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.