Monday, 16 March 2026
Issue No. 117
Thom Gibbs
Senior Sports Writer
Good morning to you and welcome to a new week. Delighted you have chosen to spend some of it with me, and Sport Briefing. Email, if you like: sportnewsletters@telegraph.co.uk
Also in today’s edition
F1 in 2026: ‘Terrible, political and a joke’
On the beach in Thailand with Tyson Fury
…and read to the end for a slapstick picture for the ages
How should we judge this England team?
Some sporting events take days to process properly. My colleagues and I do our best to decode a seismic match in the hours after it finishes but the full picture often takes longer to emerge. Thirty-six hours on from the breathless and brilliant conclusion to England’s Six Nations I am still unsure how to feel about it.
There was some fantastic attacking rugby but also the nagging, irritating memory of how bereft Steve Borthwick’s team had looked against Italy. In his column this morning, Brian Moore points out that England were ranked as the third-best team in the world before this championship and are now down in sixth. Their poor defence, ill discipline and selection issues show a side going backwards, he writes.
Then we have the upbeat rhetoric of Jamie George, who says England are looking forward to their ominous trip to South Africa in July, “I wish it was next week”. Also: “Steve is one of the best coaches I’ve ever worked under,” and “We’re a great team, a great group of players, and he’s the perfect person,” which… seems less convincing.
Somewhere in the middle is Dan Schofield, arguing that even if England have been unlucky with refereeing calls, Borthwick must stop blaming officials rather than looking at his side’s flaws.
Read more
• Pollock was right to give it back to booing French fans
What I’m reading
Verstappen remains livid
Max Verstappen does not seem to be warming to the new era of Formula One. A noted opponent of the 50-50 electric-hybrid era, the Dutchman has taken the unusual step of saying that anyone enjoying the spectacle has no clue about the sport. Bold move. “It’s still terrible,” the Red Bull driver said after failing to finish the Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. “I don’t know, if someone likes this, then you really don’t know what racing is about.”
Read more
• Statement performance proves Hamilton is not finished
Training with Tyson Fury
Must be honest and say I have lost count of the Tyson Fury comebacks now. Was his last retirement his fifth or sixth? In any case Gareth A Davies joins him in Thailand for a run along the seafront blasting Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On. Not on my workout playlist personally, but it takes all sorts. “Fury is rejuvenated and bursting with ambition,” writes Gareth, but give it a few months and I predict another retirement, possibly two.
Combative Tudor halts the slide
Spurs’ trip to Liverpool threatened to turn very unpleasant indeed for Igor Tudor. Surely a seventh successive defeat for the club, just as one of their relegation rivals West Ham are threatening to get their act together. Instead, Richarlison scored a deserved late equaliser and Liverpool, again, looked sloppy and toothless. Tudor gave an adversarial interview afterwards, calling Conor Gallagher’s withdrawal with injury “really strange” and telling Sky Sports’ Patrick Davison that his questions didn’t make sense.
Read more
• The problems threatening to drag Liverpool into the Conference League
ALSO IN SPORT
Football
• Man Utd 3 Villa 1: Fernandes has been worth 25 points this season
• Roy Keane: You’d have been locked up for suggesting Carrick get Man Utd job
• Forest 0 Fulham 0: One home goal in 10 hours plunges Forest closer to the drop
• Lauren James hailed as ‘best in world’ after inspiring Chelsea to League Cup win
• Anthony Gordon hits out at Shearer, Rooney and Keane
Rugby union
• Leicester give Exeter huge ‘slap in face’ in Prem Rugby Cup final rout
Golf
• Matt Fitzpatrick booed in devastating defeat at Players Championship
This week’s appointment viewing
Bath vs Saracens
Friday, 7.45pm: TNT Sports 1
It seems a shame that much of the goodwill and excitement rugby has generated from a gripping Six Nations will ebb away now until summer Tests against the southern-hemisphere teams. Of course plenty of you will be maintaining an interest in the domestic game, but for a large portion of the population in this country the national team are the beginning and end of rugby consumption. Make yourself part of the solution by watching the first match of the Prem weekend, where the champions take on Saracens on Friday night.
What to watch today
🐴 Racing
Plumpton, Ffos Las, Wolverhampton
From 2.15pm, Sky Sports Racing
⚽ Premier League
Brentford v Wolves
8pm, Sky Sports Main Event
⚽ Championship
Portsmouth v Derby County
8pm, Sky Sports Football
And finally…
A great deal to enjoy from this moment from Manchester City’s draw with West Ham at the weekend. The quiet determination of Erlin Haaland, the concerned expression of Tomas Soucek, and the ball being flattened against the face of Konstantinos Mavropanos:
Get in touch
I am keen to hear from you about this newsletter and sporting matters in general. Has anything chimed or sparked a distant memory that you are keen to share with your fellow readers?
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