ITALY MAUL FRANCE IN ROME !

What a shocker !

 

Following Saturday's opening 2 games, Six-Nation's favourites were expected to enjoy a stroll in the park against the Irtalians in Rome, but things don't always go to plan. Italy scored first and managed to keep their advantage to the end, winning 23-18 and causing the first big upset of the competition. Where this leaves the French who, after their exploits against the southern opposition last Autumn were considered the best of the northerners, is anyone's guess.

 

Next week, France will entertain Wales in Paris in a clash which will most probably leave one or other of these highly fancied sides with 2 defeats from 2 matches played; whichever it is, there's likely to be a huge amount of soul-searching and a few careers may be on the line. At the other end of the table, victory over Ireland in Dublin would see England take a firm grip on the chmpionship and make the 'Triple Crown' a distinct possibility.

 

Roll on next weekend !.

SIX NATIONS : ENGLAND EXCEL, PERHAPS.

After months of drought the world has finally woken up - the 'Six Nations' has begun !

 

This is, of course, the competition between the top Rugby Union playing nations of the northern hemisphere and is part of the build-up to the next Rugby World Cup which will be held in Britain in 2015. For an intangible reason this year's contest has been even more awaited and is even more important than for many years.

 

In the autumn internationals, the northern hemisphere teams were generally outplayed by those from the south although there were bright spots, most notably England's demolition of New Zealand, the world champions and alwasy the best team around. England's success was rather tempered by the fact that they had lost previously to both Australia and South Africa, making their true ability a little difficult to judge.

 

Today's Six Nation's opener saw Ireland make mincemeat of Wales for about 35 minutes and then hold on in desperate style as the home side came back at them with a vengeance. In the end a 20 point half time advantage was reduced to a 30-22 win for Irealnd, though another 10 minutes may well have seen a complete turn-a-round. In the end, my money is probably on Wales to finish ahead of Ireland in the competion.

 

Taht match was followed by the 'Calcutta Cup' clash at Twickenham; for the unenlightened, the 'Calcutta Cup' is the trophy awarded to the winner of the England-Scotland match and is one of the oldest sporting trophies around. This year the match was at the home of English, and world, Rugby Union, Twickenham, and expectations from the English fan base were high; pre-match betting suggested that there was more chance of Elvis appearing than of Scotland winning.

 

The match began brightly for England with a converted penalty but a breakaway Scot's try threatened to upset the apple cart. Fortunately for England, Scotland were not quite up to the challenge and , despite another Scottish breakaway try, it was England who not only won the day but won it pretty well. England battered the Scottish line and played rather well; their ball handling was good and they gave away very few penalties, both serious improvements over recent performances.

 

38-18 was a good reflection of the play and also the biggest home victory over the Scots for some time. The best thing about it was that Scotland weren't that bad themselves, meaning that England's performance was all the better. Next week, England take on Ireland in Dublin -  a win there really will suggest that happy times are here again.

MURRAY BEATEN BUT NOT BOWED; HE WILL COME BACK.

Oh Dear ! After all the hype (on the BBC, at least), Andy Murray has come second again, beaten by Novak Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open Tennis Championships.

 

This is not to say that Murray played poorly but he was certainly second-best. Having won the first set on a tie-break, he had a chance to break his opponent's service at the start of the second but failed to take it. After that, it was toe-to-toe slugging until a second tire-break levelled the match. The third set started off in a subdued way and it was pretty obvious that both players were taking a bit of rest. suddenly, Murray showed some frailty and Djokovic pounced; the Serb raised his game and quickly won the set before racing through the fourth to take the crown.

 

From early in the third set it was clear that Murray was a spent force though it took several more games and a lot of meaningless drivel before the BBC commentators seemed to realise. How John Lloyd and Andrew Castle have become so entrenched as commentators has to be one of the great mysteries of the modern sporting world; neither has anything useful to say and both have a range of quite ridiculous phrases which they trot out instead of talking English. 'Raised his level' and 'lovely change up', immediatley spring to mind though there many more. They seem alwasy to be slow in seeing the obvious and regularly come up with possible excuses as to why 'our boy' is losing, or suggestions that the opponent is beginning to struggle when nothing of the sort is happening.

 

A couple of days ago, Murray played his heart out to defeat the grestest player of the modern era, Roger Federer, over 5 gruelling sets. Today he simply ran out of steam. For 2 sets, it was nip-and-tuck between him and Djokovic and, in the continued absence of Rafael Nadal, these 2 must now be the top 2 players in the world. In the end, though, the easier semi-final and extra day of rest which Djokovic enjoyed may well have been crucial as his stamina lasted and Murray's didn't.

 

The French Open is always different and others may well come through to contest that final, but Wimbledon and the US open later in the year could easily have Djokivic and Murray slugging it out in the last match; my money'son Murray to win at least one of those tournaments and possibly both; he is now every bit as good as Djokovic, today he was simply not quite as fresh.

 

 

MAN UTD DRAW, FERGIE COMPLAINS; WHAT'S NEW ?

