ENGLAND CRASH AND BURN

The English cricket team, which somehow crept into the quarter-final stage of their World Cup, finally met its Waterloo yesterday when they were thoroughly trounced by the Sri Lankans. Of course, the British media reports that England's players were tired and jaded after a long hard winter, as if no other team plays the same amount of cricket throughout the year, but the truth is that England are simply not good enough.

Yesterday's abysmal performance, in which the Sri Lankans reached a target of 230 without losing a wicket and with more than 10 overs to spare must go down as one of the poorest ever by an England team. Not only did their batsmen fail to put up any sort of defensible total. scoring steadily rather than quickly, but their bowlers proved wholly ineffective, allowing both Sri Lankan openers to reach 3 figures. England's involvement in this pointless tournament is, thankfully, over, but where it leaves English cricket is an open question.

Following their victory in the Ashes series, England were lauded as being well on their way to being the best in the world, but subsequent disastrous displays against the Australians in the one day series, and defeats against Ireland and Bangladesh in the World Cup, should have brought everyone down to earth. England are a mediocre side made up of players who play very little cricket outside of the international arena; they gain little consistency from regular play and are constantly adjusting to different formats of the game, as well as different climates and conditions.

Sadly, and in common with reports of all our main sporting icons, the media continues to write in glowing terms and to excuse their failings in any and every way, when they should be spitting feathers. This team has been utterly humiliated and the players should be ashamed of their performance; half of them should probably be sacked. Instead, they will no doubt return home to represent us AGAIN this summer, largely because there are few alternatives to the existing bunch of cowboys. The visitors this year are Sri Lanka and India; can we expect a reversal of fortune or would that just be pi**ing in the wind ? 

SIX NATIONS FINALE.

The last weekend of the 6-Nations tournament saw some hard fought Rugby and a huge surprise.

Scotland finally found some sort of form and eventually achieved a fairly comfortable victory over Italy. The Italians fought hard but were not quite up to the incredible form that brought them victory over the French; the forwards made a consistent mess of the line-out and the defence was simply not as effective. A win by 21-8 ensured that Scotland climbed off the bottom of the table and Italy took the wooden spoon, though it's clear that they're no longer the 'push-over' of a few years ago. Whether he keeps his job or not, Nick Mallet has achieved great things with this side, while Andy Robinson knows that he has a lot to do if the Scots are to provide any sort of challenge in the World Cup.

In the day's second match in Dublin, England started with vigour but Ireland were quickly in control. The home side had most of the possession and territory, and England seemed a pale shadow of their former selves. Penalties galore saw the Irish steam into the lead, O'Driscoll went over for a try disallowed for a very marginal forward pass, and Bowe did score a try. 14-0 to Ireland and no sign that England even knew how to play the game effectively suggested that the hype about an English 'Grand Slam' was just that - hype. Ireland were quicker to the ball, used it more effectively and made fewer errors as England struggled to make any progress at all.

Things went from bad to worse for England when Ben Youngs was sent to the sin bin for a puerile show of petulance, and Brian O'Driscoll finally did score a try to break a long standing 6-Nations' record. Although Steve Thompson took advantage of a mad moment from the Irish to score a try, Wilko missed the conversion and Ireland continued to dominate the game. The best that can be said from an English viewpoint is that they were less outplayed in the second half than in the first, which isn't saying much. The 24-8 scoreline was no more than Ireland deserved, as England had been torn apart and any ideas they may have had about World Cup success must surely be in tatters. This was a shockingly poor performance from England, and an enormous surprise, but the Irish have to be given full credit for an excellent showing in front of their home crowd. 

England's defeat meant that Wales could steal the Championship crown with an emphatic win over the French, but this was not to be. France bounced back from their beating by Italy and were on top from the outset, just. Although there wasn't a lot to choose between the sides, there was enough to allow the French to take an 11-3 lead by half-time and they increased this to 21-9 following a weak Welsh start to the second period. James Hook managed to get himself 'sin-binned' France added a third try and the game was effectively over within the hour, with France leading 28-9. Wales did play more freely from this point but it was probably more a case of France taking their foot off the peddle than Wales improving.

