For Newcastle United, the comedown can wait. Eddie Howe’s side jumped to fifth in the Premier League to intensify their push for the Champions League after dismantling a sorry Leicester City, a club with a decision to make.

Newcastle’s business was in effect complete after 34 minutes, courtesy of two goals by Jacob Murphy and one from Harvey Barnes. For Leicester, it is now a record eight home defeats in a row without scoring and 15 losses in their past 16 matches. Such damning statistics do not bode well for Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Defeat against Valencia may have dented their title hopes, but it still takes courage to bet against Carlo Ancelotti’s side

At the end of Real Madrid’s 4-4 draw with Real Sociedad last week, Carlo Ancelotti was asked whether there had been any point at which he feared for their place in the Copa del Rey final. He had watched his team go 1-0, 3-1 and 4-3 down, the game heading into extra time before Antonio Rüdiger’s goal after midnight finally gave them a 4-4 draw, allowing them to scrape through 5-4 on aggregate. But still he said no.

“Because,” he reasoned, “anything can happen here.” And that, you couldn’t help wondering, may be precisely the problem. One day, anything would not happen, and then what?

• Deployment of seven forwards on bench is controversial
• ‘Science said it’s not the case’ – Alan Gilpin on injury risk

World Rugby insists there is no medical evidence that 7-1 bench splits will lead to more injuries and the governing body has no plans to outlaw the tactic as a result.

France deployed a bench of seven forwards and one back to devastating effect in three matches during the Six Nations, particularly during the 42‑27 victory against Ireland in Dublin. The strategy was introduced by South Africa in a warmup match against New Zealand before the 2023 World Cup, and they have used it on a number of occasions since.

After his ‘fairytale’ success last year, the Scottish golfer has his heart set on Masters glory

What a mistake it would be to presume the boy-next-door demeanour means a lack of competitive instinct. Robert MacIntyre’s love for Oban, shinty and all associated is endearing. He has also proved that he is perfectly comfortable in the company of golf’s aristocracy.

MacIntyre missed the module where sportspeople are advised not to speak about lifetime aspirations. Mention the Masters to the Scot and he lights up. Absence makes the heart grow fonder; after impressing at Augusta National in 2021 and 2022, he failed to qualify for the next two stagings. MacIntyre returns for the 89th edition as the 17th-ranked player in the world.

• Yorkshire batter takes over from Buttler in T20s and ODIs
• Key says chance has come ‘slightly earlier than expected’

Harry Brook has been confirmed as England’s white-ball captain after a brief flirtation with handing Ben Stokes the reins of the one-day team was trumped by concerns over the all-rounder’s fitness and workload.

Brook was previously vice-captain to Jos Buttler and so always favourite to step up when England’s poor Champions Trophy in February created the vacancy. But that did not stop Rob Key, director of men’s cricket, openly pondering a move to split the white‑ball roles and see if Stokes could combine the 50-over job with his Test duties.

• Forward’s appearances limited by Anthony Gordon
• Barnes could face former team Leicester on Monday

Newcastle’s head coach, Eddie Howe, has told his players to use Harvey Barnes’s patience as an example as the winger prepares to return to his former club Leicester for the first time.

The 27-year-old left the King Power Stadium in a £38m switch to Tyneside in July 2023 after the Foxes’ relegation from the top flight, but has had to remain patient since as he vies with Anthony Gordon for a place on the left side of Howe’s front three.

• Supporters involved in derby abuse ‘should be ashamed’
• Amorim admits his United side ‘are suffering a lot’

Pep Guardiola has said that the ­Manchester United fans who chanted abuse at Manchester City’s Phil Foden about his mother during Sunday’s goalless derby lacked “class”.

The invective was directed at the winger during the first half when City attacked the Stretford End at Old Trafford. Guardiola was asked about the chant.

Fulham were excellent in beating the champions-elect and credit should be given to the mid-table tier’s progression

Here it comes then. The much‑promised collapse. The improbable, but somehow also deserved and collectively willed disintegration of these champions by default. Something like that anyway. Tell you what though. Fulham are good aren’t they? And particularly so, it should be said, for a team that started the day 10th in an apparently mediocre league. Or is that not part of the story?

At the end of a fun, boisterous 3‑2 victory for Marco Silva’s excellent, vigorous upper‑midtable team the talk will of course be about Liverpool, and not necessarily in a very flattering way.

• Last 16: Toulouse 38-15 Sale
• Stricken army captain was dangling 30 metres up

As the great entertainers, it is rare that Toulouse are upstaged by the pre-match pageantry but it is not every day a paratrooper attempting to land on the pitch gets snagged on the stadium roof and suspended in midair for half an hour. As it was, the paratrooper in question was rescued by the fire brigade – and you suspect pre-match protocols may be changed in the future – before Toulouse dug in to beat a dogged Sale side, who return home with heads held high.

The Sharks’ defeat, though, capped a miserable weekend for the Premiership clubs and for the first time since 2019 there will be just one representative – Northampton – in the last eight. As far as England’s British & Irish Lions hopefuls are concerned, it has not been a great weekend either and Andy Farrell will anxiously await news of Tom Curry’s wrist injury even if Sale’s director of rugby, Alex Sanderson, is hopeful the flanker has avoided a fracture.

• Hamilton finished a disappointing seventh at Suzuka
• British driver calls on team to make ‘positive changes’

Lewis Hamilton has issued a challenge to his Ferrari team to step up their game after he described the car as “underperforming” in the wake of a lacklustre opening to the Formula One season, with the British driver managing only seventh place at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen took the win at Suzuka, leading from pole position, but Hamilton had a trying afternoon. He had qualified in eighth and, despite attempting an alternative strategy using the hard tyre to open, made up only one place, albeit with one of the few on-track overtaking moves, to pass Isack Hadjar in the Alpine.