Left field
The Reuters global sports blog
England places up for grabs as European rugby action hots up
Europe’s premier rugby competition has returned with seven English clubs providing much food for thought for England coach Martin Johnson ahead of the November internationals, writes James Illingworth.
Gloucester, London Irish and Northampton recorded opening day victories while defeated Bath, Sale and Harlequins will be looking to this weekend to get their first points on the board. Leicester staged the comeback of the first week, overturning a 26-8 deficit to draw 32-32 with the Ospreys.
Johnson’s eyes would have also been drawn to one match in particular across the channel as England outcasts James Haskell and Tom Palmer put in solid performances as Stade Francais ran out convincing winners against Edinburgh in Paris.
England line-up against Australia at Twickenham on Nov. 7 with matches against Argentina and New Zealand following in quick succession and Johnson’s best-laid plans have been hit with an injury crisis in recent weeks.
The back division named by the 2003 World Cup-winning skipper in the 32-man elite player squad in July has been decimated after the withdrawals of Riki Flutey, Toby Flood, Delon Armitage, Danny Cipriani and Sam Vesty through injury.
So with places seemingly up for grabs, here are a few players who could have secured a place in the starting XV against the Wallabies or are pushing hard for future England recognition.
Shane Geraghty Northampton Age: 23 Caps: 3
Leinster lay unwanted reputation to rest
“The naysayers have been silenced for good,” read the lead of the Irish Times sports pages this morning after Leinster finally turned unrivalled potential into serious silverware by edging twice-champions Leicester to the Heineken Cup on Saturday.
After the humiliating semi-final defeat to Munster in 2006, the embarrassingly tame last-four exit to Perpignan three years earlier and only a couple of Celtic League titles either side, a beaming Brian O’Driscoll understandably said he’d been waiting ten years for such a day.
Leinster had been simply aching to prove their critics wrong for just as long. After a decade of underachievement, it had been thoroughly etched into the public consciousness that the province had no backbone, no heart, no bottle. They were individuals, never a team.
Essentially they weren’t Munster. In a very definite urban-rural divide, Leinster were the fancy city boys — all style and no substance while the southerners were the antitheses and had two Heineken Cups to prove it.
But out of the shadow of their powerhouse provincial rivals, Michael Cheika’s men “put all that culture crap to bed” with three stunning knockout stage performances and weren’t about to forget those who didn’t think they had it them.
“We haven’t forgotten the things that were said about us in December by certain quarters of the media,” O’Driscoll said, referring to the 18-15 group stage loss to Castres that put their championship hopes in doubt and brought the knives out sharper than before.
“I could list off a name, a number of names, but I’m not going to do so. You don’t forget that. We’ve gone and proved those people particularly wrong. There were some very distasteful things said.”
Finally. Its about time they caught up with Ulster’s record in the competition, Munster on the other hand are still way out ahead. As soon as Rocky goes back down under expect the ladyboys to return
The shoot-out where blazing over the bar is a good thing
Major rugby’s first shoot-out was followed, almost inevitably, by a tidal wave of complaints about how unfair it all was.
Leicester secured a slot in the final of the Heineken Cup, Europe’s premier club competition, after beating Cardiff Blues 7-6 “on penalties” on Sunday.
The teams were level at 26-26 after extra time and had each scored two tries, paving the way for a long-anticipated shoot-out.
Each team took five shots from in front on the posts on the 22-metre line.
The front-line kickers had little problem with such a straightforward test but once it moved on to boys who kick a rugby ball about as often as they celebrate a try by kissing a team mate, it got a bit sticky.
The fall guy turned out to be Wales and British and Irish Lions flanker Martyn Williams, who shanked his kick horribly wide, leaving Leicester number eight and former semi-pro footballer Jordan Crane to stroke over the winner.
Reducing both teams by one player at five minute intervals throughout extra time with the winner decided by a golden score would avoid the result coming down to one man’s error.
Try count (not in this case, of course) followed by fewest yellow cards? Not as exciting but might encourage the right approach by the teams during the match.
