Sexton's game, ATP shambles and inside sport

I realise that it’s most definitely not summer anymore, but I’ll use this for chatting rugby, tennis, cricket…

Wednesday night’s Inside Sport provided a fascinating insight into depression in sport, an issue brought into tragic focus by the recent suicide of German international goalkeeper Robert Enke. Gabby Logan interviewed several high-profile sufferers, posing questions and posting tentative conclusions on how sporting success does not make you invincible against mental illness, and indeed the pressures of the modern game can bring it on.

The analysis of the effect of sport on the mind got me thinking about the more readily tangible effect of sport on the body, after watching a slimmer Rafa Nadal fall to three successive defeats at the ATP World Tour Finals in London. Whilst I do not wish to compare Nadal’s sporting plight to the human tragedy of Robert Enke, the young Spaniard – who has come to epitomise the innate physicality and athleticism of the twenty-first-century tennis player, sportsman even - was a sorry sight this week. It was not so much that Rafa looks ‘a shadow of’ the man who so gloriously beat Roger Federer in the 2008 Wimbledon Final, but rather that the Spaniard’s current frame wouldn’t come close to filling his former shadow.

2009 looked like being Nadal’s year. He began it is as World Number One, holding three of the four Grand slams after winning the Australian Open in January. But then tendinitis in his right knee, a recurring problem which has seen him wearing heavy strapping ever since I can remember, saw Nadal pull out of Wimbledon in June. He returned to London this week, sporting a new sleeved t-shirt that did little to hide the absence of his biceps that used to bulge out of the trademark sleeveless vest. It seems that quite simply, Nadal’s knees – put under enormous pressure by his relentless playing style – can’t hold his weight, and so he’s been forced to shed a great deal of muscle, and with it the power that was his greatest weapon.

Why was Nadal’s body in unnatural shape in the first place? Because, with the ball coming off Andy Roddick’s graphite composite racket at 150mph, such physicality is needed to get it back. Racket and player performance technology have led tennis’ development from a once delicate game into a slugging match. Nadal – and I really hope I am being helplessly premature here – would not be the first tennis player to play their best tennis before hitting 25. Martina Hingis – who won three Grand Slams aged 16 and retired at 22 – springs to my mind, whilst my dad talks of Tracy Austin – who won the US Open aged 16 and was finished as a top player before she turned 21, suffering from recurring back injuries. Switching sports, you find the burn-out of Brazilian striker Ronaldo, and, in a slightly different direction, a number of serious spinal injuries suffered in rugby union.

This is an issue worthy of much broader analysis, but does modern sport demand too much from its competitors? How long can players continue to drive themselves into the ground before something changes?


The ATP World Tour Finals became a shambles on Thursday, thanks to confusion over the rules for progression from the round-robin stage, labelled ‘embarrassing’ by Boris Becker.
Juan Martin del Potro was left waiting on court to see if he had qualified for the semi-finals after beating Roger Federer, eventually learning he had done so by only one game in the ATP’s games won percentage (after del Potro and Murray finished level in terms of matches and sets won). Murray himself had to have it explained to him on court earlier on.
I’d moan about how the final round of matches should have started at the same time, so that del Potro and Federer didn’t have the unfair advantage of going into the final match knowing exactly what they had to do, but in fact it was all so bloody confusing that nobody had a clue.
The maths behind one-day cricket’s Duckworth/Lewis method is complicated, perhaps even unfathomable to the layman, and has resulted in some farcical and comical situations (the South Africans don’t find it so funny). But D/L is there to decide matches whose regular course has been shortened by the weather. The ATP actually set the groups up like this, failing to anticipate a group of four would almost inevitable end up in everyone level on points. Before next year – sort it out!


After a miserable autumn of miserable rugby, Ireland’s victory over South Africa this afternoon was worth waiting for, every second of a 15-10 win at Croke Park thoroughly absorbing. There were a number of interweaving narratives – from the selection of Jonathan Sexton over Ronan O’Gara as Ireland’s fly-half to unfinished business after the Lions tour, and the game was predictably niggly early on. But that was all part of the fun! Bryan Habana getting dumped onto the seat of his pants was a favourite, while Schalk Burger – booed by the home fans after disgracefully gouging Luke Fitzgerald in the summer – celebrated his try by aggressively kicking the ball towards them. It was brutally physical, both teams showed a willingness to run the ball from deep, Ireland ruled the line-out, South Africa exerted pressure at scrum-time, and there were turnovers galore.
Despite the Irish eight going backwards in the scrum, Jamie Heaslip always seemed to be in control. Actually, his performance was nothing short of monumental. My confidence in an early prediction (see July 8th 2009, ‘Lions Tour Review’) of his future captaincy grows. Rob Kearney again proved he played a hell of a lot of catch as a kid.
Brian O’Driscoll had a pretty awful game by his standards, knocking the ball on the few occasions he did get involved. But, in making the tackle and forcing the penalty for holding-on in at the death, he found a way to win the match, again. Class.
The real story, though, was provided by Jonathan Sexton, who kicked all of Ireland’s 15 points in a mature display. It was the first time in six years that a fit Ronan O’Gara had been overlooked at fly-half, and the fact that, even with O’Gara’s huge experience ready from the bench, Sexton stayed on the pitch during a nervy finish added further to the end-of-an-era feel to the occasion.

David Mitchell on TMS

If you get the chance, listen again to David Mitchell joining Aggers for A view from the Boundary at lunch on Test Match Special yesterday.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00lr08x/Test_Match_Special_18_07_2009/
The interview begins around 2:21 into the show.

Mitchell – of Peep Show fame – was interesting when asked about his personal life and profession, but brilliantly intelligent and insightful when talking cricket, as only the kind of ‘Part-time sports fan’ I was describing the other week can be. He didn’t fill me with too much confidence early on, admitting ‘I was frightened of the ball’ as a cricketer himself.

But I found myself wanting to yell at the radio ‘yes, exactly!’ on numerous occasions, as he, almost nonchalantly, explored the quiet truths of watching the sport. He laughed at how ludicrous it was that his flatmate begged him to turn off the TV because him watching it affected England’s performance in 2005. It’s absurd to even think that might be the case, but I’ve gone through several spells of believing my actions influence what happens on the pitch, and I think a lot of people feel the same. Mitchell reminded me what the outside world must think of us demented fanatics.

He was fascinating when he spoke about the character of certain cricket players, admitting he loved seeing Ricky Ponting get angry. He spoke about watching Graham Gooch bat as England captain, it's best to quote it: ‘There were times when he looked so exhausted at the crease scoring run after run, almost as if he couldn’t face getting out because then he would have to re-approach the whole problem of how an earth he was going to bowl the other team out. I loved the contrast between the down-beat demeanour and all these runs being scored. He didn’t look like he was going to smash a bowling attack around the field, and then he was quietly doing so, with a facial expression as if he hadn’t noticed that he was.’ These are the wonderful observations only those with a certain distance from the action can make. The way in which sport allows you an unparalleled insight into the characters who play is one of the greatest pleasures of spectating. Think of Paul Collingwood’s relentless stubbornness or Kevin Pietersen’s inner demons. More to come on that soon in this blog.

Mitchell dabbled further into psychological analysis to say ‘There’s a defensiveness to England’s approach… We’ve tried not to lose too often – maybe that’s a part of our whole national psyche.’

