The Scotland squad remains entirely behind Gregor Townsend as pressure builds on the head coach after a disappointing Autumn Nations Series, according to captain Sione Tuipulotu.
After an 85-0 drubbing of the USA, Scotland were edged out by New Zealand and denied an historic first win over the All Blacks, and then collapsed from 21-0 up against Argentina to lose 33-24.
Before the final match of the series against Tonga at Murrayfield on Sunday, Townsend has batted away questions on whether, after eight years in the job, it is time for a change.
And Tuipulotu, speaking to the media on Saturday, threw his support behind the head coach.
“I don’t think I’ve ever stood in front of you guys and not spoken honestly,” Tuipulotu said. “When you guys ask me questions, I’ve always given you my honest answer. My honest answer is, I’m fully behind my head coach, and so are all the players.
“I take a lot of accountability for what happened on the weekend [against Argentina]. I’m the captain of the team.
“Gregor is not down there playing rugby. He’s put us in a position to get up 21 points and I take accountability as the captain for the reason that maybe we let that lead slide.
“We didn’t execute against New Zealand. I think it’s more of a players thing for me, because I’m down on the field, I’m out there being able to influence the situation along with all the other players.
“So I stand in front of you all here and speak honestly that I’m fully behind Gregor. I still believe he’s the man for the job in what we can achieve leading into the World Cup.”
While it is not clear if Freeman’s video was imposed or motivated by joy after only England’s ninth win over the All Blacks in a 120-year rivalry, Elliot Daly, who is part of the team’s fines committee alongside Jamie George, said similar footage exists of other players.
“If you do something wrong, you do a TikTok video. Although it doesn’t have to go on TikTok.”
Steve Borthwick is one of those relieved about that final get-out clause. The head coach has been roped in for a cameo on one video that has, so far at least, not been shown beyond the team room.
“There has been a lot of laughter, a lot of very bad dancing – I think that is one of the better ones,” Borthwick said of Freeman, Steward, Pollock and Smith’s effort.
“I was asked to make a guest appearance in someone else’s TikTok dance, so there was a very limited role to play in one.
“The team saw it and that is as far as it is going!”
England take on Argentina on Sunday in their final match of 2025, seeking an 11th straight victory.
Although a number of England Ashes triumphs at home and abroad have been built on pace, they have never fielded as many express pace bowlers in the same team.
The side that won at home in the famous series of 2005 included Steve Harmison, Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff.
Raymond Illingworth’s triumphant visitors to Australia in 1970-71 had Bob Willis, Peter Lever and John Snow, and the England team that won in 1954-55 included Brian Statham and Frank ‘Typhoon’ Tyson.
Perhaps England’s most famous Australian tour of all, the 1932-33 Bodyline series, caused diplomatic tensions between the two countries for a short-bowling plan designed to unsettle the great Don Bradman.
On this occasion – one of the most eagerly anticipated Ashes series in recent memory – England are looking to reverse an awful record – they have not won a Test in Australia since 2011.
Only five members of the 16-man squad have played a Test in Australia, but Atkinson says that could work in England’s favour.
“It could be an advantage,” he told BBC Sport. “There are a lot of players who have said they have had some tough times here in Australia.
“For us, we are a very relaxed, very positive group. No scarring. It’s very exciting. We all see it as a huge opportunity to do something special.”
Australia’s net session on Wednesday was briefly delayed by the threat of lightning.
The home side are expected to give a debut to opener Jack Weatherald, with uncapped pace bowler Brendan Doggett also coming in following injuries to captain Pat Cummins and and fellow seamer Josh Hazlewood.
With five returning starters, Arcadia basketball coach Nick Wallace made it clear at Monday’s Pacific League media day that he expects his team to compete at a high level this season.
Ditto for Pasadena, which returns 6-foot-11 Josh Irving, a Texas A&M commit, and has added high-scoring guard Tim Anderson from Blair.
One of the most intriguing players for Arcadia is 6-8 sophomore Owen Eteuati Edwards. He had a busy summer playing basketball and pitching for the Dodgers’ scout team. Yes, he’s tall and throwing fastballs at 92 mph.
Edwards explained why he thought the Dodgers won Game 7 of the World Series.
“It goes back to leadership in the locker room. I feel they all bought in,” he said.
Edwards has his 6-4 older brother, Noa, on the basketball team, and the two continue to have some intense one-on-one games. “It goes back and forth,” he said. “They’re always fun battles.”
As to which sport he likes more, Edwards said, “I always say I’m a basketball player playing baseball.”
