Australia’s under-20 men’s soccer side has broken a 12-year drought and qualified for the under-20 soccer World Cup later this year.

The young Aussies came back to secure a thrilling 3-2 victory over Iraq in the quarter-finals of the under-20 Asian Cup. This week, they’ll face Japan in the semi-final. Australia’s best result at the under-20 Asian Cup is runner-up — the class of 2010 lost to North Korea in the final.

It looks like the future of Australian soccer could be bright!

356 
The number of runs scored by Australia in the second innings of its match against England in the Champions Trophy — the highest in the competition’s history. Josh Inglis starred for the Aussies with 120 runs off 86 balls. Australia’s next match is against South Africa tomorrow at 8:00pm (AEDT).

“It was a huge day out. If you quantified it in terms of pure energy output on a single ride, it was probably the highest [I’ve ever done]. It was 18-and-a-half hours of full focus.”
Australian cyclist Lachlan Morton speaking to The Guardian about his record-breaking ride from Auckland to Wellington in New Zealand. Morton finished the 648km ride in 18 hours and 28 minutes, beating the previous record by about an hour and a half. 

17-year-old tennis star Mirra Andreeva became the youngest-ever player to win a WTA1000 event at the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships on Saturday. The straight-sets victory over Clara Tauson in the final also means she has cracked the top 10 for the first time in her career.

🏏 Virat Kohli has become the fastest cricket player to reach 14,000 runs in One-Day Internationals. The Indian captain guided his side to a six-wicket victory over Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy, scoring 100 runs not out. Kohli joins Sachin Tendulkar and Kumar Sangakkara as the only three players to have scored more than 14,000 runs. The loss for Pakistan means the defending champions are now relying on a series of other results to go their way, and will likely be eliminated from the tournament. 

⛷️ American skier Mikaela Shiffrin secured her 100th World Cup victory on Sunday, extending her record and further cementing her status as one of the all-time greats. The 29-year-old, who came back to the sport after a crash in November, said in an interview after the race: "I don't know that it's possible to dream about a milestone like this. It's too big. It's too long. It takes too much. I always dreamed about good turns, step by step and trying to be better tomorrow than I was today. That dream for me is big enough."

⚽ Liverpool have taken one step closer to the 2025 Premier League title after beating Manchester City 2-0. With 11 matches remaining, Liverpool are now 11 points clear of Arsenal in second place. After Liverpool fans chanted "We're going to win the league," coach Arne Slot, who is in his first season with the club, said: "I don't believe [the title is won]. It's so hard to judge the league table before every game has been played.”

The Matildas were beaten 2-1 by the U.S. in the SheBelieves Cup, marking their second straight loss at the tournament.

The Matildas started on the back foot, conceding a goal within the first minute off the boot of American forward Lynn Biyendolo. In the second half, Michelle Cooper extended the American lead with her first international goal.

After a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Japan last week, the Matildas showed strong resolve to fight back against the world’s number one side. The Aussies struck back in the 80th minute with a cross from Hayley Raso skillfully headed into goal by Michelle Heyman.

Interim coach Tom Sermanni said of the match: “Effort and attitude were so much better in this game, especially after the start we had”,

The match also saw Alana Murphy and Laini Freier make their Matildas debuts.

Australia is set to play Colombia this Thursday at 11:30am (AEDT). Colombia also lost its first two matches to Japan (4-1) and the U.S. (2-0). After that match, Japan and the U.S. will meet to determine a winner for the round-robin tournament.

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France handed Italy a 73-24 battering in the third week of the Six Nations tournament overnight. The visitors, led by halfback Antoine Dupont, ran in 11 tries to bounce back from last week’s narrow loss to England. Here’s what else you might have missed in rugby over the weekend.

In the other two Six Nations matchups over the weekend, England edged out Scotland, and Ireland secured a clinical victory over Wales. Scottish playmaker Finn Russell may have proved the difference for Scotland, missing all three conversion kicks from the visiting side’s three tries. England won the match 16-15.

Ireland remains unbeaten after downing Wales 27-18. The defending champions' hopes of a Six Nations slam (winning a title undefeated), are well and truly alive with arguably their toughest match to come against France in two weeks. Meanwhile, Wales sits at the bottom of the table with zero wins and one point. The Welsh have now lost 15 games straight, dating back to the Group Stage at the 2023 World Cup.

After only two rounds, Super Rugby Pacific in 2025 is shaping up to be a hard-fought competition with plenty of high-scoring matches and upsets early on. On Friday night, the Chiefs beat the Crusaders 49-24 and the Queensland Reds opened their 2025 campaign with a decisive 56-36 victory over Moana Pasifika.

On Saturday, the Western Force beat the ACT Brumbies 45-42 in the weekend’s only all-Aussie match. Until this past weekend, the Force had not won a match in Canberra for 5,060 days. They are now unbeaten after two matches of Super Rugby Pacific, looking to bounce back from a last-place finish in the 2024 competition. Meanwhile, the Highlanders upset the Blues 29-21, and the Hurricanes notched a narrow 38-34 win over the Fijian Drua.

As it stands, the Chiefs are leading the competition with nine points and the Force is close behind them with eight. The only teams to remain winless so far are the Blues who won the competition last year, and Moana Pasifika.

At the SVNS World Series tournament in Vancouver, Australia’s women were sent to the bronze medal match after a 34-10 loss to eventual winners New Zealand. They then beat Japan 26-12 for the bronze.

As for the men, they lost to South Africa 17-14 in the quarter-final but were able to manage a 15-12 victory over France in the seventh-place play-off.

The next tournament will be played in Hong Kong in late March.

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