Both feet in the rugby camp

Like the third round of the FA Cup and the Ashes test series, the Six Nation’s Rugby is one of those marquee sporting events that I have to mark on the sporting calendar.

But only because I want to avoid it.

I have a curious aversion to the game - and that is not fair on the game itself. As a sport, rugby can be intense, exciting and dramatic. It's the fans I don’t like.

Perhaps that is harsh because the majority of fans are great – especially the Irish, the Welsh and Scots . It’s just the England supporters that boil my blood.

But it’s not all of them. Like the England football fans, where a minority are unbearable, there is a small group of national rugby fans who are so cringeworthy that I can only look at them through the cracks of my fingers.

And what it boils down to is whether you are in the rugby or the 'ruggers' camp. I know where I stand.

It’s the Toff Tofington crowd that I can't abide, the fans who proudly sing Swing Low Sweet Chariot without knowing its roots in slavery and cling to the Calcutta Cup oblivious to its nod to the dark days of imperlaism.

Every rugby fan knows at least one supporter who fits the indetikit.

They are the fans who go to the pub in their replica shirts with upturned collars and loafers and loathe football for its “common” roots.

They pedal the myth that rugby is for thugs but played by gentleman, despite the spear tackling, the eye gouging and the arse poking in the scrum.

They treat rugby like a mark of class. A badge of exclusivity that separates the middle class wheat from the working class chaff.

At least you can watch football down the local, away from the hooray Henrys and Henriettas who are trying to seize the game for themselves.

I will be watching the weekend games but purely from the safety of my own home.

Then I’ll hold my breath before I have to go through it all again next year.

Just an average European nation

British sport officially died in London on November 25th 1953.

Prior to England’s football match with Hungary they had not lost a match against a team outside the British Isles at Wembley since 1901.

The visitors won 6-3 and, after such a loss, you would have thought that the misplaced belief of England’s tactical and physical superiority would have died that day too.

But it didn’t. More than 50 years on the ‘Rule Britannia’ mentality still lives on – and it is rife in almost all sports.

If we really that great we would surely have more than one football and one rugby world title to show for it.

And with the Olympic games just days away there is talk of Britain bringing home a record medal haul.

Aside from the talents of Colin Jackson, Sally Gunnell and Linford Christie there has been very few world class British athletes to shout about in the last 15 years.

Like most people I’m sick of pretending to be interested in rowing or the ‘brave’ efforts of Paula Radcliffe – who will probably quit again if she can’t make the podium.

For the first time in half a century let’s be honest about our prospects.

We won’t win the World cup.

We won’t win the Ashes

And we won’t bring home a sackful of gold medals.

It’s about time we accepted our true place in the sporting world as an average European nation and not a global superpower.

Ecclestone way off the mark on Hamilton abuse

It seems that Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has never been the victim of racial abuse because his comments on the recent treatment of Lewis Hamilton are woefully wide of the mark.

Hamilton was subjected to vile abuse by a small section of the Spanish crowd during testing with McLaren last month.

And Ecclestone has claimed that the FIA's launch of an anti-racism campaign is unnecessary.

"All it does is give attention to people who want attention," he told the BBC.

"I don't think they're fans, and I don't think they were supporting [Fernando] Alonso in particular. They just like to abuse people."

Ecclestone did claim, however, that if the incident occurred again than launching an official campaign would be worthwhile.

But why should Hamilton have to accept such treatment as "an isolated incident".

The unsavoury scenario is unfortunately common across Europe's sporting arenas, with the black players of both England and England under-21 football team subjected to taunts, as well as Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o.

This would never be allowed to stand in other aspects of modern living, such as the workplace, so why should our sports stars be expected to just shrug it off.

It is only when we firmly tackle racists that they will begin to understand that their behaviour is unacceptable.

Sotherton must realise it's innocent until proven guilty

I used to have a lot of respect for Kelly Sotherton.

Despite British athletics being a bit of a joke following the retirement of Linford Christie, Colin Jackson and Sally Gunnell, I was happy to see Sotherton land her World Championship bronze and Jessica Ennis claim a credible fourth place.

But then came the bitterness – the athlete in the silver medallist Lyudmila Blonska had served a two year ban for drugs in 2003.

And this was Sotherton's response: "She has cheated once, who says she is not cheating again?

"We're not interested when she's there, we don't support cheats. It tarnishes our event and we don't support it."

Considering the state of British atletics with the Dwayne Chambers and Christine Ohuruogu debacle, such comments not only seem unbelievably bitter but also incredibly hypocritical.

It may yet turn out that Blonska fails a drug test. If that is the case then such comments can be made but not before then.

