Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Monday, August 6, 2007
I've heard it all before....
Jenkins: We must learn our lessons
Eurosport - Sat, 04 Aug 20:32:00 2007
Wales coach Gareth Jenkins vowed his side would learn from their record 62-5 defeat to England at Twickenham.
Jenkins's second-string pack was completely outplayed as England ran in nine tries to one, scored by wing Daffyd James.
Despite England making it quite clear from the early stages how they intended to play, the Wales forwards provided feeble resistance.
"We've learnt a hard lesson but it's a lesson that's not impossible to come back from," said the Wales coach."People back home are going to be totally unsatisfied but we've got to keep our heads up.
"There is no doubt this could have been an emotionally denting performance and we have to protect ourselves from feeling as poor a side as we looked."
Not surprisingly, Welsh defence folded late in the game, the constant tackling clearly taking it toll on the players' energy levels.
"The last 15 minutes we were completely out on our feet and could do little about half-a-dozen tries that were easy run-ins," Jenkins added.
"England dominated as a pack, they really put us under the hammer and there was nothing much we could do.
"We played with 29% of the ball again and you can't play Test rugby without having a share of possession.
"There were a couple of phases where we put rugby together that showed we have a lot to offer.
"But we're not getting enough of the ball and penalties are a major factor, we're too expensive and we give sides like England an opportunity to put the ball in the corners.
"It wasn't attractive from England, to say the least, but it was very effective."
Terence O'Rorke / Eurosport
Eurosport - Sat, 04 Aug 20:32:00 2007
Wales coach Gareth Jenkins vowed his side would learn from their record 62-5 defeat to England at Twickenham.
Jenkins's second-string pack was completely outplayed as England ran in nine tries to one, scored by wing Daffyd James.
Despite England making it quite clear from the early stages how they intended to play, the Wales forwards provided feeble resistance.
"We've learnt a hard lesson but it's a lesson that's not impossible to come back from," said the Wales coach."People back home are going to be totally unsatisfied but we've got to keep our heads up.
"There is no doubt this could have been an emotionally denting performance and we have to protect ourselves from feeling as poor a side as we looked."
Not surprisingly, Welsh defence folded late in the game, the constant tackling clearly taking it toll on the players' energy levels.
"The last 15 minutes we were completely out on our feet and could do little about half-a-dozen tries that were easy run-ins," Jenkins added.
"England dominated as a pack, they really put us under the hammer and there was nothing much we could do.
"We played with 29% of the ball again and you can't play Test rugby without having a share of possession.
"There were a couple of phases where we put rugby together that showed we have a lot to offer.
"But we're not getting enough of the ball and penalties are a major factor, we're too expensive and we give sides like England an opportunity to put the ball in the corners.
"It wasn't attractive from England, to say the least, but it was very effective."
Terence O'Rorke / Eurosport
Just not Cricket
Bish: "Hold your hands up"
Eurosport - Thu, 02 Aug 14:39:00 2007
Eurosport.Yahoo.com's cricket expert Ian Bishop says the England side should take the lead in improving behaviour in the final Test.
More StoriesCook: We didn't overstep the mark
Whatever the players and coaches said after the match, there is no doubt in my eyes that the aggression shown between England and India went too far at Trent Bridge.
The way I looked at it is that any father would not want his son to see players reacting in such a manner and he certainly wouldn't want his own son behaving that way on a cricket pitch - and I think that all of the 22 players would agree with me.
It crossed the line. There is talk of 'mental disintegration' and 'gaining a mental advantage,' but the West Indies team that I was involved in did little of that; we were of the view that the bat and the ball should do the talking.
England should come out and take responsibility. Before the next Test, as a team they should come out and apologise and promise to improve their behaviour on the field.
I know Michael Vaughan quite well, we used to play together a long time ago in Sheffield; Vaughany isn't someone who usually likes to get involved in chat. It was out of character for him.
Now, I don't blame the players for defending themselves afterwards. They have to stick together and defend their approach and their tactics; that is what helps build good team spirit. But, deep down, I think they will all be thinking that the match went over the line of acceptable behaviour.
By all means play the match hard, offer no quarter and play with intensity. But no-one wants to watch players constantly chatting, shoulder-barging each other, dropping jelly beans on the pitch or brandishing bats at each other.
