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Eddie Jones has revealed that Denny Solomona is likely to miss England’s tour to Argentina due to a foot injury after omitting the New Zealand-born wing from his squad to face the http://www.ramsofficialsonline.com/Marshall_Faulk_Jersey_CheapBarbarians next Sunday. Solomona will be further assessed on Monday but Jones, who has handed a surprise call-up to Richard Wigglesworth, conceded he was not optimistic over the 23-year-old, who has scored 11 tries in 15 matches for Sale since his controversial cross-code transfer in December. Marland Yarde and Mike Haley are also in the 29-man squad preparing to face the Baa-Baas and are standing by to go to Argentina in place of Solomona, who qualified to represent England in March having completed the required three-year residency period. “He’s got a mid-foot strain. It puts him in doubt [for Argentina],” Jones said. Thrilling Premiership semi-finals hint at a Twickenham treat yet to come Read more “He’s going to see a specialist tomorrow and we’ll know definitely then. We’re not hopeful, we believe it’ll be pretty doubtful that he goes on tour. It’s bad luck for the kid because he did really well in the couple of training sessions I saw him. He’s a nice boy and he’s got potential to be a good player for us.” Last October Anthony Watson, Jack Nowell and Sam Jones all picked up injuries in a training camp on the south coast and Jones said: “It’s Brighton mate, they all happen at Brighton.” With Solomona’s injury, Exeter, Wasps, Northampton and London Irish all still in action this week and Piers Francis only joining the squad in Argentina, Jones is still without 15 of the 31-man touring party he named last month. He has, however, been boosted by the availability of Bill Barber Authentic Jersey the Bath-bound flanker Sam Underhill, Leicester’s Ellis Genge and the Saracens pair Alex Lozowski and Nick Isiekwe, while Wigglesworth is selected in an England squad for the first time since the 2015 World Cup. He replaces the New Zealand-born Willi Heinz, whose inclusion in the Brighton camp raised a few eyebrows. “It’s an opportunity to have a look at him and that’s what the Baa-Baas game is for,” said Jones, who will name a new captain with Dylan Hartley still on club duty with Northampton. “He’s always been a good player; I think he’s been playing a little bit better. I’ve always felt that, if we needed another senior half-back, we’d have a look at him and nothing has changed there.” Advertisement Asked if the 33-year-old Wigglesworth needed any persuasion to join the squad, Jones said: “I’ve spoken to him a few times previously. It’s a normal thing, when you’re English and play English club rugby, you want to play for England. Only one player has knocked me back. I won’t name him but you can work it out for yourself, he’s playing in France.” Wigglesworth will not go to Argentina except as an injury replacement – Danny Care has been nursing a stomach problem but is due to return to full training on http://www.officialoriolestore.com/Darren_Oday_Jersey Monday – with Jones confirming he will not change the squad he named last month unless he needs to. Last week Jones lamented that he was working with some players that were “seventh or eighth choice” in their positions and, while he has been boosted by the availability of losing Premiership and Pro12 semi-finalists, add in the 15 players in camp with the British & Irish Lions and Jones’s squad for the team to face the Barbarians still has a rookie feel to it. At hooker, for example, with no Hartley or Luke Cowan-Dickie, he must choose between the uncapped Rob Buchanan and Jack Singleton. “They’ve both got a lot of work to do. Both have got a good deal of potential but young Singleton looks like he likes his English breakfasts too much,” said Jones, who referenced Ben Curry, Will Spencer and Jamal Ford-Robinson as uncapped players who have impressed in the camps in Brighton and Teddington during the past week.Jones will also get the chance to make a closer assessment of Underhill, a specialist openside flanker tipped for a bright future. “It’ll be good to have a look at him,” Jones said. “We’ve watched him a lot for the Ospreys and we feel he’s got the opportunity to take the next step forward. I think he’s a level-headed boy, he’s committed, he’s Rickey Henderson Jersey self-driven. He’ll handle all the hullabaloo and get on with being a good rugby player.” George Ford, meanwhile, is likely to start on kicking duty for England for the first time since this end-of-season fixture 12 months ago, when Wales were the opponents. He missed six out of seven kicks at goal and was booed by the Twickenham crowd but Jones has no concerns. He said: “ I’ve seen Owen Farrell have bad days but I’m confident George is a good enough goalkicker