She did wrong and served her time and needs to be treated with a little bit more respect.

Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

The only thing that Holyfield will defeat is his legacy

Why is that boxers don't know the meaning of the word retire?

The way I always understood it was that when you retire you gave something up permanently

Evander Holyfield, at the age of 44, has been handed yet another opportunity to lace the gloves for a title shot against Russian WBO champion Sultan Ibragimov.

Not only is the situation farcical but it is also quite dangerous., the last time Holyfield 'retired' in 2004 it was only after suffering a beating at the hands Larry Donald. He was rightly suspended form boxing for medical reasons.

This isn’t his first fight since the Donald incident but I will be the first time he will actually be in a contest - and a potentially harmful one at that.

Most boxing fans will agree that one of the most magical elements of pugilism is its legacy.

Boxers are famous for the memories they have left behind, the legend outlives the man, but too often do boxers comeback for one last failed attempt at glory – just ask Rocky Balboa.

So I implore you Evander, pick up your dictionary and open it to the letter 'r'.

Actually, I'll save you the effort: "Retire - to withdraw from office, business, or active life permanently usually because of age".

Cheating doesn’t end with the ‘Tour de Farce’

I always thought that athletics was the most drug ridden sport in the world but this week I had the chance to see some of the farcical Tour de France.

Cycling is a sport that commands endurance, speed – and apparently steroids.

However, while I was heaping scorn upon cyclists, especially Michael Rasmussen who was too cowardly to even take a drugs test, I began to think of examples of the dark arts at work in other sports.

In athletics Ben Johnson, Jason Gatlin and any Eastern Bloc women of the 1980s were doped up to the eyeballs.

Cricket, just wasn’t cricket, when Hanse Cronje was found guilty of match fixing and Michael Atherton caught ball tampering.

Horse racing is supposedly the ‘sport of kings’ but betting scandals are rife.

Formula One had Michael Schumacher the flawed genius with a penchant for rule bending and now it has wayward designers who deal in espionage.

Even the beautiful game is rotten to the core with diving, match fixing and bungs.

The beauty of sport is the thrill of competition but no-one likes an uneven contest especially if one party has cheated to gain that advantage.

What it comes down to is who has the guts to tackle the cheats?

Who will stand up to those that are ruining world sport?

Only the cycling authorities have the intestinal fortitude to tackle its demons and that puts it in a league of its own.

As funny as it seems other sports could learn from cycling – they should certainly sit up and take note.

I thought you had heart Jamie

Admittedly it's not the the most topical football story but I am still in shock over Jamie Carragher's decision to quit international football.

Personally, I think that Carragher is a good player, not great but good. Like many England internationals he is overrated but that is not really the point - my problem with Carragher is that he won't play for his country because he is not a first team regular.

International football is supposed to be the pinnacle of a professional footballers career. Although the Champions League is probably of a higher standard, representing your country is supposed to be the gold standard.

So, Mr Carragher, upset that he is not better than John Terry, Rio Ferdinand or even a fully-fit Jonathon Woodgate has thrown his toys out of the pram and just quit.

Liverpool fans say that he has heart and passion - obviously they are wrong.

No apocalypse at the Emirates

After two years of will he, won't he Thierry Henry has finally left Arsenal. It is obviously disappointing for any Arsenal fan and any English football aficionado but it is not the end of the road for the Gunners.

I've lost count of the smug Liverpool, Man Utd and Tottenham fans who are predicting the end of days at the Emirates but are mistaken. There is only one irreplacable man at Arsenal - Arsene Wenger.

Although a big club, in many ways Arsenal are a selling club. Since Wenger has been there he has had to sell off many players who simply wanted to move on to pastures new.

Think of the player he has had to sell - Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit, Nicolas Anelka and Patrick Viera and the club has not only bounced back but also found suitable replacements for each of those players among them Thierry Henry and Cesc Fabregas.

The magical thing about Arsene Wenger is that he always has less money to spend than the other big three but Arsenal always compete. Most of the players brought to the club were unknown or out of favour and then reinvented by Wenger.

Arsenal have a young squad now of relatively unknown but highly talented and very promising yougsters - and as long as Arsene remains at the helm anything is possible.

Apathetic West Indies contribute to one-sided series

West Indies bold attempt to chase a world record 455 to win against England in the third test at Old Trafford gave the cricket viewing public a glimpse of what might have been.

The chase fell a valiant 60 runs short and it was the first time in the series that the tourists showed some intestinal fortitude. Had they been this gutsy at the beginning maybe the test series would have been less one sided.