Mitchell and Webb’s shows contain several sketches based around sport, and one listener pulled him up on his hypocrisy in referring to the England cricket side as ‘we’ having chastised football fans for doing just that. Keeping with the comic side of sport, Mitchell added: ‘One of the most endearing and comic things in cricket is when tail-enders have to bat to save games. Seldom in professional sport do you see someone having, at the highest level, to do something that they’re not really very good at. Other sports would benefit immensely if they got that element in. Hitting a ball with the bat is not something they were put on the earth to do, batting is not their strong point – and yet they are having to do against the best bowling in the world, and the stakes are incredibly high. And when they succeed, it’s the best underdog succeeding in sport you can get.’
It made me think of the almost unique multi-disciplinary nature of cricket, a sport in which you have to do two, or three, things, very different things. Or the drop goal penalty contest which settled last year’s Heineken Cup semi-final, with Cardiff Blues flanker Martyn Williams – ironically one of very few forwards to have scored a drop goal in open play – the unlucky villain who missed. The occasion raised fresh controversy over whether a shoot-out was the way to settle a drawn tie. Balancing the fact that putting top sportsmen way outside their comfort zone is highly entertaining with the notion that drop goals are not a fair way to decide the all-round game of rugby is a difficult proposition.

My mate Alex Richman wrote a blog entry recently entitled ‘We all love laughing at losers’. http://www.theyorker.co.uk/news/sport/3040 Typically entertaining stuff, but I don’t really agree. As Tim Henman and Jimmy White testify, we love our losers. There may, again, be something essentially British about supporting, and later consoling, the plucky underdog that Mitchell speaks of. And finding the equivalent of the 'endearing' tail-ender in modern sports where we no longer find affection and association with the players - most notably football - may be the way we can regain the love of the game.

If you have a lot of spare time and have finished listening to Mitchell, don’t track down this lunchtime’s TMS audio. The guest was Rolf Harris. What a plonker.

England hold on for draw in Ashes first test

We got away with it, just. But, amidst relief that the draw was secured, we shouldn't forget some significant England shortcomings in the first test. The first one: we gave away 19 wickets, and gave away really is the term, on a placid wicket. KP's gone down as the scapegoat, but can you remember more than three England wickets that were unavoidable, where the ball was 'just too good'? The facts: In 211.5 overs, across both innings, England lost 19 wickets. In 181 overs, Australia lost only 6.

The tail-enders may have stolen the headlines, but it was Paul Collingwood who saved the match for England. He batted for nearly six hours, scoring 74 off 245 balls. Perhaps a result of his limited-overs captaincy, he took responsibility for his wicket, and his side, with rare bravery. When he got out, he was visibly gutted, as he thought that one lapse had cost England the first test. Collingwood is not brilliant, but attritional, obdurate. He'd be a great Aussie.

One of the great things about Test cricket is the way that momentum can swing back and forth on numerous occasions. It can go one side’s way for two days, and then just one strike – bang – a wicket, even a boundary or two, and the game’s going the other way. Talk about an Ashes series. 5 Tests, and after securing that draw in the first, England are on the front foot. The back-to-back set-up of these first Two tests allows England to capitalise, starting tomorrow.

Australia's failure to finish off England in Cardiff on Monday is a damming reflection of the fallibilities in Ricky Ponting's captaincy. Ponting, as a captain, not a batsman, lacks the killer instinct. Michael Vaughan had that sniff of opportunity, of the movement to be aggressive with his bowlers and his field. It's too early to know if Andrew Strauss has it, but he'd do well not to copy his Australian counterpart. Ponting twice let England off the hook, at 70-5 and again when Panesar came to the wicket. Monty, possessing a Test batting average of 5.33, survived for 35 balls to bring England home. For some bizarre reason, Ponting partnered Nathan Hauritz with part-time off-spinner Marcus North. Monty understands spin. Why not send in Mitchell Johnson and Peter Siddle to use his ankles as target practice? It would have only taken one ball that came in a little bit too quick, one LBW, and Australia would have been one up.

The age of the all-rounder has begun. Between them, England and Australia only had the single real one - Andrew Flintoff - before the Ashes begun, but many more stood up over five days in Cardiff. Ponting trusted batsmen North's off-spin to take that final wicket, and Katich and Clarke had a go with the ball too. For England, Paul Collingwood - who excels in the third discipline, fielding - took Brad Haddin's wicket with his medium-pacers, whilst Freddie looks more comfortable with the bat than he has done in a while, on his way back to being a genuine all-rounder, rather than a bowler who bats. Graeme Swann scored 47 not out and 31, Stuart Broad was disappointed with 17 and 14 and James Anderson notched up 26 and 21. England's 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 can all bowl and bat then. Such multidisciplinary adeptness is becoming a feature of twenty-first century sport. Rugby league has been full of identikit 6'2", 14 stone plus clones for every position now, but union is following suit. Gethin Jenkins is the finest prop in the Northern Hemisphere because he rucks like a back row, and Mike Phillips the finest scrum half because he can tackle and break tackles well enough to be trusted at centre. Duncan Fletcher, in his time as England head coach, taught each bowler that he had a responsibility with the bat too. You have to take all 10 wickets to get England out nowadays, as Australia are all too aware.

Monty Panesar should be dropped. First up, he has failed to replicate his new-found maturity with the bat when doing his day job, bowling. Figures of 1-115 tell a story of a man who keeps on rolling out the same delivery, failing in the essential demand of making batsmen uncomfortable. But, just as important, dropping the Barmy Army's cult hero would send a powerful message in a series where the phoney war is nearly as important as the real thing. Taking heed of Michael Vaughan's admission that seeing Australia (that's Australia) celebrate a draw (yes, a draw) at Old Trafford in 2005 made his team realise how close they were to doing something special, England didn't over-celebrate their rescued test in Cardiff. It also can't be bad news that we're already under Ricky Ponting's skin. The Australian captain is a genius with the bat, but has pyschological weaknesses that can be exploited. Dropping Panesar for the second test would show that there's no room for sentiment in the England camp. We mean business.

Check this lot out for a 6-a-side cricket side: Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne. Not bad eh? Why do I group them together? Because they were wearing the baggy green in the 2005 Ashes series, and aren't here four years on. (I, like all other Englishmen, am still pretending 2006-07 didn't happen!) Australia arrived in 2005 as a side near the peak of their powers, comfortably the best test side in the world, and having won in India in 2004, with their main men enjoying continued success towards their twilight years. Somehow, England dragged themselves upto - and even beyond - the tourists' level. Four years on and I'm worried England - admittedly, a side who have endured considerable turmoil off the field in the last 12 months, but been reasonably settled on it - being pulled down to the Australians' - an inexperienced side who lost a home test series to South Africa over the winter - level.

Can a set of 22 (rising towards 26 by the end of the series) who don't come close to the 2005 bunch produce the same levels of sporting drama, if not excellence? Thankfully, it seems they can.

Protecting our part-time sports fans

Want to head down to your local tennis court for a game? You'll be lucky. It's the week after Wimbledon and all over the country, part-time tennis fans are taking their British flags off their cars, dusting down their tennis rackets for the first time since this time last year. 'Big serve from Roddick.' 'Backhand crosscourt from Murray...' 'And he wins the point with a smash!'

