hello there and welcome along to sportsday. i m gavin ramjaun. history for djokovic, but not as he d like it, at the french open. the world number one with a new benchmark for a late finish in paris. the centre of attention jude bellingham basks in the glory of champions league success. his england team mates can t wait to see him back. and success, at last, for laurie canter, as the englishman has the edge in a tight field at the european open. hello there and welcome along to sportsday. that s all to come, but we start with news that s reached us in the last half an hour or so that rugby league legend rob burrow has died. he was 41 years old. burrow was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2019, just two years after he ended his playing career with rugby league side leeds rhinos. he, his family and his great friend and former team mate kevin sinfield have raised millions of pounds for mnd charities. sally nugent reports. rob burrow s life is defined by his defiance of
the prince of wales described him as a legend of rugby league who had a huge heart . sally nugent, looks back at his life. rob burrow s life is defined by his defiance of the odds. as the smallest player in a giants game, he was world class. absolute legend. pound for pound, probably the strongest player we had in the squad and the strongest guy who played in super league. so honoured to have played alongside him. it was obvious at an early age that rob wanted to be a professional in the sport he loved. they always used to say, oh, he s good, is that rob, but he s never going to make it because he s not big enough. after signing for leeds rhinos as a teenager, he went on to become one of their greatest. but not long into retirement, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. it was a condition he faced with incredible positivity. i m not giving in till my last breath. you know, i have too many reasons to live. the love he had for his family and the love they had for
it had been a slow and steady day, and then, this. the former president, now the head of the upstart mk party, an unexpected challenge to the anc. ..already reeling from voter anger over economic mismanagement and corruption scandals. jacob zuma has created quite a stir here. he s made a rock star entrance. his party came third, with an unexpectedly strong showing, taking a lot of votes away from the anc. ..and still trying to take more. he announced he had evidence of election rigging, said he was considering a demand for a full revote. the results aren t official yet, but they re clear. the anc has lost the outright majority it held for 30 years, the most dramatic political shift since the end of apartheid. this is uncharted territory. we ask for all electoral stakeholders to please remain calm, for leaders to lead this nation at this time and for voices of reason to continue to prevail. the anc was born out of the struggle against apartheid, the violence of white minority
starmer was visiting greenock last friday he talked about the damaging conflicts ongoing between the uk and the scottish government and he pledged to improve that relationship should he become prime minister. do you commit to working with him on that, on that toxicity that we have seen, even if he suggests it ends up denting the support of independents? i have been engaged with intergovernmental relationships with the government for many years and i have had many occasions where that has been successful and constructive and many where it has been difficult and many where it has been difficult and we have not been able to get agreement. for most of the time that has been a respectful environment. i would say that my experience of the gordon brown government, the cameron and clegg government, the following cameron government and the theresa may governments were generally on issues that affected people prosper but lives pretty constructive. i have to say, i was part of those dis