While Andy Farrell’s team are winning matches and fans in Australia, the league Lions remain in hibernation

By No Helmets Required

If the British & Irish Lions complete a clean sweep against the Wallabies on Saturday in Sydney, there will be more talk of Australia no longer being a sufficiently challenging destination for a Lions tour. It’s a mirror image of what has happened to the rugby league Lions over the past 15 years, with Australia deciding that neither Great Britain nor England brought the jeopardy, ticket sales or eyeballs required to justify an incoming tour. Instead, the Kangaroos will visit London, Liverpool and Leeds later this year to play England.

It has been 33 years since Great Britain toured Australia. Martin Offiah lit up that series in 1992, scoring seven tries in six Tests against Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand. Offiah, who won 33 caps for Great Britain, as well as five for England, cannot believe the Rugby Football League and Australian Rugby League have allowed these showcase events to fade from view. “As a nation we’ve got to have regular fixtures against Australia,” says Offiah. “Not playing them since the World Cup final in 2017 is crazy. When you’re trying to get across that bridge and match them, that’s a massive gap. And we should have been Great Britain for this series – then gone back to England for the World Cup.”

Royal Albert Hall, London
Soloist Vadym Kholodekno brought little subtlety to the ever popular second piano concerto, works by two Polish composers, Lutoslawsi and Grażyna Bacewicz fared better in this BBC National Orchestra of Wales concert

Sometimes the simple tactics work best. It turns out that if you name a Prom after one of the best-loved works in the classical canon , you don’t just get a full house for that piece, but also a near-capacity Royal Albert Hall after the interval for Witold Lutosławski’ s Concerto for Orchestra. Vivid, gritty, bracing: what the programme hails as the 20th-century Polish composer’s “most successful large-scale work” is many things, but it certainly isn’t classical easy listening. And perhaps some of those drawn by the ultra-familiar will now have been set on a voyage of discovery.

Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2 needn’t be easy listening either, of course, even if its association with Brief Encounter sealed its status as the last word in impassioned pianism. It’s a strange work, full of delicately balanced orchestral textures and vital dialogues between orchestra and soloist. But not in this performance, which was largely driven by Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko , making his Proms debut. After a thrilling crescendo in his opening chords, there was rubato galore (dragging the BBC National Orchestra of Wales forward or holding them back) but minimal subtlety of expression or dynamics. All the notes were there – and many in the hall were clearly delighted to hear them – but with little magic from either Kholodenko or BBCNOW, whose playing lacked the finesse demanded by Rachmaninov’s score beyond the biggest of the big tunes.

• Speculation ends over former Red Bull team principal

• ‘I’m grateful for trust Ferrari continues to place in me’

Ferrari have ended speculation about the future of their team principal Fred Vasseur by agreeing a new, multi-year contract with the Frenchman. The deal closes the door on speculation that the team were considering a move for Christian Horner.

Vasseur, who was instrumental in bringing Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari, has been under pressure with the Scuderia underperforming in what was expected to be a strong season. The team are yet to win a grand prix win this year.

Campaigners say passengers are being priced off railways as cost of cheaper advance fares surpasses government cap

Rail fares rose by 5.1% across Great Britain over the last year, with cheaper advance fares increasing by almost double the rate of inflation, official data has shown.

Campaigners said passengers were being priced off the railway after the price of tickets surpassed the government cap on regulated fares, which account for about half of rail journeys.

MoJ figures show 10,568 assaults on staff in the last year, while number of people dying in jail rose by almost a third

Attacks on prison officers and the number of inmate deaths in England and Wales have soared to record levels according to official figures released on Thursday.

Ministry of Justice statistics show there were 10,568 assaults on staff in jails between 24 April 2024 and 25 March – up 7% on the previous year.

Our newsletter takes a look at how the two expansion teams are taking different approaches as they prepare to enter the ever-so competitive league next year

On 13 March , the NWSL will commence its 14th regular season as the pre-eminent league in the United States. For the first time in its history, it will do so with 16 teams. That is double the number from the inaugural season in 2013 and a rapid rise from the nine teams that played out the 2020 campaign.

There is an inevitable aura of excitement surrounding the latest expansion as new opportunities for fans and players acceleratein an aspirational league. Halfway through the NWSL’s 13th regular season – which resumes this weekend after a prolonged summer pause – how are the expansion clubs, new and old, holding up?

Heidi Alexander summoned under-fire head of Nats to discuss disruption that led to more than 150 cancelled flights

• Business live – latest updates

The technical failure that led to hundreds of flights being cancelled or delayed on Wednesday was an “isolated event” with “no evidence of malign activity”, the transport secretary has said, after summoning the head of the UK air traffic control service, Nats, to account for the disruption.

Heidi Alexander said she met Martin Rolfe, the under-fire chief executive of Nats , to understand what happened and what could be done to prevent a reoccurrence in the future after more than 150 flights were cancelled and others delayed by the latest glitch.

• Updates as the riders tackle 124km stage to Ambert

• Get in touch! Share your thoughts in an email to Amy

And who’s wearing which jersey:

Yellow jersey – Kim Le Court Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal), 15hrs 7mins 14secs

Green jersey – Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime), 208pts

Polka dot jersey – Elise Chabbey (FDJ-Suez), 11pts

White jersey – Julie Bego (Cofidis), 15hrs 9mins 24secs

Kim Le Court Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal), 15hrs 7mins 14secs

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike), +18secs

Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez), +23secs

Katarzyna Niewiadoma Phinney (Canyon/SRAM), +24secs

Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx Protime), +27secs

Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike), +37secs

Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck), +45secs

Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal), +55secs

Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), +1min 4secs

Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly), +1min 16secs

Leicestershire police say eight children were taken to hospital as precaution

A 76-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of administering poison at a summer camp which led to eight children being taken to hospital as a precaution, Leicestershire police have said.

More details soon …