Friday 20 June 2006 and 66,000 people, mostly clad in Germany colours, have packed Enos Slaughter Youth Jersey into Munich’s shiny new Allianz Arena on a warm evening to watch the first match of the World Cup. The crowd is bouncing, buoyed by the home team’s tenacious start and still drawing breath following a 30-yard shot from Thorsten Frings that narrowly missed the net. Noise levels begin to swell again as Philipp Lahm picks up a loose ball wide on the left. He is faced with two Costa Rica defenders. Bastian Schweinsteiger is offering the overlap, but Lahm drops his right shoulder and shifts the ball inside quickly with his right foot, leaving Danny Fonseca on his backside. The Costa Rica player lands heavily and, as he glances over his shoulder, the next thing he sees is Lahm opening up his body and winding back his right foot. Lahm blasts the ball past everyone in the area and into the top right corner, the ball kissing the post on its way in. Six minutes in, and the first chapter of Germany’s Sommerm?rchen has been written. Lahm was an instrumental and respected footballer but, even in that moment, as he scored the opening goal at a World Cup in his home city, few of the millions watching would have predicted just how important he would become for his club and country over the next decade. Born in Munich 33 years ago, Lahm began his long career with Bayern when he joined the youth team in 1995 from local club FT Gern München. Having started http://www.officialcardinalsbaseball.com/authentic-54-jamie-garcia-jersey.html life as a forward, Lahm soon found his home as a full-back, mostly operating on the left. Despite being an obvious talent, his path into Bayern’s first team was blocked by two formidable French defenders, Bixente Lizarazu and Willy Sagnol. So the one-club man began his career on loan at another club, a short hop from Bavaria to Baden-Württemberg. A year in the life of Marco Russ: a failed drugs test, cancer and a hero's return Read more Hermann Gerland, now Carlo Ancelotti’s right-hand man, was then in charge of the Bayern reserves and felt Lahm was too good to play with his team in the third division, so he recommended him to VfB Stuttgart manager Felix Magath, who duly organised a two-year loan deal. After making his Bundesliga debut on the opening day of the 2003-04 season, Lahm soon became Stuttgart’s first-choice left-back. Aside from a couple of injuries, his time in Stuttgart was a success. He returned to Munich having made 53 appearances in the Bundesliga and picked up some Champions League experience. Loan moves do not always work out, but Lahm’s stint on the banks of the river Neckar paid dividends for all parties involved, not least Bayern, who suddenly had a new full-back, and a German international to boot. Lahm’s form in Stuttgart had catapulted him into the senior Germany squad, where he soon claimed http://www.authenticmilwaukeebrewers.com/Travis-Shaw-Jersey ownership of the left-back slot. He had won 15 caps for his country before his Bayern Munich career had properly begun. It would have been more but for an injury sustained towards the end of his loan spell, which not only temporarily curtailed his international progression but also delayed his long-awaited Bundesliga debut for his parent club. Eventually, Lahm took to the pitch for Bayern in November 2005 and established himself as the club’s left-back, ushering Lizarazu into retirementAs with the majority of players of Lahm’s generation, winning the World Cup in Brazil has to be seen as the pinnacle, but it was the 2006 tournament on home soil that elevated Germany back on to the world stage after their dour showing at Euro 2004, where they were knocked out at the group stage without winning a game. And it was at this hotly anticipated and feverishly supported tournament that this unassuming and unspectacular player made perhaps his most famous contribution. His opening goal lit up an emotional summer that brought back some national pride and touched Wily Peralta Womens Jersey German society well beyond the confines of football
Mauricio Pochettino has guaranteed he will still be Tottenham Hotspur manager at the start of next http://www.authenticfloridapanthers.com/authentic-jaromir-jagr-jersey season and insists there is no buy-out clause in his contract. Spurs have already secured a second-placed finish in the Premier League and sealed Champions League football for another year. Mauricio Pochettino says Tottenham win was perfect send-off Read more Pochettino has faced questions about his own future in recent weeks, amid interest from Barcelona and Internazionale, with some reports in Italy suggesting his contract includes a buy-out clause. The Argentinian, however, dismissed speculation he could leave Tottenham this summer. “No, no buy-out clause in my contract. I will stay here next season,” Pochettino said. “There are many rumours but I am committed to the club and have no reason to leave the club. I will stay here, don’t worry. On 3 July, for pre-season, I will be here, don’t worry.” Tottenham announced on Wednesday that Erik Lamela had undergone surgery on his right hip after having an operation on his left hip at the start of April. Lamela, who has not played since 25 October, is expected back for the start of next season and the club say the latest procedure will not affect his recovery time. “The Argentina international recently had an operation on his left hip and the latest surgery will not affect http://www.authenticcoloradoavalanche.com/authentic-gabriel-landeskog-jersey the overall recovery period,” read a statement on the club’s official website. Spurs are facing a shortage of full-backs when they visit Leicester on Thursday night after the club announced that Danny Rose underwent knee surgery on Tuesday and will miss the rest of the campaign. Kieran Trippier sustained concussion against