Northampton Saints will be in the final of rugby union’s European Champions Cup after a 37-34 win away at Irish side Leinster.

An eventful game at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium saw the Saints pull off a big result to beat the pre-tournament favourites, with the Saints registering five tries on their way to success.

The Saints had reached a 27-15 lead at half-time, having scored four first-half tries along the way. Thomas Freeman’s run of three tries, plus a further one from Henry Pollock had tilted the contest in the Saints’ favour.

It looked like Leinster had taken control when they came from conceding Freeman’s first try to lead, with the Irish side looking to build on a platform for success that had seen them comfortably win their previous two knockout round ties.

But an extraordinary final 15 minutes of the first half tilted things in Northampton’s favour, scoring three tries in less than ten minutes.

A huge amount of drama took place in the final minutes of the contest. A try and conversion had cut the Saints’ lead to three points before in the final minutes of regular time, Leinster thought they had scored a try that would’ve won them the contest only for it to be ruled out following a lengthy review.

The Saints would have Alex Coles sent to the sin-bin, leading to a lengthy rearguard action from the Saints to try and hold on to win.

But it would ultimately pay off for the Saints, who picked up a victory that saw the Saints avenge the heartache they’d suffered when beaten by Leinster at the same stage of this competition last year.

The Saints will be in the final at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on May 24th, with this being the first time the Saints have reached the European Champions Cup final since 2011. They will face either Bordeaux or Toulouse, who face off in their semi-final in South West France later today (04/05).

Former MK Dons boss Liam Manning will see his Bristol City side take part in the Championship play-offs after they managed to squeak into the division’s top 6.

A 2-2 draw at home to Preston North End was enough for the Robins to hold onto 6th place, with Bristol City just getting in ahead of Blackburn Rovers and Millwall after they both failed to win.

The draw saw them leapfrogged in the table by Coventry City, who beat Middlesbrough 2-0, but it was still enough for the the Robins to finish 6th.

They will take part in the Championship play-offs for the first time in 2008, with Bristol City aiming to reach the top flight for the first time since the 1979/80 season.

Bristol City will play Sheffield United, with the first leg taking place at Ashton Gate on Thursday (08/05) and the return game taking place at Bramall Lane four days later.

Against the Lilywhites, Bristol City found themselves 2-0 down at home to a Preston side who still weren’t guaranteed of staying up after a run of four straight defeats.

But two goals in five minutes by Ross McCrorie saw Bristol City managed to pick up a point, with the Robins even missing a few chances to fully complete their turnaround and win the contest.

News elsewhere filtered through that Millwall’s hopes of taking the spot were dissipated when they lost to Burnley. There was then a nervous wait as the game finished before Blackburn’s match at Sheffield United, but confirmation eventually arrived that Rovers had failed to win away at Chris Wilder’s Blades, allowing for Bristol City to celebrate their play-off position.

Speaking after the game to BBC Radio Bristol, Manning voiced his delight at this players for getting the job done.

He said, “I have no idea how I am feeling, to be honest. Exhausted, stressed, happy, over the moon, proud – what an afternoon.

“We made real hard work of it but I spoke to the lads beforehand and there’s a lot made now about styles and philosophies, and we spoke about us to underpin everything with the culture we have got.”

Manning previously managed MK Dons between August 2021 and December 2022, having been appointed following Russell Martin’s departure. The job was his first as a senior manager in English football and he impressed, taking the Dons to third in League One and narrowly missing out on automatic promotion.

A more difficult second season followed, however, with Manning leaving MK Dons in December 2022 with the team stuck in the relegation zone.

After a spell at Oxford United, Manning moved to Bristol in November 2023, succeeding Nigel Pearson in charge of the Robins.

While the play-offs mark the end of Manning’s first season in Bristol, the campaign was one where Manning has said he very nearly left partway through after personal tragedy.

The 39-year-old was granted a leave of absence from the club in October and missed two games following the death of his young son Theo, who passed away less than a month after being born. The former West Ham and Ipswich coach has said he considered leaving his position in the wake of what happened before deciding to carry on.

In multiple interviews since, Manning has praised Bristol City’s players, management and supporters as well as the wider football world for their support and well-wishes to him and his family.

In an interview with Bristol Live before the Preston game, Manning praised his squad for being people he enjoyed working with.

He said, “It’s been the toughest year of my personal life for sure, hands down. But to the same point, I think probably one of the most rewarding professionally.

“I’ve spoken about it openly, in terms of the decision I nearly made post what happened, when it was the lads, the club and everything that made me come back ultimately.

“I think they’re a terrific group of human beings first and a top group of professionals. That’s probably been the most rewarding thing this year, seeing them come together in a tough time for them but just in terms of how they work every day.”

Red Bull did pick up points in the sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix despite a penalty for Max Verstappen, with Yuki Tsunoda getting points after three other drivers also got penalties.

