| Greene to perform at Mountain Lions opener The Sacramento Mountain Lions have landed local musician Jackie Greene to perform before the football team’s first home game Sept. 25 and during halftime for the game. feeds.bizjournals.com |
Michigan's Robinson injured knee vs Bowling Green By LARRY LAGE 2010-09-25T19:10:37ZANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- Michigan lost its star quarterback early against Bowling Green and was hoping he avoided a serious knee injury.... hosted.ap.org |
Late field goal pushes Oklahoma State past Texas A&M 38-35 Shaun Lewis intercepted Jerrod Johnson in the final seconds and Dan Bailey kicked a 40-yard field goal as time expired to lift Oklahoma State ... rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Ospreys look to add ruthless streak to advance in Heineken Cup • Late defeat by Toulon has taught Ospreys a lesson• Jerry Collins: 'Lose to London Irish and we lose the pool'Ospreys are one of the enigmas of the Heineken Cup. They are made up entirely of international players, eight of whom toured South Africa with the Lions last year, yet have not got beyond the quarter-finals and have developed a tendency to blow tight matches.That was the case at Toulon last weekend. Ospreys were leading in the closing minutes before a cut-out pass by Jonny Wilkinson found Paul Sackey and the England wing had the pace and strength to deny the Welsh region what would have been a significant victory."We threw it away," said the centre James Hook, who was making his first start of the season after recovering from a shoulder operation. "It was there for us and we could not close it out. It's been like it for the last few years; we just cannot get over the final hurdle. We have to be more ruthless."Ospreys entertain London Irish, the Premiership leaders, . If the region's away form in the Heineken Cup has cost them in recent years – they have gone out at the quarter-final stage in the past three seasons after losing away to Saracens, Munster and Biarritz – their last defeat at home in the tournament was five years and 13 matches ago."The Heineken Cup is a tournament about history as much as pedigree," the Ospreys forwards coach, Jonathan Humphreys, said. "It is very rare that you get a team coming from nowhere to win it. It is a school of hard knocks and you have to go through them. Munster endured a lot of frustration before winning the trophy and that is the way it is. We know what it's about now, having grown in experience."We have talked this week about the way we manage games at the end. We should have come away with the four points at Toulon but we are still in there and a win over London Irish would put us back in the driving seat. We were criticised for not beating Toulon, just as we were last year when we drew at Leicester, but I take that as a back-handed compliment. They are two top sides and it is a tribute to us that people think we should have beaten them both away."The Ospreys wing forward Jerry Collins believes that failing to beat London Irish would all but end their prospects of topping a pool he feels will yield only one quarter-finalist because of the quality of the four teams in it."I think the two runner-up quarter-finalists will come from the groups with Italian teams in them," the 48-cap All Black said. "We know we have to win our three games in Swansea: lose to London Irish and we lose the pool. We did not get enough ball against Toulon and we have to improve on that. To go as close as we did with 30% possession shows what we are capable of: imagine what would have happened if it had been 50%."London Irish are the form team in the pool and they like to play rugby. They are probably the opposite of what you would expect from an English side."They can beat anyone, anywhere and I know all their South Seas Islands players. There will be texts about me cooking them dinner after the game but during it we will try to smash the crap out of each other."Wales announce their squad for the autumn internationals on Monday. Attention will be on whether Ryan Jones retains the captaincy and the No8 will make his first start of the season for Ospreys tomorrow night after recovering from a leg injury, but in the second row with the in-form Jonathan Thomas keeping him out of his preferred position."Jonathan has done extremely well in Ryan's absence," Scott Johnson, the Ospreys director of rugby, said. "Saying that, we have missed Ryan's contributions, so we wanted him in the team. Putting him in the second row, rather than JT, means we are only changing one position and that is better for the team given the short turn-around this week."Ryan is a great team man and he has no issue at all with doing this. I promised JT at the start of the season that once a bloke gets the shirt, it's up to the others to get it off him, and we are supporting his form as a coaching team. Ryan has played in the second row before and I believe that after the World Cup we'll probably see a bit more of him there."OspreysHeineken CupRugby unionPaul Reesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
New Zealand 24-10 England New Zealand 24-10 EnglandA slow start condemned England to defeat in the first match of the Four Nations here in Wellington but for a few minutes in the second half it looked as though the unregarded young side could shock the world champions.The tourists trailed 18-0 early in the second half – and it could have been a lot worse – before quick-fire tries from James Roby and Gareth Widdop briefly gave them hope. That was increased when Kevin Brown touched down Sam Tomkins's kick but the stand-off was penalised by the video referees for pushing Greg Eastwood as the pair chased the ball.New Zealand then went upfield and their captain, Benji Marshall, scored the try that finished off England, who must beat Australia in Melbourne next Sunday to keep alive their hopes of reaching the final on 13 November.Steve McNamara, the England coach, said: "We knew all along it was going to be a tough competition. We've made it a little bit tougher for ourselves but we're certainly not disheartened."Tries from Junior Sa'u and Lance Hohaia and two goals from Marshall gave New Zealand control they never really looked like relinquishing after England, who were ponderous from the start, produced an error-strewn first half.They might have thought their luck was in when the Kiwi winger Manu Vatuvei went off after two minutes after breaking his arm while making a tackle but the Kiwis opened the scoring a minute later through Sa'u after he moved on to Vatuvei's wing and took Simon Mannering's pass to go around the outside of a bunched defence.With the Kiwis in control, Shaun Kenny-Dowall reached the line only to be held on his back and Sa'u went over but was recalled for a forward pass.Marshall increased his side's lead to 6-0 with a penalty and he created a second try seven minutes from the break, getting Jason Nightingale into space for Hohaia to go over by the posts. Marshall's second goal made it 12-0. England should have made more of their only break of the half through Sean O'Loughlin but they failed to take advantage.Three minutes into the second half New Zealand capitalised on Widdop fumbling Marshall's high kick 10 metres from his own line and from the scrum Kenny-Dowall brushed off three poor tackles to score a third try.Marshall's third goal made it 18-0 but England put their game together at last with two tries in three minutes. James Roby touched down his own grubber kick that bounced off a post and from the restart the tourists produced the best try of the match. Michael Shenton took Joel Tomkins's pass inside his own half to race into space, Brown was supporting inside and he sent Widdop over.But that was as good as it got and Marshall's try and touchline conversion snuffed out the comeback but he was suitably complimentary to his opponents. "A lot of people wrote them off but it was physical and a lot of the boys are feeling hurt," he said. "They were hard to hold at times."Rugby leagueNew Zealand rugby leagueEngland rugby league teamFour Nationsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |