From the win over Canada that secured England's WXV1 title success in October, Mitchell has made seven changes in personnel and some positional alterations to his starting XV to face Italy.

Mitchell refused to use the word 'rotation' to describe his selections. Instead, his approach is "one team operating as two".

Lock Zoe Aldcroft captains the side for the first time since Mitchell replaced Marlie Packer as skipper, with Packer taking up her new role as vice-captain from open-side flanker.

Gloucester-Hartpury's Mia Venner is rewarded for her fine Premiership Women's Rugby form with a spot on the wing for a first cap in five years, while full-back Emma Sing will hope to show why a high-percentage goal-kicker needs to be in a World Cup squad.

Exeter Chiefs' Claudia MacDonald, who has recovered from a second serious neck injury, will be keen to show a reminder of her skills that were integral in England's run to the World Cup final in 2022.

Lock Lilli Ives Campion is another player making her first start for the Red Roses, while GB Sevens player Jade Shekells and Exeter scrum-half Flo Robinson could make their debuts off the bench.

Helena Rowland has been tasked with driving the side from fly-half, despite playing the majority of her rugby for England in the midfield.

"We've got to use the competition for places to our advantage," the New Zealander added. "2025 starts with the end [a World Cup final] in mind.

"It's important to realise we'll need two teams to operate this year to play 13 Test matches."

Despite falling to a 48-0 defeat in last year's opening Six Nations game to England, Italy forced their opponents into multiple first-half errors and were behind by only 10 points at half-time.

Italy picked up only one win in that campaign and following two victories from three games at WXV2, they made the bold decision to replace Giovanni Raineri as head coach with Fabio Roselli.

The unknown nature of Roselli's side could throw up fresh questions for England and offer some important on-field problem solving.

"Researching him and his coaching group, they like attacking rugby so I think we'll see an Italian side that will want to express itself early," Mitchell added.

"They will have been influenced by his leadership and I'm sure they'll want to impress him."

ST. LOUIS -- Three-time Stanley Cup champion Patrick Maroon said he is retiring after this season.

Maroon, who turns 37 next month, made the announcement in a pregame television interview before he and the Chicago Blackhawks played at his hometown St. Louis Blues.

"Sometimes, you've got to give up everything you know and everything you dreamed of your whole life," Maroon told Darren Pang on Chicago Sports Network. "I just know it's time for me and it's time for my family to go start a new chapter in our lives."

Maroon helped the Blues win their first championship in franchise history in 2019. He then joined the Tampa Bay Lightning and won back-to-back in 2020 and '21.

Maroon became the fourth player in NHL history and first since 1964 to win the Cup three years in a row with two different teams. It was not a coincidence he revealed that he's calling it a career while in St. Louis with family in attendance.

"It's tough," Maroon said. "It's hard to go through things like this. You can't really process it, but I think it's special for me and my family to go start a new chapter."

Maroon has played 1,002 regular-season and playoff games with Anaheim, Edmonton, New Jersey, St. Louis, Minnesota, Boston and Chicago after getting drafted in the sixth round in 2007 by Philadelphia.

Cristiano Ronaldo said he has "no problem" with Rasmus Højlund performing his famed "Siu" celebration after scoring in Denmark's win over Portugal on Thursday.

Højlund scored the only goal in the first leg of their UEFA Nations League quarterfinal in Copenhagen. After finding the net, the Manchester United striker ran toward the corner and performed Ronaldo's trademark celebration, while the man who made it famous watched on.

Højlund later explained that he did not intend to mock Ronaldo, describing the five-time Ballon d'Or winner as his "idol."

And speaking ahead of Sunday's decisive second leg between the teams in Lisbon, Ronaldo brushed off any issue between the two.

"No problem, for me it's not a problem," he said during Portugal's pre-game news conference. "I knew it's not because he does not have respect for me, of course not. I'm smart enough to understand that not only him but around the world other sportspeople do my celebration. For me it's an honour.

He then added with a smile: "But I hope tomorrow he can see my celebration."

The Al Nassr striker was highly critical of himself and his team's performance in the first leg, but he is confident the home crowd can play a key role in turning the tie around.

"The air is more tense. I'm not hiding it. We're in a tense moment because we need to win, but that's the beautiful thing about football," Ronaldo said.

"Tomorrow, I'm calling on the fans to be with us. Let them give us their strength, because we're going to try to do our best.

"I've lost games in 90 minutes, but I've never lost in the first leg. There are games like that, there are bad days. I didn't play at all the other day, the team didn't play at all, but it's part of life.

"Tomorrow I want to leave the Alvalade Stadium with my head held high. If I score, I'll be happy, but if I don't score, let someone else score, what I want is for Portugal to win."