In the end, India were deserved winners. Last week, I spoke in this column about India having to start the match well, to put England under pressure from the first ball to give themselves the confidence to go on and win the match - well, they certainly did that.
Winning the toss helped, but they utilised the conditions well and in the end, their bowling performance in the first innings went a long way to winning them the match. Their lines were much tighter than in the first Test at Lord's, and with regular seam and swing movement it was very difficult for the England batsmen to make a decision on whether to play or not.
That said, I think if England had managed to set India a total of around 180 in the second innings, they might have been able to defend it, as Chris Tremlett showed with his three wickets on the final morning.
He is a bowler that is ideal on a wearing, last-day wicket. But more than that, when I saw Tremlett bowl yesterday I saw a guy who is quickly becoming an ideal bowler in almost all conditions. I think Tremlett will be a tremendous bowler for England if he can stay fit.
He is acclimatising to Test cricket quickly and gaining confidence. His obvious asset is his bounce, but he also gets the ball to regularly move away from the right-hander thanks to a brilliant seam position. Comparisons with Steve Harmison are obvious but he goes for far less runs than Harmison, meaning he can be used as a defensive option as well as an attacking one.
Finally, on to matters closer to home, with the news that the West Indies Cricket Board on Sunday appointed Julian Hunte as their new president.
I am pleased that Mr Hunte immediately spoke about rebuilding the confidence and credibility in the board, although it is going to be a very demanding but not impossible task.
As president, what people don't always realise is that he has to try to convey to and convince a number of people as to his vision of the way forward. Governance by committee can be challenging, and he has a democratic system to abide by therefore presiding over such a large administration is a tremendously difficult task.
I am pleased thar Mr Hunte has identified the topic of confidentiality and issues leaking out in the press, also improving the relations with the players, because these have deteriorated recently.
I wish him all the best. It is unwise to prejudge him and I hope he can make a difference. He will have to call on all his life-skills to be a success.
One of his first jobs will be to try to sort out the row over the proposed Stanford 20/20 tournament in the West Indies. Personally, I don't agree that the tournament is in anyway hampering the West Indies cricket.
The Stanford tournament is moving in a very professional manner. Sir Allen Stanford is giving over US $250,000 to each territory for preparation and development; that is development money that these territories have not been able to comeby in West Indies cricket before.
A lot of cricket pratice facilities at, but particularly beyond the test venues in the Caribbean are not great, as some players echoed during the World Cup earlier this year. Players have never had a truly professional system through which to develop in the sport. This money will go some way to assisting in this vein.
Sir Allen Stanford and the Stanford committee have always sought to work hand-in-hand with the WICB. The allocating of over a quarter of a million US dollars to each territory for development, and additional funds to the board itself shows that he is interested in a mutually beneficial relationship with West Indies cricket.
If both parties can work together, it has the potential to be a good venture for all concerned.
Ian Bishop / Eurosport
Eurosport - Thu, 02 Aug 14:39:00 2007
Eurosport.Yahoo.com's cricket expert Ian Bishop says the England side should take the lead in improving behaviour in the final Test.
More StoriesCook: We didn't overstep the mark
Whatever the players and coaches said after the match, there is no doubt in my eyes that the aggression shown between England and India went too far at Trent Bridge.
The way I looked at it is that any father would not want his son to see players reacting in such a manner and he certainly wouldn't want his own son behaving that way on a cricket pitch - and I think that all of the 22 players would agree with me.
It crossed the line. There is talk of 'mental disintegration' and 'gaining a mental advantage,' but the West Indies team that I was involved in did little of that; we were of the view that the bat and the ball should do the talking.
England should come out and take responsibility. Before the next Test, as a team they should come out and apologise and promise to improve their behaviour on the field.
I know Michael Vaughan quite well, we used to play together a long time ago in Sheffield; Vaughany isn't someone who usually likes to get involved in chat. It was out of character for him.
Now, I don't blame the players for defending themselves afterwards. They have to stick together and defend their approach and their tactics; that is what helps build good team spirit. But, deep down, I think they will all be thinking that the match went over the line of acceptable behaviour.