The West Indies were outplayed in the first test at Lords and were destroyed in the second test at Headingly losing by an innings and 283 runs.

The absence of retired ex-captain Brian Lara has been a massive blow and there batting order is obviously much weaker without him. However, his retirement says much more about the state of West Indian cricket than it does about him.

Without him in the time the West Indies have rarely looked like they can bat for a full 90 over day. Without him in the side it is hard to see where there next victory will come from.

The loss of big players was compounded when Ramnaresh Sarwan was ruled out of the remainder the series after injuring his shoulder on the first day of play. However, the tourists suffered a bigger loss…a loss of desire.

Never before have I witnessed a test series where one side has looked like they didn’t care less about the result. The resistance offered by Shivnarine Chanderpaul on the final day was refreshing in a contest where his team-mates, Darren Sammy aside, seemed so indifferent.

Chief among them is Chris Gayle, I have heard Gayle called relaxed, laid-back and cool but I think the best way to describe him is apathetic. He looks like he doesn’t care. He fields lazily, runs a single like he is strolling in the park and bowls no balls from a three step run-up.

The third test was simply a case of to little to late. It was the first time in the series that the visitors went down fighting and they have fully deserved to lose.

It is a tragedy that a side like the West Indies that dominating the cricketing world for two decades cannot produce a side that is capable of challenging the best of them but it is a travesty that the current crop do not seem to understand what it means to represent a team steeped in history and to follow in the footsteps of true legends.

County back in big time after play-off rollercoaster

After five years outside the top-flight of English football Derby County finally made it back to the big time with their 1-0 defeat of West Bromwich Albion.

Stephen Pearson’s first goal for the club came at the crucial moment and the Rams will rub shoulders with the Premiership elite next season.

Personally, as a neutral to the play-offs it was heartening to see the team that finished in third position gaining promotion especially as Derby were so close to going up automatically.

Hence we are faced with the same question we arrive at every May: Are the play-offs fair?

Traditionally, it is the team that is in good form that is victorious and that team has often had a good late run of results to scrape into the play-offs in the first place.

The examples are numerous but one relevant recent case in point is that of Bristol Rovers.
Bristol had an excellent run towards the end of the season winning four times and drawing twice in their last six games, including a 1-0 win over Swindon on the final day, to sneak into the top seven.

Rovers beat Shrewsbury 3-1 on Saturday to gain promotion to League 1 despite finishing sixth.

The plight of Derby was quite different; they were always in contention for the automatic places and without Roy Keane and Sunderland’s heroics they may well have made it into the top two.
They finished the season eight points better than West Brom and deserved promotion but sadly the third place team often misses out.

Despite this obvious injustice, we need only think back to the days before play-offs to remember how dull football could be. After Christmas there were dozens of lower league teams with nothing to play for, as they were not promotion contenders or relegation candidates, and many games were effectively rendered meaningless.

Alternatives to the current play-off system have been touted; most interesting of them is putting the team just outside automatic promotion directly in the final with the other three teams slugging it out for the remaining place. This would give the highest placed team a deserved advantage.

However, we cannot afford do away with the play-offs all together, it is heart-wrenching for any season to come down to just one game, where one moment can be the difference between playing at Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford or Deepdale and Oakwell

As unfair is it may seem it makes football truly entertaining and after all isn’t that the point?

Why didn't Scott warn Steve?

Chelsea have beaten a host of rivals for the signature of highly rated Reading midfielder Steve Sidwell.

Sidwell, has passed his medical and will be joining Chelsea on the 1st July and must be ecstatic to be joining a club of such high stature as he looks to further his career.

I've been lucky enough to see Sidwell play at the Madejski and he is certainly a good player. Far too good for Chelsea reserves.

The whole situation is eerily similar to that of Scott Parker. Parker was in tremendous form for Charlton when he decided to make the move to Stamford Bridge, which was followed by a stint on the bench and then a career resurrecting move to Newcastle Utd.

Think of all the central midfielders that Chelsea have already; Michael Essien, Claude Makelele, John Obi Mikel, Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack. Where will Sidwell fit into this? Mourinho finds it very difficult to drop Lampard even when he is playing badly so it looks like Sidwell is fighting for one place.

I'm sure the lure of Chelsea is probably too strong for a young footballer to resist but the plight of Scott Parker should serve as a cautionary tale to anyone who makes Abrahmovic want to open up his chequebook.

Don't be surprised to see Sidwell turn up at Newcastle in two or three seasons.

Don't pluck Lewis before he has flowered

There is no doubt that Lewis Hamilton has had one of the best starts of any of the F1 drivers this country has produced. He has immense talent but there is a serious of danger of piling too much pressure on him.

