Steven

In that first Test of 2010 we conceded a first-innings deficit of 211 runs. 35,000 Australians were stamping their feet in the vast concrete stadium baying for English blood in a procession toward another Australian win.

Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott famously pushed back against the noise to amass 517-1 in our second innings. The Test was drawn, but it felt like we had won.

You could feel the rhetoric towards us change. The people who had taken great joy in telling us we were going to be annihilated were slowly starting to say how they respected the way we had fought back and that they loved seeing the competition.

Planning is important, but so is living in the moment. Too many times England teams have gone to Australia with pre-conceived ideas about the conditions they are going to face.

Being able to read the conditions and adapt is crucial. At the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2010, David Saker, the England bowling coach, had absolute conviction bowling first was the way to win the Test.

We bowled Australia out for 98 and won by an innings. Being bold with decision-making will serve England well.

Finally, luck is also a huge part of being successful in Australia.

In 2010 Australia didn’t have a set spinner, there were question marks around the great Ricky Ponting coming towards the end of his career and uncertainty about the seam bowlers.

Australia picked a 17-man squad for the first Test, more players than we had for the entire three-month tour to the country. Catching Australia in a period of transition can be critical.

On this occasion, injuries to Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood have given England an opportunity to face an Australia team with the cracks maybe just starting to show for the first time since 2010.

There are many challenges that come with playing in an away Ashes series, on and off the field.

The stars may just be aligning for England to have a real crack at winning in Australia for the first time in 15 years.

Scotland are bidding to reach a men’s World Cup finals for the first time since 1998.

“The biggest thing I’ve noticed is that there’s a real understanding of what it takes to be successful,” said former Scotland forward Naismith.

“Making the two Euros has been so valuable to this squad. You can now see that there is a focus, an understanding that, ‘we need to do this to get to a major tournament’.

“We’ve got a squad here who’ve been really successful. That’s four campaigns in which we’ve made the play-offs for a World Cup, got to two Euros and got a real chance of making a World Cup tournament as well.

“Football is what the country lives and breathes. Scots are really emotional, so at times it can be tough. What has been shown is when we are united, the fans are up for it, the players are up for it led by the manager, we’ve been really successful.

“We’ve been to two major tournaments, probably not done ourselves justice at those tournaments and what an opportunity they’ve got to make massive history and get to a World Cup.

“I grew up just seeing the last tournament in France ’98. The generation now supporting Scotland have seen two major tournaments and now potentially a World Cup. There’s definitely been a different mindset and expectations from everybody associated. That’s why we’re such a good nation that has had success and hopefully it can continue. “

More Mogwai mayhem is on the way.

A third “Gremlins” movie is officially in the works and eyeing a theatrical release ahead of the 2027 holiday season, Warner Bros. Discovery President and Chief Executive David Zaslav announced Thursday during the company’s third-quarter earnings call. The upcoming project is set to hit theaters Nov. 19, 2027, and will reunite original “Gremlins” scribe Chris Columbus with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, which produced the first two “Gremlins” films.

Columbus will direct and produce the film and Spielberg returns as an executive producer, Zaslav said. The new “Gremlins” film will be franchise’s first movie in more than 30 years. Columbus will write the script with “Final Destination Bloodlines” directing duo Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein.

Oscar nominee Columbus introduced audiences to the mysterious and maniacal ways of the Mogwai — furry, wide-eyed bipeds with giant ears — with the release of “Gremlins” in 1984. The first film, directed by Joe Dante, established the three nonnegotiables of Mogwai care: Don’t get them wet, don’t feed them after midnight and don’t expose them to bright light. Both the 1984 release and its 1990 sequel, also directed by Dante but written by Charles S. Haas, tracks the havoc that arises when the first two rules are ignored, from unstoppable spawning to unruly mutation into Gremlins.

The “Gremlins” films starred Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Howie Mandel as the voice of two-toned Mogwai Gizmo and Frank Welker as the voices of the films’ antagonists.

Though it has been decades since the last “Gremlins” movie hit the big screen, the furballs got their own spotlight in the 2023 animated prequel TV series “Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai.”

The series, from showrunner and executive producer Tze Chun, took a deep look into its namesake creatures’ origins, briefly hinted at in the first film by shopkeeper Mr. Wing (played by the Chinese American actor Keye Luke). “Secrets of the Mogwai” zooms in on Mr. Wing’s relationship with Gizmo, who became a through line in the “Gremlins” movies.

Series executive producer Brendan Hay told The Times in 2023 that setting “Secrets of the Mogwai” in 1920s China was “a chance to own the somewhat throwaway origin that the Mogwai have in the films.”

“In the films, it’s clear that they’re of Chinese origin, but it’s not that developed,” Hay said. “This is our chance to tell that story and really embrace it [by] actually try[ing] to find a place for Mogwai that fits into Chinese mythology, or at least builds off of existing Chinese mythology, and have fun in that world.”

Galligan hinted this summer that a new “Gremlins” movie was in the works while appearing at Comic-Con Manchester. According to a TikTok, the actor said “they’ve come up with a script” and that Warner Bros. was “incredibly interested in doing it, apparently it’s waiting upon Mr. Spielberg to read it and approve it.”

“Gremlins” is the latest beloved title rebooted at Warner Bros. Discovery in recent years. Others include “The Lord of the Rings,” “Harry Potter” and “Practical Magic.”

Times staff writers Tracy Brown and Samantha Masunaga contributed to this report.