Manchester United last weekend and is unavailable, while Kyle Walker has a minor ankle injury and will also miss out. Rose has been out since the end of January. Pochettino said: “I sent him a text yesterday [Tuesday] after the surgery and we exchanged some texts. Now it is a moment to give time to recover after yesterday and I will be here on Friday to check how he is. He will have all our supportAdvertisement Players and fans alike had been whipped into a feelgood frenzy by the World Cup and Lahm returned to what would become a decade of near omnipresence in the Bayern team. Although Bayern finished an almost unimaginable fourth in the Bundesliga in the 2006-07 season, they have gone on to dominate, winning the title in seven of the last 10 years. In Europe, however, success has not always been forthcoming. Lahm only tasted the glory of winning the Champions League after he had lost two finals: against José Mourinho’s impenetrable Inter side in 2010 and then the infinitely more bitter defeat against Chelsea in the ill-fated “finale dahoam” in Munich two years later. Lahm and Bayern bounced back from those heartaches in spectacular fashion. Now the captain of both club and country, he shouldered more responsibility and also developed as a player. By the start of the 2012-13 season, which would be his most decorated, he had clocked up just as many appearancesAdidas Dmitry Kulikov Youth Jersey on the right side of defence. Lahm had entered the second phase of his career as a roving right-back, almost a deep-lying right-sided playmaker, charged with more than simply overlapping and whipping in crosses. The Recap: sign up for the best of the Guardian's sport coverage Read more He was an ideal foil for Arjen Robben, with whom he formed a deadly duo on that flank. Robben’s now infamous left-foot inswingers win games and grab headlines, but more often than not Lahm’s pass or movement off the ball enabled the Dutchman to gain the extra half-yard required to make the incisive move infield. Lahm also chipped in with 11 assists in the 2012-13 season, becoming the first defender in the league’s history to hit double figures. His relationship with Robben was just one component in a season when everything came together and culminated in Beryn winning a glorious, record-breaking treble under Jupp Heynckes. Both Heynckes and Lahm had the good fortune of being part of a very special group, with players such as Bastian Schweinsteiger, Franck Ribéry, Thomas Müller, Jér?me Boateng, Manuel Neuer and Toni Kroos hitting top form alongside emerging talents such as David Alaba and Xherdan Shaqiri. Lahm played the entire treble-winning season at right-back, but things were about to change. Fresh from a year-long sabbatical, Pep Guardiola arrived in Munich in 2013 with big ideas and even bigger expectations. He walked into a dressing room of Champions League-winners with the aim of changing things for the better. The degree to which Guardiola was a success is a popular debate, but one specific tactical tweak certainly bore fruit. Bayern’s clash with Chelsea in the Uefa Super Cup early in his first season pitted him against Mourinho. Half an hour into the game, Bayern were losing 1-0 and being suffocated by Chelsea. Guardiola was looking for a way out. Advertisement In his book Pep Confidential, Martí Perarnau reports that it was Guardiola’s assistant, Domenec Torrent, who suggested moving Lahm from right-back into a defensive midfield role, mid-game, to wrestle back control of the ball. This was not the first time Lahm had played in midfield. In an uninspiring friendly against England in 2007, Lahm had appeared as a No6 in a starting XI bereft of many of the previous summer’s heroes. Guardiola had seen enough of Lahm in training to know he was wasted as a full-back and http://www.authenticsandiegopadres.com/Ozzie-Smith-Jersey could be more than a destroyer in midfield. In Lahm, Guardiola saw someone capable of anticipating passes, protecting the ball and instigating attacks. The game turned in Bayern’s favour and Guardiola suddenly had a new crux of his team, a new pivot. Guardiola has since called Lahm the most intelligent player he has coached. His latest metamorphosis was another blurring of the lines between defence and midfield. It made him the perfect player to adopt Guardiola’s intricate tactical plans, allowing other players such as David Alaba, Xabi Alonso and Rafinha to rotate and float between positions. Lahm is a master of receiving the ball and taking it forward in the same movement, his body often deliberately leaning forward. He glides over the field, not just shuttling up and down the right flank, but also drifting deliberately infield, penetrating crowded midfields from a deep right position. And, as his responsibilities were increasingly found in the centre of the pitch, he often took on the role of problem-solver and pacesetter. Lahm’s ability to adopt ideas of what an inverted full-back should be may even have given Guardiola problems in his first season in Manchester; as good and experienced as Pablo Zabaleta, Bacary Sagna and Ga?l Clichy may be, they are not Lahm
