Happy hump day. On this day in 1995, All Blacks winger Jonah Lomu scored four tries in a Rugby World Cup semi-final against England and helped his side to a 45-29 victory.

The All Blacks would go on to lose the final to the host nation, South Africa.

Sadly, Lomu died in 2015 at the age of 40 from a heart attack. He will forever be considered one of the greatest to play rugby union.

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The consecutive number of Stanley Cup Finals the Florida Panthers have now won. The Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-1 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals today, winning the best-of-seven series 4-2. Sam Reinhart starred for the Panthers with four goals, while his teammate Sam Bennett was named the MVP for the series. For the Oilers, it’s the second consecutive year they have lost to the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Panthers are the first team to go back-to-back since Tampa Bay in 2021, and the third team to achieve the feat this century.

"When you degrade someone personally in a derogatory manner, you probably don't deserve one of those privileged positions that we're all in. You don't know what people are going through. And although I might be able to handle it, the next person mightn't be. Maybe our last coach didn't.”
Maroons coach Billy Slater at a press conference in Perth yesterday ahead of State of Origin Game II. Slater was asked by a reporter to respond to former Blues player Aaron Woods calling him a ‘grub’ on radio last week. The Maroons’ previous coach Paul Green died by suicide in 2022 after a battle with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease linked to head trauma. He coached the Maroons for the first and only time in 2021. Later today, Slater apologised for his reference to Green, saying: "Yesterday I wrongly made the link between Paul Green's death and the stress and pressures of coaching, which wasn't accurate and nor was it appropriate.''

Lifeline: 13 11 14

The youngest person to score a goal in a FIFA Women's World Cup is Elena Danilova, who scored for Russia against Germany in the 2003 tournament at the age of 16 years and 107 days.

🎾 Alex de Minaur has made an early exit at the Queen’s Championship, losing in the opening round to unseeded Czech player Jiří Lehečka in straight sets. The result means Australia’s top-ranked tennis player will start Wimbledon later this month with a less than ideal amount of match practice on grass. Meanwhile, Alexei Popyrin beat fellow Aussie Aleksandar Vukic in a third set tiebreak to advance to the Round of 16, where he will take on world #6 Jack Draper. 

🏉 Former AFL star Warwick Capper has been banned from attending any AFL matches for five years. Capper, who played for Sydney and Brisbane in an 124-game AFL career, has been issued a ban for alleged inappropriate behaviour at last year’s Grand Final between his two former clubs. Channel 9 reports he told a staff member she would “look good at [his] brothel,” while 7 reports several catering staff complained. Capper’s manager, Tony Marks, told News Corp: "He knows he needs to pull his socks up with some of his jokes, but under no circumstances would he want anyone to be offended. He was making a joke and it was overheard and offence was taken."

🎾 World #1 tennis player Aryna Sabalenka has revealed she wrote a letter of apology to world #2 Coco Gauff for comments she made after her loss to the American in the French Open final earlier this month. Sabalenka told Eurosport Germany: "That was just completely unprofessional of me. I let my emotions get the better of me. I absolutely regret what I said back then.” After she lost the final in three sets, Sabalenka suggested she lost because of her own errors and not Gauff’s brilliance.

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Since first breaking the world record in 2020, Swedish pole vaulter Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis has dominated the sport, setting the world record 11 more times. 

Each time, he has extended his record by just one centimetre, a strategy which has made the star athlete a small fortune. 

Every time an international track and field athlete breaks a world record, they are paid a bonus by World Athletics, event organisers, and sponsors. 

The bonus can range between $US50,000 ($AU76,000) and $US100,000 ($AU152,000). After setting a new world record of 6.28m at a Diamond League event in Stockholm on the weekend, Duplantis has now received that bonus 12 times since 2020. 

Regarding the financial considerations behind his record-breaking strategy, in an interview with Time last year, Duplantis said: “I think I would be lying if I didn’t say that was a part of it”. 

Duplantis, who started pole vaulting at the age of four, has no real sporting rival because his competitors just aren’t able to match him. In the 93 events in which he has competed since 2020, he has won 89. At Sunday’s event in Stockholm, Australian Kurtis Marschall finished second with a mark of 5.90m, 38 centimetres lower than Duplantis. At the Paris Olympics, Duplantis won by a margin of 30 centimetres. 

There is no doubt about who the greatest men’s pole vaulter in the world is. Instead, the real question lies in how far Duplantis can push the boundaries of the sport. 

Asked about the prospect of clearing the elusive 6.30m mark, Duplantis said: “I’m just a perfect day away from it, technically and physically and everything like that.”

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State of Origin Game II is on tonight, with the Blues and Maroons facing off on neutral ground in Perth. Here’s what you need to know ahead of kick-off at 8:05pm.

The Blues won the series opener 18-6 in Brisbane last month to take a 1-0 lead in the series. That means that a win tonight for the Blues would seal an overall series victory, while the Maroons are playing to keep their hopes alive and force a series decider. 

The match is being played at Optus Stadium in Perth. The venue has hosted State of Origin matches twice before, with the Blues winning both in dominant fashion (38-6 in 2019 and 44-12 in 2022). 

A victory for the Blues tonight would also extend their Origin winning streak to four matches for the first time since 1997. 

Maroons coach Billy Slater made the bold decision to drop State of Origin veteran Daly Cherry-Evans after a below average attacking performance from the side in the opening match. Tom Dearden of the North Queensland Cowboys will step up to replace Cherry-Evans at halfback. In the absence of Cherry-Evans, the Storm’s Cameron Munster will captain the team. 

The Maroons starting lineup will also see two changes in the forwards, with the Warriors’ Kurt Capewell returning to the team, and the Storm’s Trent Loeiro making his starting debut. 

Blues coach Laurie Daley has been forced to make two changes to his side because of injury. Bulldogs prop Max King has been promoted to the starting lineup in place of Mitch Barnett. Wests Tigers captain Jarome Luai will join his former Panthers teammate Nathan Cleary in the halves after Mitch Moses was forced to withdraw from the team with a calf injury. 

Tonight’s match will kick-off at 8:05pm. You can watch the game on Channel 9.