France-based loose forward Facundo Isa was a shock omission from the 31-man Argentina Rugby World Cup named Monday by coach Mario Ledesma in Buenos Aires.
Instead, outsider Rodrigo Bruno got the nod and is among 26 players from Super Rugby runners-up the Jaguares who will travel to Japan for the September 20-November 2 global tournament.
"I was convinced more by other players [than Isa]," Ledesma told reporters after naming his squad for Pool C matches against France, Tonga, section favourites England and the United States.
"And I wanted to give priority to those playing at home over those based abroad. Contrary to what sections of the media thought, Facundo was not a certain choice."
Two Argentina-based non-Jaguares were chosen, plus France-based fly-halves Nicolas Sanchez and Benjamin Urdapilleta and prop Juan Figallo from English club Saracens.
Jaguares flanker Pablo Matera will captain a national team that has won just eight of 41 internationals since finishing fourth at the last World Cup in England and Wales four years ago.
Argentina went down 24-18 to an experimental South Africa side in Pretoria last Saturday - their ninth straight defeat since beating Australia away last September.
Former Pumas hooker Ledesma was chosen for four consecutive World Cup tournaments between 1999 and 2011 and loose forward Juan Manuel Leguizamon equals that record after making the squad for Japan.
Argentina have played 37 World Cup matches, winning 19 and losing 18, with the best showing a third-place finish at the 2007 tournament hosted by France.
Their World Cup record against their pool opponents in Japan is mixed. They have won two of three clashes with France, beaten Tonga the only time they played and lost both meetings with England. They have never faced their final pool opponent, the United States, at the tournament.
Italy coach Conor O'Shea has identified an upset win over South Africa as a possible path out of a tough Pool B after naming his squad for Japan.
The Italians have been drawn with world champions New Zealand, two-time winners the Springboks, Namibia and Canada for the opening stage of the tournament.
With only two teams making it out of each pool and into the quarter-finals, the Italians must defy the odds to reach the knockout stage for the first time in nine World Cups.
O'Shea, though, said the improvement he had overseen since taking over in 2016 meant the Azzurri had a chance of making the last eight if they played at their very best.
"Compared to when I started my journey here, we now definitely have a better team, with more internal competition and much improved performances," the Irishman said.
"Recently, we have shown that we can play against the top teams when we play our best game.
"At the World Cup we absolutely must win against Namibia and Canada and then focus on the other two big challenges we have. I believe that against South Africa, with this team, we can create an opportunity on our day."
Italy beat South Africa 20-18 in Florence in O'Shea's first year in charge but have never got so much as a draw against New Zealand in 15 attempts.
A 13-try, 85-15 victory over Russia at San Benedetto del Tronto on Saturday should send the Italians off to Japan with a spring in their step.
O'Shea said choosing his 31-man squad, and informing the players that missed out, had been the toughest job he had faced in his rugby career.
No 8 Sergio Parisse will captain the squad at his fifth World Cup and hooker Leonardo Ghiraldini was also selected despite suffering a serious knee injury in the Six Nations earlier this year.
Parisse, Ghiraldini and utility forward Alessandro Zanni, who have all played more than 100 times for their country, will form an experienced core to a youthful squad.
"Leo, together with Parisse and Zanni, are playing the last matches in the Italy shirt of their extraordinary careers," O'Shea added.
"We want to make their dreams come true and we have the cards to be able to succeed."
Italy open their World Cup campaign against Namibia in Osaka on September 22.
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
Rating: Two out of five stars
India squad for fourth and fifth Tests
Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rahul, Shaw, Pujara, Rahane (vc), Karun, Karthik (wk), Pant (wk), Ashwin, Jadeja, Pandya, Ishant, Shami, Umesh, Bumrah, Thakur, Vihari
The 100 Best Novels in Translation
Boyd Tonkin, Galileo Press
NYBL PROFILE
Company name: Nybl
Date started: November 2018
Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence
Initial investment: $500,000
Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)
Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up
Omar Yabroudi's factfile
Born: October 20, 1989, Sharjah
Education: Bachelor of Science and Football, Liverpool John Moores University
2010: Accrington Stanley FC, internship
2010-2012: Crystal Palace, performance analyst with U-18 academy
2012-2015: Barnet FC, first-team performance analyst/head of recruitment
2015-2017: Nottingham Forest, head of recruitment
2018-present: Crystal Palace, player recruitment manager
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Profile
Name: Carzaty
Founders: Marwan Chaar and Hassan Jaffar
Launched: 2017
Employees: 22
Based: Dubai and Muscat
Sector: Automobile retail
Funding to date: $5.5 million
Tips to keep your car cool
- Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
- Park in shaded or covered areas
- Add tint to windows
- Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
- Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
- Avoid leather interiors as these absorb more heat
South Africa squad
Faf du Plessis (captain), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Theunis de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen (wicketkeeper), Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg result:
Ajax 2-3 Tottenham
Tottenham advance on away goals rule after tie ends 3-3 on aggregate
Final: June 1, Madrid
Retail gloom
Online grocer Ocado revealed retail sales fell 5.7 per cen in its first quarter as customers switched back to pre-pandemic shopping patterns.
It was a tough comparison from a year earlier, when the UK was in lockdown, but on a two-year basis its retail division, a joint venture with Marks&Spencer, rose 31.7 per cent over the quarter.
The group added that a 15 per cent drop in customer basket size offset an 11.6. per cent rise in the number of customer transactions.
The winners
Fiction
- ‘Amreekiya’ by Lena Mahmoud
- ‘As Good As True’ by Cheryl Reid
The Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award
- ‘Syrian and Lebanese Patricios in Sao Paulo’ by Oswaldo Truzzi; translated by Ramon J Stern
- ‘The Sound of Listening’ by Philip Metres
The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award
- ‘Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance’ by Fady Joudah
Children/Young Adult
- ‘I’ve Loved You Since Forever’ by Hoda Kotb