The same way that Wimbledon has punctuated my midsummers since childhood, The World Snooker Championship at the Crucible became a springtime fixture, and a great excuse for staying up late on that Bank Holiday Monday. In year six, dreaming that I could replicate the men in the tuxedos, I set up a school snooker tournament, on my primary school's tiny pool table. By the time we got round to playing, the drama at the Crucible had faded into distant memory and nobody was interested in playing. I only had to win two matches to win, against snooker players who must have been even worse than myself.

But it's not so much in the playing as in the armchair spectating that real part-time sports fans excel. You know the kind - the kind that mispronounce 'Fernando Torres' and tell you that 'it's really all about the way they retrieve the kick off.' Fan, we often forget, is short for fanatic. That they are not. Sporting events saturating terrestrial TV is their all-important medium, allowing them to become two-week experts on Andy Murray's return and Stephen Hendry's safety shot.

I’ll come down off my high horse for a second, and admit that I really only qualify as a full-time football fan. I guess I’m more weekend dad with rugby union, tennis, cricket – I never stop caring, I talk the talk when the Six Nations come around, but am not in the pub for Northampton – Sale on Tuesday evening.

In fact, I envy these part-time sports fans a lot. They get the exciting bits without having to go through all the drudgery in between. But, as Nick Hornby so thrillingly, nail-smack-on-the-head, described: those beautiful climactic moments are much better if you’ve gone through the drudgery to get there; you’ve put in the time, deserved it.

You can also learn a lot from them – we ran a feature on ‘The Score’ – our student radio Saturday afternoon sports show – called ‘Girls answer sport’s biggest questions’. Ignoring accusations of sexism, we found that the girls we got into the studio, with very little knowledge of sport - and therefore free from preconception and bias - cut through the crap and made some pretty insightful comments on goal-line and other refereeing technology, drug taking in sport and the like.

We should value them, protect them even. The 'protected' sports list - or more correctly, the list of sporting events reserved for free-to-air television, under the remit of the Culture Secretary, is hugely significant. There are currently 10 events on the A-list, those too important to be restricted to subscription television, ranging from the Olympics to the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final. In 1998, when the list was last renewed, home cricket test matches dropped from the A to the B-list, meaning they could be bid for by subscription broadcasters, as long as highlights were shown on terrestrial. Fortunately, for the 2005 Ashes, Channel 4 bid high enough. My memories of the greatest series therefore include watching in free periods at school and getting home to see the climactic stages on TV. I remember the Channel 4 coverage as top notch - but then again I would: the cricket was brilliant, and we won.

The last time the 'protected' sports list made the headlines was September of last year, when only the highlights of England's World Cup qualifier in Croatia were available on terrestrial, as Setanta showed the game live. It was England's best result since the thrashing of Germany in 2001, Theo Walcott scoring a hat-trick for Fabio Capello's boys in a 4-1 win. Perhaps a good omen for their cricketing counterparts, whose exploits against the Aussies in this summer's Ashes will be available only on Sky. Of course, we didn't care when the same was true in the series down under 2006-2007, but that was because it was winter and we lost, heavily. For us terrestrial viewers, Five's highlights every evening at 7.15pm are as good as it gets for the 2009 Ashes. And my tractor's only got FM radio, so I can't even listen to Test Match Special!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------


'Promising' is the word to describe England's first day of the 2009 Ashes series. 336-7 is just about par, as England's batsmen got in, and then got out. I would be pretty happy if I was Andrews Flower or Strauss, certainly much happier than if one batsmen had made half of that total on his own. Bopara, Pietersen, Collingwood, Prior, Flintoff and Strauss himself all got between 30 and 70, showing - with slightly differing comfort levels - that they are in good touch. They lost their wickets - and Pietersen is the prime culprit for a ridiculous sweep-shot - because of a lack of care. Strauss can now sit down with his run-scorers and tell them, as well as Alastair Cook, whose dismissal for 10 was more worrying, that they need to take responsibility, treasure their wicket and start putting in the centuries, the match-winning 150s, 200s. For me, partnerships are more important than individual scores in winning matches though, and today showed the beginnings of two which should prove to be imperative if England are to win the little urn back. Pietersen and Collingwood, 4 and 5, steadied the ship in batting from lunch to tea and added 138. Prior and Flintoff, 6 and 7, added 86 more when they were together in the middle. Prior looked the most fluent of all of England's batsmen - which is great news. Especially after watching the Twenty20, he knows as much as anyone else that he's no superstar behind the stumps, but the more runs he gets, the more his confidence as a wicketkeeper will grow. Having him at 6 also has the advantage of giving Freddie the licence to go for his shots at 7. The openers will need to join the party in the second innings, so Ravi Bopara can come to the middle with the score at least at the 100 mark. Bopara, batting at the pivotal number 3 position, will now his first-Ashes-test nerves behind him, and looks set to score big. He will have gained from surviving - initially - a thorough interrogation by Peter Siddle, who has looked the pick of the Aussie bowlers. Before Bopara was out of single figures, Siddle planted one down short and straight, bouncing hard to hit the batsman hard under the chin. 'New boy, this is the Ashes, you know.'

Lions Tour Review

The Lions salvaged some pride in avoiding a series whitewash at the hands of World Champions South Africa with a defiant 28-9 win in the final test in Johannesburg.

The recalled Shane Williams capitalised on fine breaks by Jamie Heaslip and Riki Flutey to grab a first-half brace and put the Lions in control, and wing partner Ugo Monye’s interception touchdown put the game beyond a much-changed Springbok side.

South Africa coach Peter de Villiers changed ten players from the team who secured series victory last weekend, the replacements unable to break down the Lions’ defensive barrier. Many of Ian McGeechan’s changes were enforced – injuries to both first-choice centres and props allowing Flutey his Lions test debut, as well as a shot at redemption for veteran Phil Vickery.


The Lions won the series 74-63 on aggregate, or by 7-5 in tries scored. The Lions played all the rugby against the World Champions, who wanted to get the ball off the pitch and exploit the set piece as much as possible. The rugby was thrilling at times, although perhaps the drama reached higher plains than the quality of play. The Springboks won the first two matches, however, because the Lions came up well short at the basics; indiscipline let them down. The Lions' credibility was more than maintained in 2009, but they must make sure that they don't become the Barbarians, a touring novelty known for daring, expansive rugby, with professionalism less important. Ensuring a slightly longer tour, with the squad spending longer together before the serious business really gets underway, in Australia 2013 is a promising first step.

The Lions first test fightback, and third test vanquishing of the Springboks, were both achieved with the majority of the South Africans' main men off the park. The World Champions came up well short when it came to strength in depth, their replacements a good level short. It was said before the tour, and at several points within it, that the Lions were lacking in truly world class players, Brian O'Driscoll aside. I don't think is the worrying thing - a lack of alternatives to the first choice test selections, from the four home nations combined, lest we forget, is far more striking. Mike Phillips played every second, Andy Powell was no competition for Heaslip at Number 8, and things might have turned out a lot better if the second choice fly-half, Ronan O'Gara, had never made it onto the pitch.


Man of tour:
The barnstorming Jamie Roberts. The 22-year-old Welshman wrote his name all over the No. 12 test jersey in the warm-up games and formed such a formidable midfield partnership with Brian O'Driscoll in the first game against the Springboks that he was man-marked in the second. Proof that bish-bash-bosh can be stunningly effective in the modern game, and now a recognised world class talent.