I've just watched a rather good football match between my team, Tottenham, and the best British side of the last 20 years, Manchester United. United took a lead in the first half and looked likely to win until a literally last minute equaliser from Tottenham took the gloss off of their day. Given the overall run of play, I think, admittedly I may be biased, that a draw was a fair result. Tottenham played surprisingly well and took the game to United for most of the time, though their finishing was lacking and their defence was a little suspect at times. Nonetheless, it was probably the Manchester goal keeper who kept the visitors in the game with several fine, if eccentric, saves, while the Tottenham goal minder was rarely troubled.

 

During the match there were a few debatable decisions by the officials as there usually are. However, trust Alex Ferguson to bring them up in his post-match interview on 'Sky'; at least, he brought up the ones that went against his team. Ferguson berated, politely for a change, the officials who had failed to see a host of offences against his side, while blatantly ignoring those committed by his own players. For my money, one blatant foul by Patrice Evra on Aaron Lennon should have seen the offender dismissed from the pitch but ....................... .

 

Ferguson regularly tells the world what he thinks about referees, surely in an attempt to intimidate them. Even if it's not his overt intention, it is the consequence of his words and there can be few referees or linesmen (or assistant referees, as I believe they're now called) who will be unaware when they're officiating at a 'Fergie' match. The subliminal pressure applied to these officials is impossible to see or measure, but it's there and undoubtedly effective.

 

Why is it that football managers are not only allowed but encouraged to publicly criticise the performance of match officials ? In any sane world, such criticism would be confined to post-match discussion with the official authorities but, of course, top-flight football is not played in a sane world. It is played in 'Fergie World', where cheating and intimidation are not only second nature but are encouraged and even coached. While I'm pleased that my team didn't lose the match, I'm less than sure that I didn't lose something simply by watching and cheering my bunch of cheats against another bunch.
 

It really is time that someone sat on 'Fergie' and his ilk and did something to turn football back into a decent sport.

 

 

ARMSTRONG COMES CLEAN-ISH.

Many months after he was initially pronounced guilty by the kangaroo courts of world cycling, Lance Armstrong has finally admitted that he did, indeed, partake of drugs and used other methods in order to maintain an advantage over his rivals. We can now, and only now, find him guilty as charged and condemn his actions.

 

Unfortunately, it appears that Armstrong has stopped short of going into any details about the extent of his cheating, its full nature and the complicity of others; there must be little doubt that at least some of his colleagues and management team were aware of what was happening and may even have been actively involved but, thus far, we have not been told the identities of any other miscreants.

 

There has been talk of Armstrong participating in a 'Truth and Reconciliation' process, a modern idea of little real value, and what such an exercise would achieve is anyone's guess. The one thing that we do know is that Armstrong is not alone as a cheat in this sport; the comments of Nicole Cooke in the last couple of days made clear that she believed her own career was seriously hampered by the presence of others around her who not only used banned substances and practices, but also encouraged her to do the same.

 

Cycling has been a sport rotten to its core for as long as anyone knows; Tommy Simpson's death during the 1967 Tour de France was merely one manifestation of the rampant cheating that has existed for many decades and Armstrong's disgrace is simply the latest. Cycling is, though, not alone and drug cheats pervade every sporting sphere; it is high time that automatic, unchallengeable lifetime bans were introduced for all offenders. Any nations refusing, or failing, to act should have their competitors and teams automatically excluded from all international competitions - that would concentrate their minds wonderfully.

'THE POWER' POWERS HOME YET AGAIN !

I'm not a great darts fan but it's difficult to ignore the astonishing dominance achived by Phil Taylor over the last 20 or so years.

 

In the dim and distant past, Eric Bristow brought darts to prominence through his domination of the game over a period of years, but his achievements pale into insignificance beside those of the man known as 'The Power'. In a game generally ruled by younger men, Taylor, at 52, is the grand daddy of them all, and yet he remains not just a force to be reckoned with but the man they all have to beat.

 

Yesterday, Taylor won his 16th world darts title, something almost unimaginable in such a highly pressured game. The tiniest fraction of an inch can be the difference between success and failure and yet Taylor, year after year, has managed to avoid making even such miniscule errors in his pursuit of glory.

 

In an era when superlatives are routinely used to described the mundane, Taylor's achievements stand out as being worthy of the highest accolades. He is a true champion.

CHRISTOPHER MARTIN-JENKINS

The death of Christopher Martin-Jenkins has deprived cricket of one of its brightest media stars of recent years.

 

Having started his broadcasting career in the almost forgotten days when the likes of Peter West, Jim Laker, John Arlott and Brian Johnstone adorned the commentary box, Martin-Jenkins served through a time of horrible change in our once great national summer game. Sadly, he could do little as the county championship was reduced to an almost empty shell and he was also obliged to sit by as the standard of radio commetary declined to the level of banal chit-chat between a bunch of former players whose abilities as reporters were questionable to say the least.

 

This said, Christopher Martin-Jenkins himself always maintained a highly knowledgeable and professional approach to his role, perhaps because cricket was a game he loved without ever having been quite good enough to play at the highest level. Others sitting alongside him tended towards the arrogance of those who had played at that level and knew all there was to know, rarely a recipe for success.

 

Martin-Jenkins will be missed very much by those true cricket lovers who prefer to hear about the match in progress rather than what the commentators had for breakfast or where they ate the night before. A sad loss indeed.