Irishman denies Wales, City overtake United, Vettel and Matt Neal win again!

RUGBY WORLD CUP – An outrageous decision by referee Alain Rolland cost Wales a place in the World Cup final.

The Irishman sent-off skipper Sam Warburton – my player of the tournament – in the 20th minute for a ‘dangerous tackle’ in a 9-8 defeat by a poor French team.

“No way was my tackle malicious” said a disappointed Warburton while back in the TV studio, these comments were made by ex-rugby internationals: “Absolutely disgraceful”… “An unbelievable decision”… “It was never a sending-off offence”… and “The ref got it wrong – he ruined the game.”

 

Everyone who saw the game – the French excluded of course! – were stunned when the red card was produced which effectively cost the Red Dragons the match. Although they scored the semi-final’s only try through Mike Phillips, playing with a man short for an hour was a tall order. However, they bossed the game for long periods, had more possession and two place-kicks missed by inches, one falling under the bar, another hitting an upright.

The other semi saw New Zealand beat Australia 20-6. The hosts now face France in Sunday’s final leaving unlucky Wales to play the Aussies in the 3rd/4th place game tomorrow (Friday).

FOOTBALL

Manchester City thumped Aston Villa 4-1 at the weekend to go top of the Premiership, ahead of neighbours United who drew 1-1 at Liverpool. Chelsea beat Everton 3-1 to stay third. WBA won the Black Country derby (2-0 v Wolves) and the Sheffield derby ended 2-2. Southampton, Charlton, Crawley and Rangers top their respective Divisions.

England will play World Champions Spain at Wembley on the 12th November and Sweden three days later. Why?

SPORTS EXTRA

* While Sebastian Vettel breezed to victory in the Korean Grand Prix on Sunday, his 20th career win, British Indycar driver Dan Wheldon (33) was tragically killed in a 200-mile crash in Las Vegas.

* Black Country-born Matt Neal (from Stourbridge) has won his third touring car championship, having previously been number one in 2005 and 2006.

* Aussie Casey Stoner clinched the MotoGP world title on home soil after reigning champion, Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo, withdrew through injury.

* Hannah Whelan, ninth at the World Gymnastic Championships in Tokyo, is now 10th in world rankings, the highest position by a British female since Beth Tweddle’s 8th place in 2006. England’s Louis Smith won bronze in the men’s pommel horse event.

* Liverpool want to negotiate their own overseas TV deals. In two years time, £3.2b will be divided between Premiership clubs but Liverpool would like to follow Spain and be able to arrange coverage of a home game with overseas broadcasting companies.

At present the PL sells ‘matches’ to 98 broadcasters covering 212 countries. Fourteen PL clubs would need to vote in favour of this new arrangement.

* The Euro 2012 Championship play-offs (over two-legs in mid-November) are: Republic of Ireland v Estonia, Portugal v Bosnia, Croatia v Turkey and Montenegro v Czech Republic. The draw for the competition proper will be in December. Wayne Rooney, banned for three games, is out of England’s group matches.

* The Government has asked the FA to reform its policy… tackle the level of clubs debts, change the committee, overall the board entirely and bring in new licensing laws.

* Nine jockeys, including Tony McCoy, were banned for ten days for failing to obey a ‘race stop flag’ at Wetherby. And twelve jockeys have been suspended for ‘extensive whip use’, one being Belgium’s Christophe Soulimon who also had his £50,000 fee withdrawn after ‘whipping’ Cirrus Des Aigles to victory in the £1.3m Champion Stakes at Ascot.

* The Queen had her first winner in France for 11 years when Humdrum won in Maisonnes Laffiete.

* Boxer David Haye has retired after 25 wins (23 knock-outs) and two defeats.

* England’s tired-looking cricketers lost the first ODI v India by 126 runs and the second by eight wickets.

DID YOU KNOW? Last week, Mickail Osinov of Russian Division 2 side FC Mitos, scored the fastest ever goal in football history – after just 3.16 seconds v Olimpia Gelendzhik. In 2004, Frederico Guedes netted for America Miniero in 3.17 seconds of a Brazilian Copa São Paulo match against Vila Nova.

Tel: 950 069 220 or tony_matthews@live.co.uk

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