In the end, Wales couldn't break through and France ended the game still in control, having undoubtedly regained some of the pride in the last match. Nonetheless, they can have no illusions about the mountain they have to climb before the World Cup, and Wales know that their World Cup hopes are slim to say the least. England were Champions, but their success was severely tarnished by their performance today and it leaves one expecting the southern hemisphere teams to dominate the World Cup in August. 

GRAND SLAM BECKONS BUT ...........

This weekend sees the final matches of the Six Nations Rugby tournament and England have only to defeat the Irish to record a Grand Slam for the first time since 2003 though after last week's matches, there is no such thing as a certainty.

Italy's superb victory over France was the most unexpected result of the championship and probably the most unexpected for several years. France were a disappointment, looking pretty lacklustre, but Italy gave their all and fully deserved their win. Coming back from 6-18 behind took tremendous courage and determination and Italy showed both in spades. Bergamasco's kicking, on his home ground, was a step up from previous displays and eventually proved the winning ingredient although Masi's try was perhaps the highspot of the Italian performance.

Wales defeated Ireland 19-13, courtesy of a try that should not have been allowed, while England laboured to victory over the Scots in the Calcutta Cup clash at Twickenham. I missed the all-Celtic game but did see England dominate without ever looking likely to score many points. This was a a scrappy match with more than a few penalties but not very much in the way of free-flowing rugby, particularly in the first half. England had much the best of both possession and territory, their scrum generally won the day, but they rarely threatened the Scottish line; the Scots threatened the English line hardly at all, other than for Max Evans' try. The final score of 22-16 was probably a fair reflection given the preponderance of English errors, but in no reflected their domination of the play.

For the final round of games, Scotland take on Italy in the battle for the wooden spoon and it will be no surprise if the Italians are triumphant. France play Wales in Paris and what will happen is anyone's guess. With the championship over for them, France may well be easy meat for the Welsh who still have hopes of overhauling England and taking the title; alternatively, the French may be out to extinguish the memory of last week's humiliation. Only time will tell which way this match will go.

England travel to Dublin in pursuit of a Grand Slam and really should win. Ireland are an aging side who have failed to shine at all this year, struggling to a one point victory over Italy, losing to France by 3 points and beating Scotland and Wales by 3 and 6 respectively. It's been a struggle for them and even home advantage should not be enough to beat an on-song England; the only question is whether or not England will be on-song. They will certainly have to play a lot better than against Scotland.

ENGLAND HAVE A REPRIEVE.

Oh my god ! After looking as though they were coasting to victory, the West Indies unaccountably imploded and England gained a wholly unexpected reprieve in the cricket World Cup. It now looks as though they'll make it through to the knock-out stages and, heaven help us, could even win the tournament.

England winning would, of course, be a travesty but stranger things have happened. England winning would, in fact, be the worst thing that could possibly happen as it would encourage the belief that this team is actually any good. The truth is that they are a bunch of overpaid, cossetted prima donnas, in exactly the same mould as our footballers; the pay is obviously less but the attitudes are the same. Years ago, cricketers thought nothing of playing a full English season, including Test Matches, and then embarking on a 4 month overseas tour in which they'd play far more 'real' cricket than today's sluggards manage. Today's lot complain of being tired, fatigued, stressed and any other adjectives they can conjure up after playing a handful of games. Instead of enduring weeks of sea voyages, they fly around the world in hours; some even manage to either take their families with them on tour or return home mid-tour for a 'break'. What a laugh; the easier their lives become, the more they whinge about how stressed they are. Batsmen are unlucky if they have more than 30 innings in a year and bowlers if they have to produce more than 300 or 400 overs; in byegone times, Freddie Trueman sent down 800-1000 overs in the summer and another 300-400 in the winter. Where is our present day Freddie Trueman ?