Ronaldo denied any lack of attitude in the team and was confident they could unite and progress to the semifinals.

"There's always attitude in the national team. Technical aspects, of course, but other things were lacking too. That's football, you can't always play well," he said.

"The atmosphere wasn't favourable either. I've played 50,000 bad games, and so has the team. Our players, who are used to playing on big stages, have also played bad games. That's part of it.

"There's no need to be nervous. The past is the past. I know there are a lot of people who want us to lose, but if the few who are there are united and have good energy, I'm sure we'll get a great result tomorrow."

Ronaldo also defended coach Roberto Martinez who has been criticised by some pundits and fans.

"I think it's unfair to criticise the coach, because we're all in the same boat," the 40-year-old said.

"We lost the game and played badly, but we have the second leg tomorrow. Calm down. Think positive and think that things will go well."

Information from Reuters contributed to this report.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- U.S. men's national team coach Mauricio Pochettino said that Sunday's third-place game in the Concacaf Nations League against Canada is a match where "we need to show character."

The U.S. is still smarting from Thursday's 1-0 defeat to Panama in which Cecilio Waterman's strike in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time saw the U.S. prevented from winning a fourth straight Nations League title.

Afterward, Pochettino lamented his team's lack of aggression and intensity, especially in the first half. His hope is for not only a better result, but an improved performance against Canada.

"I think what we want to see is the same focus and concentration and mental level in every single game, official [competition] or no official competition," he said in his pregame news conference Saturday.

"And for me, [Sunday] is going to be a game, an important game to see how we react. We need to show character ... It's not only about the result but it's also about to improve our performance."

That includes AC Milan attacker Christian Pulisic who didn't have much impact in Thursday's game.

"A player like him is under pressure in the last few months, high pressure," Pochettino said, "For sure that is not the Christian that we wanted to see because I think he can do much better."

Pochettino added that he felt his team's discipline was there, and that his players followed the game plan. What was missing was the chemistry between players as well as the confidence to take risks in attack.

"They need to trust in that they can make a mistake, and the mistake is not to try again," he said. "For me that is the most important."

He added: "People that take risks is what we want, what we love and you cannot play football without risk. If you want to play safe, you are not going to affect the game. That is the important thing that also we were talking yesterday -- to take risks, is to be brave."

Pochettino's assessment is such that it raised questions about how much of the team's motivation comes from the coach and how much from the players. Pochettino, while indicating there would be changes to his lineup on Sunday, said it's the responsibility of both parties.

"Of course you have this characteristic that maybe you can find different ways to motivate people or groups, but in the same time you need to identify the players that have their own motivation and their own aggressivity because they're comfortable in behaving in this way," he said.

U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams said the loss to Panama has prompted plenty of contemplation within the squad.

"We've obviously had individual talks. We've had talks with the manager as well," he told reporters Saturday. "And it's just a reflection talking about what it means to be able to represent your country, what it means to be able to represent the national team, making sure that every time that we step into camp, we're representing the crest, our teammates, our families, the country, giving someone to someone, something to root for.

"So yeah, I think that has been a big reflection. And obviously this will be our first training today as a group since the game. So yeah, we'll see the energy, but it needs to be better.

"We need to raise the bar," he added. "We need to be the team that sets the tone for every single game that we play and we can't be waiting for someone to throw the first punch and us be able to react. Cause sometimes you get knocked out with the first punch.

"There doesn't need to be motivation for the game, whether it's third, fourth, whatever place game it is. It's like we're representing our country and that needs to be the wake-up call for guys."

The Panama result has served to raise concerns from fans and media about the form of the USMNT and what it might mean for their performance at next year's World Cup, which the U.S. will co-host alongside Canada and Mexico. But Pochettino indicated he's not bothered by the criticism.

"When there is a loss, there is a criticism, and you have positive and negative critics, but you also have the constructive criticism. This is the one that we have to consider," he said with the help of a translator.

"I understand the doubts, and that's OK."

Tim Weah offered full backing to Pochettino to get the best out of the team by the time the World Cup rolls around.

"I think every player here is excited to be here and with him and I think we're just going to grow under him," he said. "I think in the next what year or so before the World Cup, you're going to see a totally different squad. I think he's going to get the best out of the players and having moments like Panama is the only way you get to fine tune and fix certain things."

Earlier this week, Pochettino sidestepped questions about the political rhetoric surrounding the tournament. Canada counterpart Jesse Marsch has been more outspoken, taking issue with comments from U.S. President Donald Trump about Canada becoming a "51st state."

Marsch, whose side lost 2-0 to Mexico in its semifinal on Thursday, indicated he felt the rhetoric had subsided a bit, but could still be felt.