'That lad's a bit special':
Ireland full back Rob Kearney's solid warm-up displays went almost completely unnoticed, so nailed on was Lee Byrne for the test No.15. Byrne was forced off injured early in the first test however, and Kearney excelled in his place. Stunningly cool both receiving and following his own high balls, and finished his try intelligently in the second test. 23, but looks like he's been playing at the very highest level for years. Always looks like he has time - the sign of a top class player.

Golden oldie:
Simon Shaw. Brought into the side for the second test to add a bit of beef to the scrum - receiving his first Lions cap on his third tour - and was outstanding, deservedly winning man of the match. Well on his way towards 36, surely the England lock can't be there in four years time...

The Denmark at Euro 92 award:
The Danes didn't qualify, but replaced Yugoslavia at the last minute, and went on to win it. The athletic Leicester Tigers flanker Tom Croft was surprisingly absent from the original tour party but was called up when Alan Quinlan was banned for gouging. Went straight into the test team and scored two tries. Simple. Ian McGeechan and co. are lucky not to have had to explain why he wasn't picked in the first place.

The Darren Fletcher award for enhancing reputation through absence: (sorry for the football theme, I must be missing it)
Fletcher has been a dogsbody in the Manchester United midfield for years, but then got sent off in the Champions League semi-final, Barca's Xavi and Iniesta ran rings around Carrick, Anderson and co. in the final, and Fletcher has been heralded as the finest hard-tackling midfield err ever?
It wasn't that long ago that The Times' Stephen Jones said he'd leave Brian O'Driscoll out of the test team, and pick Tom Shanklin instead. The Welshman's shoulder surgery was quickly forgotten, though, as O'Driscoll formed an impressive centre partnership with Jamie Roberts. So, just about goes to Jerry Flannery. The Irishman was the clear choice for test hooker before he was ruled out with an elbow injury. Lee Mears and Matthew Rees weren't good enough, and Ross Ford was only called up to bolster the Scottish numbers, to...3.

Future captain:
I'll take a punt on Jamie Heaslip. The Irish Number 8 was one of very few to start all three tests. He held his own relatively quietly in the first two, but did what he does best - running in straight lines, through whatever's in front of him - for the full eighty minutes in the third. Will be the cornerstone of the Irish team for the next few years, and right at the heart of an Irish-dominated Lions team 2013 (Stephen Ferris is a great prospect, choose from this lot for outside backs - Fitzgerald, Bowe, Kearney, Earls, and Leinster and Munster continuing to progress in the Heineken Cup). Will be 29 when the Lions reach Australia - the same age Paul O'Connell was this time.

Best quote:
Phil Vickery – 'You know you have had a bad game when your mum, your missus and your sister text to say they still love you!'

Federer's 15th Slam - Where it was won and lost

Roger Federer overtook Pete Sampras' record for Grand Slam titles with a 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 16-14 over Andy Roddick in the Wimbledon final on Sunday.

Roddick was a desperately unlucky loser. It was the American sixth seed who played the tennis on Sunday. Federer was a long way from his best, struggling, as Tim Henman repeated from the commentary box, to see and connect with the ball properly. The Swiss, unwilling to attack the ball early on during rallies, provided a display of counter-attacking effectiveness, if not the accustomed sublimity. Time and again, he waited for Roddick to take the initiative and attack, then picked him off.
It was an epic final, yet never really caught alight in terms of quality, largely because of the dominance of both players' serves. Roddick's serving prowess is plain for all to see, and to only be broken once by Roger Federer in five sets of tennis - to make it even more painful, the very final game of the match, his 15th service game of the deciding set - is testament to the level of tennis the underdog played. Federer's serve is an often underrated part of his game, however. It is his service accuracy and variety which is the key, opposed to Roddick's sheer power. The now six-time Wimbledon champion served 50 aces in total, the number of service winners improving into the fifth set as the American tired. Roddick runs hard every match he plays, but lacks acceleration and agility. He began to try and guess where Federer's serves were going in the fifth set, too often outwitted.
At 5-5 in the first set, Federer forced four break points on the Roddick serve, but the American survived and, as is so often the case after a player puts so much effort into breaking serve, the Swiss' own serve faltered, Roddick taking the set 7-5.
Roddick remained marginally the better play throughout the second set, storming to 6-2 in the tiebreak. The American seemed to assume the set was in the bag, carelessly allowing his opponent back in, before he shanked an easy backhand volley well wide. Federer won 6 points in a row to level the match. You don't see Federer fist-pumping in those situations, but displaying a strong, quiet determination.
Roddick picked himself up after that disappointment to level-peg in the third set, but the Swiss played a superb tiebreak to push himself infront. Roddick's 'breaker record is sensational, but Federer finds new levels under the greatest pressure. You wonder why he can't play at that level throughout - I bet he couldn't tell you himself. It's something subconscious that only the very best sportsmen have.
Roddick wouldn't lie down though, breaking Federer's serve for the second time in the third game of the fourth set, and serving out to make it two sets all.
The fifth set was epic, well over an hour long. Roddick had two nearly-Championship-points on Federer's serve at 8-8, but the Swiss again held strong under pressure and relentless aces allowed him to put pressure on Roddick. Serving first in the decider was a huge advantage for Federer, who, all the way through from 5-4, knew he was only four swings of the racket away from victory. Two mishits from the American at 13-12 allowed Federer to finally break serve and make history.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Serena Williams' 'Are you looking at my titles?' t-shirt caused a bit of a buzz on the final weekend of Wimbledon. The younger of the Williams sisters now holds three of the four Grand Slam titles - US and Australian Opens and now Wimbledon - but will remain World No.2. The problems with women's tennis run a lot deeper than the bizarre ranking system on the WTA Tour, however. Wimbledon 2009 displayed a stunning gulf between the Williams sisters and the rest of the women's game, in which there is a startlingly lack of both top-level quality and depth. Only Russian Elena Dementieva tested the Americans, Serena surviving a match point to come through in their 2 hour 48 minute semi-final. On the other side of the draw, Venus, comfortably seen off by her little sister in the final, spanked World No.1 Dinara Safina 6-1 6-0. One game won by the World No.1. Embarassing for Safina and the women's game.

Wimbledon Men's Singles Final 2009

First, an apology: I wrote off, a couple of weeks ago in this blog, Lleyton Hewitt. I shouldn't have. The gritty Aussie, popularly dubbed 'the streetfighter', enjoyed a terrific Wimbledon. He beat fifth-seed Martin del Petro in the first week, before back-to-back five setters in the fourth round and quarter-finals. He fought back from two sets down to beat Radek Stepanek - a game that demonstrated the power of momentum on a tennis court, as Hewitt, who'd lost the second set 6-2, broke twice to lead the third set 4-0, and continued on the front foot to win the decider 6-2. Coupled with no shortage of ability was an extraordinary will to win. Perhaps stronger, a will not to lose.

Hewitt was defeated in the last eight though, by Andy Roddick - another man who I've repeatedly written off, out loud, in the past few years. We should hate the All-American after he knocked out the best challenger for a British Men's Singles title for 73 years (sorry Tim), but I can't help but admire him.

