is reassuring. How long recovery takes, and whether doctors eventually find a cause, are things neither he nor the team has yet been able to say.

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File photo: 2025-0118 TreVeyon Henderson.jpg by Bobak Ha’Eri, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.