For a few years in the early 80s, as if to celebrate the advent of three points for a win in 1981, the English top flight staged improbable annual relegation tussles, frequently tipped from the curious to the full-blown chaotic by late-season fixture pile-ups that forced teams to watch their futures being decided by others long after their own campaigns had come to a close. Time and again, Coventry City took a starring role. Starting in 1983, they launched upon a four-year run of extremely wobbly finishes – 19th, 19th, 18th and 17th in a 22-team division – which ended emphatically if sadly only temporarily in 1987, when they came 10th and won the FA Cup to boot. Golden goal: Keith Houchen for Coventry City v Tottenham (1987) Read more Their most famous feat of survival was in 1985, when because of a couple of postponements forced by a mid-season flu epidemic and another prompted by Everton’s qualification for the Cup Winners’ Cup and FA Cup finals, Coventry ended up with three matches to play after everyone else had knocked off for the summer, and had to win them all. They achieved it in style, deliriously thrashing Everton, who had by then won and enthusiastically celebrated the league title, 4-1 in their final match. But if that was their most dramatic moment of escapology, the most curious had come a year earlier. On that occasion, the Sky Blues went into their final game with only goal difference keeping them out of the bottom three, where Stoke were occupying 20th place, and with Birmingham City stuck on the same total. Of those sides the Potters had the very great advantage of being at home to a miserable Wolves side, who had been relegated weeks earlier and would end up more than 20 points from safety, and duly won 4-0 with Paul Maguire scoring all the goals, two of them from the penalty spot. Coventry, meanwhile, beat Norwich City 2-1, while Birmingham City were held to a 0-0 draw by Southampton and thus went down. What must have particularly irked the unfortunate side was that Coventry would have been relegated in their stead had they not signed a striker on loan for the final http://www.officialcardinalsbaseball.com/authentic-21-brandon-moss-jersey.html weeks of the season, a player whose goals alone earned them six vital points and included one on the final day that effectively sealed Birmingham’s fate. What was particularly irritating was that the team that had generously donated this deadly demotion-dodger to the Blues’ relegation rivals were, in fact, Birmingham themselvesRon Saunders was the Birmingham manager and we’d not really seen eye to eye, Ron and myself,” says Mick Ferguson, the striker in question. “I’d had a hernia operation on New Year’s Eve and then when I went back to Birmingham I was struggling with injury, and it took me quite a while to get back to some sort of fitness. Round about deadline day [Coventry’s manager] Bobby Gould phoned and asked if I wanted to go back. I told him I’d been injured and he said it didn’t matter, he needed a striker. So I ended up going back on loan.” Ferguson had already spent a decade at Highfield Road, coming through the youth system and going on to make 128 league appearances and score a half-century of goals in their colours. They were to be the finest days of his career. A move to Everton didn’t work out, and though a loan spell at Birmingham led to eight goals in 20 games the subsequent permanent switch went sour. “I wasn’t having the best of times there, because I’d been injured or whatever reason,” he said. “I’d scored goals for Birmingham – I didn’t play a huge amount of games but the goal record is quite good. I think there was a bit more to it. So I was Authentic Carlos Martinez Womens Jersey desperate to go back to Coventry.” Brian Kilcline: ‘I loved playing but the footballer is not who I am’ Read more By the time Ferguson was fit there were only seven games to go, and Coventry did not so much need a striker as a miracle. Having been 10th in early January they had taken three of a possible 39 points from their next 13 league games, winning none, and plummeted down the table. But Ferguson scored the winner against Wolves on his second debut, and the first against Nottingham Forest in the next game, both won 2-1. At that stage they once again looked comfortable, but the slide had not so much stopped as stalled. They got one point from their next four games, conceding 19 goals in the process including eight at Southampton, five at Liverpool and four at Manchester United. And so it went down to the final day. “I hadn’t signed any clause to say that I couldn’t play if it got to that situation, so I ended up playing,” Ferguson says. “I don’t think that would happen today.” When John Deehan put Norwich ahead the jig seemed very much up, but Ferguson equalised and Chris Woods fumbled Dave Bennett’s corner into his own net to seal their survival. Mick Ferguson spent 10 years at Coventry during his first spell at the club, between 1971 and 1981. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mick Ferguson spent 10 years at Coventry during his first spell at the club, between 1971 Ryan Braun Jersey and 1981. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Getty Images “I can’t remember the goal at all but there were a lot of celebrations after the game. I went back to my home in Hampton in Arden; our next-door neighbour was a big Villa fan and he was having a party that night. We went round and he was quite pleased. Ron Saunders rang me up that evening before I went out and said he’d had a bollocking off his directors and screamed some obscenities down the phone, but I kind of expected it in some way. Like any other manager he’d be upset, but he was the one who let me go on loan.” In public Saunders was a little more magnanimous, admitting: “I don’t think it’s any surprise to anyone that we’re going down.” It certainly wasn’t a surprise to those who had seen them play: in the Guardian’s report on the draw with Southampton, Patrick Barclay described them as “a graceless, over-physical and, in certain positions, staggeringly incompetent team” that “have been a blot on the First Division’s reputation for most of the season”. A few weeks later Ferguson reported back at St Andrew’s, but a potentially awkward reunion with his former team-mates turned out to be relatively painless. “I’d stayed in touch with some of the Birmingham boys when I was at Coventry, and in fact I’m still in touch with them now,” he says. “It was never an issue with them. The fact I’d scored the goal that made the difference was totally irrelevant really. The http://www.authenticmilwaukeebrewers.com/Scooter-Gennett-Jersey boys were great, there was no animosity.” Saunders, however, was less keen on having him around, and later that summer, shortly before the player’s 30th birthday, offloaded him to Brighton. That game against Norwich was to be Ferguson’s last in the top flight. “If I remember rightly I was running around the pitch with everyone else at the end of the game saying: ‘Fantastic, Coventry have been saved,’” he remembers. “For me it was just like any other game. You pull your shirt on and you go on the pitch and all you want to do is score goals. You don’t look at anything else. All I wanted to do was get on that pitch and win the game. I was unaware at the time that I’d just relegated myself
coronations go, Monaco’s 4-0 win over Lille at the Stade Louis II was almost pitch-perfect, a performance that was a microcosm of the team’s style and the success it has produced this season. Thomas Lemar had a wicked cross from the left flank headed in by Radamel Falcao; Kylian Mbappé embarrassed Franck Béria before slipping in Bernardo Silva for Monaco’s second goal; and Danijel Subasic delivered a handful of fine saves to preserve a clean sheet. Each of these five players has his own compelling narrative this season. With the exception of Falcao, they have become household names almost overnight on the back of an unlikely title and an even more improbable run to the semi-finals of the Champions League. Falcao has returned to somewhere near the heights he enjoyed at Atlético Madrid and Porto, offering a firm rebuke to critics in England, where he was written off after a pair of underwhelming loan spells in the Premier League. Still just 21, Lemar has overcome doubts about his size and goalscoring ability to become one of Monaco’s creative fulcrums as well as a regular in the France squad. Only three players in Ligue 1 have recorded more than his total of eight assists. One of those is Silva, who has shaken off the injury that kept him out http://www.officialmagicstoreonline.com/Aaron_Gordon_Jerseyof Euro 2016 to become perhaps the best player in France.
Walter Mazzarri is the latest to be given the bad news, the Italian having been summoned to the training ground in London Colney on Tuesday to be informed of the decision. Watford want Marco Silva talks with Walter Mazzarri to go amid player unrest Read more In the Italian’s first and apparently only season in England, Watford spent a single week in the bottom three – and even that was in August – effectively secured their top?flight status with six weeks to spare and became the only team outside the current top three to beat both Manchester United and Arsenal. Yet like Quique Sánchez Flores, the Spaniard who took charge last season, he enters the final weekend as a lame duck manager, with his future decided and disclosed. In all there have been seven permanent appointments in the five years since the Pozzo family bought the club, with only the first, Gianfranco Zola, lasting longer than a year and the shortest reign, that of Billy McKinlay in 2014, ending after eight days. Under the Italians’ ownership Watford have http://www.authenticsandiegopadres.com/Rickey-Henderson-Jersey earned a foothold in the Premier League but also a reputation for dispensing with coaches at the slightest provocation. Nevertheless, with top-flight football, along with all its associated profile and profit, and the ability to live in north London on offer there is no concern that attracting a replacement will prove a problem. Mazzarri’s departure will be mourned by few at Vicarage Road. A recent survey on a fans’ forum found 78% support for his sacking, with the manager’s inability or refusal to speak English in public – but for the answer to one question in one interview by the BBC last month – particularly influential in alienating supporters. It did not help his relationship with the players, either. In training instructions had to be relayed to English speakers by one of the bilingual players, while in matches Mazzarri had to be accompanied to the touchline by one of his coaches. Often the team’s performances looked as if something had been lost in translation, with their defending from set pieces particularly puzzling. Gradually, with the communication issues just one problem among