A-Rod reached World No.1 after winning the US Open - his only Grand Slam title - in 2003. Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for Roddick, beaten by Roger Federer in 2004 and 2005 Wimbledon finals, and dropping outside the top 10 after the 2006 Australian Open. A succession of injuries pegged him back further, before the fightback began. With the help of his wife Brooklyn and new coach from December 2008, Larry Stefanki, he rebuilt himself both physically and mentally. Today he plays in his third Wimbledon final.

The man with the biggest, and best, serve in the world, Roddick allowed himself to become two-dimensional after 2003, taking playing to your strengths a little too far. He didn't think enough. Big serve, big forehand. That looked like it was going to be enough in the 2004 final. Roddick served sublimely as he won the first set 6-4 and went a break up in the second. Then the rain came down. I don't know what Federer got up to during the rain break, but when he came back, he knew where Roddick's serve was going. The American is a player of habit, adjusting his baggy shirt between every point and bouncing the ball repeatedly between serves. Perhaps Roger cracked the code.

Largely thanks to Stefanki's influence, Roddick's game has become more rounded and sophisticated, without losing those two big weapons. His backhand has improved massively - no longer just a slice to stay in the point and wait for a forehand to come along - and he demonstrated a real comfort at the net in beating Andy Murray in the semi-final. But as much as the American got his game plan right, the Brit got it wrong. Murray made only 45% of first serves during the first set, to Roddick's impressive 75%. There's not a chance Federer will do the same. Murray also played really passively, deciding that the longer the points went on the better. Federer will want to take control of points. Roddick needs to keep up those serve percentages and continue to mix-up his game by approaching the net regularly. Murray did pass him repeatedly though, when he was given the option of cross-court or down the line by Roddick's approach shots. Why not approach down the middle, giving very little angle for the pass?

Everyone was talking about Murray and his chances in the final on Friday, the Centre Court crowd showing their partisan support for the Scot. Roddick has since revealed, with a chuckle, that he pretended shouts of 'Go on Andy!' were for him. Today, everyone's talking about Federer's 15th record-breaking slam title, and the Swiss is always hugely popular at SW19. But the underdog American will love it. I say: 'Go on Andy!' I reckon he owes us one.

Sporting weather

It always amazes me how Britain, and the British, flounder so spectacularly with a little bit of adverse weather. 'Snow blizzard' (think a light sprinkling) in the winter or 'heat wave' (a couple of degrees' rise) in the summer and you hear all the stats about number of school and work days missed, with significant financial consequences.

Sporting events are perhaps the weather's biggest victim. The oldest tennis tournament in the world - The Championships, Wimbledon - has famously suffered atthe hands of midsummer rain showers since 1877. But not anymore. Centre Court's new £80 million retractable roof got its competitive debut on Monday night. Of course, Sod's Law dictated that The All England Club was unable to show off its new toy as the first week remained dry. Amelie Mauresmo and Dinara Safina were the first to play under the roof just before 5pm, but even the meeting of former champion and World No.1 was only a warm-up for the main event. Andy Murray's fourth-round five-set victory over Stanislas Wawrinka- the Swiss nineteenth seed who I predicted as a tricky opponent - was aWimbledon classic. The first match ever played entirely under the roof was also the latest ever finish to a Wimbledon contest as Murray, battered inthe first set, won through 6-3 in the decider. 12.6 million watched on the BBC, as the young Scot re-awoke the passionate vicissitudes of the Tim Henman days. He had been making things look a little too easy at times.

Murray afterwards moaned about the humidity of an indoor Centre Court, whilst the purists mourned the end of the rain breaks that were as much a part of Wimbledon folklore as strawberries and cream. Players had to play the weather as well as their opponent - as Tim Henman found out in his 2001 semi-final with Goran Ivanisevic. Annoyances for spectators ranged from a whole day holding your expensive tickets without seeing any play, to the sound of Cliff Richard singing.

Of course, not too much has really changed. Of the 20 grass courts at Wimbledon, covers stayed on on 19 of them on Monday evening. The big cover over Centre does seem to have provided a 'go on then, if you think you're hard enough' to the weather gods, resulting in a sunny fortnight. Michael Eavis from Worthy Farm down in Somerset may be ringing to thank the Wimbledon staff for keeping the rain away from his Glastonbury festival too.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watching a new sport unfold and take shape is a very rare privilege. It's one that twenty-first century sports fans have enjoyed over the past six years with Twenty20 cricket. Since the first Twenty20 Cup matches were played, in England, in June 2003, the new sport has progressed massively in the popular glare. And it is a new sport. New target audiences, new entertainment techniques, and most interestingly, new, innovative playing techniques.

During work experience with sports journalist Mark Baldwin, I went to the County Ground, Chelmsford, 2nd July 2004, to see the day/night Twenty20 between Essex and Hampshire. It was only the second season of the new format in Britain, and many players on both sides were making their Twenty20 debuts. Essex posted 135, 7.5 an over off the 18 they were restricted to. I remember Mark saying to me that it was a very getable score, the Hampshire batsmen just needed to make sure they got in, before they could start launching the big shots. Nobody had told the away side that though, the Hampshire batsmen trying to hit everything without consolidating. They found themselves 36 for 5 and 95 all out after 15 overs, seemingly completely lost with the subtleties of the new game. Despite this, I continued to hold the belief that Twenty20 was a bit lopsided, essentially a batsman's game. But this summer's World Twenty20 - a competition which marked the coming to full maturity of the shortened format - showed me a balanced game. Ingenuitive bowling is far more complex than just keeping the run rate down, highlighted by Umar Gul's standout 5 for 6 against New Zealand. Successful teams were characterised by consistently sharp fielding, speckled with touches of radical brilliance. Looking at the short game's influence on its longer, traditional counterparts - which of course, should not be the sole way of judging Twenty20's success - and the return of fielding as cricket's third discipline, in need of similar attention as the batting and bowling, can only be good news. With the summer ahead, it also augers well that the Aussies suck at the shorter game!

So, with the IPL and World competitions behind it, how had Twenty20 at home progressed by 2009? We went along to the Riverside to see Durham - Lancashire last Friday. Looking forward to seeing Freddie - who had hit 93 off 41 balls the day before - showing he was fit to take on Australia, and Harmy trying to rejuvenate his Ashes chances with a strong display. But we didn't see any cricket, only some cheerleaders. It rained.

The best fortnight of the year

Wimbledon 2009 started today, without the reigning Men's Singles champion and World No.1 Rafa Nadal. Roger Federer must have done very well to conceal the broadest of grins when he heard the news of his great adversary's absence from the All England Club on Friday evening.

Federer vs Nadal is the greatest rivalry in modern sport. Singles tennis is an almost unparalleled medium for the sporting duel. Sport has always been written about in terms of battle, and in sport, as in the military arena, the one-on-one duel is the ultimate contest. But in golf, you play the course; in darts, you play the board. In singles tennis, you play your opponent. Every stroke one hits is returned with added bite by the other, as punches traded. Every point ends in one player winning and one losing.