He’s keeping his options open.
As for Pasadena, adding Anderson is huge. He averaged 31.4 points per game last season at Blair. Combined with returnee Troy Wilson, the Bulldogs will have more offensive power. And there will be plenty of dunks. Irving has a 36-inch vertical jump and has improved dramatically in his fourth year at Pasadena.
The Pacific League, which will disband after this season when it combines with the Rio Hondo League, has two new head coaches in DoVall Boykins at Crescenta Valley and Jason Weatherall at Burroughs.
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Trevoh Chalobah is set to join up with the England squad to replace injured Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi.
The 26-year-old Chelsea defender is due to link up with the squad for England’s final World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Serbia, but it has yet to be officially announced.
The Three Lions have already qualified for next summer’s tournament.
Chalobah earned his first call-up under England manager Thomas Tuchel in May and then made his debut against Senegal.
In September, Tuchel said Chalobah was unfortunate to be left out of the squad for qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia, and also didn’t call him up for the subsequent October international break.
British and Irish Lion Mack Hansen has been recalled to the Ireland squad for the side’s remaining autumn Tests but Jamie Osborne will miss out with a shoulder injury.
Ireland are back in action against Australia on Saturday in Dublin (20:10 GMT) before taking on world champions South Africa at Aviva Stadium on Saturday, 22 November (17:40 GMT).
Connacht’s Hansen has rejoined the squad despite initially being considered out for the autumn series because of the foot injury he picked up in his side’s United Rugby Championship loss to the Bulls last month.
Hansen has never started at full-back for Ireland, although his past four Connacht appearances have been in the position, but with usual starter Hugo Keenan also out the former Brumbies player gives head coach Andy Farrell another option in his back three.
Osborne wore the 15 jersey against New Zealand and Japan to start the month but was replaced by Jimmy O’Brien in the second half of the 41-10 win over the latter on Saturday and Farrell said afterwards that his shoulder injury did not “look good”.
Hansen’s club-mate Darragh Murray has also been called into the squad with the second row capped during the summer tour to Georgia and Portugal.
Leinster pair Garry Ringrose and Josh van der Flier remain doubts for this weekend’s game against the Wallabies with hamstring strains and their progress will be monitored before the team is announced on Thursday.
There is better news on the injury front with centre Stuart McCloskey making progress with a groin injury sustained against the All Blacks and expected to take a full part in training this week.
NBC’s new primetime comedy “Stumble” is a love letter to cheer. Or should that be “Cheer,” the hit Netflix docuseries that catapulted a sport with high-flying stunts, squad drama, bedazzled uniforms and lots of makeup, into the cultural zeitgeist?
For “Stumble” showrunners Liz and Jeff Astrof, it’s both. Like much of America, the siblings say they became obsessed with the champion cheerleaders of Navarro College and their no-nonsense coach Monica Aldama, whose exploits were captured in Greg Whiteley’s two-season series that premiered in 2020. The show broke the notion that cheerleading was simply made up of pony-tailed girls waving pompoms on the sidelines, showcasing the athleticism of the sport, its competitiveness and its diversity — the cheerleaders, male and female, came from varying social, economic and racial backgrounds.
Jeff watched the documentary at the insistence of his sister and was quickly hooked.
“I said, ‘You know what we should do? We should do a show where Monica goes down to the worst college in America. We’ll call it ‘Stumble,’” he recalls during a recent video call with Liz.
The idea tumbled in their heads for a time, but it took a while for it to lift off the ground. Both siblings were busy working on different TV projects — Liz on her Fox sitcom “Pivoting,” and Jeff on his Starz horror comedy “Shining Vale” — when the 2023 Hollywood strikes hit. But the timing allowed them to think about “Stumble” again.
“That’s when I really dug in,” Liz says.
“And we got to call Monica,” Jeff adds. “She’s our best friend. We even put that in the pitch, that she’s our best friend now.”
When I relay the sentiment to Aldama over a separate video call from New York, where the show is being filmed, she smiles and laughs. “Oh my goodness, they are the absolute best,” she says in her soft Texan twang.
The former Navarro coach serves as an executive producer on “Stumble” and also as its cheer consultant, bringing her decades of experience as one of America’s top collegiate cheer coaches. And while the show, premiering Friday and streaming next day on Peacock, takes some elements from the docuseries — it’s a mockumentary — it’s important to note that “Stumble” isn’t a one-to-one adaptation of “Cheer.”
