Weekend Round up and team of the week
There is no team of the week this week, as not one team has performed above its ability. There have been good wins and woeful draws, and here is the summary.
Football - Cambridge United continue their unbeaten run with a 1-1 draw at Tamworth. It is difficult to assess whether this is a good or a bad result. Getting a point away from home is always a good result, especially against a team fighting at the wrong end of the table. Good work from Craig Westcarr to score his second goal in a week to put Cambridge ahead within 5 minutes. Unfortunately it only took Tamworth 7 minutes to equalize but from then on stout defending resulted in another point for Cambridge. This leaves us requiring around four points to guarantee Conference football next season. Also on a positive note Richie Hanlon got 30 minutes playing time, as did the returning Mark Peters. It will now be interesting to see how Rob Newman goes about team selection over the next few weeks. He has made it very clear that players are playing for contracts, but to make that statement he needs to be able to give them all enough time do produce the goods. This could mean not selecting the same team consistently and that could lead to poor end of season form. One of the biggest problems we have had this year is a lack of consistency. To give everyone a fair chance there will need to be some changes. I will be interested in how he deals with Fola Onibuje, top scorer so far but with a poor disciplinary record he will not be an automatic choice. The potential is there, I just hope it has a chance to shine.
Rugby Union - A cracking win for the Northampton Saints over a Gloucester side pushing for a top three finish. It was a very tight game with the Saints coming out 21-20 winners. The pack did a great job of competing with the famous Gloucester pack and helped build the foundation for this win. They hung on at the end but managed to pick up the four points. They now sit eight in the table and have three winnable game coming up. It will be hard to see them finishing anything higher than sixth, but if they get on a roll who know what is possible. This is also the first win they have had during International week, so they are going to have to develop strength in depth if they want to do better next season. It will be important they do this next season with the 2007 season having the World Cup in it they will be missing their internationals for a lot longer that year.
The Wellington Hurricanes got out of jail early on Sunday scoring two tries in the last five minutes for the come behind victory over the Stormers. In the grand scale of things this is a massive victory and may be the difference between finishing in the top four or just outside the top four. It was really important for the Hurricanes to win this game after last weeks disappointing result against the cheetahs and will set them up well for next weeks crunch game against the Bulls. If they can return from South Africa having won 2 out of 3 games it will have been considered and excellent tour. They still have difficult games to play in like the Crusaders and the Brumbies but if they can continue to produce try this kind of try scoring form and scoring 20+ points a game, they will always be in with a shout.Now if they could just find a reliable kicking fly half all would be well.
I have nothing to say about England, quite frankly they were bollocks and never even came close to troubling France. I think it will be the most optimistic England supporter who thinks we will still be world champions in 2007. France beat us comfortably and I think there will need to be a change of coach if we are ever going to improve from this. WE haev managed to beat a very poor Welsh side and a much improved Italian side. We will be underdogs for the game against Ireland and look like finishing thrid or fourth in the Six Nations. Back to the drawing board big time for England, I think its time to change the old guard
Rugby League - An abysmal start to the new NRL season from the Warriors. They have taken their four point and $430,000 fine on the chin and have stated that they will not contest it any further. This will at least bring closure to the matter and allow for everyone to concentrate with what is going on, on the pitch. An opening day defeat to the Melbourne Storm by 6 points has not helped matters. After failing to score in the first half they battled well to outscore the Strom in the second period but had given themselves far too much to do. Hopefully now everything is more settled the team can start to produce the goods on the field. However if they have any ambitions of finishing outside the bottom two they are going to need to win their home games. This is the biggest advantage they have as all the other teams have a long way to travel to get their. Next week will show whether or not this season has just been written off
The Warrington Wolves stood up and were counted on Friday night and recorded a much needed victory over a struggling Wigan side. This leaves them sixth in the table and they will need to start to build some momentum now to try and close the gap between the top four teams. Its hard to say what the mood in the camp would be had they lost this game, but the fact is they didn't. They must now make sure that they win their next two games to set themselves up for the tough encounter with Bradford. Lee Briers will need to be kept fit and on the top his game as currently he seems to be the player who is making the team tick. Time will tell about how much the Wolves have improved, but for now I think they are starting to find their feet, it is just a shame that it took them three defeats to do it.
Cricket - The England team have done their best to gift India victory in the second test. In a game that seemed to be destined to end in a draw, England have ended day 4 on 112-5 with a lead of around 80 runs. It is massively important that Flintoff and Jones bat for at least the majority of the first session and put this game beyond India. They will not be able to bowl them out as the wicket will now favour the spinners not the seamers in the England squad. If they can take this game to a draw they have a great chance of winning the series with just one test to come. There were disappointing scores from bioth openers and a dodgy dismissal of Pieterson has left them in this precarious position. Lets hope they come out and bat sensibly tomorrow to keep them in the series come the final test.
