The Rugby Union World Cup began in New Zealand with pulsating games involving the home nations.
England and Scotland survived scares in Pool B, coming from behind to beat Argentina 13-9 and Romania 34-24 respectively.
Wales came mighty close to beating defending champions South Africa in Pool D but lost 17-16 and Ireland defeated the USA 22-10 in Pool C.
Domestically, the second weekend of the Premiership season saw wins for Harlequins, Sale, Exeter, Gloucester, Saracens and Wasps.
Rugby League’s Super League reached its final round of regular season games, with the play-offs to follow for the top eight.
Warrington clinched the League Leaders’ Shield with a 34-12 victory at Hull FC. Wigan finished second with a 42-10 win over Crusaders and St Helens third with a 34-16 defeat of Harlequins.
Leeds were fifth despite winning 31-24 at fourth-placed Huddersfield and Catalan Dragons came sixth with a 44-18 victory at Salford. Hull KR beat Castleford 26-24 to finish seventh, one place ahead of their city rivals. In the other game, Wakefield defeated Bradford 26-14.
In Cricket, England won the one-day series against India with a game to spare thanks to a rain-affected tie at Lord’s where Ravi Bopara made an ODI-best 96.
The final round of the County Championship began on Monday with Warwickshire, Lancashire and Durham battling for the Division One title. Warwickshire and Lancashire, who won last week, play at Hampshire and Somerset respectively. Durham, who were not in action last week, host Worcestershire.
Worcestershire need a point to send Yorkshire down while bottom side Hampshire require a convincing victory and Worcestershire to lose heavily to stay up. Promotion-chasing Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Surrey and Gloucestershire are all in action in Division Two.
In Football, Manchester United and Manchester City maintained their perfect starts to the Premier League thanks to hat-tricks from Wayne Rooney and Sergio Aguero in 5-0 a thrashing of Bolton and a 3-0 win over Wigan respectively.
Third-placed Chelsea beat Sunderland 2-1 and Stoke moved fourth with a 1-0 win over Liverpool. Arsenal beat Swansea 1-0, Tottenham defeated Wolves 2-0 and West Brom saw off Norwich 1-0. Everton drew 2-2 with Aston Villa and Fulham versus Blackburn ended one apiece.
In Tennis, Britain’s Andy Murray lost his US Open semi-final 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to Rafael Nadal, who will play Novak Djokovic in Monday’s final.
Sebastain Vettel moved closer to a second Formula One world title with victory in the Italian Grand Prix, his eighth win of the year. Jenson Button came second, a place ahead of Fernando Alonso who is Vettel’s closest challenger in the championship – a massive 112 points back.
