Former All Black Charles Piutau has joined Shizuoka BlueRevs in Japan in the latest move of a rugby career which constantly has veered from convention

The second men's major golf tournament of the season is set to take place this week, when the best golfers in the world descend on Oak Hills for the 2023 PGA Championship.In this article, I'm going to rank the top 10 golfers to win the PGA Championship. I'll use both the betting o...

Conor McGregor has taken aim at Justin Gaethje for the second time in a week, after the American played down McGregor’s callout in the wake of UFC 291. Gaethje knocked out Dustin Poirier in the second round on Saturday, avenging a 2018 loss to his compatriot and winning the ‘Baddest Motherf*****’ title. McGregor was apparently unimpressed, however, tweeting after the lightweight fight: “Justin, I’ll slap you around. I KO him one shot. Guarantee it.” Gaethje, 34, dismissed the former dual-weight champion’s callout, referencing the fact that McGregor is currently absent from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) testing pool. Athletes must be in the pool for six months and return two negative results – and zero positives – in order to fight in the UFC. Although McGregor, 35, has never failed a drug test, Gaethje said: “I’m not going to fight someone on steroids [...] I don’t want to fight someone that’s cheating [...] I think he’s turned me down six times. And usually you have to lose to fight him, so don’t know what’s going on.” McGregor has now hit back, tweeting on Tuesday (1 August): “This guy is about as smart as two planks. “He is a one shotter for me. I snipe him dead in one single shot. And easily.” McGregor has not fought in two years, since suffering a broken leg in his second straight loss to Poirier. The Irishman is set to face Michael Chandler next, but no date, location or weight class has been announced for that bout, with McGregor’s absence from the Usada pool proving problematic. Meanwhile, Gaethje has won two fights in a row since suffering a submission loss to Charles Oliveira in May 2022. The American outpointed Rafael Fiziev in March before knocking out Poirier at UFC 291. Gaethje may yet challenge for the UFC lightweight title – for the third time – in his next fight. Champion Islam Makhachev is scheduled to defend the belt against ex-champion Oliveira in October. Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos. Read More Justin Gaethje reacts to Conor McGregor callout after knocking out Dustin Poirier Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier share wholesome backstage moment after UFC 291 KO Jake Paul vs Nate Diaz live stream: How to watch fight online and on TV this weekend

Despite the Nuggets being crowned NBA Champions less than two months ago, the 2023-24 NBA season is quicly approaching. It is a fresh slate for every team and player, and a chance to make a statement.NBA players primed for a bounce-back season: 5. LaMelo BallA former NBA Rookie of the Year and A...

Devastating for Fields.

The Denver Broncos snapped their 16-game skid to the Kansas City Chiefs in a big way