Football - Cambridge United continue their unbeaten run with a 1-1 draw at Tamworth. It is difficult to assess whether this is a good or a bad result. Getting a point away from home is always a good result, especially against a team fighting at the wrong end of the table. Good work from Craig Westcarr to score his second goal in a week to put Cambridge ahead within 5 minutes. Unfortunately it only took Tamworth 7 minutes to equalize but from then on stout defending resulted in another point for Cambridge. This leaves us requiring around four points to guarantee Conference football next season. Also on a positive note Richie Hanlon got 30 minutes playing time, as did the returning Mark Peters. It will now be interesting to see how Rob Newman goes about team selection over the next few weeks. He has made it very clear that players are playing for contracts, but to make that statement he needs to be able to give them all enough time do produce the goods. This could mean not selecting the same team consistently and that could lead to poor end of season form. One of the biggest problems we have had this year is a lack of consistency. To give everyone a fair chance there will need to be some changes. I will be interested in how he deals with Fola Onibuje, top scorer so far but with a poor disciplinary record he will not be an automatic choice. The potential is there, I just hope it has a chance to shine.
Rugby Union - A cracking win for the Northampton Saints over a Gloucester side pushing for a top three finish. It was a very tight game with the Saints coming out 21-20 winners. The pack did a great job of competing with the famous Gloucester pack and helped build the foundation for this win. They hung on at the end but managed to pick up the four points. They now sit eight in the table and have three winnable game coming up. It will be hard to see them finishing anything higher than sixth, but if they get on a roll who know what is possible. This is also the first win they have had during International week, so they are going to have to develop strength in depth if they want to do better next season. It will be important they do this next season with the 2007 season having the World Cup in it they will be missing their internationals for a lot longer that year.
The Wellington Hurricanes got out of jail early on Sunday scoring two tries in the last five minutes for the come behind victory over the Stormers. In the grand scale of things this is a massive victory and may be the difference between finishing in the top four or just outside the top four. It was really important for the Hurricanes to win this game after last weeks disappointing result against the cheetahs and will set them up well for next weeks crunch game against the Bulls. If they can return from South Africa having won 2 out of 3 games it will have been considered and excellent tour. They still have difficult games to play in like the Crusaders and the Brumbies but if they can continue to produce try this kind of try scoring form and scoring 20+ points a game, they will always be in with a shout.Now if they could just find a reliable kicking fly half all would be well.
I have nothing to say about England, quite frankly they were bollocks and never even came close to troubling France. I think it will be the most optimistic England supporter who thinks we will still be world champions in 2007. France beat us comfortably and I think there will need to be a change of coach if we are ever going to improve from this. WE haev managed to beat a very poor Welsh side and a much improved Italian side. We will be underdogs for the game against Ireland and look like finishing thrid or fourth in the Six Nations. Back to the drawing board big time for England, I think its time to change the old guard
Rugby League - An abysmal start to the new NRL season from the Warriors. They have taken their four point and $430,000 fine on the chin and have stated that they will not contest it any further. This will at least bring closure to the matter and allow for everyone to concentrate with what is going on, on the pitch. An opening day defeat to the Melbourne Storm by 6 points has not helped matters. After failing to score in the first half they battled well to outscore the Strom in the second period but had given themselves far too much to do. Hopefully now everything is more settled the team can start to produce the goods on the field. However if they have any ambitions of finishing outside the bottom two they are going to need to win their home games. This is the biggest advantage they have as all the other teams have a long way to travel to get their. Next week will show whether or not this season has just been written off
The Warrington Wolves stood up and were counted on Friday night and recorded a much needed victory over a struggling Wigan side. This leaves them sixth in the table and they will need to start to build some momentum now to try and close the gap between the top four teams. Its hard to say what the mood in the camp would be had they lost this game, but the fact is they didn't. They must now make sure that they win their next two games to set themselves up for the tough encounter with Bradford. Lee Briers will need to be kept fit and on the top his game as currently he seems to be the player who is making the team tick. Time will tell about how much the Wolves have improved, but for now I think they are starting to find their feet, it is just a shame that it took them three defeats to do it.
Cricket - The England team have done their best to gift India victory in the second test. In a game that seemed to be destined to end in a draw, England have ended day 4 on 112-5 with a lead of around 80 runs. It is massively important that Flintoff and Jones bat for at least the majority of the first session and put this game beyond India. They will not be able to bowl them out as the wicket will now favour the spinners not the seamers in the England squad. If they can take this game to a draw they have a great chance of winning the series with just one test to come. There were disappointing scores from bioth openers and a dodgy dismissal of Pieterson has left them in this precarious position. Lets hope they come out and bat sensibly tomorrow to keep them in the series come the final test.
posted by Sports Potato at 2:00 PM
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