The F1 season is only a few races old and already there is talk of Hamilton becoming a world champion in his first season. It's not that it is not possible, it could happen, but it is both unfair and dangerous to put so much pressure and weight of expectation on the youngster.
It is something that tends to happen whenever there is any promising British talent. When Wayne Rooney burst into the Everton first team he was compared with Pele and now the nations hopes sit squarely and unfairly on his shoulders. Andy Murray probably understands what he is going through.

The most sensible thing to do would be not to over hype and add to the pressure that these talented young men feel but to support them.

They media must make them feel like losing is a complete failure and for sportsmen so young it is all part of a steep learning curve.

Let's not to do to Lewis what we did to Jenson.

What to do with West Ham

"7 wins out of 9 games is Champions League form". That is Tony Cottee's opinion of West Ham's great escape which is statistically the finest rescue escape in the post war era.

However, there are still question marks over the registration of Carlos Tevez and whether West Ham should be allowed to retain their place among England's elite.

West Ham were fined £5.5 million for the improper registration of Tevez but it can be argued that it was grossly unfair. Premiership survival has been estimated at a value of £30 million, in that respect surely a points deduction would have been appropriate?

Not according to the Premier League.

In their reasoning of the fine they argued that it would be unfair to the fans to punish them for West Ham's misgivings. That reasoning is illogical and would not deter other teams from playing ineligible players in the future safe in the knowledge it would not result in a loss of league position.

If Manchester Utd had beaten West Ham on the final day it would have been poetic justice for Sheffield Utd who failed to beat the drop and there would not be the prospect of a prolonged high court battle, which will be a terrible blow for English football.

There is no doubt that West Ham were fantastic but they clearly and severely breached the rules. Much of their success is owed to Tevez ,who should never have been allowed to play, and it would be unjust if they were allowed to remain in the Premiership.

If we don't have fair play then the game has no integrity; West Ham have to go.

Arsenal and Liverpool: Up your game

As the football season draws to a close many neutrals must have been left with a sense of what might have been.

It looked like the title race, for the first time in years, would go right down to the last day of the season with Man Utd's visit to Stamford Bridge being a title decider.

Hats of to Sir Alex for wrapping the title up earlier. Man Utd have been brilliant since the beginning of the Premiership fighting of Blackburn, Newcastle, Arsenal and now Chelsea to lift yet another Premiership trophy.

But is English football dull and predictable? Realistically, only four teams can win the title and to be honest for the last few seasons Arsenal and Liverpool haven't really come that close.

Liverpool have been very good in Europe under Benitez but domestically they have been inconsistent.

Arsenal have fared slightly better but are immensely frustrating. This year they completed the 'double' over Man Utd, beat Liverpool on numerous occasions and drew twice with Chelsea. If they had beaten some of the lesser sides that the title race may have been a different story.

The fact of the matter is that almost every season we can predict the top four and that has meant that most of the Premiership, especially teams like Tottenham and Everton are playing for the Uefa Cup.

Liverpool and Arsenal have the ability to make a two horse race into a four horse race if they can improve on disappointing league campaigns next season.

If it would have been great to see another title decided on the last day, imagine how exciting it would be if there were still four title challengers at Easter.

After all, this isn't Scotland.

ICC let world down

I love cricket but from beginning to end the Cricket World Cup was a farce.

Cricket is already an unfashionable sport, especially in England and the World Cup has done nothing to showcase the game and attract the world's youth.

The fixture scheduling was so bad that the West Indies played three days in a row.

The tickets were so highly priced that the ordinary local man couldn't afford to attend.

The final was blighted by a comedy of errors and its final overs were bowled out in the dark.

The tournament was so long that by the end I had forgotten the beginning.

And of course there was the murder of Bob Woolmer.

On this display Cricket will not only continue to be seen as dull but also as a laughing stock... and the ICC is to blame.

Credit where its due

Being an Arsenal fan I have spent every season with my fingers crossed praying for two things. Arsenal victories and Man Utd defeats. To be honest Spurs don't really me bother because they haven't been our title rivals for years.

Yesterday I had to give credit where it was due. As much as I was depressed at the manor in which Man Utd tore Roma to shreds I had to admire the pure class they displayed. Last season he was a one trick pony but Cristiano Ronaldo has been the finest player in the Premiership this season.

As far as I am concerned Man Utd, because of the way they play, (obviously not as attractive Arsenal but pretty nonetheless) are the lesser of two evils, the other being Chelsea and if they win the title it would be some achievement considering the sold Ruud Van Nistlerooy and only brought in Michael Carrick.

They better not win the treble though!