many, the Italian’s relationship with his players started to disintegrate. Advertisement In Italy Mazzarri created a reputation, at least before his short and undistinguished spell at Internazionale, for improving strikers and fashioning exciting, high-scoring sides. There has been little sign of either trait during his time in Hertfordshire: Odion Ighalo, scourge of rival defences in the first half of last season, was sold to China in January having scored just once, while Troy Deeney has managed seven goals from open play and has started several recent games on the bench, to his great disgruntlement. Deeney’s underwhelming tally Rollie Fingers Jersey is less a reflection of his own poor form than the team’s inability to create chances for him, with Watford’s attacking play often as lacking in fluency as their manager’s press conferences. There were certainly some highs along the way, with a thrilling and thoroughly deserved win against Arsenal in January and the three consecutive home victories that carried the team to 40 points and near?certain safety among them. However, Watford have found success hard to sustain: the win at the Emirates Stadium came two days after a dismal FA Cup defeat at Millwall, and those three home victories were immediately followed by a hideous 2-0 defeat at Hull, a side on their way to relegation who played with 10 men for more than an hour. Watford have lost all four games since, finally achieving consistency of the most underwhelming sort. At Inter, Mazzarri created another reputation: for producing increasingly far-fetched excuses for his team’s failures, most notoriously blaming a draw with Verona on some rain. Ultimately this is the version of Mazzarri that Watford’s fans will recognise. When his side lost 1-0 against Liverpool recently, courtesy of Emre Can’s stunning overhead kick, Mazzarri told the media that “usually I don’t like to speak about luck but today we were completely unlucky”. It was a bizarre turn of phrase from someone who complained that his side were “unlucky” after games against Bournemouth, Stoke, Southampton, Chelsea and Adidas Jake McCabe Jersey Hull, had “no luck at all” on a “very unlucky day” at Crystal Palace, were “not very lucky” at Swansea, and “missed a bit of luck” against Middlesbrough. In fact Mazzarri speaks about luck almost constantly, most recently moaning that the injury crisis currently affecting his defence is “very unlucky and I’m very angry”. Advertisement Others at Watford are far from convinced that the injuries are as unlucky as Mazzarri insists. Some, such as the serious knee problems that prematurely ended Roberto Pereyra’s and Mauro Zárate’s seasons, certainly seem unfortunate. But though it might not be as obvious as the number of goals they concede from corners, the quantity of muscular injuries sustained by Watford’s players is seen as another indicator of poor training methods. There are questions about both quality and quantity: Mazzarri’s recent decision to demand the players attend training on 12 consecutive days tested both the players’ patience and their endurance. Mazzarri had been set no specific target before the season started. Survival was the least that was expected of him, but there was no exhortation to beat last season’s league position or points tally. He was expected to entertain and to impress – in the end he achieved neither. Watford will hope the next man in the manager’s office is a considerable improvement. And if not, well, they can always find another
British & Irish Lions touring party have not yet left Heathrow but they are already receiving plenty of sage advice. The New Zealand coach, Steve Hansen, has even warned this week about the pressure set to be generated next month by the “massive expectation” of the Lions’ supporters. Eh? It is akin to the Big Bad Wolf advising Little Red Riding Hood to beware the slightly loose paving stone up the garden path. Warren Gatland uses Messy Monday to prepare Lions for New Zealand challenge Read more Pressure from their own fans? If Hansen were to don a wig and baseball cap and quietly hire himself a camper van for a week before the Test series he would soon realise just how ridiculous a notion that is. In New Zealand people expect their national team to win every week. That’s pressure. The http://www.authenticsandiegopadres.com/Randy-Jones-Jersey Lions, in contrast, have won only six Tests against the All Blacks in 38 attempts. They will travel, as always, with undiluted hope in their hearts but absolutely nil in the way of expectation. That is what makes them such a glorious institution and, it seems, is giving Hansen and his squad slight palpitations. Every Lions tour has this fear of the unknown at its soul: there is no footage available to pore over because the team have never played, no precedent in the professional era other than the Lions’ disjointed expedition in 2005. New Zealand do not know what is about to happen, primarily because their guests have no firm idea either. In many ways the Lions are a state of mind: get that right and everything else looks after itself. Perhaps the best tip for all involved is to read When Lions Roared, the outstanding book about the memorable 1971 Lions tour to be published on Thursday. The authors, Tom English and Peter Burns, have either interviewed, commissioned or tracked down