By all means play the match hard, offer no quarter and play with intensity. But no-one wants to watch players constantly chatting, shoulder-barging each other, dropping jelly beans on the pitch or brandishing bats at each other.
In the end, India were deserved winners. Last week, I spoke in this column about India having to start the match well, to put England under pressure from the first ball to give themselves the confidence to go on and win the match - well, they certainly did that.
Winning the toss helped, but they utilised the conditions well and in the end, their bowling performance in the first innings went a long way to winning them the match. Their lines were much tighter than in the first Test at Lord's, and with regular seam and swing movement it was very difficult for the England batsmen to make a decision on whether to play or not.
That said, I think if England had managed to set India a total of around 180 in the second innings, they might have been able to defend it, as Chris Tremlett showed with his three wickets on the final morning.
He is a bowler that is ideal on a wearing, last-day wicket. But more than that, when I saw Tremlett bowl yesterday I saw a guy who is quickly becoming an ideal bowler in almost all conditions. I think Tremlett will be a tremendous bowler for England if he can stay fit.
He is acclimatising to Test cricket quickly and gaining confidence. His obvious asset is his bounce, but he also gets the ball to regularly move away from the right-hander thanks to a brilliant seam position. Comparisons with Steve Harmison are obvious but he goes for far less runs than Harmison, meaning he can be used as a defensive option as well as an attacking one.
Finally, on to matters closer to home, with the news that the West Indies Cricket Board on Sunday appointed Julian Hunte as their new president.
I am pleased that Mr Hunte immediately spoke about rebuilding the confidence and credibility in the board, although it is going to be a very demanding but not impossible task.
As president, what people don't always realise is that he has to try to convey to and convince a number of people as to his vision of the way forward. Governance by committee can be challenging, and he has a democratic system to abide by therefore presiding over such a large administration is a tremendously difficult task.
I am pleased thar Mr Hunte has identified the topic of confidentiality and issues leaking out in the press, also improving the relations with the players, because these have deteriorated recently.
I wish him all the best. It is unwise to prejudge him and I hope he can make a difference. He will have to call on all his life-skills to be a success.
One of his first jobs will be to try to sort out the row over the proposed Stanford 20/20 tournament in the West Indies. Personally, I don't agree that the tournament is in anyway hampering the West Indies cricket.
The Stanford tournament is moving in a very professional manner. Sir Allen Stanford is giving over US $250,000 to each territory for preparation and development; that is development money that these territories have not been able to comeby in West Indies cricket before.
A lot of cricket pratice facilities at, but particularly beyond the test venues in the Caribbean are not great, as some players echoed during the World Cup earlier this year. Players have never had a truly professional system through which to develop in the sport. This money will go some way to assisting in this vein.
Sir Allen Stanford and the Stanford committee have always sought to work hand-in-hand with the WICB. The allocating of over a quarter of a million US dollars to each territory for development, and additional funds to the board itself shows that he is interested in a mutually beneficial relationship with West Indies cricket.
If both parties can work together, it has the potential to be a good venture for all concerned.
Ian Bishop / Eurosport
Hamilton has his say!
Hamilton tells Dennis: Go f*cking swivel!
Mon 06 Aug, 07:23 AM
The full extent of Lewis Hamilton's temporary falling out with McLaren team boss - and long-time mentor - Ron Dennis came to light ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, revealing the heated post-qualifying exchange that was the apparent cause of Dennis' headphone-throwing display on pit-wall.
While many guessed that the displeasure was directed at Fernando Alonso, after the Spaniard had blocked Hamilton at the session's final tyre change, analysis of the radio traffic between Dennis and his protégé provided interesting reading for Britain's Sunday newspaper buyers.
"The 22-year-old Brit then swore at Dennis over the team radio, blasting: "Don't ever f****** do that to me again"," reported both News of the World and The Sunday Times.
"Dennis hit back, blasting: "Don't ever f****** speak to me like that."
But Hamilton responded: "Go f****** swivel."
Things were rosier following the race, which Hamilton won from a pole inherited when Alonso was demoted five places on the grid for his pit-lane indiscretion, but the Briton admitted that there had had to be a lot of bridge-building in the aftermath of the session, in which he was accused of precipitating the blocking incident by not allowing Alonso through in the fuel-burning phase.