Federer vs Nadal is the greatest sporting spectacle of the twenty-first century. Rivalry, as is often the case, has pushed the Swiss and the Spaniard to even greater levels of excellence. Their final at Wimbledon last year was the best sporting contest I've ever seen. Nadal shot into a two-set lead with an incredible display of baseline hitting. Then the rain came down, adding to the drama further, before Federer summoned up all the mental strength he had to claim the third-set tiebreak. It got even better in the fourth-set 'breaker, consistently scintillating levels of tennis encapsulated by the two bravest, most brilliant, passing shots I've seen. If you can't remember them, take a look here. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/7494114.stm At 7-7, Nadal somehow reaches a Federer approach shot to fire a forehand down the line past the Swiss' despairing lunge. At 8-7, Federer hits one of those one-handed backhands that only Federer can hit, outside the tramline as the ball flies past Rafa at the net to drop within inches of the baseline, one of numerous winners the defending champion hit when Championship point down. The hands raised and fists pumped you can see from the crowd don't appear to be any display of partisanship, but rather spontaneous acclamations of the brilliance they're witnessing. Darkness had long began to descend when Federer netted a forehand to give Nadal a 9-7 5th set victory at 9.15pm. This was their apotheosis.

And we wonder if it will ever be as good again. Nadal, who has only just turned 23, has had strapping on his knees for years, the physical nature of his game, which puts enormous pressure on his joints, causing many to question whether he can play on beyond 25. He is a Terry Butcher kind of a tennis player - when he retires from a match, or pulls out of a tournament, let alone Wimbledon, he's not 'a little bit sore', he's really hurt. Federer, meanwhile, is approaching his 28th birthday, in a sport where playing long past 30 is rare. His best days are behind him.

Lessons from the enthralling rivalry between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, with whom Federer and Nadal share strong parallels, are also ominous. Borg was the elegant and unflappable champion, McEnroe the brash young pretender who eventually usurped his adversary at the top of the men's game. Like Nadal, McEnroe had to complete his apprenticeship at Wimbledon before he won it, losing an epic five-set final in 1980, before ending Borg's quest for his sixth straight title the following year. Borg was of course back at Wimbledon last year to see Nadal thwart Federer as he aimed for six in a row. Like their twenty-first century successors, Borg and McEnroe's careers didn't peak at quite the same time. Borg was only three years older but, after being defeated by McEnroe in the 1981 US Open final, he, for want of a better term, lost it and retired from the game, aged 26. Although McEnroe enjoyed a fierce rivalry with Jimmy Connors in the 1980s, it never reached the same level as his encounters with Borg.

The foolish began to write that Federer's defeat a year ago was the beginning of the end for the Swiss. He bounced back to win the US Open two months later. But pictures of Federer in floods of tears after Nadal, by then the World No.1, beat him at the Australian Open this January painted thousands of words. Federer was a broken man. He bore the look of a man who knew that whatever he came up with, the relentless Nadal would always have an answer.

Both Federer and Nadal have been rightly heralded for their sporting behaviour on and off the court. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/matthew_syed/article6465803.ece) But behind that ice cool demeanour, make no mistake, Roger hates Rafa. He must do. It is natural to hate a man who has taken what was yours, as Nadal did with Wimbledon and the World No.1 crown. There must be a certain anger that comes with the divine elegance of one's strokeplay being beaten by the brutish clubbing of an opponent. Nadal will never match Federer in terms of natural brilliance on a court, and yet, a seemingly superior competitor, more consistent and better mentally, he leads the Swiss 13-6 head-to-head. Most fundamentally, these guys live to win, and the opponent you just can't beat must make your blood boil. Watching Roger cry at the Australian Open was embarassing enough to watch: Federer must hate to be reminded of it. But I think watching Nadal walk out onto the Centre Court as the reigning champion on the first Monday of Wimbledon would have made him feel even worse. The greatest relief on Friday night, when he heard the news, might just have been that Roger was able to open the tournament, as he has done now for six years in a row, this lunchtime. Adorned in his latest fashion statement of course.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The other man who has most to gain from Rafa Nadal's withdrawal from this year's Championships is British No.1, World No.3, Andy Murray. The young Scot has matured in front of our eyes in recent years, from petulant teenager to level-headed contender. He looks infinitely more capable of dealing with the inevitable pressure from the British public than Tim Henman ever did. Had they both got through, he would have been scheduled to play Rafa Nadal, who taught him a lesson in the quarter-finals 12 months ago, in the semi-final. Without him, the route to a final with Federer (chickens very hastily counted) - a rematch of last year's US Open decider - looks clear. Murray's accelerated away from Novak Djokovic at World No.3 in 2009, but, with Nadal absent, must make the most of his opportunity to join the very top table, and push on from being the third wheel in the date everyone wants to see.

South Africa 26 Lions 21

A brave second-half fightback was not enough for the British & Irish Lions in the first test against South Africa. Trailing 19-7 at the break, and falling further behind from Heinrich Brussow's try early in the second half, the tourists hit back when Tom Croft crossed for his second score on Lions debut, and Mike Phillips' try forced a nervy last five minutes. The World Champion Springboks held on though, to leave the Lions with it all to do with two tests at altitude to come.

The home side dominated the scrummage from the off in Durban, Phil Vickery enduring a torrid afternoon at the hands of 'the beast' Tendai Mtawarira. Referee Bryce Lawrence continued to penalise the England prop, Ruan Pienaar and Frans Steyn kicking four first-half penalties. Tries at the beginning of each half from captain John Smit and Brussow, who excelled for the Cheetahs against the Lions earlier in the tour, pushed South Africa seemingly out of sight. The Springboks rang the changes and lost momentum however, the tide turning in the Lions' direction in the final twenty minutes. Centre pairing Jamie Roberts and Brian O'Driscoll combined impressively for both of Tom Croft's tries, his second on 68 minutes sparking a rousing late comeback. When Mike Phillips then scored from close range, there was just five points in it with five minutes to play. But the Lions couldn't force a final try, the Springboks clearing to seal victory in the first of a three-test series, although the tourists will travel to Pretoria for next Saturday's game buoyed by their second-half display.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For 60 minutes, the Lions offered no more than a whimper, unable to get anyway near the 15 men facing them in terms of intensity, set-piece technique and, seemingly, preparation. Press surmisings of an 'undercooked' Springboks side were made to look ridiculous, Frans Steyn extending their lead to 13-0 as the clock ticked past the twenty minute mark. Set pieces were a nightmare. Victor Matfield didn't come close to showing why he's heralded as the best line-out forward in the business: he didn't have to. Lee Mears' throwing wasn't good enough, and there was not enough variety in the skipper's line-out calls, Tom Croft noticeably underused. A struggle at the line-out was on the cards though; a battering in the scrummage was not. I called on the referee to allow the scrum to be contested and reward the team on top, and he duly obliged. But it was Phil Vickery who Bryce Lawrence repeatedly punished, the Lions veteran put out of his misery four minutes after half-time following a Tendai Mtawarira-inflicted beating. His replacement Adam Jones was far more at home, putting his hand up for a second-test start.

It should be an all-Welsh front row: Gethin Jenkins remains untouchable, Jones to face up against 'the beast', and Matthew Rees, who busily burrowed and threw-in well once he replaced Mears. When the Lions consolidated the scrum a bit more, Jamie Heaslip looked pretty comfortable picking the ball up at the back. Fourie du Preez is a genius of a scrum half going forwards, but doesn't put great pressure on his opposing 9 and 8 at scrum-time. If the Lions can at least secure their own ball at scrum-down next Saturday, the Irish No.8 can feed the dangerous darting runs of Mike Phillips. But the idea of the scrum as an attacking opportunity felt a hell of a long way off this afternoon. The Springboks exerted pressure and secured possession - but scrum-time was more damaging than that. 12 points from first-half penalties - and it could have been more - were fatal.

