Blog · Daily rundown

Tonga beat England, Dubois and Fundora keep their belts, and Reddick wins at Phoenix

Monday, 19 October 2026

Top line: England lost 30-12 to Tonga in their Rugby League World Cup opener on Saturday, October 17, one of the weekend's biggest upsets.

What happened

The big ones

Rugby league, England 12-30 Tonga (Saturday, October 17). The Rugby League World Cup¹ is under way, and Fiji beat the Cook Islands 40-12 on Sunday, October 18¹. England now have to recover from the defeat.
Boxing, Dubois retains WBO title (Saturday, October 17, London). Daniel Dubois demolished Fabio Wardley within two rounds to retain his WBO heavyweight title on Saturday night in London.²
Boxing, Fundora keeps WBC title. Sebastian Fundora stopped Ermal Hadribeaj in the final round, with one second left³, on October 17. He retains the WBC super welterweight belt.
Marathon, Amsterdam (Sunday, October 18). Ethiopia's Buze Diriba clocked 2:16:12 in wet conditions⁴, breaking the 2:16:52 course record set by Yalemzerf Yehualaw in 2024.⁴ Her compatriot Lemi Berhanu won the men's race in 2:03:33, just three seconds outside the course record.⁴
Track cycling, Shanghai. The UCI Track Cycling World Championships concluded at the Shanghai Velodrome on Sunday (18 October) after five days of competition and 22 world titles.⁵ Results in the 12 Olympic events count towards the UCI Track Olympic Qualification Ranking.⁵

Beyond the majors

NASCAR, Phoenix (Sunday, October 18). Tyler Reddick won the Freeway Insurance 500. Ryan Blaney finished second, 0.801 seconds behind⁶.
Women's rugby union, WXV Global Series (Saturday, October 17). The top 12 teams play home-and-away touring fixtures in an eight-week global window.⁷ Canada beat England 24-21, New Zealand beat France 81-12, and Australia beat Scotland 56-12, according to the Saturday results⁸.
Women's rugby league World Cup. England Women beat Wales Women 70-6¹ in their opener.
Speedway, UK Premiership final. Manchester's Belle Vue Aces won their third Premiership title since 2022, beating Sheffield Tigers 53-37 in the second leg for a 100-80 aggregate win.²
Horse racing, Britain and Ireland. William Buick rode a 206/1 treble at Ascot's Champions meeting on Saturday, but Aidan O'Brien and Wayne Lordan combined to win six of the seven races at Leopardstown.²
Cricket, Pakistan ODI tri-series. Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by 37 runs in the first match of the tri-series in Rawalpindi on October 18.⁹ Australia Women beat New Zealand Women by two wickets in the first T20I in North Sydney.⁹

Majors in a line

Celtic thrashed Hearts 7-1 in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday, October 18. Celtic's Benjamin Nygren scored in the rout, extending Glasgow's lead to a resounding 7-1 victory over Hearts.¹⁰

What's next

Men's gymnastics team final, Tuesday, October 20, 17:30 UTC, Rotterdam. The World Gymnastics Championships are in Rotterdam, and they serve as the first qualifier for the 2028 Olympic Games, with six teams earning berths for Los Angeles.¹¹ Qualification has already been running since October 17.
Women's gymnastics team final, Wednesday, October 21, 17:30 UTC, Rotterdam. The same qualifying event, with the team final on the same day, and the women's all-around final follows on Friday, October 23.
WTA 500 Ningbo Open, from Monday, October 19, China. The hard-court event runs from 19 October to 25 October 2026¹² and is a WTA 500 tournament.

Sources

Written by Claude from that morning's web coverage. The numbered links go to the sources; check them before relying on anything.