Manchester City are Premier League champions once again after Arsenal’s title challenge fell short under Mikel Arteta. The Gunners were top of the table for 248 days this season - the longest time a team has led the Premier League without winning it - but won just two out of their last seven matches over the run-in. Pep Guardiola’s side have been on unstoppable form since mid-February and defeated Arsenal twice to surge to their third title in a row and fifth in six seasons. It extended City’s era of dominance under Guardiola, but Arsenal will wonder what might have been. Here are five ways Arsenal can improve over the summer to challenge City for the title again next season. Reach 90 points Really, it is an absurd situation that 80-plus points is not enough to win a league. It warrants grander debates than just unthinking declarations about how competitive the Premier League is. It has come from a growing financial gap since the early 2000s that has now been taken to extremes by the Abu Dhabi project at Manchester City. You need at least 85 points to properly challenge Pep Guardiola’s and probably over 90 – if not even higher – to beat them. “That team has the capacity to get 105 or 110 points,” Arteta warned. This is immensely demanding. Arsenal were the first club to reach 43 points after 16 games and not win the title. The default position at the start of any season is that City under Guardiola will win the title. In the end, they went on the unstoppable run everyone expected. Arsenal literally couldn’t compete against that, despite their own version early on. At least this season. Improve squad depth The true value of this campaign may be in highlighting to Arteta exactly where his team is short – and to use that knowledge to go one step further in the future. He has seen they lack depth overall, but also in key areas. While the variety of forwards means they can weather the loss of Gabriel Jesus, it doesn’t look like they can do similar with William Saliba and Martin Odegaard. They also need another strong midfielder - with the club set to battle West Ham’s Declan Rice this summer. The season has at least served to show what Arteta requires. Arsenal are also one of few clubs that at least have the resources and size to sustain something like a challenge over a medium-term spell. This is central to sizable summer ambitions, that involve a higher class of player. Arteta wants at least four. Arteta needs that: “What we have ahead of us next summer is extremely important and we have to absolutely nail it,” he said. Lock down key stars Two of Arsenal’s best players this season – Bukayo Saka and William Saliba – see their contracts run out next season. Saka is currently in negotiations and is expected to sign a new deal making him among the very highest earners at the club, but supporters will only relax when pen is put to paper for one of the best young wingers in Europe. The club have an option to extend Saliba’s contract for a further year, but will look to agree a new deal to tie down the 22-year-old centre-back for the long term. Gabriel Martinelli’s new contract has already been agreed but there remain deals to be done with Martin Odegaard, Thomas Partey, Aaron Ramsdale and Takehiro Tomiyasu over the coming months too in order to keep the core of this squad together for years to come. Rewarding key players for their contribution to this title push while retaining a well-balanced wage structure will be a new challenge for Edu and the Arsenal hierarchy. Make tough decisions Granit Xhaka has been one of Arsenal’s players of the season, unquestionably one of the reasons for the club’s improvement this year. The midfielder’s journey from being booed off at the Emirates and to becoming a fan favourite is symbolic of what Arsenal have achieved this year - a clear reference point of where they came from to where they are now. And yet, it hasn’t been enough to get Arsenal to where they want to get to, and Xhaka is now symbolic of another phase of the journey. The midfielder is 30, he has one year left on his contract, and there is reportedly a £13m offer from Bayer Leverkusen on the table this summer. Arsenal need to twist, and selling Xhaka to recoup a fee is a necessary step as they plot moves for Declan Rice and Moises Caicedo. It is therefore a crossroads both for Arsenal and Xhaka - a reminder of how brutal football can be, that the best times can end so suddenly, but the club needs to make tough decisions to take this team to another level. Learn from the experience Rewind 12 months and Arsenal’s collapse at Newcastle cost the Gunners fourth place and Champions League football. Few predicted Arteta’s side to challenge again and many assumed that the door had closed, only for Arsenal to make a spectacular start to the next season and exceed expectations by competing for the title. The fact that Arsenal are back in the Champions League is barely mentioned now, as was the rate of their progress under Arteta. If Arsenal were a year ahead of their development by competing for the title this year, next season may see the Gunners present a truer reflection of where they are at. Given that, the past few months will be invaluable for the squad and those costly draws at Liverpool and West Ham in April should strengthen their resolve when they face difficult moments next campaign. Arteta will set the standards. “The demands, the expectations, the challenges next season will be even higher,” he said. Read More Five titles in six years: Are Manchester City destroying the Premier League? Man City’s quest for legitimacy is a battle they may never win Pep Guardiola says Arsenal ‘took us to our limits’ and targets Champions League

With Thanksgiving tournaments in the rearview mirror, many Top 25 teams will turn their attentions this week to inter-conference challenges and the annual Jimmy V Classic

The world’s most expensive female soccer player could be out of the Women’s World Cup

Things aren't turning around for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves should be ready to take advantage of that at the MLB Trade Deadline.One of the biggest potential hurdles for the Atlanta Braves at the upcoming MLB Trade Deadline is the simple lack of sellers that could be out ...

Team Europe holds a commanding lead in the 44th Ryder Cup, but tempers flared in the parking lot following Rory McIlroy's collapse on Saturday,

Pep Guardiola has issued Man City's demands to Barcelona & Bayern Munich over Bernardo Silva & Kyle Walker.