first-person testimony from a wide range of leading figures who experienced the most legendary of all tours http://www.authenticbuffalosabres.com/authentic-dominik-hasek-jersey at first hand. Barry John, Willie John McBride, Colin “Pinetree” Meads, Gareth Edwards – so evocative are their recollections the intervening 46 years instantly melt away. On all sort of levels, it is a compelling read. The quality of the Lions backs, the coaching intelligence of Carwyn James, the shrewd management of Doug Smith, the growing Kiwi horror at what was unfolding: all of it feels strangely fresh, partly because it is so well told and partly because so much fascinating detail has lain untouched for ages. To read of the simmering private antipathy between one or two Lions forwards or the manager John Spencer’s view of the soothsayer James – “I didn’t think he was the greatest coach” – is to be instantly jolted upright. To relive the full gory details of the savage game with Canterbury is also to be reminded of the era’s more psychopathic excesses. Forty years on: When we saw fantasy rugby in New Zealand Martin Kelner Read more John’s brilliance shines equally clearly through every chapter. One of his constant refrains was to call his forwards “donkeys” and blithely tell them: “Just get me the ball and I’ll do the rest.” The great Irish prop Ray McLoughlin recalls the Welsh fly-half asking him roughly three times a week: “Remind me again, Ray, are you a loosehead donkey or a tighthead donkey?” Imagine a No10 today deciding to copy John’s actions at http://www.authenticcoloradoavalanche.com/authentic-gabriel-landeskog-jersey Hawke’s Bay: sitting on the ball in protest at the rough physical treatment he was receiving, with the crowd screaming “kill, kill, kill” and the onrushing home forwards more than happy to oblige. Other searing images include the battered post-Lancaster Park face of Sandy Carmichael, not to mention the picture of the Taranaki prop Jazz Muller flying into contact with a cocked boot at waist height. This was more than a fizzing masterclass in backline artistry that led to a tactical sea-change in New Zealand rugby thinking. Spanning over three months, with officially sanctioned player expenses of 75p per day, it was the ultimate expedition: part raw-boned odyssey, part voyage of discovery, part sporting war. The moral of the story? That true heroes are not necessarily the ones who get paid the most or stay successful for the longest consecutive period. They are the ones who front up on foreign soil when no one gives them much of a chance, soak up everything their opponents have to offer, laugh uproariously in the face of adversity and, 46 years on, still recall the stories as if it were yesterday. “I often think about the individual sports, about people who win the men’s singles at Wimbledon or the Open at golf,” concludes Mike Gibson, the incomparable Irish centre. “There is nobody at that winning moment who can understand how the person feels. As Lions we had 30 people sharing the moment – and all of them understood.” If today’s Lions – and Hansen Adidas Jaromir Jagr Authentic Jersey – fully want to appreciate what lies ahead, they should hasten to the nearest bookshop
Steve Kerr provided a strong message, just not from his usual spot on the bench: Play with urgency. The Golden State Warriors did just that for their ailing coach watching from the locker room, and left Gregg Popovich questioning and criticizing his Spurs players for a lack of belief and feeling sorry for themselves without injured superstar Kawhi Leonard. Stephen Curry had 29 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in three quarters and the Warriors trounced on the short-handed Spurs, running away from San Antonio for a 136-100 rout Tuesday night and 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals. Boston Celtics edge Lakers and 76ers for No1 overall pick in NBA draft lottery Read more Kevin Durant added 16 points and Draymond Green provided another impressive http://www.authenticfloridapanthers.com/authentic-james-reimer-jersey all-around performance with 13 points, nine rebounds, six assists, two steals and two blocks. Rookie Patrick McCaw had 18 points and five assists off the bench shooting 6 for 8 as Golden State earned its most lopsided victory of the playoffs to go to 10-0. Jonathon Simmons scored 17 of his 22 points in the first half as the lone bright spot for the Spurs. “It looked pretty collective to me. I don’t think it was one guy who didn’t believe and he infected everybody else or anything like that. As a group they just let themselves down,” Popovich said. “The truth always quote-un-quote sets you free. You can’t sugarcoat it or say ‘if we had just made a couple shots we’d have been right there.’ That’s pretty lame. So, call it like it is. We didn’t come to play. We felt sorry for ourselves. We need to get slapped and come back and play Game 3 and see who we are.” Leonard re-injured his left ankle in Sunday’s 113-111 Game 1 loss after coming down on Zaza http://www.authenticcoloradoavalanche.com/authentic-gabriel-landeskog-jersey Pachulia’s foot. Popovich on Monday called out the Warriors starting center for the “dangerous” and “unsportsmanlike” closeout – which had Pachulia insisting he is not a dirty player, was only playing hard, and felt badly that the All-Star forward was injured. Advertisement Game 3 in the best-of-seven series is Saturday in San Antonio. Pachulia left the game injured for a Warriors team already without key reserve forward Andre Iguodala, held out because of soreness in his left knee that limited him to 10 minutes in Game 1. An X-ray on Pachulia’s bruised right heel was clear but he was scheduled for an MRI on Wednesday. The big man played nearly seven minutes but sat the entire second quarter before Matt Barnes took his place. Golden State quickly Adidas Authentic Adrian Amos Womens Jersey established its pass-happy, up-tempo style to take the Spurs out from the opening tip. It was a drastic difference from a game of catch-up two days earlier when the Warriors rallied from 25 down and a 20-point halftime deficit. The bench contributed a season-best 63 points. “They came out with a sense of urgency from the beginning and they played that way for 48 minutes,” acting Warriors coach Mike Brown said. Klay Thompson, still struggling to find his steady shooting touch, had 11 points, six rebounds and four assists. The Warriors had 39 assists – the most by any team this postseason – including 30 on their initial 38 baskets. Shaun Livingston scored in double figures for the first time this postseason with 10 points for Golden State. Simmons started in Leonard’s place and made 6 of 9 shots to begin the game while the rest of the Spurs were 3 for 22. The Warriors began 10 for 16 as Curry hit three quick 3s and Green added two more for a 25-12 lead http://www.authenticsandiegopadres.com/Ozzie-Smith-Jersey late in the first and 33-16 advantage after one quarter
Premiership Rugby announced on Wednesday a new four-year deal to stage regular-season games in the US, starting, as previously reported in the Guardian, with Saracens – “the Manchester United of rugby” – against Newcastle http://www.officialcardinalsbaseball.com/authentic-21-brandon-moss-jersey.html in Philadelphia on 16 September. Aviva Premiership moves US game to September, start of NFL season Read more The game, which will be played out of international rugby windows but which will land on an NFL and college football weekend, is a home fixture for Newcastle. In a statement on the club’s website, managing director Mick Hogan heralded “an exciting opportunity which … enables us to further invest in our squad and in the stadium facilities at Kingston Park”, but added: “We do appreciate some of our supporters will be disappointed by one of our regular home games being moved. We will be in touch with season-ticket members and corporate sponsors directly to inform them of our compensatory offers.” Dan Lyle, the former USA, Bath and Leicester No8 who is now director of AEG Rugby, the agency promoting the game in the US, told the Guardian that “if there Authentic Carlos Martinez Womens Jersey was a Manchester United of pro rugby Saracens would be that. Double European champions, maybe treble league champions depending on a tough game at Exeter this weekend. “They also have two American players who are well known to the rugby community here, Chris Wyles and Titi Lamositele. They have six Lions, copious amounts of England internationals and others including a world player of the year in Schalk Burger.” Lyle added: “I also like Newcastle in so many ways. I think Newcastle and Philadelphia as sports cities are similar, they’re north-eastern, places with the sea trade and the industrial past, and in rugby Newcastle were the first Premiership champions and they also have a USA player, Nick Civetta.” The game will be played at the Talen Energy Stadium, the home of the Philadelphia Union Major League Soccer team which has staged US rugby internationals and is host to the Collegiate Rugby Championship sevens tournament each June. Advertisement In March 2016, Premiership Rugby brought Saracens and London Irish to play at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey. That game, with US promotion handled by TLA and http://www.authenticmilwaukeebrewers.com/Ryan-Braun-Jersey an official attendance of 14,811, was meant to be the first of three Irish “home fixtures”, only for their relegation from the Premiership to complicate the picture. The deal with AEG replaces that agreement. “TLA have done very well in the Rugby Weekend international games [including Ireland v New Zealand in Chicago last November] and are doing the USA v Ireland game at Red Bull [on 10 June],” said Lyle. “They’re focusing on the Test level … this is a chance from Premiership Rugby to stage a game consistently for four years, parallel with the NBC broadcast deal that they have.” Premiership games, with analysis from Lyle and the New York-born England and Lions prop Alex Corbisiero, have been shown live and on delay by NBC Sports this season. Internationally, interest in US rugby as a source of players and supporters remains high. As with the 2016 US fixture, this year’s Premiership game will not clash with the sanctioning agreement for domestic club rugby held by Doug Schoninger, the New York businessman behind PRO Rugby, the five-team US league that completed its first season last July but has not returned to the field. Premiership Rugby’s announcement also Scooter Gennett Youth Jersey comes amidst reports of the Scottish, Irish, Welsh and Italian Pro12 nearing completion on plans to place a team in Houston