The series follows Courteney Potter, played by Jenn Lyon (“Justified,” “Dead Boy Detectives”), a champion cheer coach at the fictional Sammy Davis Sr. Junior College, who is fired after a problematic video surfaces. Tammy Istiny, played by Kristin Chenoweth, takes over as interim coach — though she’s not as heartbroken about Courteney’s departure as she initially lets on. Courteney isn’t deterred, however, and she finds another coaching job at Headltston State Junior College in Oklahoma (the team mascot is a candy button, the town’s main industry), where she works to build a squad from the ground up. The character is very loosely based on Aldama, sporting the same flowy blouses, skinny jeans, heeled boots and all-business attitude.
Courteney Potter, center, played by Jenn Lyon, is very loosely based on Monica Aldama.
(Matt Miller / NBC)
“She is incredible,” said Aldama about Lyon. “I can tell she has put so much time into studying me [and] cheerleading coaches. She asks very thoughtful questions when it comes to how to deliver a line, or if the wording is correct. We never actually sat down and spent a long time with questions. And it’s fascinating to me because it’s body language, it’s delivery, it’s everything — she really did a great job.”
Meanwhile, the squad is composed of misfits, hotheads, third-year “seniors” and even a narcoleptic tumbler with a solid split. Some of the characters feel familiar — they’re an amalgamation of personalities from “Cheer.” Krystal (Anissa Borrego) might remind you of Gabi Butler, the cheer influencer, and Dimarcus (Jarrett Austin Brown) has a fiery spirit similar to La’Darius Marshall, whose combative relationship with Aldama came to a head in Season 2 of “Cheer.” But otherwise, the similarities are fleeting.
For Aldama, working on the series marks yet another shift in her life and career, much of it spent in Corsicana, Texas, where Navarro is located and where she still calls home. After serving as head cheer coach for nearly three decades, she retired in 2023.
“You know, it’s scary to have change,” she said. “What I have learned about being in the spotlight is that there are going to be a lot of things said about you. … I view things a lot differently now.”
Her retirement came after a series of events: First, Jerry Harris, one of the breakout stars of “Cheer,” was charged with sex crimes involving minors in 2020. Season 2 showed how the team grappled with his arrest; Harris pleaded guilty in 2022 and is currently serving a 12-year sentence. Then in early 2023, a civil lawsuit was filed by a former Navarro cheerleader, who accused Aldama of attempting to keep a sexual assault claim quiet. Aldama steadfastly denied the accusations, and her name was later dropped from the suit.
The Astrofs’ goal was to lean into the good things that “Cheer” showcased, emphasizing how much “Stumble” is a loose adaptation. “There’s darkness in everything, and we don’t go there,” said Jeff in reference to Harris. “For me and for Liz, the music is fun, the underdog nature of these kids and … seeing these actors do cheer and some of them … hadn’t even been in TV shows before. It’s like that excitement — it’s contagious. That’s what we’re looking at.”
Ultimately, the events of the past haven’t deterred Aldama from trying new pursuits. After all, her path was already curving toward Hollywood. After “Cheer” became a hit in 2020, she was cast in Season 29 of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” giving her a taste of the limelight outside of her world. She also released a memoir in 2022. Now, she’s trying her hand at scripted television with “Stumble.”
“It’s obviously very different because I am learning a lot. I ask a lot of questions,” she said. “They [Liz and Jeff] asked me many times, ‘How deep do you want to go?’ I want to be in every meeting. I want to learn. I want to hear every conversation … but I do a lot more listening than anything at this moment.”
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1.Showrunners Jeff and Liz Astrof on the set of “Stumble.”(Matt Miller / NBC)2.The cast on set with Monica Aldama, who is the show’s cheer consultant.(Danielle Mathias / NBC)3.Aldama on set.(Matt Miller / NBC)
The Astrofs have been in the industry as writers and producers for more than two decades, each creating their own projects for television. Though they’ve worked together before — Liz on Jeff’s series “Trial & Error” and on Season 2 of “Shining Vale” — it’s the first time the pair have joined forces as showrunners.
Working on “Stumble” and coming up with a pilot together was easy for the siblings (Jeff: “We wrote the whole thing on Post-it notes”). It’s evident they are close, often completing each other’s sentences in the course of the interview. And they agreed that having Aldama was essential to making the series, particularly when it came to depicting the cheer routines and getting the nomenclature right.
“We needed to have authenticity to cheer, because we didn’t know anything about [the] cheer world,” Jeff said.