It was good to see Paul O'Connell in the referee's ear towards the end of the half, but the damage had already been done. It would be wrong to focus on the referee's performance. Front-row merchants would argue that Mtawarira out-thought as well as out-muscled Vickery. But, especially in games as high-profile as the Lions against the World Champions, can it be a charming quirk of the modern game of rugby union that officials either side of the equator see the contact area so very differently? The Lions can be optimistic knowing that Frenchman Christophe Berdos will be in charge on Saturday.

The tourists' kicking game was not up to scratch either - including from man of the tour-contender Lee Byrne, who found the Springbok wingers' hands nearly every time. Ruan Pienaar, by contrast, expertly sent his opponents, and his pacemen, scampering after numerous well-placed kicks from hand. That said, we saw a lot of very good things from the Lions' backs today. Attack coach Rob Howley will be the happiest of the backroom staff, having seen a real cutting edge from Jamie Roberts and Brian O'Driscoll in particular. The tourists scored three good tries, and will be regretting three more near-misses this evening. When the ball was on the pitch, in play, the Lions were comfortably the better side - not just in the final twenty minutes, but throughout. Support-play was great at times, the red shirts more than competing at the breakdown, where they were expected to struggle. The Springboks are smart though - they will continue to break the game up at every opportunity on the next two Saturdays, and exploit a supremacy at the set piece that was almost professional vs amateur at times.

Ian McGeechan and co. will have to work out what changed for the last twenty minutes, allowing the Lions to fight their way back in to contention, and indeed not a long way from an unlikely victory. As well as Adam Jones suring up the scrum, the comeback coincided with the replacement of David Wallace with Martyn Williams at flanker. The wily Welshman may well be wearing 7 next week. The worrying reality for McGeechan is that it was only after the Springboks removed their main men, their 'test match animals', that the Lions were finally able to roar.

15+7

It's a funny old idea, the British & Irish Lions tour. Sporting series, seasons, careers even are naturally directed towards climactic matches, points, moments that come to define everything that went before them; define teams and players as winners or losers - but very few in such a direct, deliberate, cut-throat fashion as a Lions campaign.

Six games played, their fundamental purpose being to allow Ian McGeechan and his team to decide who are the best (fit) players from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to pull on the red jersey, when it really matters against South Africa. To get 37 down to 15+7. There's been a lot of productive training in between times, but you learn the most about players when they're out on the pitch. Competition for places is always good in any team, but this is a different dynamic altogther - every member of the squad playing for those test spots. McGeechan and co. have done well in ensuring that atmosphere of competition within the squad, revolting against the 2005 Woodward tour, when the effects of drawing a firm line between midweek and test sides were most damagingly manifested. All we've wanted to know for weeks, though, is who's in and who's out. The Springboks gave us their line-up on Tuesday, including Cheetahs flanker Heinrich Brussow and, perhaps, a snif of place-kicking weakness. The Lions 22 for the first test was finally unveiled this lunchtime, the inclusion of the more physical David Wallace over dynamic playmaker Martyn Williams most newsworthy. 12 out of the 15 starters - including Lee Mears who became the only option at hooker after Jerry Flannery was ruled out - were those I would have picked back in April. The form of Tom Croft, not even included in the original tour party, has meant the Leicester man has stolen in on the blindside, Jamie Roberts stood up in the warm-up games to claim the No.12 jersey, whilstUgo Monye has gone forwards as Shane Williams has gone backwards on the left wing in recent weeks.

Six games won, not that that will count for anything unless it goes the tourists' way during just 240 minutes of action on the next three Saturdays. It could only take a minute and a half for all of the optimism to disappear - as in Christchurch four years ago, when Tama Umaga and Keven Mealamu cynically ended Brian O'Driscoll's tour. All the talk of floundering at the breakdown, whether O'Driscoll's past it and captain O'Connell should even be in the side will be stopped in its tracks, or intensified inexorably further, depending on whether we (as it's quickly become natural to call 'us', the Lions of 2009) sink or swim on Saturday. The first twenty minutes in Durban will be an enormous step up from what's come before. The huge 'I just scored against the Lions and I'm never going to forget it' grin sported by Mpho Mbiyozo after his late consolation try on Tuesday tells one story - of plucky provincial sides who have made up the numbers. Nearly every other minute of Western Province's 8-20 defeat, as large chunks of the tour, told a different one - of the Lions being severely tested, and, most importantly, learning important lessons of themselves before the three tests. The tourists' professionalism and, encouragingly, incisiveness of backs such as Tommy Bowe, got them through. Lions tour proper, though: that started today.


The Lions have been going forwards at scrum-time all tour, not least in Tuesday's victory in Port Elizabeth. Welsh referee Nigel Owens rewarded the tourists for their dominance with a, somewhat dubious, penalty try, and showed a commitment to keeping scrums competitive by awarding a penalty when the Lions turned the screw again as late as the 77th minute. Many officials would have let the struggling Kings forwards off that late in a game. So much will depend upon the referee's interpretation as the front fives come together in the three tests. I'm sure the Lions backroom team would love to have Owens back to officiate, but it'll be Kiwi Bryce Lawrence in control on Saturday afternoon. Their selections suggest a lack of confidence in Lawrence allowing the Lions to exploit the scrum, where they will expect to have the upper hand, with Springbok captain John Smit only recently moved to prop, a particular target. The Lions' strongest scrummager, Andrew Sheridan, has not even made the matchday 22, whilst lanky Alun Wyn Jones, no match for the brawn of rivals Nathan Hines and Simon Shaw, has been preferred in the second row. The Springboks are afraid - assistant coach Dick Muir upping the ante by questioning the legality of the tourists' scrum. Let's just hope the officials let the scrum play a part in the series.


Ian McGeechan and Keith Earls reminds me of Sven-Göran Eriksson and Theo Walcott. Walcott, then 17, was included in the England football coach's squad for the 2006 World Cup, but never made it onto the pitch. He was said to benefit from 'the experience', and current England boss Fabio Capello has reaped the rewards, most notably with the winger's hat-trick in Croatia. Although not quite as shocking, McGeechan's inclusion of fellow Irishman Earls in the Lions party raised plenty of eyebrows. The 21 year old had only played twice for his country, and went on to endure a torrid opening to his Lions experience, spilling the ball repeatedly early on in the narrow win over the Royal XV. Sven and Theo didn't have the luxury of warm-up games as Ian and Keith have had, and, in his subsequent appearances, Earls has grown into the Lions shirt, scoring a fantastic try against the Cheetahs and impressing on Tuesday against the Southern Kings. He started at fullback - where he played on his debut for Ireland - and did everything asked of him in defence, as well as making some slicing breaks from deep, when perhaps a lack of experience and naivety in his final pass stopped him from laying on tries. He's showed himself a raw but special talent. McGeechan's bravery might just be Declan Kidney's gain, Earls taking his place amongst a glittering array of Irish wide backs for future years. A potential matchwinner for the Lions in Australia, 2013? Why not? Just the small matter of the World Champs to deal with first... BRING ON SATURDAY!!

British & Irish Lions 26 Western Province 23

Five out of five. That can hardly be bad news for the Lions, a week away from the first test. With the final warm-up game against the Southern Kings on Tuesday just four days before the Springboks in Durban, today was the last chance for all starting line-up pretenders to stand up and shine. Ian McGeechan told them to make his decisions difficult ones.

