Winners & Losers: The match of the weekend wasn’t what you’d expect - Christopher Reive

Red Bull took the opportunity to make changes to the engine of Hadjar’s car, leaving Lawson with a hefty grid penalty, destined to start on the back row and left to act primarily as a helping hand for teammate Max Verstappen in qualifying.

When Lawson was sent for his final timed lap late in Q2, he did so with heavy traffic on the track and was immediately held up by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, which slowed him down and he missed Q3. Piastri was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Lawson.

The Kiwi then had more work on his car, with a rear wing change meaning he started from the pit lane.

Even after making a terrific start to the grand prix, showing good pace to work his way up to 11th within three laps, Lawson sustained damage to his front wing following a standing restart, after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed early in the race. Having to replace the component cost Lawson valuable time and what was shaping up as a very likely points finish slipped away from him.

“The whole weekend was tough,” Lawson said.

“Obviously the PU [power unit] penalties, so started from the pit lane then on top of that, we broke the front wing on the restart and lost about 30 seconds trying to replace it.

“Without that, we actually had a really good chance to come through. We had good race pace, so it’s disappointing.”

There are positives to take away though. Lawson gained the second-most places in the race – with his eight overtakes only behind eventual winner Kimi Antonelli, who took his Mercedes from 19th to first in an incredible drive.

And should Lawson get the call to drive for Red Bull again in Madrid next week, he’ll be in a strong position to add to his season points haul.

Winner: The best match of the weekend

Earlier this year, when we were covering the ASB Classic tennis tournament, my colleague Michael Burgess said that such events are great because you never know who the next star is going to be.

Among the players at the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 250 tournament – limited to two top-20 stars and with the top 10 off limits – were two budding young stars in American Iva Jovic (then ranked 35) and Filipina Alex Eala (53), who both won over plenty of fans on centre court on their way to semi-final exits.

The pair have since climbed into the top 20, emerged as stars both on and off the court and put on a show in what has arguably been the best match of the US Open so far. Meeting in the third round, 18-year-old Jovic claimed a 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 win over 21-year-old Eala in a three-hour marathon.

Both played some great tennis, with a total of 78 winners hit in the match, while they were forced to play defence on their own serve at times; Jovic converted nine of 17 break-point opportunities to Eala’s eight of 20.

The thriller in Queens was also a sign of what there is to come in the women’s game over the next several years after a period that has been criticised at times for a lack of star power. There are 14 players under the age of 30 now ranked inside the top 20 in the WTA, with eight of those under the age of 25. The game is well placed for some long-standing rivalries to play out on court in the coming years.

Losers: Black Ferns find areas to address

The Black Ferns have had an outstanding season so far and fans should be excited by the potential they’ve seen through Whitney Hansen’s first campaign in charge.

However, their 52-20 win over the Springboks women in South Africa on Sunday morning showed some areas that they need to shore up as they head into the European leg of their busy 2026 campaign.

The New Zealand side were constantly on the wrong end of the referee’s whistle and saw four players sent to the sin bin. While viewers might argue with some of the calls made against them, the four yellow cards seemed pretty clear.

Discipline will be a key area for the side in the coming weeks, as will their scrum – which was largely dominated by the South Africans – particularly against historically strong sides like England and France.

Both Hansen and co-captain Georgia Ponsonby addressed that in their post-game press conference, noting that these are the sorts of lessons they expected to learn on this tour.

“We definitely got exposed on what we’ve got to work on going forward,” Ponsonby said.

“It’s great to get tested in those areas, especially when it came to set piece. Going forward into our next three games, we need to tidy those areas up, but great to get the first win and get put in those pressure moments.”

One thing that was clear again was that when the Black Ferns are able to settle in and play their game, they are very hard to stop. The rest of this tour – with tests against France, England and Scotland – should make for great viewing.

Winners: Who gains from the All Blacks’ American squad?

As Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry prepares to meet its conclusion in the bustling rugby metropolis of Baltimore, USA, nine players in the All Blacks squad in South Africa are not joining the squad in America.

Ardie Savea (shoulder), Luke Jacobson (elbow), Quinn Tuapea (knee) and Cortez Ratima (knee) are all missing the final leg of the tour due to injury, while Josh Jacomb, Bradley Slater, Saula Ma’u, Siale Lauaki and Ofa Tu’ungafasi are also returning home.

Injuries in the loose trio could offer opportunities to the likes of Semisi Ta’eiloa and Ethan Blackadder in the final test of the series, or even Wallace Sititi, whose only test appearance on the tour has come off the bench in Sunday morning’s loss to the Springboks, where he was among the side’s best. The No 13 jersey becoming vacant again also provides a chance for someone like Anton Lienert-Brown or Rieko Ioane to join the starting side.

On home soil, the five healthy returnees are expected to return to their provinces and suit up in the National Provincial Championship when called upon – so Taranaki could be the big winners there, with first five-eighths Jacomb and hooker Slater among those returning.

Loser: Sky Sport’s NRL blunder

A common offering in my Saturday morning social feeds was league fans angry at Sky Sport for cutting to a commercial for gambling site Betcha right as the South Sydney Rabbitohs were about to walk out for their match against the Sydney Roosters. Out of context, there’s no issue here – the New Zealand broadcaster taking the chance to run an ad. However, this was a moment most NRL fans wanted to witness as Jai Arrow – who was earlier this year forced to retire after being diagnosed with motor neuron disease – ran out with his team for his 100th NRL appearance.

It was something the Rabbitohs had received sign-off for from the NRL, with Arrow named in the starting side for their last two matches – running out and being immediately substituted – to allow him to reach the milestone. Seeing Arrow run out with the side was the emotional crescendo of the moment that many fans wanted to observe and appreciate – I’d say some were tuning in specifically to watch it. But by the time the Betcha advertisement spot had played out, the players were already on the field.

For a moment that was signposted weeks out, that’s not good enough from the broadcaster.

To his credit, Sky New Zealand’s head of sport content Gary Burchett was quick to admit as much, facing up on Saturday in an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Jason Pine in which he said the broadcaster had made the wrong decision and apologised.

“We knew the significance of Jai’s walkout and we knew what that moment was to Jai and his family and his teammates and fans of the NRL and simply, we should have shown that moment in full, live,” Burchett said.

“That’s the obligation that we have to our customers and to fans of rugby league and I’m also very conscious that for those people and their families who face the daily realities and challenges of motor neuron disease, because that story resonates and goes well beyond the game itself, right? So we let them down too.

“In terms of what happened, as those who watched would have seen that the Titans and the Dolphins match ran over, which led to the host broadcaster Fox at the time switching to the tunnel of the Rabbitohs and the Roosters and that led to a scheduling error, which meant that an advertisement played out during Jai’s walkout.

“So, that’s the straightforward explanation, not hiding behind it. We missed an incredibly important moment and that simply just was not good enough.”

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