| Wilkinson to become best-paid player • England's fly-half has racked up 102 points• President will 'pay any price' to keep his No10Toulon have opened contract talks with Jonny Wilkinson, saying they are prepared to make him the best-paid player in the world to keep him on the Mediterranean.The 31-year‑old England fly-half is in his second season with Toulon and his contract, which is worth a reported £300,000 a year, ends in June. The club's president, Mourad Boudjellal, believes that Wilkinson, who has scored 102 of Toulon's 159 points in seven Top 14 matches this season, is already the best investment he has made in a player."I want to extend Wilkinson's contract," said Boudjellal. "I didn't wait until after Saturday's game to begin discussions. It is my main priority but I'm not very worried. The player wants to stay and his president wants to keep him at any price so we should come to an agreement quite quickly."Leicester have been put on alert after the New Zealand Rugby Union said it was looking to secure a short-term contract in Europe for the All Blacks lock Ali Williams, who has not played for two years because of injuries. The Tigers have powerhouse problems with Louis Deacon, Geoff Parling and Richard Blaze all out of action. There are concerns over Deacon, who has a persistent back problem."I want to play some rugby before next year's Super 15," said the 29-year‑old Williams, who has put out feelers in Europe. "I want to be involved in next year's World Cup and I will be right to get back on the field in November."The Sale and Wales prop Eifion Roberts will not be back on the field until next season, ending what chance he had of making the World Cup. He faces knee reconstruction surgery after being injured during the victory over Harlequins last Friday.The Quins director of rugby, Conor O'Shea, has enlisted the help of the international referee Wayne Barnes to help overcome a rash of indiscipline in the closing stages of matches that has cost them three victories this season.Harlequins, who are at home to Exeter on Saturday, and Leeds are the only sides yet to win a Premiership match this campaign and O'Shea points to his players' tendency to concede penalties at the breakdown as a major reason why they are at the wrong end of the table. "We've led with six minutes, 11 minutes and eight minutes left on the clock and we are definitely not a side that deserves to be where we are," said O'Shea, who invited Barnes to the club's training ground this week. "It is the individual's responsibility to put the discipline side of things right. At times we have been overly competitive at the breakdown."Jonny WilkinsonToulonLeicesterRugby unionPaul Reesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Yankees rally to beat Red Sox 4-3 in 10 innings By RONALD BLUM 2010-09-27T04:13:06ZNEW YORK (AP) -- On a night when Mariano Rivera and Jonathan Papelbon both failed to hold ninth-inning leads, Juan Miranda drew a bases-loaded walk from Hideki Okajima in the 10th that gave the New York Yankees a dramatic 4-3 win over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday night.... hosted.ap.org |
Meehan frustrated by defeat to Biarritz Bath 11-12 BiarritzIt was of absolutely no consolation to Bath that the River Avon looked a picture in the sunshine this afternoon. This was a day for ignoring all distractions and winning ugly but when the moment came they were neither sharp nor smart enough to seize it. Having sunk from European view with barely a ripple last season there is already a creeping sense of deja vu at the Rec.Victory in Belfast or the Basque country will probably be required if Bath are to make it out of Pool Four. The realisation is also dawning that, for all their pre-season optimism, Bath are struggling to finish off sides who do not faint at the first sight of an offload. Northampton, Gloucester and now Biarritz have delivered blows to the collective solar plexus and Bath's campaign is starting to wobble.That may sound a trifle alarmist, based on a defeat by a point to opponents who reached the Heineken Cup final last May, but this is not a tournament which offers many second chances. Steve Meehan, the Bath head coach, could not hide his frustration, particularly with a second-half performance that was not notable for its tactical acumen."We've got to grow up," he said, referring to his team's failure to take a drop goal when Biarritz were pinned on their own line. "We should have been ruthless and put it through the sticks."The England prop David Wilson failed