Lions first ever weekly wrap!

Rugby Union

It was a dramatic weekend in the rugby world, with Exeter Cheifs winning a maiden European Champions Cup and Leeds Rhino’s clinching their first Challenge Cup in five years.

The Cheifs held off a comeback from Racing 92 to win 31-27 at Ashton Gate. Their French opponents came within a point after trailing by nine at half time.

Tomas Francis' late yellow card saw Exter reduced to 14 men, but they held out to secure their first European trophy.

Rob Baxter's side will hope to complete the double next weekend against Wasps in the Premiership final.

Rugby League

Luke Gale kicked a late drop-goal for Leeds to beat Salford 17-16 and win a first Challenge Cup final in five years.

Leeds controlled large portions of the game, with Ash Handley scoring two of the three tries for Leeds. However, Salford came from behind to level the game at 16-16.

Gale’s one-pointer was enough to secure Leeds a 14th Challenge Cup victory, their first in over a decade without Rob Burrow.

Burrow, who retired in 2017 and was diagnosed with motor neuron disease last year, was due to present the trophy at Wembley. He was forced into absence due to COVID-19 concerns but was still honoured by the Leeds players and staff after the game.

Football

Aston Villa maintained their 100 percent start to the season with a 1-0 win over Leicester City on Sunday.

A late goal from Chelsea loanee Ross Barkley was enough to claim a fourth win in four for Villa, who are currently second in the Premier League.

Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur failed to hold onto a 3-0 lead over London rivals West Ham as they were held to a 3-3 draw.

Goals from Son Heung Min and Harry Kane (two) had put Spurs 3-0 up inside the first 20 minutes but they couldn’t hold on as they let the game slip from their grasp.

Fabian Balbeuna and Manuel Lanzini were on the score sheet for the Hammers, either side of a Davinson Sanchez own goal.

The Merseyside derby may have ended in a stalemate 2-2 draw, but there were still plenty of talking points from the game.

VAR (again!) was at the center of it all. A controversial late challenge by Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford on Liverpool’s Virgil Van Djik was a key moment.

Van Djik was chopped down by Pickford after VAR stopped play for an offside decision. The keeper was lucky to have VAR intervene before his horror tackle as he would have most definitely have been sent off. Van Djik was immediately substituted and has suffered an ACL injury, he may be out for some time.

Athletics

Kenya's Peres Jepchirchir has broken her own world record by 18 seconds for a women-only half marathon.
 

The 27-year-old ran one hour five minutes 16 seconds at the World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland.

Jepchirchir’s previous world record was 1:05:34 and the top three in this race all beat that time.

Cricket

The County Championship will return next year with 18 first-class teams split across three separate groups.

Last years’ championship was replaced by the inaugural Bob Willis Trophy following the four-month delay to the season due to COVID-19.

The County Championship is usually split into two divisions with eight teams in Division One and 10 in Division Two.

The new version will feature the following three groups:

Group 1: Essex, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Worcestershire, Durham.

Group 2: Somerset, Hampshire, Surrey, Gloucestershire, Middlesex, Leicestershire.

Group 3: Kent, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Glamorgan, Sussex.

Read more about the changes here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_County_Championship

Formula One

The first-ever F1 Grand Prix in Vietnam has been cancelled due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

The race was originally planned for April but was pushed back to November. A revised schedule has since been announced and the decision was made to drop Vietnam.

The Vietnam Grand Prix Corporation said on Friday: "This was a very difficult decision for all of us to make but ultimately it was the only solution after carefully reviewing all safety criteria as well as the efficiency under current conditions.