This Sunday will see the beginning of the men’s FIFA Club World Cup. The tournament, being hosted by the U.S., will see 32 clubs from all over the world competing for the title of ‘world’s best club’.

Unfortunately, no team from the A-League was able to claim one of the four spots available for the Asian Football Confederation.

However, one of our closest neighbours will have a team on the world stage. Auckland City play in New Zealand’s domestic competition and have a home stadium with a capacity of 2500. They represent the Oceania Football Confederation.

On Monday at 2:00am (AEST), Auckland City will take on one of the world’s most decorated clubs, Germany’s Bayern Munich. Go you good things!

300
The total number of Test wickets Australian captain and fast bowler Pat Cummins has taken. Cummins took six wickets in South Africa’s first innings of the World Test Championship final and became the eighth Australian man to reach the milestone. After bowling South Africa out for 138 runs, Australia took to the crease for its second innings on day two, where the batters struggled to establish themselves once again. The Aussies lost eight wickets for 144 runs. Alex Carey was the team’s highest scorer with 43 runs. With Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon still batting, Australia will begin day three at 7:30pm tonight (AEST) with a 218-run lead.

"All of this transpired sincerely with the horse's best interests the sole consideration. Unbelievably it was so successful for everyone except me with the release of this video."
Australian Heath Ryan, who represented Australia in dressage (an equestrian event) at the 2008 Olympics, after footage emerged of him repeatedly whipping a horse. The 66-year-old has since been suspended from the sport by Equestrian Australia. The ABC reports the video is two years old and shows Ryan whipping a horse named Nico about 40 times. 

Despite its tiny population, Vatican City has a men’s and women’s national football team. The first match the men’s team played was in 1985. They beat a team of Austrian journalists 3-0. The women’s team was formed in 2019. Their first match was against A.S. Roma, a professional team based in Rome, and they lost 10-0.

⛳ American golfer J.J. Spaun leads the US Open, the third men’s major of the year, by one shot after the opening round. South African Thriston Lawrence is in second place. The world number one and pre-tournament favourite Scottie Scheffler is six shots behind Spaun. So is the defending champion, Bryson DeChambeau. Of the six Australians playing in the tournament, the highest-ranked is one-time major winner Adam Scott, who has not missed a major tournament since 2001. 

🏉 The Western Bulldogs thumped St Kilda 132-60 in the AFL’s Thursday night fixture. The match saw Bulldogs star Sam Darcy return to the field and kick three goals after a knee injury in round six. It’s the second time the two sides have played each other this season, with the Bulldogs having won both matches by a combined margin of 143 points. The result sees the Bulldogs move into 7th and St Kilda slip into 14th on the live ladder. 

🏊 Australian swimmer Lani Pallister set a new Australian record for the women’s 800m, eclipsing the previous record held by Ariarne Titmus. Pallister swam a time of 8:10.84, five seconds faster than her previous personal best and the third fastest time ever recorded. American Katie Ledecky holds the world record (8:04.12).

🏉 In the NRL, the Cronulla Sharks scored 24 unanswered points in the second half to beat the Dragons 30-18. The Sharks, needing to win after two consecutive losses, came back from being down 18-6 at half-time to claim the victory. The Sharks are now fifth on the NRL ladder while the Dragons have slumped to 12th. This weekend sees seven teams taking a bye ahead of State of Origin on Wednesday.

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Formula One resumes this weekend with the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. It is the 10th race of the season, and Oscar Piastri holds a lead of 10 points in the Drivers Championship ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris heading into the weekend. 

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has won all three races at the Canadian GP since 2022 and is third in the Drivers Championship, 13 points behind Norris. After Verstappen’s crash with George Russell two weeks ago at the Spanish GP, for which he received three penalty points, the Dutchman will have to be extra careful in Canada. One more penalty point will result in an automatic race suspension. 

Russell has also had some success in Canada and started last year’s race in pole position. The Brit will be eyeing off his first victory for the season. 

Having dominated the early part of the season, McLaren holds a 197-point lead in the Constructors’ Championship. The more interesting team battle will be between second-placed Ferrari and third-placed Mercedes. The two teams are just six points apart after the Spanish GP.

This year’s Canadian GP will be raced on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, on an artificial island in Montreal called Île Notre-Dame. According to the FIA, the circuit “rewards bravery and ruthlessly punishes over-commitment”. This is because of its difficult chicanes (sharp curves) and famous final corner called ‘The Wall of Champions’.  

You can watch the F1 on Foxtel or Kayo. The race will begin at 4:00am on Monday.

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Super Rugby Pacific has reached its penultimate week, with two semi-finals being played this weekend. 

The winners of each match will advance to the Grand Final next weekend for a shot at the 2025 title. 

Here’s what you need to know before the action kicks off tonight. 

The first semi-final of the weekend will see the Christchurch Crusaders host the Auckland Blues. The Crusaders hold an incredible Super Rugby Finals record at home, having won all 30 finals matches they have played in Christchurch. 

The Crusaders and Blues have met twice this season, with the Crusaders coming out on top both times. The most recent match between the two teams saw the Crusaders win 25-22 in Christchurch.

Despite finishing sixth in the regular season, the Blues are the competition’s defending champions and won’t make the path to the Grand Final an easy one, no matter what history says. Last week, they pulled off a stunning one-point upset over the Chiefs to keep their hopes of back-to-back titles alive. 

The ACT Brumbies face a tough task as they head to Waikato to take on the Chiefs, who finished the regular season on top of the table. 

As the only non-Kiwi team left in the competition, the Brumbies will be looking to build on a strong 35-28 win against the Hurricanes last week. 

Meanwhile, the Chiefs will be looking to bounce back after a one-point loss in last week’s qualifying final. 

The two sides played each other once in the regular season, with the Chiefs winning that fixture 49-34. A Brumbies win would defy history, as no team from outside New Zealand has ever won a Super Rugby finals match in the country. 

You can watch both semi-finals on Stan Sport.