to endear himself to the management, getting himself sent to the sin-bin with 10 minutes left, for knocking the ball out of Dimitri Yachvili's hands. Wilson, who was being watched by the national scrummaging coach, Graham Rowntree, was also shown a yellow card at a crucial stage against Northampton last month. Meehan did not mince his words: "We've got to be more disciplined … we're giving away too many yellow cards already this season. Davy apologised immediately but every action in every game is important. Avoid the action and you can forget the apology."It was all reminiscent of Bath's last-gasp home defeat by Stade Français last season, the only difference being that Biarritz barely had to attack. They could have had Paddington Bear at inside-centre rather than Michael Bond, their new Australian recruit, and it would not greatly have affected the stately tempo of their game. With a big front five, Imanol Harinordoquy picking off ball at lineouts and restarts and Yachvili playing the percentages, Biarritz tend not to blast sides apart. But they take some breaking down away from home.It seemed at first as though Bath might have the wit to unpick the padlock. Biarritz received a hammering in the penalty count and Olly Barkley slotted an early penalty before producing a delectable flick pass to Nick Abendanon which prefaced Michael Claassens' seventh‑minute try. It was to prove a temporary high, however, as Barkley missed three of his first four shots at goal and the crowd fell as quiet as hibernating field mice.Had Yachvili been playing for Bath, the outcome would never have been in doubt. Not only does the France scrum-half knock over his penalty kicks with the sweetest of boots but he also seizes on opposition uncertainty more consistently than anyone in Europe. In his time he has kicked England to distraction and here, slowly but surely, he dragged Biarritz back into the ascendancy. It helped that Bath gave away silly penalties for lineout obstruction and failed to hold on to the ball but the floating majesty of Yachvili's final, 45-metre penalty, which dipped over the bar by a matter of millimetres, was uncontestable.Damien Traille, the France centre who was playing his first game for five months, looked suitably happy but no one will derive more pleasure from this result than Iain Balshaw, the former Bath flier who is now recast as an honorary Basque. He will have recognised some familiar failings among those now representing his old club, not least an inability to sustain a quality performance for 80 minutes. Bath will always show exhilarating flashes – Abendanon's retrieving tackle on the lightning-quick American wing Takudzwa Ngwenya took some doing – but the whole is not adding up to the sum of its parts.This is clearly the kind of problem that Sir Ian McGeechan, the club's performance director, is equipped to solve but the home and away games with Ulster in December now loom larger than ever."Those two matches will be very important," said Meehan, who could do with a fit Butch James and Lewis Moody as soon as possible. More than anything else, though, Bath need to think clearer and act cuter. When the going gets tough they can, not unlike cuddly old Paddington's distant cousin Winnie the Pooh, look worryingly like bears with very little brain.Bath Abendanon; Carraro (Bell, 70), Hape, Barkley, Banahan; Vesty, Claassens; Catt (Flatman, 54), Dixon (Batty, 76), Wilson, Hooper, Grewcock (Fernandez-Lobbe, 63), Beattie, Watson (capt), Taylor.Try Claassens Pens Barkley 2.Sin-bin Wilson 70.Biarritz Haylett-Petty; Ngwenya, Gimenez, Bond (Mignardi, 68), Balshaw; Peyrelongue (Traille, 62), Yachvili; Coetzee, Terrain (August, 51), Johnstone (Marconnet, 51), Carizza (Taele, 68), E Lund, M Lund, Harinordoquy, Lakafia (Guyot, 73).Pens Yachvili 4.Referee J Jones (Wales). Attendance 11,631.Heineken CupBathBiarritzRugby unionRobert Kitsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Grieses, father and son, will share ESPN2 booth Bob Griese and his son, Brian, are often told they sound alike. But as they work ESPN2's Minnesota-Purdue game together Saturday, they might ... rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
AP sources: No final decision on women's ski jump By STEPHEN WILSON 2010-10-25T17:49:02ZACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) -- Olympic officials say they need more time to review women's ski jumping and other events before deciding whether to include them in the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.... hosted.ap.org |