"I came back, everything was quiet, we didn't really speak too much," Hamilton revealed in the post-race press conference, "I went back to my engineers, we did the same job as always, a debrief. Then we had a sit-down with Martin Whitmarsh - Fernando and his mechanic and me and my mechanic - and we went through what the programme was.
"They asked me why I didn't do the part that they want me to, and I explained to them. I said 'I made a mistake, I apologise, it won't happen again. But it has happened, let's forget about it and move on. We are both on the front row, so we can still smile'.
"I thought that, because of the argument I had with Ron over the radio, he was obviously angry, I thought that perhaps he was just teaching me a lesson, so I just took it on the chin. Obviously, yesterday, he wasn't very happy. We just had to be professional, we spoke about it. I told him my views, he respected those. He said 'okay, I respect that because it is part of your personality and perhaps, in your situation, maybe that was better for you or whatever'.
"We came to a mutual understanding and started on a clean slate today. It is not great because of all the problems we are having already with the FIA and with Ferrari. It is just more pressure on the team. The comforting thing is that considering we have all this stuff going on, even this weekend, it just shows how strong the team are because we still came here and still qualified 1-2. We came here and weren't distracted from our job. That's the main thing.
"I think, going on from now, we need to analyse the weekend as always. We need to sit down, I guess, and talk as a team and re-unite. But I have no worries about it.
"I have been working with Ron for nearly ten years now so, okay, it is quite a big event and a problem for the team, but I think the relationship we have is very very strong and something like this is not going to come between us. We will move on and move on to bigger and better things."
Mon 06 Aug, 07:23 AM
The full extent of Lewis Hamilton's temporary falling out with McLaren team boss - and long-time mentor - Ron Dennis came to light ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, revealing the heated post-qualifying exchange that was the apparent cause of Dennis' headphone-throwing display on pit-wall.
While many guessed that the displeasure was directed at Fernando Alonso, after the Spaniard had blocked Hamilton at the session's final tyre change, analysis of the radio traffic between Dennis and his protégé provided interesting reading for Britain's Sunday newspaper buyers.
"The 22-year-old Brit then swore at Dennis over the team radio, blasting: "Don't ever f****** do that to me again"," reported both News of the World and The Sunday Times.
"Dennis hit back, blasting: "Don't ever f****** speak to me like that."
But Hamilton responded: "Go f****** swivel."
Things were rosier following the race, which Hamilton won from a pole inherited when Alonso was demoted five places on the grid for his pit-lane indiscretion, but the Briton admitted that there had had to be a lot of bridge-building in the aftermath of the session, in which he was accused of precipitating the blocking incident by not allowing Alonso through in the fuel-burning phase.
"I came back, everything was quiet, we didn't really speak too much," Hamilton revealed in the post-race press conference, "I went back to my engineers, we did the same job as always, a debrief. Then we had a sit-down with Martin Whitmarsh - Fernando and his mechanic and me and my mechanic - and we went through what the programme was.
"They asked me why I didn't do the part that they want me to, and I explained to them. I said 'I made a mistake, I apologise, it won't happen again. But it has happened, let's forget about it and move on. We are both on the front row, so we can still smile'.
"I thought that, because of the argument I had with Ron over the radio, he was obviously angry, I thought that perhaps he was just teaching me a lesson, so I just took it on the chin. Obviously, yesterday, he wasn't very happy. We just had to be professional, we spoke about it. I told him my views, he respected those. He said 'okay, I respect that because it is part of your personality and perhaps, in your situation, maybe that was better for you or whatever'.
"We came to a mutual understanding and started on a clean slate today. It is not great because of all the problems we are having already with the FIA and with Ferrari. It is just more pressure on the team. The comforting thing is that considering we have all this stuff going on, even this weekend, it just shows how strong the team are because we still came here and still qualified 1-2. We came here and weren't distracted from our job. That's the main thing.
"I think, going on from now, we need to analyse the weekend as always. We need to sit down, I guess, and talk as a team and re-unite. But I have no worries about it.
"I have been working with Ron for nearly ten years now so, okay, it is quite a big event and a problem for the team, but I think the relationship we have is very very strong and something like this is not going to come between us. We will move on and move on to bigger and better things."
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