It had looked as though Red Bull would pick no points from the sprint. Reigning world champion Verstappen was handed a ten second time penalty for a collision with Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes in the pit lane after he was released too early in a pit-stop in a wet-dry race, with the penalty sending Verstappen from fourth on the road to 17th and last after the race ended behind the safety car.

Tsunoda had finished 10th on the road, which became 9th after Verstappen’s penalty and thus seemingly looked set for no points in a race where only the top 8 finishers get points. But after the race, Alex Albon, Liam Lawson and Ollie Bearman all received five second time penalties for various infringements, bumping Tsunoda to 6th and handing him 3 points.

Ahead of the full Miami Grand Prix race later today (04/05), Verstappen sits third in the Driver’s Championship on 87 points, with the Dutchman 10 points behind second placed Lando Norris and 19 behind championship leader Oscar Piastri.

Tsunoda is in 11th with 8 points, while the Milton Keynes-based Red Bull team sit third in the Constructor’s Championship. They are 8 ahead of fourth placed Ferrari, 26 points behind second place Mercedes and 111 behind leaders McLaren.

The Miami Grand Prix was hosting a sprint for a second year in a row on a the circuit in the car park around the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. But the sprint would be a delayed start, with a heavy shower seeing proceedings start half an hour behind schedule.

When the race got going, Verstappen began in 4th but was able to skip ahead of Antonelli to take third on the opening lap after the pole-sitter went off track in a battle with Piastri.

Tsunoda had started last after a set-up change meant a pit-lane start, which became back of grid as two formation laps meant the race was considered to have started, and he had stayed near the back in the first half of the 18-lap race.

As the race progressed, however, conditions began to brighten up and the track began to dry. Red Bull opted to pit Tsunoda onto dry weather tyres to get an early sign of whether the track was dry enough, with the fact it was allowing him to climb the order when others made the switch.

Verstappen, however, had a major issue when he made the change. An error with Red Bull’s pit stop system saw Verstappen released into Antonelli, who was pitting in his Mercedes, and the two made contact in the pit lane. This damaged Verstappen’s front wing, while the team were handed a penalty for the error in the form of a ten second time penalty for the Dutchman.

As if that wasn’t enough, a safety car was then summoned after a collision between Lawson and Fernando Alonso put the Aston Martin into the wall, with the race finishing under the safety car.

As the safety car had bunched the pack up, it meant that a ten second penalty dropped Verstappen down the standings. He had finished fourth, having been overtaken by Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton just before the safety car, but the penalty sent him all the way down to 17th and last position.

Tsunoda had been promoted from 10th to 9th following that, but a few hours after the sprint finished, the results were tweaked with a multitude of penalties.

Williams’ Albon was handed a 5 second time penalty for breaking the speed limit behind the safety car, Lawson was handed a 5 second time penalty after the Racing Bulls driver was deemed guilty of crashing into Alonso’s Aston Martin, and the Haas driver Bearman was handed a 5 second penalty for an unsafe release into the path of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg.

These three penalties saw all of them ejected from the points, with all of Albon, Lawson and Bearman having finished in the top 8 and been in line for points.

Tsunoda was duly reclassified sixth in the new order, earning three points for his efforts.

For the full Miami Grand Prix, the race begins at 9pm tonight (04/05). Qualifying was held after yesterday’s sprint race, with Verstappen pipping McLaren’s Norris to take pole position and Tsunoda starting 10th.

Former MK Dons boss Graham Alexander saw his Bradford City side win promotion to League One after a late goal in the final game of the season.

Alexander’s Bantams won promotion to the third tier for the first time since 2019 after a dramatic 96th minute winner to beat Fleetwood Town at Valley Parade.

Antoni Sarcevic was the hero for the home side, with a decisive touch enough to send George Lapslie’s shot into the back of Fleetwood’s net and cue major celebrations.

The celebrations included a pitch invasion, which necessitated a 15 minute stoppage while fans were cleared to play out the final stages of the game, and which were duly followed by another pitch invasion followed by further celebrations with the players.

Victory was just enough for Bradford to hold off the challenge of Walsall, who picked up a first win in 14 games by beating Crewe 1-0 and would have taken the final automatic promotion place but for the late Bradford winner.

Walsall will now enter the League 2 play-offs, with the Saddlers facing a two-legged tie against Chesterfield after the Spireites managed to squeak in ahead of Salford to take the final play-off position. AFC Wimbledon and Notts County will square off in the other tie.

The game marked the conclusion of an intriguing race for automatic promotion from League Two, with all of the teams at the top-end dropping points at various stages of the final weeks of the season.

Bradford had failed to win any of their four games before the finale against Fleetwood, and after missing a litany of late chances, it looked like they might come up short only for the late heroics to confirm their place in League One.

Alexander previously managed MK Dons at the start of the 2023/24 season, appointed as a replacement for Mark Jackson after the club’s relegation from League One. He left the Dons after just 16 games in charge, with an 8 match winless run seeing him leave MK Dons in October 2023.

After leaving MK, Alexander would take over as Bradford boss less than a month later. He has won 45 out of 91 games in charge in West Yorkshire.