Andy Powell and Joe Worsley heard him, in the first half at least. Powell did what his does best - smash whatever's infront of him. He got through a lot of yards, repeatedly getting over the gain line, and it was his barnstorming run on the left which knocked the hosts' defence out of shape for Bowe's try on the opposite side of the pitch. Worsley also stood up, taking the ball into contact by running straight, tackling and rucking with verve. His clever little tug on the defender's shirt to allow Tommy Bowe to break through for Monye's try - expertly brought to our attention by Sky Sports' coverage - was reminiscent of the little bits and pieces of gamesmanship which the All Blacks continued to get away with - to my disgust - four years ago. It will depend upon whether the Lions management keep it conservative or slightly more expansive (with Tom Croft) whether Worsley gets the test No.6 spot.

Another man holding his breath for that decision will be Martyn Williams, competing with David Wallace for the openside nod. He was highly influential in the loose today - reminiscent of his Grand Slam 2005 pomp. But Williams comes up short when it comes to the basics of the back row. There was one instance when he almost balked at the prospect of involvement in another ruck, the ball taken in and lost by the Lions due to a lack of support. I had images of Richie McCaw - thankfully not to be faced this time round - and Schalk Burger - thankfully it seems out of at least the first test - powering the Western Province intruder backwards and rucking over, as Williams tamely, meekly leant a bit of a push to the breakdown. He's going to get massacred by the Boks back row if he gets the chance to do that again next Saturday.

Another man who would suffer from the sheer physicality of the World Champions' game is Ronan O'Gara. Through almost no fault of his own, he's never had a chance of landing the fly-half spot, because he's small, uncomfortable in contact, liable to being easily hounded. Stephen Jones then. Jones must have listened to Ian McGeechan too, not realising that he wasn't talking to him. McGeechan didn't want a difficult decision over his No.10; Jones should have been nailed on. All he needed to do today was say 'yes, boss, I'm your man, steady old Stephen.' But he shanked a couple of kicks out-of-hand, missed a couple off the deck and, more worryingly, utterly failed to stamp his authority on the game. I'll make his excuses for him now: the opposition were strong and resilient, the wind strong and unpredictable, and he had his Mike Phillips - the head-and-shoulders choice for the test No.9 jersey - taken away from him.

You want to build your team around your fly-half, who dictates to his backs where his game is going, and whose kicking shuttles his forwards around the pitch, from line-out to line-out. Dan Carter controls games on his own some days, completely untouchable. The closest we've seen up here in the Northern Hemisphere in recent years is Danny Cipriani - in his early, untouchable days, before he became England's prime scapegoat. I'm not saying I want Cipriani lining up next weekend but...

Especially in the high altitude matches, a potent kicking game will be imperative for Lions success; the fly-half the most important man in a red jersey. Lee Byrne's massive boot will help him out from full back, and Rob Kearney's left peg could yet displace Ugo Monye on the wing. Jones' place kicking wasn't too bad today, as inadequate as a fly-half must feel when someone else kicks over the winning points. But his lack of control in the loose was a little bit frightening. Neil Jenkins has been drafted in as kicking coach for the remainder of the tour. He's got a week to sort his fellow Welshman out.

If in doubt... whack it

It wasn't that long ago that Lleyton Hewitt was World No.1. Crazy. No offence intended, but the little Australian's game was all about getting the ball back in, scampering around the court making his opponent play one more shot. It feels like a million years ago. The progression of men's tennis to a bigger, stronger game, where serves are faster and points shorter has been an inexorable one. Racquet technology, greater physicality amongst the players and even a quickening of the courts has had its influence, but a change in mentality might have been a bigger factor.

I think we may have seen another big leap in that direction this week at Roland Garros. Robin Soderling played the game of his life to beat Rafa Nadal, the World No.1 and a man who had never been beaten at the French (who didn't play badly), by hitting 59 unforced errors. His 61 winners were worth it though. I'm watching Belarussian nineteen-year-old Victoria Azarenka push the women's No.1 Dinara Safina to the limit in the third set of their quarter final. Azarenka stormed through the first set 6-1 (Safina had only lost 5 games in her 4 matches before today!) by going for her shots. When you hit clean winners, there's nothing your opponent can do about it. And this is on clay, where getting the ball back has long been the secret. Not any more.

Sky Sports eat your heart out

The last 5,000 words of my degree due in on Thursday, but far too many sporting distractions going on.

Yesterday's FA Cup Final, as well as the first match of the Lions tour, signalled the end of the football season and the start of a summer of sport even Sky Sports haven't managed to over-hype!

We've got...

That Lions Tour, culminating in the three test matches against the Springboks

The tennis - the French Open as a starter, before Wimbledon in less than a month's time

Some faffing around with 20-20 and 1-day cricket before the real deal gets going in July with the Ashes


Andy Murray's convincing victory over Marin Cilic was the most impressive thing I've seen from the young Scot - sorry, Brit - yet. Cilic is bang in form and looked easily the better player at times in the first set, when I was worried for Andy. But Murray turned it on for the big games, and the big points, to snatch both first and second sets, and then cruised away in the third. I was telling my housemate yesterday about spending what felt like every childhood summer watching Tim Henman outplay Pete Sampras in the second week of Wimbledon, and, although my facts may need checking here, repeatedly going down in 4 or so sets having actually won more points than the American. Sampras just had that knack of winning the big ones - the ace at break point down, the long rally at 5-5 in the tie-break. And Andy seems to have got it too.

It wasn't so much the Lions, Ian McGeechan or Paul O'Connell who came shuddering back down to earth yesterday as the British press. Don't get me wrong, I have been devouring the broadsheets' extensive previewing of the 2009 series with delight. The focus has been largely on team-building, camarederie and the like - inevitably the first hurdle to overcome when you're shoving four nations' players in together - and all news has been wholely positive. Almost sycophantically so. I read a fascinating article a few months back, totally unrelated to the Lions - I really must remember my sources - analysing the dynamic of a team, and team morale. Its conclusion was quite simply the fact that team morale will soar when you're winning. Winning's all you've got to worry about. Of course, the Lions did win yesterday, but to say they were underwhelming in seeing off a third-rate Royal XV side is itself unrealistic praise. They were awful. And, to be fair to them, the papers have acknowledged that, whilst picking through to find the positives, such as Lee Byrne's display.

As an English football fan, of course I should be used to an over-hyping of our team's chances going into any major sporting event. I don't know, I think I just expected better from the rugby press. I won't just be watching the action on the field in the coming weeks...

3-0 Lions in the test series, of course! No, but a theory. The business end of this tour is, so everyone says, going to be decided 'at the breakdown', 'in the back row'. And here, if anywhere, is where the Springboks are strongest; Pierre Spies, Juan Smith and Schalk Burger the Lions' probable opponents. So why not put as many flankers and No.8s on the pitch as possible? Not too literally - but the jobs of the back row are tackling, ball-carrying and getting to the ruck quickly and effectively. So, put Tom Croft in his secondary position of second-row, and pick Jamie Roberts - the best ball-carrier we've got - and Brian O'Driscoll - with the rucking powers of a flanker, at least one with a dodgy shoulder - in the centres. Then you've got an actual back row to pick as well: Joe Worsley, Jamie Heaslip and Stephen Ferris. Bet that's not a million miles off the test selections.