Left field
The Reuters global sports blog
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Soccer Break Thursday
Gareth Bale. The dashing Welsh winger primed to scare the living daylights out of England on Saturday. Injured. Did anyone else hear that collective sigh of relief from England fans today?
But what about Tottenham Hotspur fans. Are you worried your star man’s recent struggles with injury could hamper your club’s Champions League quarter-final chances against Real Madrid?
There are of course plenty of qualifiers this weekend so read our preview for all the latest.
Anna on the Italian Soccer Serie A has picked what she reckons might be Italy’s team to play Slovenia in Friday’s Euro 2012 qualifier having spied on Cesare Prandelli’s training sessions. Read more here.
When rugby officials get it wrong
By James Illingworth
“Unforgivable”, “embarrassing” and “indefensible” are just some of the descriptions of Jonathan Kaplan’s decision to allow Mike Phillips’ try for Wales in their Six Nations defeat of Ireland on Saturday.
But while the South African referee bears the brunt of the media glare in the aftermath of the match at the Millennium Stadium, assistant Peter Allan of Scotland must also take some responsibility.
Cathedral of Welsh rugby witnesses a truly epic clash
There is something about the Welsh National Anthem – The Land of My Fathers – that makes the hairs of my back – and there are many of them – stand on end.
It always has done. Even as a sports-mad child growing up in the 1970s I eagerly anticipated settling down on the sofa to hear it before the likes of JPR Williams and Phil Bennett strutted their stuff on muddy rain-soaked pitches.
I’m not Welsh but to hear it bellowed out by over 70,000 passionate and emotional Welshmen, usually accompanying opera singer Katherine Jenkins, before a rugby international at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff is one of the great experiences in sport.
Saturday was no exception. As a Reuters journalist I have been to the cathedral of Welsh rugby many times and as usual, my spine tingled as the Morriston Orpheus Choir, along with the Regimental Band of the Royal Welsh, led the singing.
There was also something in the damp cold air that suggested the following 80 minutes of rugby served up by Wales and Scotland might be something special as well. And so it proved in a manner few could have predicted.
What are the odds on getting the Six Nations winner right?
![RTR29J26[1]SIXNATIONS](http://blogs.reuters.com/sport/files/2010/02/RTR29J261SIXNATIONS.jpg "RTR29J26[1]SIXNATIONS")
Picking the winner of the Six Nations championship is always a tricky task as the vagaries of form and the fixture list ensure that no two seasons are the same.
France, who finished third last season, are rated 6/4 favourites by Ladbrokes while grand slam champions Ireland are only second-best at 9/4.
Who should captain the Lions in South Africa?
The Six Nations provided a stirring finale and a lifetime of memories for Ireland fans but few watching from South Africa will have been left quaking in their boots ahead of this year’s British and Irish Lions tour.
That is exactly how wily Lions coach Ian McGeechan will want it as he plots a repeat of 1997 when his unfancied group triumphed there in the first Lions tour of the professional era.
You can beat Europe’s top teams but you can’t beat the Six Nations
Southern hemisphere fans might scoff at the quality of Europe’s premier rugby competition but, yet again, the Six Nations championship has proved itself unrivalled when it comes to unpredictability and excitement.
Having waited 61 years for their second grand slam, Ireland were within seconds of having it cruelly ripped from their grasp, only for Stephen Jones’s last-minute penalty to fall short in Saturday’s nail-gnawingly tense Cardiff finale.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
British Olympic soccer team becomes right royal farce
There has not been one since 1960, the Scottish don’t want its return, neither do the Welsh, nor the Northern Irish and yet the prospect of a British soccer team at the 2012 London Olympics remains.
The English Football Association is refusing to relinquish an idea that nobody else seems to care about.
This glorious, unpredictable northern festival
You wouldn’t have got great odds on Wales and France coming out on top against England and Scotland respectively on the first day of the second weekend of the Six Nations.
But England beating Wales in the try count at the Millennium Stadium and Scotland taking the game to the French the way they did in St Denis were not forecasts I’d read anywhere.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
Would a unified Britain have won more than one World Cup?
Resistance to plans for a unified British soccer team for the 2012 London Olympics means the idea may well be a one-off, if it gets off the ground at all.
The four home nations are wary of setting precedents that could harm their independent status, despite their lack of success as separate entities.
Only thing red about this England team should be their faces
My Reuters colleague Padraic Halpin suggested last week that no Englishman would be good enough to merit a place in British and Irish Lions team to face South Africa this year but on the evidence of this weekend none of Martin Johnson’s men would even have a chance of donning the red shirt of Wales.
The only England player to enhance his reputation was Danny Cipriani, having been dropped for the squad to face Italy then seen the Saxons game in Dublin frozen off. The 21-year-old’s confidence took enough of a dent in autumn and Johnson should get some credit for enabling to rebuild it away from the car crash that is the current England team.