"The climate politically has calmed down, and there's still the rhetoric out there about the 51st state, but I think people are becoming more numb to it than what they were a month ago during the 4 Nations [hockey] tournament," he said. "However, we are still very aware that there's still a different climate than what there was even the last time we played the U.S. in September. So we will make sure that we know what that is.

"But more importantly, I think that the U.S., I've heard from the camp that they're internally disappointed with their performance. Then, in the media here in the U.S., I think the media has been very aggressive about how disappointed they are in this team and now they've turned a little bit and put it toward the players. So we would be very foolish that if based on those two factors, we don't expect a real hard game and a big response from the U.S. national team."

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- McNeese men's basketball coach Will Wade wiped away tears after his team's 76-62 loss to Purdue in the second round of the NCAA tournament, saying he wasn't yet ready to look ahead to taking over at NC State.

"I'll worry about that tomorrow. I'm an honest guy, but today I want to put a bow on everything with McNeese if we can," said Wade, who won 58 games and went 36-2 in the Southland Conference over the past two seasons, capturing back-to-back regular-season and conference tournament titles.

"Not to try to give out a canned answer, but this is about our players and McNeese now. We're not flying back until tomorrow morning. We'll enjoy this here and when we get back, we'll figure out next steps."

For Wade and the McNeese players with eligibility remaining, they are less than 48 hours from the scramble of the NCAA transfer portal opening Monday.

Wade will be attempting to lure a new roster to NC State and Wade's players will be deciding whether to stay in Lake Charles, Louisiana, or depart for other opportunities. The cruelty of March is the suddenness of the endings, the sonic boom of attention garnered by a double-digit seed authoring an upset soon followed by uncertainty and high-stakes decisions.

McNeese beat No. 5 Clemson 69-67 in the first round for the school's first NCAA tournament victory, which school president Dr. Wade Rousse had called the "biggest day in our school history, or one of them, for sure." Rousse said the school's website crashed that day.

It was clear early Saturday that another upset wasn't in the cards.

"Purdue was more aggressive from the start," said Wade, whose team led just once, 35 seconds into the game, 3-2. "They were tougher and more aggressive than we were and we thought we were [that in the first round]. We couldn't carry that over. We couldn't fill our tanks back up quick enough to bring that again."

Despite his impending departure to NC State, Wade shared his view on the Cowboys' future.

"Our program at McNeese is in great shape. We have tremendous leadership. We're not dumb. We have a plan to keep this program rolling, whoever is at the helm, and this program is going to keep moving in the right direction," he said.

"Most of the time you lose a tournament, fans are ready to fire you. Our people were applauding us."

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- John Calipari is heading to the Sweet 16 for the 16th time, and this one could be the sweetest of all.

Calipari's Arkansas Razorbacks beat longtime nemesis Rick Pitino and No. 2 seed St. John's 75-66 on Saturday, sending their itinerant coach to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament with his fourth school.

Billy Richmond III scored 16 points and Karter Knox had 15 for the 10th-seeded Razorbacks, who sent Kansas and their Hall of Fame coach Bill Self home from the "Region of Coaches" in the first round.

But the victory over his longtime rival was especially sweet for Calipari, who brought the Razorbacks (22-13) back to the tournament in his first season in Fayetteville despite early-season injuries that left them 0-5 to start the Southeastern Conference schedule.

"I told them, 'This is as rewarding as a year I've had, based on how far we've come,'" he said.

Zuby Ejiofor had 23 points and 12 rebounds for Big East champion St. John's (31-5).

Pitino's history in Providence - he took the Friars to the 1987 Final Four - gave him a home-court advantage as he arrived in March Madness with an unprecedented sixth school.

So many of those teams were built with a full-court defense and 3-point shooting.

St. John's had the No. 1 defense in the country this season. But their shooting deserted them on Saturday and they became the first team seeded fourth or better to exit what's been a chalky tournament so far.

"Rick did a good job with his team all year," Calipari said. "If they made a few shots, they probably beat us."

The teams combined to make four 3-pointers on 41 attempts, with St. John's shooting 28% from the floor overall.

End game

Arkansas led by as many as 13 in the first half, and had an eight-point lead with eight minutes to play before the Johnnies cut it to two, 62-60, with 6:11 left. But St. John's missed its next six attempts from 3-point range, and made just one of its last nine shots - Ejiofor's dunk with 20 seconds left.

Knox made a pair of free throws, and then Deivon Smith dribbled the ball off his knee and out of bounds. When Richmond was fouled with 5 seconds left, the Razorbacks ran down the court in celebration, waving their arms for the outnumbered Arkansas fans in the crowd.

Up next

Arkansas heads to San Francisco to play the winner of Saturday night's matchup in Wichita, Kansas, between third-seeded Texas Tech and No. 11 seed Drake.