Women set for push back

THIS year’s Rugby World Cup, due to take place in New Zealand in September and October, is set to be postponed by a year for pandemic-related reasons. World Rugby last night recommended the postponement, and that move is expected to be rubber-stamped by the RWC board and World Rugby’s executive council when those two bodies meet next week.

Bryan Easson’s Scotland team had been due to take part in qualifying matches over the next couple of months, and the possibility had been mooted that the Six Nations game against Italy in April would double up as one of those qualifiers. A statement on the SRU website said: “Scottish Rugby is naturally disappointed with the news and we await further update.

“Scotland Women’s focus now turns to preparing for the upcoming Six Nations tournament in April.”

Stephen Hendry will target eight hundred centuries and a return to the Crucible after making an impressive return to the professional snooker tour despite a 4-1 defeat to Matthew Selt in Milton Keynes.

The seven-times world champion compiled the 776th three-figure break of his career in the second frame of the Gibraltar Open first round match, extending a mark that had stood for so long it forms part of his permanent social media handles.

Hendry insisted: “I think I’ll only change them when I get to 800 – 766 now is not a massive thing. Qualifying for the Crucible is the goal, and making 800 centuries is another goal. I am just enjoying being back really.”

Hendry did little wrong in his first tour match since a 13-2 thrashing by Stephen Maguire in the quarter-finals of the 2012 World Championship, which had led the Scot to admit it was an “easy decision” to walk away.

Hendry added: “I really felt the nerves – when I put my suit on in the hotel room that’s when it really hit me, which is a good sign because without nerves you can’t perform. It just needs to be nerves of excitement, rather than nerves of not knowing what’s going to happen.”