Many prisoners are homeless after release but former inmate and probation worker want to fix that

Darryn Frost and Steve Gallant are still dealing with the trauma of tackling a terrorist at Fishmongers’ Hall , London Bridge, in 2019.

Gallant, 47, who was on day release from prison where he was serving a life sentence for murder, helped fend off the attacker alongside Frost, 43, a probation worker who had grabbed a 1.5-metre long narwhal tusk as a weapon.

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One step from a Champions Cup final, Northampton must first navigate a trip to Croke Park that is as historic as it is daunting

By his own admission, Northampton’s director of rugby, Phil Dowson, is a history buff. This week he invited the club’s Irish strength and conditioning coach, Eamonn Hyland, to give his players an “incredibly powerful” lesson in the cultural and historic significance of becoming the first English side to play at Croke Park. Players were moved to goosebumps as the size of the challenge that awaits against Leinster on Saturday became all the more acute.

It is 104 years since the Croke Park massacre, in which 14 spectators were fatally shot by the Royal Irish Constabulary and, as Dowson points out, Croke Park is “a landmark of [Irish] independence”. Having spoken recently with Donncha O’Callaghan, the former Ireland and Munster second-row, Dowson is only too aware that when England played at Croke Park in 2007 the result was “almost a foregone conclusion”. Ireland duly swept England aside by 30 points and while Leinster have played there before, against Munster in 2009, Saturday marks the first time an English rugby club will set foot at the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association.

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Prop is no stranger to silverware but will be using last year’s final defeat as inspiration against Northampton

Leinster have not won the Champions Cup since 2018, which is the sort of fact to send those of a certain age scurrying to the record books to see if it can really be true. Turns out it can.

No doubt this awkward truth will be brandished in their changing room at Croke Park on Saturday, when Leinster’s latest tilt at the title will continue with their semi-final against Northampton. The only other time Leinster have played on Ireland’s hallowed turf was for their semi-final against Munster in 2009 , a win that might be said to have launched their dynasty.

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• Harlequins 41-32 Northampton
• Quins score six tries to boost Premiership playoff push

These two will be representing English rugby in the semi-finals of the Champions Cup next weekend. If this is anything to go by they will do not just do their country proud, they will astonish.

It almost goes without saying in the Premiership, certainly when considering either of these two, that this was extraordinary rugby. Where to start? Ten tries, 73 points, bonus points all round and a contest that seesawed with the wind. Right up to the end. The speed and precision with which these two ran free across Twickenham’s wide open spaces was breathtaking. And that was just to watch.

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Fiona Beal, 50, changes her plea mid-trial over the fatal stabbing of Nicholas Billingham, 42, in 2021

A woman has pleaded guilty mid-trial to the murder of her boyfriend, who she buried in their back garden.

Fiona Beal, 50, was on trial at the Old Bailey in London for the murder of Nicholas Billingham, 42, whose partly mummified remains were discovered in March 2022 four-and-a-half months after he was last seen.

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• Quarter-final marred by Bulls leaving 13 players in Pretoria
• Leinster host La Rochelle, Exeter travel to Toulouse on Sunday

On paper the Champions Cup quarter-final between Northampton and the Bulls from Pretoria is a rugby fantasist’s dream come true. The Premiership leaders against the only South African side to claim a Super Rugby title. The 21-year-old fly-half Fin Smith pulling strings in the face of meaty forwards. Franklin’s Gardens under lights. This should be club rugby at its best.

In reality the spectacle has been marred by a logistical nightmare that has jeopardised the sense of occasion. Jake White, the Bulls coach who was in charge of the Springboks when they lifted the 2007 World Cup, has left 13 of his regular starters at home. World champions Willie le Roux, Canan Moodie and Kurt-Lee Arendse, as well as fellow Boks Wilco Louw, Marcell Coetzee, Gerhard Steenkamp and Johan Goosen will be watching from the Highveld. The official line is that many are nursing injuries with White also emphasising the need to rotate his squad. But another explanation, one that White dismissed on Friday, has garnered attention.

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• Northampton 41-30 Saracens
• Ramm scores twice as hosts extend Premiership lead

If there were any lingering doubts over Northampton’s ability to sustain their title push they can be unequivocally put to bed after a mighty victory over Saracens. Five tries, an intensity that went missing last week and a masterclass at fly-half from Fin Smith tightened their hold on top spot of the Premiership and gave their sell-out crowd reason to believe this will be their year.

Saracens were off-colour with ball in hand but they stayed ferociously competitive to the end in what was a breathless encounter, and as a result Northampton will take such confidence from their victory. They had won 10 straight matches before the league’s lengthy pause but last week’s humbling can be considered an anomaly given the resilience they demonstrated here.

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• Forwards were selected in last year’s Rugby World Cup squad
• Bristol prop Sinckler has 68 caps, Saints flanker Ludlam 25

England forwards Lewis Ludlam and Kyle Sinckler will join Toulon at the end of this season, ruling them out of selection for the national team.

Prop Sinckler, who has 68 England caps, will leave Bristol Bears and Northampton flanker Ludlam, who has made 25 England appearances, will sign three-year contracts with the Top 14 club, the BBC reported.

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Collyweston Palace, home of Henry VII’s mother, found despite ‘no money, no expertise, no plans’

When a group of amateur archeologists set out to find the buried remains of a Tudor palace in their Northamptonshire village five years ago, they knew the odds were against them.

“Many of us were bought up in the village, and you hear about this lost palace, and wonder whether it’s a myth or real. So we just wanted to find it,” said Chris Close, chairman of the Collyweston Historical and Preservation Society (Chaps) which made the discovery of the Palace of Collyweston in a back garden this year.

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