Can England and co. get back to winning ways? Our friends at Chicken Dinner have put together this preview of the weekend’s internationals…
England v South Africa
This is the first time the two nations have clashed since last year’s World Cup final and England have lost their last five encounters with the Springboks. The good news is that England have won six of their last seven collisions at Twickenham, however South Africa have won all twelve of their matches in Europe since their last defeat there.
Honest golfer owns up to error no one would ever have known about
Pro golfer J.P. Hayes disqualified himself from the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament for accidentally using an illegal, prototype golf ball.
Hayes’ caddy pulled a ball out of his golf bag and tossed it to him. After two shots Hayes realised it wasn’t the same one he had started his round with and took a two-shot penalty.
Later, while chilling in his hotel room, he realised it was not a an approved ball and so he reported himself to the PGA. He was then disqualified.
Hayes said any other pro golfer in his situation “would have done the same thing”.
A greenskeeper at Connecticut’s Mill River Country Club was arrested this week for killing a skunk on the course with a golf club. A resident saw the incident and called the police. Kadeem Palmer, 19, was then arrested for cruelty to animals.
Annoyingly, there is no word on which club Palmer used to carry out the killing. We’d go with an easy five iron, a full-strength six at most.
Welsh rugby bosses not impressed with singer’s druggy past
Big-voiced - and big-chested - singer Katherine Jenkins admitted recently that she took cocaine and ecstasy when she first came to London. Big deal, you might think. But the frank admission has cost Jenkins her gig as the mascot of the Welsh Rugby Union - she had become well-known in rugby circles for her renditions of the Welsh national anthem before internationals.
Since the scandal broke, the WRU replaced Jenkins with a full choir. Coincidence? Possibly.
Before Munster’s clash with the All Blacks last night, the Irish side’s quartet of Kiwis performed their own haka. To watch the New Zealand XV stand there, respectfully, and watch their own war dance acted out before them was truly a memorable moment in modern rugby union.
Munster’s mini haka was led by Rua Tipoki, with support from team-mates Lifeimi Mafi, Doug Howlett and Jeremy Manning. The All Blacks replied with their own, full-size haka.
India beat the unbeatable Aussies - comfortably, too - in this autumn’s gripping Test series. Then they destroyed England in the first two one-day internationals, with more humiliation set to follow for Kevin Pietersen and his workmanlike team-mates.
If our maths is right, surely that entitles the Indians to call themselves world-beaters? They have, after all, just beaten the best cricket team in the world, and made England look like a pub side.
But no! Graeme Swann, the county-standard spinner who has just been called up to England’s ODI squad, claims that India “are not that good… they’re not the unbelievable world beaters that some of the local press make them out to be”.
Paula Creamer is US golf’s pin-up girl. She is as famous for her on-course “style” as her swing, and goes by the nickname “Pink Panther” - she loves the colour pink, fact fans (yes, the picture is a clue).
Here she is at a recent tournament in South Korea, again distracting attention from her play by sporting a huge, fluffy pair of ear muffs. That’s NOT golf, Paula. That’s plain wrong.
Tennis honey keeps clothes on for bubble bath. Boo
Yup, it’s just another Anna-K photo shoot, to remind the world that she still exists, and that she hasn’t yet made the inevitable transformation from young Russian sexpot to old Russian fishface. Give it time.
Roger Federer has admited that winning Wimbledon in 2009 is more important to him than regaining his No.1 world ranking from Rafael Nadal:
“While I would also love to beat Pete Sampras’s Grand Slam record of 14 titles, and also to regain my No. 1 ranking, I place winning another Wimbledon title above all else,” he said.
The way things are going, with several young guns - Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic etc. - snapping at his heels, there’s surely much more chance of Federer winning Wimbledon than getting the top spot back.
The Swiss legend could even slip to No.3 in the ATP rankings in 2009. He’s 1730 ranking points behind Nadal, but only 10 ranking points ahead of Djokovic (the Serb received a healthy boost on the back of his win in the Masters Cup).
All of which makes Rog’s statement about Wimbledon seem like a shrewd example of expectation management.
Not much to report from the weekend’s rugby union internationals. England had their shorts pulled down by the improving Aussies, New Zealand eased to a win over the Irish, Scotland played their tartan socks off but didn’t have enough in the tank to beat the world champion Springboks, and Wales looked thoroughly unconvincing in their defeat of Canada. Not a great weekend for northern-hemisphere rugby.
The most exciting moment happened during France’s routine win at home against the tough-tackling Pacific Islanders. Napolioni Nalaga was sent off for the visitors after a brutal high tackle which knocked out French scrum-half, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde.
It really was a disgracefully late tackle - for a minute or two it seemed that Elissalde was very seriously hurt. Happily, he regained consciousness in the dressing room and a scan showed no serious injury. However, he will miss France’s upcoming test against Australia, as IRB rules state that any player who has lost consciousness on the field of play can not return to action for 21 days.