The talk is always of our players having to play too much; it makes them stale or tires them out. What tripe. Every sportsman knows that with games like cricket, in which familiarity with the repetitive nature of the task is vital,  playing regularly is all. The real problem is not that they play too much but that they play too little. They need to gain consistency and confidence from playing more 'real cricket', not the one-day knockabout stuff in which the bowlers are often little more than a side show for the batsmen, who are expected to hit every ball for 4 or 6. Today's players may be as good as those of past generations, but I doubt it. They play in a world in which excitement and immediacy are all that matters and real skill and talent has been sidelined; there will never be another Freddie Trueman or Trevor Bailey, no more Dennis Comptons, Ted Dexters, or, even, Geoff Boycotts. The best players rarely appear for their counties, which devalues that part of the game, and they are too often injured or 'tired' to play for their country. What a bloody joke.

ENGLAND ON A KNIFE-EDGE.

Only a few days ago, England seemed to have saved their cricket World Cup lives by defeating South Africa. Today, they achieved the near impossible by returning to their worst form and losing to Bangladesh and, at the same time, put themselves at dire risk of failing to qualify for the quarter final stage.

Their earlier defeat, at the hands of Ireland, was clearly due to a pathetic performance by the bowlers after the batsman had done their job more than adequately. Today, against the weakest of the major international sides (excluding Zimbabwe who hardly count) the batsmen only accumulated a very modest total and the bowlers then failed to bowl the opposition out. Not only this, but they allowed the Bangladeshi 9th wicket pair to rescue an almost lost position with an unbroken and winning partnership of 58. This was England at their very worst and particularly showed up their bowlers for what they really are - mediocre, at best.

England now have no way out. They must beat the West Indies next Thursday or accept that they are highly likely to be on a flight home long before the tournament reaches its climax. If they lose, their hopes will rest on an improbable victory by the Netherlands over Bangladesh on Tuesday, not something that anyone envisaged a few weeks ago. Even if they do beat the 'Windies', they may still be sweating on the outcome of the South Africa - Bangladesh clash on Saturday week. 

Whatever happens, this England team are a pale shadow of those of even the fairly recent past and hardly deserve to progress further in the competition. When I think of the players of my youth, in the 1960s, and compare them with those of today, I weep.

THE SPURS (STILL) GO MARCHING ON !

Somehow, Tottenham managed to edge passed AC Milan on Wednesday to progress to the quarter-finals of the European 'Champions' League' competition.

Going into the home leg with a slender one goal lead from the first match in Milan, Spurs were under constant pressure from the Italians but managed to survive, surely against all the odds. AC Milan are comfortably top of the Italian league, the Serie A, ahead of their deadly rivals, Inter Milan, whom Spurs have also beaten in the competition. Allowing that Tottenham are not exatly the best team in England, how have they done it ? What do their victories say about the state of Italian football ? Not only have AC Milan been eliminated from Europe's premiere club football championship, but Roma were also trounced by Shakhtar and Inter Milan are in serious danger, having lost the home leg of their tie with Bayern Munich. There are no Italian sides left in the last 16 of the Europa League, either.

Tottenham's performance was gritty and determined but no one seriously believes they can go on to lift the trophy. What they've achieved so far is beyond the wildest dreams of their long-suffering supporters and does enormous credit to Harry Redknapp; not since the far-off days of Bill Nicholson have Tottenham even been entrants in the European Cup (or Champions' League as it now is) and Redknapp's aim must now be to match Nicholson's achievement in taking the team to the semi-final stage. It is possible, if unlikely but, as a Tottenham supporter since that 1961/2 season, I have my fingers crossed !

For the Italian sides, they must surely be wondering what's going on and 'considering their positions'. A few managers may well be feeling a little uncomfortable and already have other jobs in mind.

BRAVO HELEN !

I've loved watching athletics for as long as I can remember and Helen Clitheroe has, for many years, been a regular member of the UK or England teams without ever really being an absolute top performer. Medals have evaded her though she's always given everything in her performances. Over the years she's kept going, changed events a couple of times and has slowly improved. Now, astonishingly at the age of 37, she's European Indoor Champion at 3,000 metres and no one can ever have deserved a gold medal more.

So many promising juniors fail to make the grade in senior events but Helen's success a few minutes ago must give renewed hope to all. She's simply persevered over the years and kept training - the reward for her is a lesson to every young hopeful.

Well done Helen Clitheroe, EUROPEAN CHAMPION !