“We had to have Monica,” Liz said. “I really just wanted to meet her. I wanted her to be involved in every single thing, just so I could see her every day.”
Her expertise was important to them as was getting the world of cheerleading right. To help with that, Aldama enlisted Dahlston Delgado, who was featured on “Cheer,” to work as a choreographer on the show. Together they recruited extras with cheer experience via social media and through their many contacts in the cheer world. The cast did many of the routines, but stunt doubles were used in some instances, and real cheerleaders were used as part of the Buttons, Headltston’s squad.
Aldama and Delgado were given freedom to decide what routines would look like, while the Astrofs would focus on writing the dialogue for the show. “In a script, we’ll just write, ‘The team does an incredible cheer,’” Jeff says. “We’ll be in a production meeting, and Monica and Dahlston will be like, can you explain what you mean by ‘incredible cheer’?”
They ran with the limited guidance, however, putting together routines quickly, rehearsing in a couple of hours and taping them. “I think everybody not in our world just could not believe how quickly they learned a routine, with most of them not knowing each other and not ever working together,” Aldama said of the cheer squad. “They were just talented.”
“She’s magical,” Liz said.
“Monica is, even from the pilot, she’s so good at what she does, I would let her do toe surgery on me,” Jeff said.
Kristin Chenoweth as Tammy Istiny, left, and Monica Aldama as herself in the “Stumble” pilot.
(Matt Miller / NBC)
Aldama even makes a cameo in the first episode, comforting Chenoweth’s Tammy when the Sammy Davis squad learns Courteney has been let go. While she may be used to being in front of the camera nowadays, Aldama considers what more she’d like to do behind the scenes.
“I think everybody has their strengths,” she said. “And writing … I like where I’m at right now, where I can read the script and say, ‘Well, maybe this,’ and add a little bit to it. I would definitely be open to producing other shows in the future.”
For the showrunners, the compressed timeline between when the show was picked up by NBC in July to production to air meant that they had to make some compromises, including where the show was filmed. The pilot was shot in Georgia, but they wanted to shoot the series in L.A., where the writers’ room is based, but it eventually landed in New York because of the financial incentives and it’s where much of the cast is located. (The Astrofs wouldn’t mind if it ended up in L.A. at some point.)
Nonetheless, they’re optimistic about how the show will be received and having Aldama on board to add credibility from a cheer perspective was the ultimate goal for them because they love the sport.
“We just want to be funny with heart and, like, just people root for it,” Jeff said.
Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson has named his squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers with Evan Ferguson included despite struggling with an ankle problem.
The forward – on loan at Roma from Brighton, who scored in the 1-0 win against Armenia in October, picked up the injury against Parma on 29 October. However, he is included in the 25-man squad for the final two group games that begin at home to Portugal on Thursday, 13 November (19:45 GMT) before a trip to Hungary on Sunday, 16 November (14:00 GMT).
Hallgrimsson’s side go into the final round of matches in Group F sitting in third, one point behind Hungary who travel to Armenia in the first of their games, knowing qualification for the 2026 World Cup could be out of their grasp with a game to spare should they lose to runaway leaders Portugal.
Missing for that game will be Jayson Molumby and Ryan Manning through suspension, but both are included in the squad.
There is a return for Mark Sykes despite his club Bristol City revealing he would miss their next two games after sustaining a gash on his leg in Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat by Blackburn Rovers.
With Callum O’Dowda out, Jimmy Dunne retains his place in the squad after coming in as a late replacement for the October internationals, while American-born 26-year-old Kevin O’Toole receives a call-up with the left-sided New York City player eligible through his grandfather.
However, there is no call for Celtic’s Johnny Kenny – despite scoring three goals in his last two games, including the opener in the League Cup semi-final win over Rangers at the weekend – even though Hallgrimsson is without the injured Sammie Szmodics.
Arsenal striker Viktor Gyokeres has not been named in Graham Potter’s first Sweden squad, but Liverpool’s Alexander Isak has been included.
Gyokeres is set to have further tests this week amid fears he sustained a hamstring injury during the Gunners’ Premier League win at Burnley on Saturday.
The 27-year-old missed Arsenal’s Champions League win against Slavia Prague on Tuesday.
Isak, who has not played for the Reds since 22 October because of a groin problem, has been selected for the World Cup qualifiers against Switzerland (15 November) and Slovenia (18 November).
Tottenham midfielder Lucas Bergvall, who is recovering from concussion, and Newcastle winger Anthony Elanga are among the England-based players named by former Brighton, Chelsea and West Ham boss Potter.
